The next destination of our alphabetical world tour is Ukraine. Formerly part of the Soviet Union, Ukraine played its first international as an independent nation in 1992. Since then, six players have represented Ukraine in the Premier League.
First Player – Alex Evtushok (Coventry; 1997)
Probably the least well known of Ukraine’s Premier League cohort was the first. Alex Evtushok made just three appearances for Coventry in the back end of 1997/98 in a forgettable spell.
He endured something of a nightmare debut, going 2-0 down against Manchester United within five minutes before being substituted after half an hour. Though he had very little impact on Coventry’s season, the Sky Blues scraped to survival. Evtushok left the club at the end of the campaign.
Andrei Kanchelskis played his post-Soviet international career for Russia but could have elected to play for Ukraine. Had he done so, he would have been the first player to represent Ukraine in the Premier League.
Records
- Most appearances – Oleg Luzhny (81)
- First appearance – Alex Evtushok (Man United 3-1 COVENTRY, March 1st 1997)
- Most goals – Serhiy Rebrov (10)
- First goal – Serhiy Rebrov (SPURS 3-2 Everton, September 5th 2000)
Current/Most Recent Players
Two Ukrainians currently play in the Premier League: Manchester City’s Oleksandr Zinchenko and West Ham’s Andriy Yarmolenko. Before those two, the three Ukrainians we have not mentioned all played in the Premier League at some point in the 2000s.
Trivia
- Two Ukrainians have won the Premier League – Oleg Luzhny and Oleksandr Zinchenko.
- Serhiy Rebrov, Andriy Shevchenko and Andriy Yarmolenko have 13 Ukrainian Footballer of the Year awards between them.
- Shevchenko (48), Yarmolenko (37) and Rebrov (15) are 1st, 2nd and 4th in the list of top scorers for the Ukraine national team.
