Within the framework of this material, we suggest you recall the best scorers of the youth championship of Ukraine, the draw of which ended ten years ago – at the end of the 2013/14 season. What happened to these guys, what did they achieve in football and did they manage to become famous? We will talk about all this in the framework of the traditional section for our site “Where are they now?”.
Dmitry Lukanov (“Zarya”) – 8 goals in the 2013/14 MSU 
FC Zarya. Dmitry Lukanov A graduate of the “Zara” Academy, Dmitry Lukanov was considered a very promising player for his club, and in the 2013/14 season, he turned out to be the best goal scorer of the “Black and White” youth team, which finished in a fairly high fifth position in the final version of the standings.
Subsequently, Lukanov managed to play 4 official matches for the first team of “Zara” (274 minutes), however, his professional football career did not fully develop due to a series of serious injuries. At some point (to be more precise, in 2017) the young forward simply got tired of fighting with them and was forced to quietly “get away from the distance”, finishing his performances at a high level.
Lukanov is currently 29 years old. In the fall of 2023, he told journalists that after leaving football for a while he even worked in a courier delivery service, but then he was lucky enough to get a job as a selector at Shakhtar’s academy: “After “Zara” I had a little apathy and detachment from football . There was a state of disappointment. They wanted to take a break from the game and, perhaps, find themselves in another direction. At first, he somehow survived on the savings he had from his playing career. He found part-time work. He even worked as a courier at Glovo for two weeks. Then the head of the Shakhtar academy’s selection department, Ivan Mykhailovych Kotsyuba, contacted me and suggested that I try my hand at it. We met, discussed everything, and I agreed. This is how my career as a breeder began.”
Roman Debelko (“Metallurg” Donetsk) – 8 goals in the 2013/14 MChU 
FC Kryvbass. Roman Debelko Student of SDYUSHOR “Prykarpattia” Roman Debelko at a young age moved to the Donetsk “Metallurg” academy, where he continued to develop his scoring skills. In the youth championship of Ukraine-2013/14, Roman became the second in the list of goal scorers in his team, he made it clear that he was ready for adult football, especially since before that he managed to spend six months on loan in the Armenian “Banants”.
Due to the de facto collapse of Donetsk “Metallurg”, which happened as a result of the Russian-inspired war in Donbass, Debelko continued his career in other teams: “Stali” from Kamensk, “Karpaty”, Estonian “Levadia”, Latvian “Riga”, Belarusian “Shakhtar” » from Soligorsk, “Kryvbasse”. Since August of this year, 31-year-old Debelko has been playing in the First League of Ukrainian football for the Yuksa team.
In his professional career, Debelko became the champion of Latvia with “Riga” and the champion of Belarus with “Shakhtar”. He was the owner of the Cup and Super Cup of Estonia with “Levadia”, and at the end of the last season, he won the “bronze” of the UPL with “Kryvbass”. In the elite division of domestic football, Debelko played 82 matches, in which he distinguished himself with 11 goals scored and 3 assists.
Artem Besedin (“Dynamo”) – 8 goals in the 2013/14 MSU 
FC Ordabasy. Artem Besedin Dynamo’s youth team took only sixth place in the 2013/14 season, and Artem Besedin was the best scorer of the “white and blue” team, who scored 8 goals.
Subsequently, Besedin was lucky enough to become the main performer for the first team “Dynamo”, although there the forward was fairly and regularly criticized by the fans, who heavily criticized the player for extravagance and extravagance when it comes to scoring opportunities. However, this did not prevent Besedin from becoming a two-time champion of Ukraine, a three-time winner of the Cup and a two-time winner of the country’s Super Cup together with Dynamo. Also, Artem played 19 matches for the national team of Ukraine (2 goals), and in the UPL he played a total of 111 matches, in which he scored 31 goals and 10 assists.
Besedin later played in Cyprus as part of “Omonia”, with which he won the Cup of the country, and since the summer of last year he has been a player of “Ordabasy”, which became the champion of Kazakhstan in 2023.
Vladyslav Voytsekhovsky (“Dnipro”) – 9 goals in the 2013/14 MChU 
FC Levy Bereg. Vladyslav Wojciechovsky (right) Wojciechovsky gave hope in the Dnipro academy and demonstrated quite good performance at the youth and youth levels, however… The winger never got his chance to prove himself in the first team. In the summer of 2014, Vladyslav left for “Neftyanik” from Akhtyrka, where he spent three seasons, and then returned to Dnipro, but already in the ranks of the first league at that time, “Dnipro-1”.
