Oleksandr Mykolayovych Hladkyi ( uk, Олександр Миколайович Гладкий, born 24 August 1987) is a

Ukrainian Ukrainian may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to Ukraine * Something relating to Ukrainians, an East Slavic people from Eastern Europe * Something relating to demographics of Ukraine in terms of demography and population of Ukraine * So ...

professional A professional is a member of a profession or any person who works in a specified professional activity. The term also describes the standards of education and training that prepare members of the profession with the particular knowledge and skil ...

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

forward Forward is a relative direction, the opposite of backward. Forward may also refer to: People * Forward (surname) Sports * Forward (association football) * Forward (basketball), including: ** Point forward ** Power forward (basketball) ** Sm ...

for

Chornomorets Odesa FC Chornomorets Odesa ( ) is a Ukrainian professional football club based in Odesa. The club's home ground is the 34,164 capacity Chornomorets Stadium opened in 1935 and rebuilt in 2011. According to the club's website, it was formed in 1936 as ...

. He has also appeared for the Ukraine national team. His last name is variously transliterated into English as Hladkiy, Gladkiy and Gladkyy.

Club career

Kharkiv

Hladkyi began his career in

Metalist Kharkiv Football Club Metalist Kharkiv ( uk, Футбо́льний Клуб Металі́ст Ха́рків ) is a Ukrainian football club based in Kharkiv that plays in the Ukrainian First League during the 2021–22 season. It was revived 5 years ...

's football academy, and soon after, the young player was invited to another professional club from the

Kharkiv Kharkiv ( uk, wikt:Харків, Ха́рків, ), also known as Kharkov (russian: Харькoв, ), is the second-largest List of cities in Ukraine, city and List of hromadas of Ukraine, municipality in Ukraine.FC Kharkiv FC Kharkiv ( ua, ФК "Харків") was a professional football club based in Kharkiv, Ukraine. After 2009–10 Ukrainian First League season the club was relegated to the Ukrainian Second League. However, they failed attestation when they sub ...

. Under the direction of coach Volodymyr Bessonov, Hladkyi became a regular player for the club and soon established himself as one of the best strikers in the

league League or The League may refer to: Arts and entertainment * ''Leagues'' (band), an American rock band * ''The League'', an American sitcom broadcast on FX and FXX about fantasy football Sports * Sports league * Rugby league, full contact footba ...

. His first fame came in the 2006–07 season, when after scoring 13 goals to finish as the Ukrainian league's top scorer.

Shakhtar Donetsk

After this success, Hladkyi attracted the notice of giants Shakhtar Donetsk, and on 8 June 2007, he signed a five-year deal worth €2.5 million with the club. On 7 May 2008, in the Ukrainian Cup final, during which he scored and also received a red card, Hladkyi earned the first trophy in his career when Shakhtar defeated rivals

Dynamo Kyiv Football Club Dynamo Kyiv (, ) is a Ukrainian professional Association football, football club based in Kyiv. Founded in 1927 as a Kyivan football team of republican branch of the bigger Soviet Union, Soviet Dynamo Sports Club, Dynamo Sports Soc ...

2–0. Hladkyi won the 2007–08 Ukrainian Premier League with Shakhtar, but fell one goal short of making Ukrainian Premier League history by being the top goalscorer for two consecutive years. However, with the addition of strikers Yevhen Seleznyov and

Marcelo Moreno Marcelo Martins Moreno (born 18 June 1987), known as Marcelo Martins in Bolivia and as Marcelo Moreno in other countries, is a Bolivian professional footballer who plays as a striker for Paraguayan Primera División club Cerro Porteño and cap ...

, and with coach Mircea Lucescu using only one forward in a

4-5-1 In association football, the formation of a team refers to the position players take in relation to each other on a pitch. As association football is a fluid and fast-moving game, a player's position (with the exception of the goalkeeper) in a ...

formation Formation may refer to: Linguistics * Back-formation, the process of creating a new lexeme by removing or affixes * Word formation, the creation of a new word by adding affixes Mathematics and science * Cave formation or speleothem, a secondar ...

, Hladkyi had difficulty keeping his spot in the starting line-up or even a place on the bench, leaving his future in doubt. After 10 league games with only 1 win, Shakhtar coach Mircea Lucescu started Hladkyi, who scored in the 28th minute in a 3–0 win over

Chornomorets Odessa FC Chornomorets Odesa ( ) is a Ukrainian professional football club based in Odesa. The club's home ground is the 34,164 capacity Chornomorets Stadium opened in 1935 and rebuilt in 2011. According to the club's website, it was formed in 1936 a ...

. Mircea gave Hladkyi another starting opportunity due to an injury to Luiz Adriano, and he scored the third goal in Shakhtar's 4–2 win over FC Kryvbas Kryvyi Rih. Hladkyi scored a winner for Shakhtar against Olexandria in the 93rd minute in a

Ukrainian Cup The Ukrainian Cup ( uk, Кубок України) is an association football national knockout cup competition run by the Ukrainian Association of Football. The competition is conducted almost exclusively among professional clubs. Since the 2003� ...

quarter-final, although he also injured his own side's second-choice goalkeeper Rustam Khudzhamov during a collision in the Shakhtar penalty area. He scored his first two

UEFA Champions League The UEFA Champions League (abbreviated as UCL, or sometimes, UEFA CL) is an annual club football competition organised by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) and contested by top-division European clubs, deciding the competit ...

goals in a historic 3–2 victory in Spain over

F.C. Barcelona Futbol Club Barcelona (), commonly referred to as Barcelona and colloquially known as Barça (), is a professional Football team, football club based in Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain, that competes in La Liga, the top flight of Spanish footb ...

