Oleksiy Mykhaylychenko


Oleksiy Oleksandrovych Mykhaylychenko is a Ukrainian football coach and former professional football 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.
Mykhailychenko currently holds an administrative position in his home club, Dynamo Kyiv, as director of sport. His name is commonly romanised as Alexei Mikhailichenko from the Russian spelling of his name.
Mikhailichenko 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, Mykhailychenko 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.

Career

Club

Mikhailichenko 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 1986 European Cup Winner's 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. With Rangers Mikhailichenko managed to win another five champion's medals. All-in-all Mykhaylychenko won championship medals in 3 different leagues, and for 7 consecutive seasons – USSR in 1990, Italy in 1991 and Scotland from 1992 to 1996. He remained in Scotland until retiring from playing on May 31, 1996.
His first season at Ibrox was undoubtedly his most successful, as they completed the double of the league title and Scottish Cup and Mikhailichenko 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 even more frequent a choice in the first team during 1993–94, playing 34 games but managed just five goals. But then came the arrival of Brian Laudrup, whose presence in the team restricted Mikhailichenko to a mere nine league appearances and two goals in 1994–95. He made 11 goalless league appearances in the 1995–96 before retiring from playing at the age of 33.

National team

At national level Mikhailichenko was capped 41 times, scoring nine goals for the USSR/CIS. He won the Gold Medal at the 1988 Summer Olympics, and was part of the silver-medal-winning Soviet squad at Euro 88. He also played in the Euro 92 championship but injury deprived him of a place in the Italia 90 squad and he was sorely missed as the Soviets crashed out in the first round. Mykhaylychenko also played twice for Ukraine.
In 1983 Mikhailichenko took part in the Summer Spartakiad of the Peoples of the USSR in the team of Ukrainian SSR.
His first game for the Soviet team Mykhailychenko played on April 29, 1987 home against GDR team. On October 28, 1992 Mykhailychenko at age 29 played for the Ukrainian team away against Belarus.

Coaching

After retiring from playing football in 1997, Mikhailichenko 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 Mikhailichenko 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. 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. 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..
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

International goals

#DateVenueOpponentScoreResultCompetition
1.9 September 1987Central Lenin Stadium, Moscow1–11–1UEFA Euro 1988 qualifying
2.18 June 1988Waldstadion, Frankfurt2–13–1UEFA Euro 1988
3.19 October 1988Republican Stadium, Kiev1–02–01990 FIFA World Cup qualification
4.23 November 1988Adailiya Stadium, Kuwait City0–10–1Friendly
5.10 May 1989Ali Sami Yen Stadium, Istanbul0–10–11990 FIFA World Cup qualification
6.16 May 1990Ramat Gan Stadium, Tel Aviv2–23–2Friendly
7.29 August 1990Luzhniki Stadium, Moscow1–21–2Friendly
8.17 April 1991Népstadion, Budapest0–10–1UEFA Euro 1992 qualifying
9.29 May 1991Central Lenin Stadium, Moscow2–04–0UEFA Euro 1992 qualifying

Honours

Club

;Dynamo Kyiv
;Sampdoria
;Rangers
;Soviet Union
Dynamo Kyiv
Ukraine national under-21 football