In his day the White-Blues newcomer Olexandr Hladkyi scored against Kyivans. Now that he wears the shirt of our club we hope he’ll do the same opposing Donetsk side.
Olexandr was born in a small town of Lozova (Kharkiv region) and went in for football when a kid.
- Our town isn’t big. It’s difficult for children to find what to do, so we spent much time outside. What could we do except for playing football? I have elder brother. He did football at the local sports school. I attended training sessions with him, took a ball and played.
In the eighth form Hladkyi wanted to enter Kharkiv sports boarding school, but he was told a boy of his age couldn’t do that at that moment. Still Olexandr didn’t waste time. “I started featuring for FC Avanhard reserve team. I remember my first game. We won 11:0 and I scored four”.
Olexandr’s first coach was Serhiy Lobach. Unfortunately he has already passed away. Another mentor, who helped Hladkyi make headway, was Olexandr Kryvchykov.
In 2003/04 season Olexandr made his debut for FC Metalist Kharkiv reserve team and soon – for the main squad. He scored his first goal on November 7 2004 – against FC Volyn Lutsk (2:4).
After that Hladkyi performed for FC Kharkiv, FC Shakhtar Donetsk, FC Dnipro, FC Karpaty Lviv and FC Shakhtar Donetsk again.
By summer of 2016 Olexandr Hladkyi made 368 appearances in official games and scored 109 goals. He is 2006/07 UPL best striker (13 goals in 29 matches for FC Kharkiv), twofold UPL winner (2007/08, 2009/10), twofold Ukrainian Cup holder (2007/08, 2015/16), threefold Ukrainian Super Cup winner (2008, 2010, 2014) and UEFA Cup winner (2009).
As for his horizons in our club, Olexandr has stated: “Career of any sportsman is competition. I’m not afraid of that. I don’t lack self-confidence and I’m going to prove that with my dedication on the field”.
Copyright © FC Dynamo Kyiv
* photo by A. Lukatskyi
