Kyiv "Dynamo" winger Andriy Yarmolenko scored his 125th goal in the Ukrainian league in a match against "Kryvbas", breaking the long-standing record of Maksym Shatskikh (124 goals) and moving to the top of the list of the best scorers in the history of the Ukrainian top flight. UNN рассказывает, как Ярмоленко прошел путь к 125 точным ударам в чемпионатах Украины.
Details
As reported by UNN, in the framework of the 11th round of the 2026/2027 Ukrainian Premier League season, Kyiv's "Dynamo" faced Kryvyi Rih's "Kryvbas".
In the 18th minute of the match, "Dynamo" forward Matviy Ponomarenko opened the scoring from an assist by Andriy Yarmolenko.
In the 41st minute, Ponomarenko won a penalty, which Andriy Yarmolenko converted by sending the ball down the middle of Oleksandr Kemkin's goal. This was Yarmolenko's 125th goal in the UPL, making him the leading scorer in the history of the Ukrainian Championship. Before that, the record belonged to former "Dynamo" forward Maksym Shatskikh, who had scored 124 goals in the UPL.
In addition, in the 45th minute Yarmolenko received a straight red card for a foul on Giovani.
It is worth noting that the last time Yarmolenko received a straight red card while playing for "Dynamo" was on February 19, 2015, in the first leg of the Europa League Round of 32 against French side "Guingamp" (1:2). In total, this was the footballer's third straight red card in his professional career; he has also been sent off three times for receiving two yellow cards.
"First of all, I want to thank the boys for seeing the game through with ten men, showing patience and following the coach's instructions. Also, during the air-raid alert, I said everything that was on my mind at the time. I thank the boys, because today they truly demonstrated character and a desire to win. As for the red card... You must not let the team down like that. Although I am an experienced footballer, emotions are still present on the football pitch. I failed to control them somewhat. I am very happy that I managed to surpass this record. Surpassing the achievement of such a great master as Maksym Shatskikh is no small thing. I learned a lot from his matches, and he also helped me greatly at the beginning of my career. It is truly very pleasing to surpass his record," Yarmolenko said after the match.
Andriy Yarmolenko was also congratulated on his record by Ukraine national team head coach Andrea Maldera.
"A player whom I had the pleasure of coaching and whom I was lucky enough to get to know. I am very happy for you. This achievement writes your name into the history of this great country," Maldera wrote on Instagram.
Andriy Yarmolenko is the top scorer in Ukrainian Premier League history02.11.26, 14:48
The road to the record
At the age of 17, Andriy Yarmolenko moved from Chernihiv's "Desna" to "Dynamo", and made his debut only in 2008—in the final round of the 2007/2008 UPL season against "Vorskla".
On May 11, 2008, the new Kyiv side manager, Yuriy Syomin, sent the 18-year-old player onto the pitch eight minutes before the final whistle with the score at 1:1. Yarmolenko managed to score the winning goal against the opposition and secure victory for his team.
In the 2008/2009 season, Yarmolenko became "Dynamo"'s leading scorer in the Ukrainian Cup, scoring five goals in three matches. However, Syomin did not risk bringing young players into the starting lineup. Therefore, Andriy rarely took the field in the league. In 10 league appearances, he did not record any goal contributions. In one of the cup matches, he registered his first assist for the team.
However, everything changed dramatically in the 2009/2010 season, when another Russian specialist, Valeriy Gazzaev, took charge of the team and began giving young players, including Yarmolenko, opportunities in the squad. That season, Yarmolenko scored seven goals.
Yarmolenko scored his tenth, milestone goal in 2010 in a match against "Illichivets", when "Dynamo" thrashed their opponents 9:0. Yarmolenko scored in the 12th minute.
Yarmolenko scored his 50th UPL goal in a match against Kyiv's "Arsenal" in the 2013/2014 season. The winger also became one of the youngest "Dynamo" players to reach the 50-goal mark in the league.
In addition, in the 2016/2017 season, Yarmolenko finished as the Ukrainian Premier League's leading scorer with 15 goals.
In 2017, Yarmolenko moved to Borussia Dortmund for €25 million, and six years later returned to the “white-and-blues.” In the matchday 2 fixture of the 2023/24 season against capital club Obolon, Yarmolenko scored a goal that was his milestone 100th in the Ukrainian Premier League.
Overall, this was Andriy Yarmolenko’s 138th goal for Dynamo in all competitions.
Yarmolenko began closing in on the record last year. In March this year, Kyiv’s Dynamo secured a comeback victory over capital club Obolon in matchday 20 of the Ukrainian Premier League. Denys Ustymenko scored for the “brewers,” while Andriy Yarmolenko, who netted his 118th goal in the UPL, and Matvii Ponomarenko scored for the “white-and-blues.”
In September, Yarmolenko scored his 124th goal in the Ukrainian Premier League, equaling the scoring record in the Ukrainian championships. It happened in a match against Epitsentr.
Yarmolenko scored his 124th goal in the UPL and equaled Shatskikh’s record14.09.26, 17:12
In addition, Yarmolenko scored his 171st goal for Dynamo in all competitions and ranks second on the Kyiv club’s all-time scoring list. In first place is Ballon d’Or winner Oleh Blokhin, while Serhii Rebrov completes the “white-and-blues’” top three scorers.
It should be noted that during his appearances in the Ukrainian championship, Andriy Yarmolenko scored against 28 different teams. Yarmolenko most often scored against Odesa’s Chornomorets — 14 goals. Among the winger’s other “favorite” opponents are Kryvbas (11 goals) and Volyn (10 goals).
Teams against which Andriy Yarmolenko scored in Ukrainian championship matches:
- 14 – “Chornomorets”;
- 11 – “Kryvbas”;
- 10 – “Volyn”;
- 8 – “Vorskla”;
- 7 each – “Oleksandriya”, “Metalurh” Donetsk;
- 6 – “Obolon”;
- 5 each – “Shakhtar”, “Zorya”, “Karpaty”, “Dnipro”, “Metalurh” Zaporizhzhia;
- 4 each – “Tavriya”, “Illichivets”/“Mariupol”;
- 3 each – LNZ, “Metalist”, “Hoverla”, “Olimpik”, “Arsenal”;
- 2 each – “Epitsentr”, “Kolos”, “Veres”, “Zirka”, “Stal” Kamianske;
- 1 each – “Polissia”, “Livyi Bereh”, “Poltava”, “Sevastopol”.
In the Ukrainian championship, Andriy Yarmolenko managed to beat 44 goalkeepers. He most often found the net against Yurii Pankiv (7 goals), Vitalii Nedilko (6 goals), and Dmytro Bezruk and Oleksandr Kemkin (5 goals each).