Wojciechovsky was not lucky enough to build a career at the top level in Ukraine. From “Dnipro-1” he went to “Nikolaev”, then helped the establishment of LNZ, first in the Second and then in the First leagues. And since the summer of last year, Vladyslav has been a player of “Levy Bereh”. It is noteworthy that it was Wojciechovsky’s goal that allowed the “Storks” to tie the score in the semi-finals of the Tournament of Four with “Metalist 1925”, and subsequently beat the Kharkiv team in a penalty shootout. In the final, the Kyiv team defeated Mynai, and now Wojciechovsky together with them finally got the opportunity to prove and show themselves at the UPL level. He is now 31 hours old…
Andrey Blyznychenko (“Dnipro”) – 9 goals in the 2013/14 MSU 
FC Dnipro Andrey Blyznychenko Blyznychenko, who represented Dnipro at the youth level, had a successful career, and he was regularly called up to the youth and youth national teams of Ukraine, however… Andrey never managed to play at least one match for the country’s national team.
In “Dnipro” this football player showed great hopes, but his young years coincided with the period of de facto collapse of the club. As a result, “Dnipro” were forced to sell Blyznychenko to Turkey in order to find money for further existence, and in “Karabyukspor” the Ukrainian completely failed to reach the new level, and after one and a half seasons he received the status of a free agent.
To revive his career, Blyznychenko applied to “Sheriff”, with whom he twice became the champion of Moldova, and also once won the Cup there. At the beginning of 2022, Andrey returned to Ukraine and has been supporting his family ever since. He played for “Ingulets”, “Veres” and “Zvyagel”, and now, at the age of 30, he has a contract with Zaporizhzhia “Metallurg”, playing in the First League.
Vadym Yavorsky (“Chernomorets”) – 10 goals in the 2013/14 MSU 
FC Chernomorets. Vadym Yavorsky At the youth level, a pupil of the “Chernomorets” Academy, Vadym Yavorskyi showed great promise. Thanks to this, he got the opportunity to gain a foothold in the first team of the “sailors”, for which he is in general he played 13 matches (645 minutes), however, he was not able to distinguish himself in them with effective actions.
The Odesa club loaned Yavorsky to other clubs several times (“Gornyak-Sport”, “Veres”, “Nikolaev”), and in February 2018 he was finally released to “Sumy” as a free agent. After leaving the Mariners, Vadim never played at the UPL level again, playing exclusively in the First League, where he had 151 matches, 40 goals and 9 assists.
In August 2022, Yavorsky left Ukraine and moved to Poland. Since then, the forward, who celebrated his 30th birthday this summer, has been playing there for highly independent teams from the local “swamps”…
Yasyn Hamid (“Metallurg” Donetsk) – 11 goals in the 2013/14 MSU 
FC Metallurg D. Yasyn Hamid Yasin Hamid was born and raised in Kharkov, although he has Egyptian origins. In 2009, he moved to the Donetsk “Metallurg” academy, where he played for the youth team until the club’s disappearance. For the first team of “Metallurgists”, Hamid was lucky enough to play only two matches in the Cup, when the coaching staff briefly released a promising striker as a substitute.
In 2015, Yasyn Hamid left Ukraine and went to Azerbaijan. It is known that the forward played in this country until 2017, after which Zyrya announced the termination of the contract with him. Since then, nothing has been heard about Hamid, who has several dozen matches for the youth teams of Ukraine of various ages…
Andrey Totovytskyi (“Ilyichevets”) – 11 goals in the 2013/14 MSU 
FC Shakhtar. Andrey Totovitskyi Andrey Totovytskyi spent the 2013/14 season in Mariupol on loan from Shakhtar, playing for the local team, which at that time still bore the relict name of Ilyichevets. In the state of Priazov, the young attacking midfielder initially did not have regular game practice in the first team, but later in the first half of the season he was attracted to games for the youth team. As a result, Totovytskyi’s performance won everyone over – in 11 matches he scored 11 goals, and in the spring he played exclusively for the first team of “Ilyichevts” in the Ukrainian Premier League.
However, Totovytskyi’s very successful performances for Ilychevets, as well as later for a number of other teams, did not allow Andrey to claim a place in the starting line-up of Shakhtar, where the Brazilians reigned undividedly in the midfield that year. This ended with the fact that in January 2020 Shakhtar sold Totovytskyi to Desna, but in the summer of 2022, after the personnel crisis caused by the beginning of the full-scale phase of the Russian-Ukrainian war, they were forced to return Andrey.
