Oleksiy Mykhaylychenko

Oleksiy Oleksandrovych Mykhaylychenko (Ukrainian: Олексій Олександрович Михайличенко; born March 30, 1963) is a Ukrainian football coach and former professional player. He is a Distinguished Master of Sports of the USSR and a Distinguished Coach of Ukraine. During his playing days he was a versatile midfielder known for his stamina and passing capability. Also noted for his technique, Mykhaylychenko usually played as central attacking midfielder.

Oleksiy Mykhaylychenko
Oleksiy Mykhaylychenko in 2016
Personal information
Full name Oleksiy Oleksandrovych Mykhaylychenko
Date of birth (1963-03-30) March 30, 1963
Place of birth Kyiv, Ukrainian SSR, Soviet Union
Height 1.86 m (6 ft 1 in)
Position(s) Attacking midfielder
Club information
Current team
 Dynamo Kyiv (sportive director)
Youth career
1973–1981 Dynamo Kyiv
Senior career*
Years Team Apps (Gls)
1981–1990 Dynamo Kyiv 137 (39)
1990–1991 Sampdoria 24 (3)
1991–1996 Rangers 110 (20)
Total 271 (62)
National team
1987–1991[1] USSR 36 (9)
1992[1] CIS 5 (0)
1992–1994[1] Ukraine 2 (0)
Teams managed
2002–2004 Dynamo Kyiv
2004–2008 Ukraine U21
2008–2009 Ukraine
2011–2013 Dynamo Kyiv (sporting director)
2012–2013 Dynamo Kyiv (assistant)
2013–2019 Dynamo Kyiv (sporting director)
2019–2020 Dynamo Kyiv
2020– Dynamo Kyiv (sporting director)
* Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only

Mykhaylychenko currently holds an administrative position at his home club, Dynamo Kyiv, as director of sport. His name is commonly romanised as Alexei Mikhailichenko from the Russian spelling of his name (Алексей Александрович Михайличенко).

Mykhaylychenko played for Dynamo Kyiv, Sampdoria and Rangers. He then became a coach, starting with assistant coach to Dynamo Kyiv's legendary Valeriy Lobanovsky. Following the death of Lobanovsky, Mykhaylychenko replaced him as head coach. In 2004, he took charge of the Ukraine's national under-21 team. He was head coach of the Ukraine national football team senior side for two years after that.[2]

Career

Club

Mykhaylychenko began his football career in the youth system of Dynamo Kyiv, under the guidance of Anatoliy Byshovets. He made his debut in the Soviet Top League in 1981, and went on to have a great career with Dynamo, winning four championships and three runner-up medals. He also won the Soviet Cup three times. His biggest success with Dynamo came when they won the 1985–86 European Cup Winners' Cup. He was awarded the Soviet Footballer of the Year award in 1988, as well as two Ukrainian Footballer of the Year awards in 1987 and 1988. In 1990, he was signed by the Italian club Sampdoria, who won their first Serie A title that season.

The following season he moved to play with the Scottish Premier Division team Rangers, uniting with fellow Ukrainian and Dynamo Kyiv teammate Oleh Kuznetsov,[3] although the defender had a long-term injury problem and they only played together 20 times in Scotland.[4] His first season at Ibrox was undoubtedly his most successful, as they completed the double of the Premier Division title and Scottish Cup and Mykhaylychenko was a regular in the side with 10 goals from 27 league games. He featured in 29 league games as Rangers won a domestic treble a year later, but managed just five goals. He was an even more frequent selection in the first team during 1993–94, playing 34 games, but again scored only five times.

Despite being very successful as a creative and technical central midfielder earlier in his career, at Rangers he was often deployed on the left wing with less impact[3] as manager Walter Smith preferred a 4–4–2 formation with more combative players in the central roles. Then came the arrival of wide man Brian Laudrup, whose presence in the team restricted Mykhaylychenko to a mere nine league appearances and two goals in 1994–95. He made 11 goalless league appearances in the 1995–96 (during which Wolverhampton Wanderers made an unsuccessful approach for him) and remained in Glasgow until retiring from playing in May 1996 at the age of 33.[5]

With Rangers, Mykhaylychenko managed to win another five league winner's medals. All-in-all he won championship medals in three different nations, and for seven consecutive seasons – USSR in 1990, Italy in 1991 and Scotland from 1992 to 1996.[6]

National team

At national level, in 1983 Mykhaylychenko took part in the 'Summer Spartakiad of the Peoples of the USSR' in the team of Ukrainian Republic team.[7]

Mykhaylychenko was capped 36 times (scoring nine goals) for the USSR. His first game for the Soviet team was on 29 April 1987 at home against East Germany. He won the Gold Medal at the 1988 Summer Olympics, and was part of the silver-medal-winning Soviet squad at Euro 1988, but injury deprived him of a place in the FIFA World Cup 1990 squad and he was sorely missed as the Soviets crashed out in the first round.

