Yevhen Konoplyanka facts for kids
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Konoplyanka with Sevilla in 2015
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| Personal information | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Full name | Yevhen Olehovych Konoplyanka | ||
| Date of birth | 29 September 1989 | ||
| Place of birth | Kirovohrad, Ukrainian SSR, Soviet Union | ||
| Height | 1.78 m (5 ft 10 in) | ||
| Position(s) | Winger | ||
| Youth career | |||
| 2002–2004 | Olimpik Kirovohrad | ||
| 2004–2005 | DYuSSh-2 Kirovohrad | ||
| 2006 | Dnipro Dnipropetrovsk | ||
| Senior career* | |||
| Years | Team | Apps | (Gls) |
| 2006–2008 | Dnipro-2 Dnipropetrovsk | ||
| 2007–2015 | Dnipro Dnipropetrovsk | 157 | (35) |
| 2015–2017 | Sevilla | 32 | (4) |
| 2016–2017 | → Schalke 04 (loan) | 17 | (1) |
| 2017–2019 | Schalke 04 | 40 | (5) |
| 2019–2021 | Shakhtar Donetsk | 28 | (4) |
| 2022–2023 | Cracovia | 36 | (2) |
| 2023 | CFR Cluj | 3 | (0) |
| Total | 313 | (51) | |
| International career | |||
| 2006 | Ukraine U17 | 1 | (0) |
| 2007–2008 | Ukraine U19 | 9 | (3) |
| 2008–2011 | Ukraine U21 | 16 | (5) |
| 2010–2023 | Ukraine | 87 | (21) |
| *Club domestic league appearances and goals | |||
Yevhen Konoplyanka (born on September 29, 1989) is a Ukrainian former professional footballer. He was known for playing as a winger, which means he played on the sides of the field, helping with both offense and defense.
Konoplyanka started his professional journey at Dnipro Dnipropetrovsk in 2007. He played in over 200 matches for them and scored 45 goals. He also helped his team reach the final of the Europa League in 2015. After that, he moved to Sevilla in Spain. He won the Europa League with Sevilla in his first season.
Later, he played for Schalke 04 in Germany. In 2019, Konoplyanka returned to Ukraine to play for Shakhtar Donetsk. He also had short periods playing for Cracovia in Poland and CFR Cluj in Romania.
Yevhen Konoplyanka played for the Ukrainian national team from 2010 to 2023. He played in more than 80 international matches and scored 21 goals. He represented Ukraine in the 2012 and 2016 European Championships. He was also named Ukrainian Footballer of the Year three times. He announced his retirement from professional football on July 17, 2024.
Contents
Football Journey
Starting Out in Football
When Yevhen was seven, he started taking karate classes. He did karate at the same time as playing football and even earned a black belt! He learned to play football in the youth system of Olimpik Kirovohrad. His coach there was Yuriy Kevlych. He also played in the Ukrainian National Youth Competition.
Time at Dnipro Dnipropetrovsk
Konoplyanka joined Dnipro Dnipropetrovsk as a young player when he was 16. In 2006, he moved up to the reserve team. His first salary was $300.
He played his first senior team match on August 26, 2007. It was a Ukrainian Premier League game against Zakarpattia Uzhhorod. The game ended in a 0–0 draw. Konoplyanka came into the game in the 83rd minute.
He scored his first goal in the Ukrainian Premier League on February 28, 2010. It was in a home game against Zorya Luhansk, which ended 2–2. In the second half of the 2009–10 season, Konoplyanka played every minute of the remaining games.
In January 2014, Konoplyanka almost moved to the English team Liverpool. The transfer fee was about £16 million. However, the president of Dnipro, Ihor Kolomoyskyi, decided not to let the transfer happen.
Konoplyanka was a very important player for Dnipro in the 2014–15 season. He helped them finish 3rd in their league. He also helped them reach the Europa League final. Because of his great performance, he was chosen for the competition's best team of the season.
Playing for Sevilla
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On July 2, 2015, Sevilla announced that Konoplyanka was joining their team. A week later, he officially signed a four-year contract. He joined them for free after his contract with Dnipro ended.
He played his first game for Sevilla on August 11, 2015. It was in the 2015 UEFA Super Cup against Barcelona. He came on as a substitute and scored a goal in the 81st minute, making the score 4–4. However, Sevilla lost the game 5–4 after extra time. He scored his first goal in the UEFA Champions League on September 16, helping Sevilla win 3–0 against Borussia Mönchengladbach.
Konoplyanka was an unused substitute in the 2016 UEFA Europa League Final. Sevilla won that final 3–1 against Liverpool, claiming their fifth Europa League trophy. On August 9, 2016, he scored a penalty in the 2016 UEFA Super Cup against Real Madrid. Sevilla lost that game 3–2 after extra time.
Time at Schalke 04
On August 30, 2016, Konoplyanka moved to Schalke 04 in Germany. He first joined them on loan, and then the move became permanent for €12.5 million. He played his first game for Schalke on September 9, 2016, against Bayern Munich. He scored his first goal for them on October 20 in a Europa League game against Krasnodar. He also scored two goals in a German Cup game against 1. FC Nürnberg.
Return to Ukraine with Shakhtar Donetsk
On September 2, 2019, Konoplyanka signed a three-year contract with Shakhtar Donetsk. This meant he returned to play football in his home country, Ukraine.
Later Career: Cracovia and CFR Cluj
After leaving Shakhtar, Konoplyanka joined Cracovia, a club in Poland, on February 11, 2022. He played for them for about a year and a half, scoring two goals in 36 league matches. He left Cracovia after the 2022–23 season.
On July 25, 2023, Konoplyanka joined the Romanian team CFR Cluj. He played his first game for them on August 3, 2023, in a European competition match. He was released by CFR Cluj on January 3, 2024, after playing only four games. On July 17, 2024, Yevhen Konoplyanka announced that he was retiring from professional football.
Playing for Ukraine
In April 2010, Yevhen Konoplyanka was called up to play for the senior national team for the first time. He made his international debut on May 25, 2010, in a friendly game against Lithuania. Ukraine won that game 4–0. Four days later, he scored his first goal for Ukraine in a friendly match against Romania.
Konoplyanka played in all three of Ukraine's matches at the Euro 2012 tournament. Ukraine was one of the host countries for this tournament. In their first game, he helped Andriy Shevchenko score the winning goal against Sweden.
On September 11, 2012, Konoplyanka scored an amazing long-range goal against England at Wembley Stadium. The game ended in a 1–1 draw. He scored two more goals in Ukraine's qualifying games for the 2014 FIFA World Cup.
Konoplyanka scored two goals in 11 matches as Ukraine qualified for Euro 2016. This was Ukraine's first time successfully qualifying for the tournament on their own. He was the team captain for their play-off win against Slovenia in November 2015. He was part of Ukraine's squad for Euro 2016 in France.
Achievements
Dnipro Dnipropetrovsk
- UEFA Europa League runner-up: 2014–15
Sevilla
- Copa del Rey runner-up: 2015–16
- UEFA Europa League: 2015–16
- Supercopa de España runner-up: 2016
- UEFA Super Cup runner-up: 2016
Shakhtar Donetsk
- Ukrainian Premier League: 2019–20
- Ukrainian Super Cup: 2021
Individual Awards
- Ukrainian Footballer of the Year: 2010, 2012, 2013 (shared with Andriy Yarmolenko)
- Ukrainian Premier League Player of the Year: 2011–12, 2013–14
- UEFA Europa League Squad of the Season: 2014–15
See also
In Spanish: Yevhen Konoplyanka para niños
