On the eve of the Revolution. What the most expensive Dynamo squad in history looked like

As of September 1, 2013, the team of Dynamo Kyiv was worth 153.2 million euros. For example, the current value of the Dynamo club is 110.4 million.

Andriy Yarmolenko (24 years old), worth - 20 million

Diemersi Mbokani (28), worth 11 million

Jermaine Lance (26), worth $9 million

Miguel Veloso (28 years old), worth 9 million

Evgeny Khacheridi (26 years old), worth 9 million

Younes Belanda (24 years old), worth 9 million

Alexander Dragovych (23 years old), worth - 8 million

Braun Ideye (25 years old), worth 7 million

Benoit Tremunilas (Rs 28), worth 6 million

Denys Garmash (24 years old), worth - 6 million

Maksym Koval (21 years old), worth - 6 million

Impressive isn't it?

Also, in that season, the first team of Kyiv was joined by a nickname at that time, and now captain Serhii Sydorchuk. Evgeny Makarenko was brought in from the second team. Andrii Tsurikov, who joined the Dynamo first team together with Sydorchuk, should not be forgotten. Then, after a long-term disqualification for doping, the prodigal son Oleksandr Rybka returned to his native club.

This is the season when Milevsky left the team. Downed pilot Raffael was sold to Borussia Mönchengladbach for €5 million. Milos Ninkovic left Dynamo and returned to Serbia. Aliyev and Yussuf started playing for Dynamo-2. Taras Mykhalyk's path to Lokomotiv Moscow didn't seem strange back then. Boyko decided not to wait for a chance and transferred to Dnipro on loan. Ah, back then Dynamo had a farm club in France, don't you remember? That season, Facundo Bertolho, Andres Escobar and Marco Ruben went to Evian on loan.

That summer, ahead of the 2013/14 season, the club spent €46.5 million on newcomers. Will there be anything like it again in our lifetime?

Oleg Blokhin coached the team then.

Few people remember, but he took first place with Dynamo. However, not in the championship of Ukraine, or in the Europa League group. It was the 2013 United tournament. The Kyiv team then defeated Spartak Moscow twice (1-0 and 2-1), a win and a draw with Zenit St. Petersburg (2-1 and 3-3).

As for serious tournaments, the situation there was much worse. "Dynamo" made it to the Europa League group quite easily, not noticing "Aktobe" (total score 3-8).

But in the "terrible" group with "Hank", "Rapid" and "Tun" it was much more difficult. The first leg was a 1-0 loss to Genk. Then a 3-3 draw with Rapid in Austria. In the third round, finally victory, "Tun" suffered (3-0). In the return match in Switzerland, victory again (2-0). Again "Genk" and again defeat, this time 3-1. Everything was decided in the last match, and "Dynamo" did not make a mistake there, beating "Rapid" with a score of 3-1 (although they conceded first, in the 6th minute).

The road to the playoffs was short. In the 1/16, "Valencia" went to Kyiv. The Revolution of Dignity was already underway in Ukraine, there were 2 days left before Yanukovych fled. "Dynamo" played its home match in Cyprus. The day before, the mass media drew parallels between the past duel between the teams, when young Artem Kravets scored a double in the goal of Cesar Sanchez. But no. A 2-0 loss, a Vargas goal in the 79th and an own goal by Vida in the 90+1, and a bunch of saves from Oleksandr Rybka, who replaced the injured Oleksandr Shovkovskyi in goal. The return match ended in a goalless draw.

It makes no sense to paint that championship. With perhaps the best team in history, "Dynamo" took 4th place. After that season, "Tavria", "Arsenal" and "Sevastopol" will disappear from the football map of Ukraine.

However, there was also a positive. In April 2014, after the defeat against Shakhtar, the Dynamo management fired Oleg Blokhin. Acting head coach Serhiy Rebrov was appointed in his place. Under the leadership of the young coach, Dynamo reached the final of the Cup of Ukraine, defeating Chornomorets 4-0. In the same final, Rebrov's team won over Shakhtar (2-1). Kucher's own goal and Domagoy Vida's goal were answered by Douglas Costa.

As early as May 18, 2014, Serhii Rebrov was appointed head coach of Dynamo. This is how the golden age in the recent history of the club began.

"Today, Serhiy Rebrov was approved by the president of Dynamo Kyiv, Igor Surkis, as the head coach of our club.

Having received with the prefix acting at the helm of the team at the most difficult moment of the season, Rebrov did not get lost, but on the contrary found the right approach to the football players given to him, managed to bring them out of a psychological state of depression and decently end the most unsuccessful season in the modern Ukrainian history of "Dynamo".

Needless to say, the load on him was enormous. It is easy to make sure of this by coming to every post-match press conference of a mentor who has been approved in his new guise.

But the difficulties lie in overcoming them, which Serhiy Stanislavovich succeeded in this part of the season, who led the "white and blue" to the long-awaited victory in the Cup of Ukraine!

We wish our new head coach to realize all his plans and make Dynamo as confident, strong and stylish as not only he, but also the many thousands of loyal fans dream to see!", the club's statement read.

At that time, the annexation of Crimea had already taken place, the war in Donbas had begun, and 2,840 days remained before the full-scale invasion of the Russian Federation into Ukraine.

Vladyslav Omelchenko