The truth is, Totovitsky never managed to play for Shakhtar, no matter how many times he returned to this club – only 19 official matches, 1 goal and 2 assists…
Farid Ali (“Metallurg” Zaporozhye) – 11 goals in the 2013/14 MSU 
GCS Jastshembe. Farid Ali Farid Ali, who is of Ukrainian-Yemen origin, went through the academy of the capital “Arsenal” before moving to Zaporozhye, where in the 2013/14 season he played for the youth team and scored 11 goals in 27 matches. A good indicator, however, it did not contribute to the promotion of the attacking midfielder to the first team of “Metallurg”, for which he played only 8 minutes in one UPL match of the 2015/16 season.
At the beginning of 2016, Farid Ali left Metallurg and spent a couple of months looking for a new club, and then signed a contract with the Polish GKS Jastshembe. It is interesting that Aly stands for this team to this day. Now he is already 32, and he is, perhaps, one of the symbols of the current “Yastshembe”, having played 225 official matches for this team (30 goals and 17 assists). At the moment, Ala’s team plays in the third strongest division of Polish football, although for a long time it played in the second…
Vladimir Koval (“Sevastopol”) – 16 goals in the 2013/14 MChU 
FC Chernomorets. Vladimir Koval Center forward Vladimir Koval is a pupil of the Dynamo academy, from which he moved to Sevastopol in the summer of 2012. At that time, the “sailors” were still playing in the First League of Ukrainian football, and the young football player was useful to the team at this level, distinguishing himself with 7 assists in 23 matches. However, after the promotion of “Sevastopol” to the UPL level, Koval failed to become an important figure for the first team (4 matches), and played much more for the youth team. Moreover, at this level, Vladimir performed brilliantly, scoring 16 goals in 16 matches.
In the summer of 2014, Koval moved to the Polish “Stomil” as a free agent, after which he wandered around foreign countries a little more, and in the 2018/19 season he returned to Ukraine in the state of “Chernomorets”, and even got the opportunity to play at the UPL level. To be honest, Koval failed to take advantage of this chance again (2 goals in 23 matches). Since then, the forward’s career has slowly but surely gone downhill: Belarusian “Neman”, “Levy Bereg”, a year and a half idle, “Kudrovka”… Now 32-year-old Koval plays at the amateur level for “Lesnoye” from the Kyiv region.
Vladlen Yurchenko (“Shakhtar”) – 17 goals in the 2013/14 MSU 
FC Shakhtar. Vladlen Yurchenko At one point, Vladlen Yurchenko was considered one of the most talented “academics” in the structure of Shakhtar. Among other things, the attacking midfielder confirmed this status in the youth championship of Ukraine-2013/14, when he scored 17 goals in 17 matches, and then was transferred to Shakhtar-3 to perform at the level of the Second League.
However, they will wait for their chance in the first team, which is not a fact that it would come at all, Yurchenko did not wish. Already in the summer of 2014, the young midfielder scandalously joined Bayer Leverkusen, which cost him only 255,000 euros. In Leverkusen, as it seemed at first, everything was going very well for the Ukrainian, because he even got the opportunity to play in the Bundesliga, but then injuries started, and in the end Bayer released Vladlen as a free agent to all four parties in the summer of 2018.
He reanimated Yurchenko’s career in the Danish “Vail” and also in “Zare”, where he was recognized by UPL standards as a very high-quality and creative performer. Since then, Vladlen’s career has also included performances for “Desna”, “Riga” and “Vorskla”, and now he is a football player of the first league “Metallist 1925”.
Oleg Barannyk (“Vorskla”) – 18 goals in the 2013/14 MSU 
FC Avangard. Oleg Barannyk The best scorer of the 2013/14 season in the youth championship of Ukraine was the forward of “Vorskly” Oleg Barannyk, who scored 18 goals in 21 matches. At this level, the striker really looked impressive, although he managed to debut in the Ukrainian Premier League for Poltava at the age of 18 years, 6 months and 12 days under Nikolae Pavlov. In total, he played 73 official matches for the first team of “Vorskly” (7 goals, 3 assists), 57 of which were in the UPL.
At one point, it was speculated that Shakhtar and Dynamo were interested in Barannik, but it was not possible to make a serious step in the development of this forward. As a result, in the summer of 2017, Oleg moved to “Poltava” as a free agent, and then played for “Neftyanik”, “Avangard” and “Kremen” until he fell to the amateur level. From the latest that is known about Barannik: in 2022 he played for the team “Standard” Novye Sanzhara, and in 2023 – for “Rakita”. Both teams represent the Poltava region at the amateur level.
Source: sport.ua