Oleh Luzhny

Oleh Luzhny

200px Luzhny in his assistant role at Dynamo Kyiv
Personal information
Full name	Oleh Romanovych Luzhny
Date of birth	(1968-08-05) 5 August 1968
Place of birth	Lviv, Ukrainian SSR, Soviet Union
Height
Position(s)	Defender
Senior career*
Years	Team	Apps	(Gls)
1985–1988	Torpedo Lutsk	88	(1)
1988	SKA Karpaty Lviv	29	(0)
1989–1999	Dynamo Kyiv	253	(13)
1999–2003	Arsenal	75	(0)
2003–2004	Wolverhampton Wanderers	6	(0)
2005	Venta (player-manager)	9	(0)
Total		460	(14)
International career
1989–1990	USSR	8	(0)
1992–2003	Ukraine	52	(0)
Managerial career
2005	Venta (player-manager)
2006–2012	Dynamo Kyiv (assistant manager)
2007, 2010	Dynamo Kyiv (interim manager)
2012–2013	Tavriya Simferopol
*Club domestic league appearances and goals

This name uses Eastern Slavic naming customs; the patronymic is Romanovych and the family name is Luzhny.

Oleh Romanovych Luzhny (Ukrainian: Олег Романович Лужний, born 5 August 1968 in Lviv) is a retired Ukrainian footballer . His name is alternatively Romanised as Oleg Luzhny.

Club career

Dynamo Kyiv

Luzhny first played for Ukrainian clubs Torpedo Lutsk (1985–88) and SKA Karpaty Lviv (1988). He signed for Dynamo Kyiv in 1989 and became a regular at right back, winning the USSR domestic double in 1990 and seven consecutive Ukrainian league titles between 1993 and 1999. He was the captain of Dynamo Kyiv's Champions League sides that defeated FC Barcelona 3–0 at home and 4–0 away in the group stage of the 1997–98 season and eliminated holders Real Madrid 3–1 on aggregate in the quarter finals en route to the semi-finals in 1998–99.

Arsenal

Luzhny signed for English club Arsenal in the summer of 1999 after impressing manager Arsène Wenger in Kyiv's clashes with Arsenal in the Champions League. He was signed as cover for Lee Dixon, although he was unable to fully displace the England international. While never a regular starter with the Gunners (the young Cameroonian Lauren was signed a year later as Dixon's long-term replacement), Luzhny still played 110 matches in four years at the club, either at right back or, less frequently, at centre back, and even captained the team once in the League Cup. In the 2001–02 season he won a double (the FA Premier League and the FA Cup) with Arsenal. He contributed 18 league appearances as Arsenal won the 2001-02 FA Premier League. His last match for the Gunners was the 2003 FA Cup Final (which Arsenal won, beating Southampton 1–0), Luzhny's best performance for the club.

Wolverhampton Wanderers

Luzhny signed for newly promoted Wolverhampton Wanderers in the summer of 2003. He spent a single season there, but only made ten appearances for the side and was released by Wolves in the summer of 2004 following their relegation from the Premier League.

International career

On the international stage, Luzhny made his debut at the age of 20 for the Soviet Union in 1989, winning eight caps but missing the 1990 World Cup because of injury. After the USSR's dissolution, Luzhny went on to play for Ukraine, playing 52 times for his country between 1992 and 2003, although his side never reached a tournament finals, losing three times in the play-offs.

Luzhny captained the national side a record 39 times and achieved immense personal recognition in his country. In December 2000 he was voted into the Ukrainian 'Team of the Century' according to a poll by The Ukrainsky Futbol weekly. Luzhny received the fourth biggest number of votes, behind only to Oleg Blokhin, Andriy Shevchenko and Anatoly Demyanenko.

Managerial career

Luzhny had a brief spell at Latvian side FK Venta as player-coach in 2005, but left the club after it ran into financial problems. He has now retired from playing and in June 2006 became assistant coach at Dynamo Kyiv.

Luzhny was named interim manager of Dynamo Kyiv on 5 November 2007 after the resignation of Yozhef Sabo. He led the club to three league wins in three matches, including a 2–1 home victory against perennial rivals Shakhtar Donetsk, as well as into the semifinals of the Ukrainian Cup. However, during the same period Dynamo suffered heavy Champions League defeats away at Manchester United and Sporting Lisbon and at home to Roma.

