Vitalii Serhiyovych Mykolenko ( uk, Віталій Сергійович Миколенко; born 29 May 1999) is a Ukrainian 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

left-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

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 ...

club Everton and the Ukraine national team.

Club career

Dynamo Kyiv

Born in

Cherkasy Cherkasy ( uk, Черка́си, ) is a city in central Ukraine. Cherkasy is the Capital city, capital of Cherkasy Oblast (Oblast, province), as well as the administrative center of Cherkasky Raion (Raion, district) within the oblast. The c ...

, Mykolenko is a product of the

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 ...

youth sportive school. He played for Dynamo in the

Ukrainian Premier League Reserves The Ukrainian Premier League youth competitions is a complex of youth competitions within the Ukrainian Premier League and is part of youth competitions in Ukraine. The events include championship among two age categories under 19 and under 21 year ...

and in August 2017 he was promoted to the senior squad team. Mykolenko made his debut in the

Ukrainian Premier League The Ukrainian Premier League ( uk, "Українська Прем'єр-ліга", ''Ukrayinska Premier Liha'') or UPL is the highest division of Ukrainian annual football championship. As the Vyshcha Liha ( uk, Вища ліга, ''Top League'') ...

for Dynamo Kyiv on 20 August 2017, playing in a winning match against Stal Kamianske. On 25 October 2018, Mykolenko made his debut in the

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 ...

, starting in Dynamo's 2–1 victory over

Rennes Rennes (; br, Roazhon ; Gallo: ''Resnn''; ) is a city in the east of Brittany in northwestern France at the confluence of the Ille and the Vilaine. Rennes is the prefecture of the region of Brittany, as well as the Ille-et-Vilaine department ...

at the

Roazhon Park The Roazhon Park is a football stadium in Rennes, Brittany (administrative region), Brittany, France. ''Roazhon'' is the Breton language, Breton name of Rennes. The stadium was inaugurated on 15 September 1912. It is located at 111 route de Lor ...

. In the 2018-2019 season, Mykolenko was named the best young player in the Ukrainian Premier League.

Everton

On 1 January 2022, Mykolenko joined English side Everton on a four-and-half year deal until June 2026 for an undisclosed fee. The club assigned him the number 19 shirt. On 3 March 2022, as a gesture of goodwill, Mykolenko was named Everton captain for an

FA Cup The Football Association Challenge Cup, more commonly known as the FA Cup, is an annual knockout football competition in men's domestic English football. First played during the 1871–72 season, it is the oldest national football competi ...

Fifth round match against

Boreham Wood Borehamwood (, historically also Boreham Wood) is a town in southern Hertfordshire, England, from Charing Cross. Borehamwood has a population of 31,074, and is within the London commuter belt. The town's film and TV studios are commonly known ...

due to the on-going conflict between his country and Russia. In March 2022, Mykolenko called out the captain of the

Russia national football team The Russia national football team (russian: Сборная России по футболу, Sbornaya Rossii po futbolu) represents the Russia, Russian Federation in men's international association football. It is controlled by the Russian Footb ...

Artem Dzyuba Artem (or Artyom) Sergeyevich Dzyuba (russian: Артём Сергеевич Дзюба, ; born 22 August 1988) is a Russian professional football player who plays as a striker for the Russia national football team. He began his career with Spa ...

, in an Instagram post and questioned why Dzyuba and his Russian teammates were “silent” while “peaceful civilians were being killed in Ukraine” in the

2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine On 24 February 2022, in a major escalation of the Russo-Ukrainian War, which began in 2014. The invasion has resulted in tens of thousands of deaths on both sides. It has caused Europe's largest refugee crisis since World War II. An ...

. On 8 May 2022, Mykolenko scored his first goal for Everton, a stunning volley from 25 yards in a 2–1 away victory against

Leicester City Leicester ( ) is a city, unitary authority and the county town of Leicestershire in the East Midlands of England. It is the largest settlement in the East Midlands. The city lies on the River Soar and close to the eastern end of the National ...

in a Premier League fixture.

International career

Mykolenko represented Ukraine at all levels of youth football. He made his debut for the Ukraine national team at age 19, on 20 November 2018 in a friendly against

Turkey Turkey ( tr, Türkiye ), officially the Republic of Türkiye ( tr, Türkiye Cumhuriyeti, links=no ), is a list of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country located mainly on the Anatolia, Anatolian Peninsula in Western Asia, with ...

, as a starter. Still eligible for youth football, Mykolenko just missed out on winning the

2019 FIFA U-20 World Cup The 2019 FIFA U-20 World Cup was the 22nd edition of the FIFA U-20 World Cup, the biennial international men's youth football championship contested by the under-20 national teams of the member associations of FIFA, since its inception in 1977 ...

– he was named to the eventual winner

Ukraine Ukraine ( uk, Україна, Ukraïna, ) is a country in Eastern Europe. It is the second-largest European country after Russia, which it borders to the east and northeast. Ukraine covers approximately . Prior to the ongoing Russian inv ...

squad for the tournament, but had to be withdrawn from the competition a few days later due to injury.

Career statistics

Club

International

:''As of match played 27 September 2022. Ukraine score listed first, score column indicates score after each Mykolenko goal.''

Honours

Dynamo Kyiv *

2020–21 The dash is a punctuation mark consisting of a long horizontal line. It is similar in appearance to the hyphen but is longer and sometimes higher from the baseline. The most common versions are the endash , generally longer than the hyphen b ...

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� ...

: 2019–20,

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 ...

2018 File:2018 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: The 2018 Winter Olympics opening ceremony in PyeongChang, South Korea; Protests erupt following the Assassination of Jamal Khashoggi; March for Our Lives protests take place across the United ...

2019 File:2019 collage v1.png, From top left, clockwise: Hong Kong protests turn to widespread riots and civil disobedience; House of Representatives votes to adopt articles of impeachment against Donald Trump; CRISPR gene editing first used to experim ...

2020 2020 was heavily defined by the COVID-19 pandemic, which led to global Social impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, social and Economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, economic disruption, mass cancellations and postponements of events, COVID- ...

Individual * Golden talent of Ukraine (Under-19): 2018 * Golden talent of Ukraine (Under-21): 2019, 2020 *

Best young player: 2018–19

References

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Mykolenko, Vitalii 1999 births Living people Sportspeople from Cherkasy Ukrainian footballers Association football fullbacks FC Dynamo Kyiv players Everton F.C. players Ukrainian Premier League players Premier League players Ukraine youth international footballers Ukraine under-21 international footballers Ukraine international footballers UEFA Euro 2020 players Ukrainian expatriate footballers Expatriate footballers in England Ukrainian expatriate sportspeople in England 21st-century Ukrainian people