Denys Stanislavovych Kozhanov ( uk, Денис Станіславович Кожанов; born 13 June 1987) is a Ukrainian 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'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...

midfielder A midfielder is an outfield position in association football. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in that case known as defensive midfielders. As central midfielders often go across boundarie ...

who plays for

Karpaty Lviv Football Club Karpaty Lviv ( ) is a Ukrainian professional football club based in Lviv. History Early years (1963–68) The team of Karpaty was founded on 18 January, 1963. In 1961 Silmash Lviv won the championship of Lviv Oblast but lost its p ...

Club career

Kozhanov started out his football career at the sports schools No.3 of

Mariupol Mariupol (, ; uk, Маріу́поль ; russian: Мариу́поль) is a city in Donetsk Oblast, Ukraine. It is situated on the northern coast (Pryazovia) of the Sea of Azov, at the mouth of the Kalmius River. Prior to the 2022 Russian i ...

and later the

FC Illichivets Mariupol Football Club Mariupol ( uk, Футбольний клуб "Маріуполь" ) was a Ukrainian professional football club based in Mariupol, that competed in the Ukrainian Premier League. The club ceased to exist as a result of the Siege of M ...

academy. Upon graduation he signed with the regional leader

FC Shakhtar Donetsk Football Club Shakhtar Donetsk ( uk, Футбольний клуб «Шахтар» Донецьк , short nickname "miners") is a Ukrainian professional football club from the city of Donetsk. In 2014, due to the War in Donbass, the club was ...

where for the first couple of years played for its second and third teams in lower leagues.

Karpaty Lviv

In 2007 Kozhanov was lent to Karpaty where he played at first in reserves. On 1 March 2008 he debuted in the

Premier League The Premier League (legal name: The Football Association Premier League Limited) is the highest level of the men's English football league system. Contested by 20 clubs, it operates on a system of promotion and relegation with the English Foo ...

. He became the top assister in the

2009–10 Ukrainian Premier League The 2009–10 Ukrainian Premier League season was the nineteenth since its establishment and second since its reorganization. Dynamo Kyiv were the defending champions, having won their 13th league title. A total of 16 teams participated in the le ...

, giving 13 assists. He played 11 games and scored 2 goals in

UEFA Europa League The UEFA Europa League (abbreviated as UEL, or sometimes, UEFA EL), formerly the UEFA Cup, is an annual football club competition organised since 1971 by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) for eligible European football clubs. It ...

Volyn Lutsk

Kozhanov was recognized as the best player of October 2019 in the

Ukrainian First League The Persha Liha ( uk, Перша ліга) or Ukrainian First League is a professional football league in Ukraine and the second tier of national football competitions pyramid. Members of the league also participate in the Ukrainian Cup. It is th ...

.There was announced the best player of month in the First League (Объявлен лучший игрок месяца в Первой лиге)
UA-Football. 6 November 2019 He became a second player for Volyn to receive such honors. Same season,

2019–20 Ukrainian First League The 2019–20 Ukrainian First League is the 29th since its establishment. The competition began on 27 July 2019 with eight matches of Round 1, and went into recess for a winter break which started after the completion of Round 19 on 24 November 2 ...

, Kozhanov also became the season's top scorer with 18 goals.

References

External links

Profile on Official Illichivets Mariupol Website
* * 1987 births Living people People from Hirnyk, Donetsk Oblast Ukrainian men's footballers FC Shakhtar Donetsk players FC Shakhtar-2 Donetsk players FC Shakhtar-3 Donetsk players FC Karpaty Lviv players FC Mariupol players FC Sevastopol players FC Dacia Chișinău players Ukrainian Premier League players Ukrainian First League players Ukrainian Second League players Men's association football midfielders NK Veres Rivne players FC Volyn Lutsk players FC Mynai players Ukrainian expatriate men's footballers Expatriate men's footballers in Moldova Ukrainian expatriate sportspeople in Moldova Ukraine men's international footballers Footballers from Donetsk Oblast {{Ukraine-footy-midfielder-1980s-stub