Denys Serhiyovych Prychynenko ( uk, Денис Сергійович Причиненко; born 17 February 1992) is a professional

footballer A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugby le ...

who plays as a

centre-back In the sport of association football, a defender is an outfield position whose primary role is to stop attacks during the game and prevent the opposition from scoring. Centre-backs are usually positioned in pairs, with one full-back on either s ...

for Belgian club

Deinze Deinze () is a city and a municipality in the Belgian province of East Flanders. It comprises the city of Deinze, and the towns of Astene, Bachte-Maria-Leerne, Gottem, Grammene, Hansbeke, Landegem, Meigem, Merendree, Nevele, Petegem-aan-de-Leie, ...

. He previously played for Heart of Midlothian, Raith Rovers on loan,

PFC Sevastopol FC Sevastopol ( uk, ФК «Севастополь») was a Ukrainian football club based in Sevastopol. The club was a spiritual descendant of the Soviet clubs from Sevastopol such as Chaika Sevastopol. After the completion of 2013–14 Ukraini ...

, CSKA Sofia,

Union Berlin 1. Fußballclub Union Berlin e. V., commonly known as 1. FC Union Berlin () or Union Berlin, is a professional German football club in Köpenick, Berlin. The club's origins can be traced to 1906, when its predecessor FC Olympia Oberschöneweid ...

RWS Bruxelles RWS Bruxelles (Royal White Star Bruxelles) was a Belgian football club located in the municipality of Molenbeek-Saint-Jean, Brussels. History The club, founded in 1948, was formerly known as Kapelleveld FC, playing in Evere, but they changed ...

and

Beerschot Koninklijke Beerschot Voetbalclub Antwerpen, or simply Beerschot, is a Belgian professional football club located in Antwerp, that competes in the second-tier First Division B after relegating from the top tier in the 2021–22 season. In 201 ...

. Born in Germany, he represents Ukraine internationally.

Youth career

Prychynenko was born on 17 February 1992 in Potsdam to a Ukrainian family. A pupil of the German football school. Prychynenko played as an under-17 player for

FC Energie Cottbus FC Energie Cottbus (Lower Sorbian: ''Energija Chóśebuz'') is a German football club based in Cottbus, Brandenburg. It was founded in 1963 as SC Cottbus in what was East Germany. After the reunification of Germany, Energie played six seasons in ...

before joining Tennis Borussia Berlin in 2008. In 2009, he moved, joining Heart of Midlothian where he was a member of the successful under-19 squad who finished second behind

Celtic Celtic, Celtics or Keltic may refer to: Language and ethnicity *pertaining to Celts, a collection of Indo-European peoples in Europe and Anatolia **Celts (modern) *Celtic languages **Proto-Celtic language * Celtic music *Celtic nations Sports Fo ...

during the 2010–11 Scottish Premier League under-19 season. He picked up the Hearts under 19 player of the season award and was their top scorer with 14 goals during season 2010–11.

Club career

Heart of Midlothian

Prychynenko joined the Heart of Midlothian first team on 26 February 2011 being named as a substitute against Aberdeen and on one further occasion. Due to injury he failed to make his debut that season despite that his under 19 form earned him a new three-year contract extending his stay until 2014. In November 2011 he joined Raith Rovers on loan until January 2012 to gain first team experience. On return from Raith, Denys made his first team début for Hearts as a late substitute in a

Scottish Premier League The Scottish Premier League (SPL) was the top level league competition for professional football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football' ...

match; a 3–0 win over Aberdeen. He was an unused substitute as Hearts won the

2012 Scottish Cup Final The 2012 Scottish Cup Final was the 127th final of the Scottish Cup. The match took place at Hampden Park on 19 May 2012 and was contested by the Edinburgh derby rivals, Hibernian (Hibs) and Heart of Midlothian (Hearts). It was Hibs' 12th Scot ...

. After making seven appearances for the club and having one more year left with the club, Prychyneko was released by the club, as Manager

Gary Locke Gary Faye Locke (born January 21, 1950) is an American politician and diplomat serving as the interim president of Bellevue College, the largest of the institutions that make up the Washington Community and Technical Colleges system. Locke serv ...

intended to reshape the squad.

Raith Rovers (loan)

On 3 November 2011, Prychynenko joined Scottish First Division side Raith Rovers on loan until 4 January 2012. Making his debut that weekend against

Dundee Dundee (; sco, Dundee; gd, Dùn Dè or ) is Scotland's fourth-largest city and the 51st-most-populous built-up area in the United Kingdom. The mid-year population estimate for 2016 was , giving Dundee a population density of 2,478/km2 or ...

at Dens Park. On 26 November, he was one of four on loan ''Jambos'' named in the starting line-up for the 3–2 victory over Hamilton Academical at

Stark's Park Stark's Park is a football stadium in Kirkcaldy, Scotland. It is the home ground of Raith Rovers, who have played there since 1891. The ground has an all-seated capacity of 9000 History Raith started using the ground in 1891 and it seats ...

