Football came to Ukraine from the Western world. This famous game originated from the British Isles and the first seeds to its development in Ukraine were planted in Lviv. The students of an Uzhhorod high school, who were studying in Budapest, learned how to play football there and started to play in their native city during the holidays. The Chernivtsi habitants were learning football by an Austrian teacher, who arrived in the city and was working there. It happened before the First World War, when Ukraine was separated between two empires – Russia and Austria-Hungary.
The Ukrainians of the Russian Empire were also learning soccer skills from foreigners who worked in their cities. Thus, people in Odessa became interested in soccer due to the British employers; in Kyiv and Luhansk learned from Czech workers; it was brought to Mykolaiv by British seamen; and to Donetsk by British and German miners. In Odessa, the first Ukrainian soccer club was founded in the beginning of the 20-th century. It was called Odessa British Athletic Club (OBAC).
Starting from 1912, teams of Ukrainian cities took part in championships of the Russian Empire. One year later Odessa’s soccer team won the league.
After First World War finished, the Ukrainian ethnic areas were divided between four new States - the USSR, Poland, Czechoslovakia and Romania. So the teams of related Ukrainian cities were playing in championships of those countries. Teams of the cities took part in the Soviet championships until 1935. Kharkiv won it in 1924. From 1936 leading Ukrainian clubs started to play in the new USSR soccer league.
When Second World War finished in 1945, the Western Ukraine became a part of the Ukrainian SSR, which was a part of the USSR. The most talented Ukrainian soccer players were sent to the best Ukrainian club - Dynamo Kyiv. Only Dynamo Kyiv (the club of military department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs) could draft and keep more talented young Ukrainian footballers in the strict Soviet society. The talented young players, who weren't invited by Dynamo Kyiv, were "drafted" by Soviet Army, i.e. by two Moscow "military" clubs.
Shakhtar team of Donetsk city is another Ukrainian club which was founded in the most densely populated, industrial area of Ukraine, called Donbass. This soccer club constantly played in the Soviet premier league.
In 1961, the Ukrainian club Dynamo Kyiv first won the USSR championship and the USSR Cup (Shakhtar). Donetsk won the USSR Cup in 1962, too.
From the middle of the 1960s other Ukrainian clubs, such as Chornomorets (Odessa), Zorya (Luhansk), then Karpaty (Lviv), Dnipro (Dnipropetrovsk) and later in 1980s, Metallist (Kharkiv ) made progress and began to play constantly in the USSR's premier league.
From 1966 till 1990, the Ukrainian clubs won 15 of 26 USSR championships (placed second Russia - only 7), 14 of 25 USSR Cups.
The 1975 and 1986-1988 are the culmination moments in the Ukrainian football history. In 1975, Dynamo won the triple - the European Cups Winners Cup, the European Super Cup, the USSR Championship. In several matches the Soviet national team featured just the Ukrainian players. Oleh Blokhin was the best European player of the year.
In the 1980's, Ukraine produced a number of international top players like Oleh Blokhin, Ihor Belanov, Olexiy Mykhaylychenko, Olexandr Zavarov, Oleh Protasov, Oleh Kuznetsov, Anatoly Demyanenko, Pavlo Yakovenko, Volodymyr Bezsonov. Ukraine also became worldly known thanks to the genuine coach Valery Lobanovsky, who was a major maker of continuous success of Ukrainian players.
Ihor Belanov was the best European player of 1986.
Dynamo Kyiv was elected the second team by the "World Soccer" 1986 poll, following Argentina with less then 0.1% of votes. Valery Lobanovsky was elected a second World coach in 1986.
When Ukraine gained its independence, the Ukrainian national soccer team started to receive more and more attention. Their first match was played against Hungarian team on April 29, 1992. Some of the good Ukrainians players who played in USSR national football team, preferred to play in Russian team. Russia was known as the successor of the USSR, when Ukraine did not participate in important competition until 1994. After crisis of the beginning of 1990's Dynamo Kyiv reborned with president Hryhori Surkis and head coach Valery Lobanovsky, who returned home in 1997. Dynamo has excellent players like Yuri Kalitvintsev, Oleh Luzhny, Serhi Rebrov, Olexandr Shovkovsky and one of the best players in the world Andri Shevchenko.
With the national team’s head coach Oleg Blokhin Ukraine went on to qualify for the first ever FIFA World Cup on September, 3, 2005, by drawing their match with Georgia, 1:1. In their first World Cup (2006 FIFA World Cup), Ukraine managed to reach the quarter-finals before.
Monthly FIFA/Coca-cola World Ranking provides the top International teams in the World.
The latest edition of the FIFA/Coca-Cola World Ranking placed Ukraine on the 26th position. The domination country is Spain, which continue holding the top position of more than 200 points.
