Oleh Luzhny
Oleh Romanovych Luzhny (Ukrainian: Олег Романович Лужний, born 5 August 1968) is a retired Ukrainian footballer who played as a right-back. His name is alternatively Romanised as Oleg Luzhny.
Club career
Luzhny is a product of the Karpaty sports school (coached by Yuriy Hdanskyi and Yuriy Dyachuk-Stavytskyi) and later studied at the Lviv State School of Physical Culture. He first played for Ukrainian clubs Torpedo Lutsk (1985–88) and SKA Karpaty Lviv (1988) in Soviet lower football leagues.
Dynamo Kyiv
Luzhny 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.[3] 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.[4] 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.[5]
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.[6] 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.
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 | ? | ? | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | ? | ? | |
| Karpaty Lviv | 1988 | 29 | 0 | – | – | – | – | – | – | 29 | 0 |
| Total | 29 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 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 | 0 | 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 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 10 | 0 | |
| FK Venta (player-coach) |
2005 | 9 | 0 | – | – | – | – | – | – | 9 | 0 |
| Total | 9 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 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 | |
Honours
Dynamo Kyiv
- Soviet Top League: 1990
- Soviet Cup: 1989–90
- Vyshcha Liha: 1992–93, 1993–94, 1994–95, 1995–96, 1996–97, 1997–98, 1998–99
- Ukrainian Cup: 1992–93, 1995–96, 1998–99
Arsenal
Soviet Union U21
Individual
- Best Newcomer of the Soviet Top League: 1989–90
- Ukrainian Team of the Century (poll by Ukrainsky Futbol): 2000[6]
References
- ↑ "Player Profile: Oleg Luzhny". Premier League. Retrieved 31 July 2012.
- 1 2 "Oleh Romanovych Luzhnyi – International Appearances". The Rec.Sport.Soccer Statistics Foundation.
- ↑ "Luzhny at last shows fans his animal magic". The Guardian. UK. 11 January 2003. Retrieved 19 October 2007.
- ↑ "Games played by Oleg Luzhny in 2001/2002". Soccerbase. Centurycomm. Retrieved 17 November 2013.
- ↑ "Luzhny looks to Charlton". BBC Sport. 2 June 2003. Retrieved 19 October 2007.
- 1 2 "Best Ukrainian players of the XX century". UkrainianSoccer.net. 29 December 2000. Archived from the original on 29 September 2007. Retrieved 19 October 2007.
- ↑ http://arseweb.com/sq/squad00020.html
- ↑ "Oleg Luzhny: Overview". Premier League. Retrieved 17 April 2018.