, ending the latter's streak of 20 games without defeat. As a result of the win, Shakhtar collected more points in the group stage than ever before (9). Unable to gain a regular place at Shakhtar Donetsk, he transferred to

Dnipro Dnipropetrovsk Football Club Dnipro ( uk, Футбо́льний Клуб «Дніпро́», ) was a Ukrainian football club based in Dnipro. The club was owned by the Privat Group that also owns BC Dnipro and Budivelnyk Kyiv. In 2018 FC Dnipro was forced in ...

on 17 August 2010.

Shakhtar Donetsk return

In May 2014, Hladkyi departed for

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 ...

, signing a two-year contract.

Dynamo Kyiv

Upon the expiration of his contract with Shakhtar Donetsk, Hladkyi signed a 3-year contract as a free agent with the Ukrainian champions,

, on 23 May 2016.

Karpaty Lviv

On 2 March 2017 it was officially announced that Hladkyi is being loaned to

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 ...

. It was his second stint in the club over his career. In July 2017 Dynamo has given Hladkyi a status of free agent and he signed a full-fledged contract with Karpaty. While playing for Karpaty in April 2017 he was recognized as a player of the month in the Ukrainian Premier League.

Turkish Super League

Before signing his first contract with foreign club in August 2018 and moving to Turkey, Hladkyi earlier in 2018 spent his time playing for

that struggled to stay in the Ukrainian premiers.

International career

Oleksandr Hladkyi was a regular member of the

Ukraine national under-21 football team The Ukraine national under-21 football team is also known as Youth ootballteam of Ukraine ( uk, Молодіжна збірна України) is one of junior national football teams of Ukraine for participation in under-21 international compet ...

and scored 6 goals in 12 games. On 22 August 2007, he made his debut for the senior Ukraine national football team in a friendly against Uzbekistan and scored the opening goal, his only goal in 11 matches for Ukraine's senior squad.Game report from ScoresPro.com Game Report on ScoresPro.com
Since 2007, he has been called up to the main squad by Oleg Blokhin and then

Oleksiy Mykhailychenko Oleksiy Oleksandrovych Mykhaylychenko ( uk, Олексій Олександрович Михайличенко; born 30 March 1963) is a Ukrainian football coach and former professional player. He is a Distinguished Master of Sports of the U ...

, but has not appeared for Ukraine since 2015.

Career statistics

Club

International

:''Scores and results list Ukraine's goal tally first.''

Honours

Shakhtar Donetsk * Vyshcha Liha/Ukrainian Premier League: 2007–08, 2009–10 *

: 2007–08, 2015–16 *

Ukrainian Super Cup The Ukrainian Super Cup ( uk , Суперкубок України) is an association football game of the Ukrainian Premier League in traditional super cup format that acts as the grand-opening for every new football (soccer), football competiti ...

2008 File:2008 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Lehman Brothers went bankrupt following the Subprime mortgage crisis; Cyclone Nargis killed more than 138,000 in Myanmar; A scene from the opening ceremony of the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing; ...

2010 File:2010 Events Collage New.png, From top left, clockwise: The 2010 Chile earthquake was one of the strongest recorded in history; The Eruption of Eyjafjallajökull in Iceland disrupts air travel in Europe; A scene from the opening ceremony of ...

2014 File:2014 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: Stocking up supplies and personal protective equipment (PPE) for the Western African Ebola virus epidemic; Citizens examining the ruins after the Chibok schoolgirls kidnapping; Bundles of wat ...

2015 File:2015 Events Collage new.png, From top left, clockwise: Civil service in remembrance of November 2015 Paris attacks; Germanwings Flight 9525 was purposely crashed into the French Alps; the rubble of residences in Kathmandu following the Apri ...

UEFA Cup A cup is an open-top used to hold hot or cold liquids for pouring or drinking; while mainly used for drinking, it also can be used to store Solid, solids for pouring (e.g., sugar, flour, grains, salt). Cups may be made of glass, metal, porcela ...

: 2008–09 Dynamo Kyiv *Ukrainian Super Cup:

2016 File:2016 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: Bombed-out buildings in Ankara following the 2016 Turkish coup d'état attempt; the impeachment trial of Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff; Damaged houses during the 2016 Nagorno-Karabakh ...

Individual *Vyshcha Liha Top Scorer: 2006–07 (13 goals) *Vyshcha Liha Top Assist Provider: 2007–08 (11 assists)

References

External links

* *
Player Profile at Shakhtar Donetsk Official Website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Hladkyi, Oleksandr 1987 births Living people People from Lozova Association football forwards Ukrainian footballers Ukrainian expatriate footballers Ukrainian Premier League players Ukrainian First League players Ukrainian Second League players FC Kharkiv players FC Metalist Kharkiv players FC Shakhtar Donetsk players UEFA Cup winning players FC Dnipro players FC Karpaty Lviv players FC Chornomorets Odesa players Ukraine youth international footballers Ukraine under-21 international footballers Ukraine international footballers Ukrainian Premier League top scorers FC Dynamo Kyiv players Süper Lig players TFF First League players Çaykur Rizespor footballers Ukrainian expatriate sportspeople in Turkey Adana Demirspor footballers FC Zorya Luhansk players Sportspeople from Kharkiv Oblast