 Mykhalyk withDynamo Kyiv in 2010 | |||||||||||||||||
| Personal information | |||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Full name | Taras Volodymyrovych Mykhalyk | ||||||||||||||||
| Date of birth | (1983-10-28)28 October 1983 (age 42) | ||||||||||||||||
| Place of birth | Lyubeshiv,Ukrainian SSR (nowUkraine) | ||||||||||||||||
| Height | 1.85 m (6 ft 1 in) | ||||||||||||||||
| Position(s) | |||||||||||||||||
| Team information | |||||||||||||||||
Current team | Volyn Lutsk (youth coach) | ||||||||||||||||
| Youth career | |||||||||||||||||
| Prypyat Lyubeshiv | |||||||||||||||||
| Volyn National University | |||||||||||||||||
| Senior career* | |||||||||||||||||
| Years | Team | Apps | (Gls) | ||||||||||||||
| 2001–2005 | CSKA Kyiv | 89 | (10) | ||||||||||||||
| 2005–2013 | Dynamo Kyiv | 124 | (8) | ||||||||||||||
| 2005 | →Zakarpattia Uzhhorod (loan) | 18 | (3) | ||||||||||||||
| 2013–2019 | Lokomotiv Moscow | 83 | (2) | ||||||||||||||
| 2019–2020 | Volyn Lutsk | 21 | (0) | ||||||||||||||
| 2020–2021 | Votrans Lutsk (amateurs) | 8 | (0) | ||||||||||||||
| International career‡ | |||||||||||||||||
| 2006 | Ukraine U21 | 10 | (0) | ||||||||||||||
| 2006–2012 | Ukraine | 32 | (0) | ||||||||||||||
| Managerial career | |||||||||||||||||
| 2021–2022 | Volyn Lutsk (assistant) | ||||||||||||||||
| 2022 | Volyn Lutsk (youth coach) | ||||||||||||||||
Medal record
| |||||||||||||||||
| * Club domestic league appearances and goals as of 22 October 2021 ‡ National team caps and goals as of 22 July 2019 | |||||||||||||||||
Taras Volodymyrovych Mykhalyk (Ukrainian:Тарас Володимирович Михалик; born 28 October 1983) is a retired Ukrainianfootballer who played as acentre-back. He is a versatile player, having professionally played at every position exceptgoalkeeper.
Mykhalyk is a product of the football youth system of his nativeVolyn region, where he was a striker.[1]
After graduating from theVocational technical school in his region, Mykhalyk enrolled in the Institute of Physical Education at the Volyn National University, and played in the team there that participated in the championship of the Volyn Oblast.
The 18-year-old Mykhalyk joined theUkrainian First League clubCSKA Kyiv in 2001. He established himself into the starting line-up of the squad, playing 89 matches in the four seasons that he was there. He also managed to net 10 goals.[2]
Ukrainian giantsDynamo Kyiv bought Mykhalyk in the2005–06 season, originally signing a five-year contract.[3] He was almost immediately loaned off toZakarpattia Uzhhorod. Mykhalyk has stated in an interview that he was really surprised to get a call from Dynamo Kyiv presidentIhor Surkis inviting him to come and try out for the team, as he never even had any attention from scouts of his localVolyn Lutsk of theUkrainian First League. Even more shocking was a call-up to the mainUkraine national football team by coachOleh Blokhin not long afterward.[3]
Mykhalyk came back to Dynamo in January 2006. The head coach at the time,Anatoliy Demyanenko recognized the player's great potential, but Mykhalyk constantly struggled to break through to the starting line-up of the team. When he did play, he was used as a central midfielder.[1]
On 10 July 2007, Mykhalyk saved Dynamo, scoring two goals in the 2007Ukrainian Super Cup, which ended up being a 2:2 draw. After thepenalty shootout, Dynamo won 4:2.[4]
WhenRussian coachYuri Semin took over Dynamo in December 2007, he began to make sweeping reforms. These included reforming the defence and not depending so much on long passes. During this process, Semin had Mykhalyk eventually switch entirely to defence. By the time of the2008 Channel One Cup inIsrael, which Dynamo won, Mykhalyk played the entire competition as a central defender.[5]
During the winter transfer season of 2008–09, Mykhalyk was linked with theSerie A teamA.C. Milan and even nicknamed the "UkrainianGattuso" due to his impressive performances in Dynamo Kyiv and internationally.[6][7]
Mykhalyk renewed his contract with Dynamo Kyiv, which was due to expire at the end of 2010, in November 2008. His new contract is to last five years, ending in 2013. After three years in Dynamo, the player has earned the team's trust enough to have even been the captain on several occasions.[1]
On 6 April 2009 Mykhalyk suffered ameniscus injury after a challenge fromMetalurh Donetsk midfielderVelizar Dimitrov in theUkrainian Premier League, which ended the player's season early.[8] Не recovered from this injury in October 2009.