On 8 December 2007 Dynamo Kyiv unveiled a new permanent manager, Yuri Semin, and a few days later it was announced that Luzhny would continue as an assistant coach under the new manager.

On 1 October 2010 he was again named as interim manager of Dynamo Kyiv after the resignation of Valery Gazzaev. The first match was lost 2–0 to Shakhtar Donetsk at Donbass Arena. After the 19th round match against PFC Sevastopol Luzhny informed the fans that he will not return after the winter break. He was replaced by Yuri Semin on 24 December 2010.

Honours

Club

Dynamo Kyiv

Winner

• USSR Premier League: 1989–90
• USSR Cup: 1990
• Ukrainian Premier League (7): 1992–93, 1993–94, 1994–95, 1995–96, 1996–97, 1997–98, 1998–99
• Ukrainian Cup (4): 1993, 1996, 1998, 1999

Arsenal F.C.

Winner

• FA Premier League: 2001–02;
• FA Cup (2): 2002, 2003
• Community Shield (2): 1999, 2002

Runner-up

• UEFA Cup: 2000
• FA Premier League: 1999–00, 2000–01, 2002–03
• FA Cup : 2001

National

USSR Under-21

• European Under-21 Championship: 1990

Individual

• Best Newcomer of the USSR Premier League: 1989–90
• Ukrainian Team of the Century (poll by Ukrainsky Futbol): 2000

Career statistics

Club

Club	Season	League		Cup		Europe		Other		Total
		Apps	Goals	Apps	Goals	Apps	Goals	Apps	Goals	Apps	Goals
Torpedo Lutsk	1985	13	0	-	-	-	-	-	-	13	0
	1986	34	0	-	-	-	-	-	-	34	0
	1987	30	0	?	?	-	-	-	-	?	?
	1988	11	1	-	-	-	-	-	-	11	1
	Total	88	1	?	?	-	-	-	-	?	?
Karpaty Lviv	1988	29	0	-	-	-	-	-	-	29	0
	Total	29	0	-	-	-	-	-	-	29	0
Dynamo Kyiv	1988	-	-	2	0	-	-	-	-	2	0
	1989	27	0	5	0	5	0	-	-	37	0
	1990	12	0	2	0	2	0	-	-	16	0
	1991	28	0	2	0	9	0	-	-	39	0
	1992	13	2	3	0	-	-	-	-	16	2
	1992-93	26	3	7	1	3	0	-	-	36	4
	1993-94	34	1	4	0	2	0	-	-	40	1
	1994-95	24	4	5	0	6	0	-	-	35	4
	1995-96	24	1	5	0	1	0	-	-	30	1
	1996-97	28	2	1	0	2	0	-	-	31	2
	1997-98	16	0	4	0	9	0	-	-	29	0
	1998-99	21	0	3	0	13	0	-	-	37	0
	Total	253	13	43	1	52	0	-	-	348	14
Arsenal	1999-00	21	0	1	0	6	0	3	0	31	0
	2000–01	19	0	2	0	8	0	-	-	29	0
	2001–02	18	0	4	0	3	0	1	0	26	0
	2002–03	17	0	2	0	4	0	1	0	24	0
	Total	75	0	9	0	21	0	5	0	110	0
Wolverhampton	2003–04	6	0	2	0	-	-	2	0	10	0
	Total	6	0	2	0	-	-	2	0	10	0
FK Venta (player-coach)	2005	9	0	-	-	-	-	-	-	9	0
	Total	9	0	-	-	-	-	–	–	9	0
Career total		460	14	?	?	79	0	7	0	?	?

• Other – National Super Cup and League Cup

International

National team	Season	Apps	Goals
USSR	1989	5	0
	1990	3	0
	Total	8	0
Ukraine	1992	1	0
	1993	0	0
	1994	5	0
	1995	6	0
	1996	4	0
	1997	6	0
	1998	3	0
	1999	8	0
	2000	5	0
	2001	8	0
	2002	3	0
	2003	3	0
	Total	52	0
Career total		60	0

External links

• Oleh Luzhny career statistics at Soccerbase
• Ukrainian Team of the Century (poll by Ukrainsky Futbol)
• Profile on website Football Ukraine