Mykhaylychenko also played at the Euro 1992 championship with the CIS (appearing for the interim team five times in total) and afterwards played twice for Ukraine, making his debut on 28 October 1992 against Belarus, aged 29.

Coaching

After retiring from playing in 1996, Mykhaylychenko went back to Ukraine to begin coaching under the legendary Kyiv manager Valeri Lobanovsky, remaining his assistant for five years. When Lobanovsky died in 2002, Mykhaylychenko took over as caretaker manager before assuming full control of the team in the 2002–03 season. Mikhailichenko led the team to two league titles and the 2003 Ukrainian Cup, but was replaced in August 2004.[3] In 2004, he became the head coach of the Ukraine national under-21 football team. In that capacity he led the team to the final of the 2006 UEFA European Under-21 Football Championship, which they lost to Netherlands.

On June 16, 2006, it was reported that Mikhailichenko would take over as head coach of Scottish Premier League club, Heart of Midlothian. Hearts did not follow up their reported interest and instead appointed caretaker Valdas Ivanauskas on a full-time basis. Mikhailichenko was announced as head coach of the Ukraine national football team on January 11, 2008.[8] After Mikhailichenko's contract expired on December 1, 2009 the Football Federation of Ukraine did not renew the contract after the national team failed to qualify for the 2010 World Cup in South Africa.[2]

Mykhaylychenko took over again as head coach of Dynamo Kyiv on August 15, 2019. He was released from his duties on July 20, 2020, after winning Ukrainian Cup and reaching second place in the championship. Official site cited playing level and the lack of progress as main reasons.

Career statistics

International
Soviet Union national team
YearAppsGoals
198761
1988123
198951
199042
199192
Total369
CIS national team
YearAppsGoals
199250
Ukraine national team
YearAppsGoals
199210
199410
Total20

International goals
Score and results list Soviet Union's goal tally first.
#DateVenueOpponentScoreResultCompetition
1.9 September 1987Central Lenin Stadium, Moscow France1–11–1UEFA Euro 1988 qualifying
2.18 June 1988Waldstadion, Frankfurt England2–13–1UEFA Euro 1988
3.19 October 1988Republican Stadium, Kyiv Austria1–02–01990 FIFA World Cup qualification
4.23 November 1988Adailiya Stadium, Kuwait City Kuwait0–10–1Friendly
5.10 May 1989Ali Sami Yen Stadium, Istanbul Turkey0–10–11990 FIFA World Cup qualification
6.16 May 1990Ramat Gan Stadium, Ramat Gan Israel2–23–2Friendly
7.29 August 1990Luzhniki Stadium, Moscow Romania1–21–2Friendly
8.17 April 1991Népstadion, Budapest Hungary0–10–1UEFA Euro 1992 qualifying
9.29 May 1991Central Lenin Stadium, Moscow Cyprus2–04–0UEFA Euro 1992 qualifying

Honours
Olympic medal record
Men’s football
1988 Seoul Team

Dynamo Kyiv

Sampdoria

Rangers

Soviet Union

Individual

Dynamo Kyiv

Ukraine under-21s

References
  1. Arnhold, Matthias. "Olexiy Oleksandrovich Mykhailychenko - International Appearances". Rec.Sport.Soccer Statistics Foundation.
  2. Ukraine decides not to renew coach's contract, Kyiv Post (December 23, 2009)
  3. Alexei takes the Mikhailichenko | The reluctant Rangers runner predicts his former club will have to work hard for success, The Herald, 21 August 2004
  4. (Rangers player) Kuznetsov, Oleg: Managers & Teammates, FitbaStats
  5. Alexei Mikhailichenko, Sporting Heroes
  6. (Rangers player) Mikhailichenko, Alexei, FitbaStats
  7. Composition of teams at the Summer Spartakiad of the Peoples of the USSR.
  8. "Mikhailichenko takes Ukraine reins". article from fifa.com. Archived from the original on January 13, 2008. Retrieved January 16, 2008.
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