In the summer of 2013 Mykhalyk, being a free agent, signed 3-year deal withRussian sideLokomotiv Moscow.[9] Under Lokomotiv managerLeonid Kuchuk Mykhalyk usually played at defensive midfield position. His maiden goal inRFPL scored on 5 October 2013, when he levelled the score to get his team a 2–2 draw, coincided with his first red card in Russia.[10]
He left Lokomotiv at the end of the 2018–19 season.[11] He didn't appear in any league games in that season, but played 3 games in the2018–19 Russian Cup which Lokomotiv won.
Mykhalyk was a member of theUkrainian Under-21 National football team that finished as runners-up in theUEFA U-21 Championship 2006. He was in the main squad inOleksiy Mykhailychenko's squad even up to the final, which Ukraine lost tothe Netherlands 3–0.[12]
Mykhalyk received his first call-up for thesenior national team by head coachOleh Blokhin for a match against Azerbaijan on 15 August 2006. Ukraine went on to win 6–0 and Mykhalyk played 30 minutes of the game.[3] He went on to play five more games under Blokhin's leadership, two more friendly matches and threeUEFA Euro 2008 Qualifying games.
Mykhalyk was reunited with his former under-21 manager in 2008 whenOleksiy Mykhailychenko took the helm of the national team in its attempt to qualify for the2010 World Cup after Blokhin's failure to qualify for the Euro. Mykhalyk established himself as one of the main players this time, playing center-back usually alongsideShakhtar Donetsk'sDmytro Chyhrynskyi. He went on to play 7 out of the 10 qualifying games as well as 3 friendlies. Ukraine finished second in its qualifying group and was drawn to play against Greece in the play-offs. However Mykhalyk did not take part in these games because of injury, neither did Chygrynskiy who had recently transferred toFC Barcelona and did not get enough game practice there. Ukraine went on to lose the play-off round due mostly to its weak defence and the Ukrainian Football Federation did not renew Mykhailychenko's contract.
| Club | Season | League | Cup | Continental | Other | Total | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Division | Apps | Goals | Apps | Goals | Apps | Goals | Apps | Goals | Apps | Goals | ||
| FC CSKA Kyiv | 2001–02 | Ukrainian First League | 7 | 0 | 0 | 0 | – | – | 7 | 0 | ||
| 2002–03 | 28 | 1 | 1 | 0 | – | – | 29 | 1 | ||||
| 2003–04 | 30 | 4 | 1 | 1 | – | – | 31 | 5 | ||||
| 2004–05 | 26 | 5 | 3 | 2 | – | – | 29 | 7 | ||||
| Total | 91 | 10 | 5 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 96 | 13 | ||
| FC Zakarpattia Uzhhorod | 2005–06 | Ukrainian Premier League | 18 | 3 | 0 | 0 | – | – | 18 | 3 | ||
| FC Dynamo Kyiv | 5 | 0 | 1 | 0 | – | – | 6 | 0 | ||||
| 2006–07 | 23 | 2 | 6 | 1 | 6 | 0 | 1[a] | 0 | 36 | 3 | ||
| 2007–08 | 16 | 1 | 3 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 1[b] | 2 | 23 | 3 | ||
| 2008–09 | 18 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 13 | 1 | 1[c] | 0 | 32 | 3 | ||
| 2009–10 | 21 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 4 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 26 | 2 | ||
| 2010–11 | 18 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 10 | 0 | – | 30 | 1 | |||
| 2011–12 | 7 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | – | 9 | 0 | |||
| 2012–13 | 17 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 10 | 1 | – | 27 | 2 | |||
| Total | 125 | 8 | 14 | 1 | 47 | 3 | 3 | 2 | 189 | 14 | ||
| FC Lokomotiv Moscow | 2013–14 | Russian Premier League | 12 | 1 | 1 | 0 | – | – | 13 | 1 | ||
| 2014–15 | 16 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 1 | 0 | – | 20 | 0 | |||
| 2015–16 | 21 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 6 | 0 | 1[d] | 0 | 29 | 0 | ||
| 2016–17 | 24 | 1 | 4 | 0 | – | – | 28 | 1 | ||||
| 2017–18 | 10 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 0 | – | 13 | 1 | |||
| 2018–19 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 0 | – | – | 3 | 0 | ||||
| Total | 83 | 2 | 13 | 1 | 9 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 106 | 3 | ||
| Career total | 317 | 23 | 32 | 5 | 56 | 3 | 4 | 2 | 409 | 33 | ||
Taras Mykhalyk is not single, which he confirmed in a recent interview, stating that he spends much of spare time with his girlfriend. He also stated that on the winter breaks his favorite pastime is hunting, while in the summer he prefers to go fishing.[13]
Mykhalyk's father works in a school as a teacher of physical education, while his mother works in the regional state administration. He is from a large family: he has one older brother and five younger sisters. He stated that he is financially aiding his parents, and helping to pay for the education of one of his sisters at theKyiv Theological Seminary and another at the National Aviation University.[3]
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