In 2009/2010 season almost everyone criticized young Andriy Yarmolenko who just started playing for our team. But despite the negative attitude of fans and journalist Yarmolenko managed to become one of the leaders of Dynamo.

You can’t escape Dynamo!

Andriy Yarmolenko was born in St. Petersburg. 3 years later he moved to Chernihiv with his family. As Andriy’s mother says he played with a hand-made ball since he was 4. Once the boy was noticed by coach Mykola Lypovyi who invited him to the football school. Andriy almost never missed training sessions. He played in Ukrainian National Youth Competition for Desna Chernihiv football club. When he was 13 Andriy was invited to Dynamo Kyiv. But having spent a year in the capital of Ukraine he came back to Chernihiv. At that time Yarmolenko turned out to be not ready for Dynamo.

3 years later Yarmolenko was invited to Dynamo again. At first he played for Dynamo-2 and in his first season scored 4 goals in 15 matches. In 2007/2008 season he scored 6 goals in 22 matches. Andriy also played for Dynamo youth team and scored 8 goals in 13 matches.

It was noticeable that the young striker was ready to make a step up. On the 11^th of May 2008 the manager of Dynamo Juriy Semin let Yarmolenko play for 8 minutes in the last home match of the season against Vorskla Poltava. When Andriy appeared on the pitch the score was 1:1. But 8 minutes turned out to be enough for him and he managed to score the decisive goal. Yarmolenko was incredibly happy that day.

Searching for his role

In 2008/2009 season Yarmolenko scored 5 goals in 3 matches of Ukrainian National Cup. Still Juriy Semin did not let Andriy play often in Ukrainian Premier League matches. Yarmolenko began to play stably in May 2009 when Valeriy Gazaev became the manager of Dynamo. The new coach moved Andriy to the position of the left attacking half-back. Some times

Yarmolenko even played on the position of the left defender which was very unusual for him.
In September 2009 Andriy played in his first match and scored his first goal for Ukraine national team. It was a match against Andorra. He also made his debut in UEFA Champions League in the home match against Rubin Kazan’.

Later Valeriy Gazaev left Dynamo but Yarmolenko continued playing stably. In 2010/2011 season he scored 11 goals and in 2011/2012 season he scored 11 goals only in the first half of the national championship.

Today Andriy Yarmolenko is one of the leaders of Dynamo. He does not only assist his partners but plays himself. So he is ready to play the main role in our team.