OLEH LUZHNY

'Oleh Luzhny' (Ukrainian: Олег Лужний, alternatively Romanised as 'Oleg Luzhny', born August 5, 1968 in Lviv, Ukraine) is a former Ukrainian football player, currently assistant coach at FC Dynamo Kyiv.

Contents

Biography

Honours

Career statistics

Club career

International career

External links

Biography

Luzhny first played for Ukrainian clubs Torpedo Lutsk (1985-88) and 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 side that defeated FC Barcelona 7-0 on aggregate in the 1997-98 season and eliminated holders Real Madrid 3-1 on aggregate en route to the semi-finals in 1998-99.
Meanwhile, on the international stage, Luzhny had 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 [1]. Luzhny received the fourth biggest number of votes, behind only to Oleg Blokhin, Andriy Shevchenko and Anatoly Demyanenko.
Luzhny signed for English club Arsenal in the summer of 1999 after impressing manager Arsène Wenger in Kyiv's 4-2 aggregate defeat of 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 Spanish-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 [2]. In the 2001-02 season he won a double (the FA Premier League and the FA Cup) with Arsenal. His last match for the Gunners was the 2003 FA Cup final (which Arsenal won, beating Southampton 1-0), one of Luzhny's best performances for the club [3].
He signed for newly-promoted Wolverhampton Wanderers in the summer of 2003, and spent a single season there, but only made ten appearances for the side. He was released by Wolves in the summer of 2004 and had a brief spell at Latvian side FK Venta as player-coach, but left the club after it ran into financial problems.
Luzhny has now retired from playing, and in June 2006 Luzhny became assistant coach at Dynamo Kyiv.

Honours

With Dynamo Kyiv:

★ USSR Premier League

★
★ Winner: 1989-90

★ USSR Cup

★
★ Winner: 1990

★ Ukrainian Premier League

★
★ Winner: 1992-93, 1993-94, 1994-95, 1995-96, 1996-97, 1997-98, 1998-99

★
★ Runner-Up: 1991-92

★ Ukrainian Cup

★
★ Winner: 1993, 1996, 1998, 1999
With Arsenal:

★ FA Premier League

★
★ Winner: 2001-02

★
★ Runner-Up: 1999-00, 2000-01, 2002-03

★ FA Cup

★
★ Winner: 2002, 2003

★
★ Runner-Up: 2001

★ UEFA Cup

★
★ Runner-Up: 2000
With USSR Under-21:

★ European Under-21 Championship

★
★ Winner: 1990
Personal Honours:

★ Best Newcomer of the USSR Premier League: 1989-90

★ Most matches for Ukraine as a captain

★ Ukrainian Team of the Century (poll by Ukrainsky Futbol): 2000

Career statistics

Club career

Club	Season	League		Cup		Europe		Total
		Apps	Goals	Apps	Goals	Apps	Goals	Apps	Goals
'Torpedo Lutsk'	1985	13	0	?	?	0	0	?	?
	1986	34	0	?	?	0	0	?	?
	1987	30	0	?	?	0	0	?	?
	1988	11	1	?	?	0	0	?	?
	All	88	1	?	?	0	0	?	?
'Karpaty Lviv'	1988	29	0	?	?	0	0	?	?
	All	29	0	?	?	0	0	?	?
'Dynamo Kyiv'	1989	27	0	?	?	5	0	?	?
	1990	12	0	?	?	0	0	?	?
	1991	28	0	?	?	8	0	?	?
	1992	13	2	3	0	9	0	25	2
	1992-93	26	3	?	?	3	0	?	?
	1993-94	34	1	?	?	2	0	?	?
	1994-95	24	4	?	?	6	0	?	?
	1995-96	24	1	?	?	1	0	?	?
	1996-97	28	2	?	?	2	0	?	?
	1997-98	16	0	?	?	9	0	?	?
	1998-99	21	0	?	?	13	0	?	?
	All	253	13	?	?	58	0	?	?
'Arsenal'	1999-00	21	0	4	0	6	0	31	0
	2000-01	19	0	2	0	8	0	29	0
	2001-02	18	0	5	0	3	0	26	0
	2002-03	17	0	3	0	4	0	24	0
	All	75	0	14	0	21	0	110	0
'Wolverhampton Wanderers'	2003-04	6	0	4	0	0	0	10	0
	All	6	0	4	0	0	0	10	0
'FK Venta (player-coach)'	2005	5	0	0	0	0	0	5	0
	All	5	0	0	0	0	0	5	0
Career totals		456	14	?	?	79	0	?	?

International career

National team	Season	Apps	Goals
'USSR'	1989	5	0
	1990	3	0
	Total	8	0
'Ukraine'	1991-92	1	0
	1992-93	0	0
	1993-94	3	0
	1994-95	5	0
	1995-96	5	0
	1996-97	6	0
	1997-98	2	0
	1998-99	7	0
	1999-00	6	0
	2000-01	6	0
	2001-02	5	0
	2002-03	4	0
	2003-04	2	0
	Total	52	0
Career total		60	0

External links

★

★ Ukrainian Team of the Century (poll by Ukrainsky Futbol)