As former West Ham United forward Andriy Yarmolenko placed the ball on the penalty spot and set his sights, his was a spot-kick guided by destiny and powered by the weight of seventeen years of invaluable experience.
Nearly two decades since he opened his account in the Ukrainian Premier League – a teenage Andriy Yarmolenko bursting onto the scene with a late winner on debut all the way back in 2008 – the evergreen winger ensured that his was a career destined to come full circle.
Because, on a weekend in which Yarmolenko’s penalty-kick secured Dynamo Kyiv’s 17th league title and their first in nine attempts, the 35-year-old forward would also overtake the legendary Serhiy Rebrov at the top of the club’s all-time charts.
Yarmolenko has now scored the most goals of any Dynamo Kyiv player since the Ukrainian Premier League began over three decades ago.
And, if anything sums up the rapidly-changing fortunes of top-level football, it is the full range of emotions the former West Ham United forward suffered through in the space of four exhausting days. From dejection to jubilation, with everything in between.
Photo by Julian Finney/Getty Images
Photo by Julian Finney/Getty Images
Former West Ham man Andriy Yarmolenko fires Dynamo Kyiv to glory
On Wednesday night, Yarmolenko endured cup final heartbreak as bitter rivals Shakhtar Donetsk triumphed in a tense penalty shoot-out.
Flash forward to Sunday and, with Chornomorets aiming to rain on Dynamo’s parade, the heavens appeared to have opened again when the home team cancelled out Yarmolenko’s 54th-minute strike.
Thus, threatening to take a ferocious title battle down to the final day.
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In the end, much to the relief of a travelling support whose fingernails had been chewed down to the nub, Dynamo Kyiv held on to a point. A point which ensured they can no longer be caught heading into matchday 30.
While his fresh-faced partner secured the Golden Boot – West Ham are interested in Vladyslav Vanat, the free-scoring striker who could soon become Ukraine’s next big-money export – many observers consider Yarmolenko to be the driving force behind Dynamo’s first league title since 2021.
“Yarmolenko scored this championship-winning goal. How much he brought to the team in the autumn and spring is the number one factor [why Dynamo Kyiv won the title],” Volodymyr Zverov tells Pro Football.
“Without reducing the influence of other players and the coach, Yarmolenko became the catalyst for Dynamo’s success.
“Looking at the Kyiv players, I saw how they felt the pressure. Only after they scored a goal [through Yarmolenko’s penalty] did they look confident.”
Yarmolenko leads by example as he overtakes Serhiy Rebrov
Taking the responsibility onto his ageing but ever-broadened shoulders, Yarmolenko netted in three successive league matches back in April.
In fact, with four in his last seven, the one-time Borussia Dortmund schemer not only overtook Rebrov at the top of the club’s scoring charts, he reached double figures for an eighth time across two spells spanning nearly twenty years.
Longevity, thy name is Andriy.
“Remember where Dynamo were without Yarmolenko, and where they are now,” former midfielder Serhiy Kovalets tells Dynamo Kiev Ukraine, the veteran returning after a spell with Al-Ain on the back of a distant fourth-place finish in 2023.
“His influence on the team is obvious.”
Taking his personal trophy haul to nine, Yarmolenko tastes league glory for the first time since 2016.
And with his contract expiring this summer, it’s fair to say Dynamo Kyiv face a far more difficult decision than West Ham probably did when announcing that Vladimir Coufal, Aaron Cresswell and Lukasz Fabianski will depart ahead of an overdue summer rebuild.