. All three Raith goals were scored by on loan Hearts players as Prychynenko, Jason Holt and David Smith each netted their first professional goal. In all he made five appearances for the club, with his last appearance coming on 10 December against

Livingston Livingston may refer to: Businesses * Livingston Energy Flight, an Italian airline (2003–2010) * Livingston Compagnia Aerea, an Italian airline (2011–2014), also known as Livingston Airline * Livingston International, a North American custom ...

, due to requiring hernia surgery that limited his appearances. On 5 January 2012, Prychynenko's loan deal expired and he returned to Hearts.

Returning to Ukraine

After being released by Hearts, Prychychenko returned to Ukraine on 13 July 2013 by joining

FC Sevastopol FC Sevastopol ( uk, ФК «Севастополь») was a Ukrainian football club based in Sevastopol. The club was a spiritual descendant of the Soviet clubs from Sevastopol such as Chaika Sevastopol. After the completion of 2013–14 Ukrainia ...

on a free transfer. In an interview with the Herald Scotland, he cited playing for Hearts as making him tougher player and talked about playing for a club in the Crimean war zone.

CSKA Sofia

On 17 July 2014, Prychynenko signed a one-year contract with the most successful club in Bulgaria,

PFC CSKA Sofia CSKA Sofia ( bg, ЦСКА София) is a Bulgarian professional association football club based in Sofia and currently competing in the country's premier football competition, the First League. ''CSKA'' is an abbreviation for ''Central Sport ...

. He made his debut 1 week after against Litex Lovech winning 1–0. After good performances in his first five games, Prychynenko signed a new three-year deal until 2017, on 2 September 2014.

Union Berlin

On 1 July 2015, Prychynenko signed a two-year contract with German

2. Bundesliga The 2. Bundesliga ( ) is the second division of professional football in Germany. It was implemented 11 years after the founding of the Fußball-Bundesliga as the new second division for professional football. The 2. Bundesliga is ranked below ...

side

1. FC Union Berlin 1. Fußballclub Union Berlin e. V., commonly known as 1. FC Union Berlin () or Union Berlin, is a professional German football club in Köpenick, Berlin. The club's origins can be traced to 1906, when its predecessor FC Olympia Oberschöneweid ...

until 2017. He was released on 12 January 2016.

Royal White Star Brussels

End of February 2016, Prychynenko joined

Belgian Second Division The Belgian Second Division (known as the Proximus League for sponsorship reasons) was the second-highest division in the Belgian football league system, one level below the Belgian Pro League. It was founded by the Royal Belgian Football Associa ...

side Royal White Star Bruxelles, signing a contract until 2018 including an extension clause. He appeared in six games until the end of the

season A season is a division of the year based on changes in weather, ecology, and the number of daylight hours in a given region. On Earth, seasons are the result of the axial parallelism of Earth's tilted orbit around the Sun. In temperate and pol ...

, achieving first place in the league with his team, which would usually lead to promotion to the Belgian first division. Bruxelles, however, didn't receive a license for professional football for the upcoming season and were relegated to the third tier.

Deinze

On 11 June 2021, he signed with

as a free agent.

Personal life

Prychynenko was born in

Potsdam Potsdam () is the capital and, with around 183,000 inhabitants, largest city of the German state of Brandenburg. It is part of the Berlin/Brandenburg Metropolitan Region. Potsdam sits on the River Havel, a tributary of the Elbe, downstream of B ...

, Germany, to Olena and Serhiy Prychynenko. His uncle Volodymyr Prychynenko and his cousin Stanislav Prychynenko (Volodymyr's son) are also professional footballers. Furthermore, Prychynenko holds a BA degree in business with marketing and is planning to start a law degree. Prychynenko expressed the hope for a peaceful solution regarding the

annexation of Crimea by the Russian Federation In February and March 2014, Russia invaded and subsequently annexed the Crimean Peninsula from Ukraine. This event took place in the aftermath of the Revolution of Dignity and is part of the wider Russo-Ukrainian War. The events in Kyiv th ...

Career statistics

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Prychynenko, Denys 1992 births Living people Footballers from Potsdam Ukrainian men's footballers Ukraine men's youth international footballers German men's footballers German people of Ukrainian descent Naturalized citizens of Ukraine Men's association football midfielders Scottish Football League players Ukrainian Premier League players First Professional Football League (Bulgaria) players 2. Bundesliga players Belgian Pro League players Challenger Pro League players FC Energie Cottbus players Tennis Borussia Berlin players Heart of Midlothian F.C. players Raith Rovers F.C. players FC Sevastopol players PFC CSKA Sofia players 1. FC Union Berlin players RWS Bruxelles players K Beerschot VA players K.M.S.K. Deinze players German expatriate men's footballers Ukrainian expatriate men's footballers Expatriate men's footballers in Scotland Expatriate men's footballers in Bulgaria Expatriate men's footballers in Germany Expatriate men's footballers in Belgium Ukrainian expatriate sportspeople in Scotland Ukrainian expatriate sportspeople in Bulgaria Ukrainian expatriate sportspeople in Belgium Ukrainian expatriate sportspeople in Germany