On Thursday, April 20, the football community said goodbye to Pavlo Leonidovych Shkapenko, a famous football player of FC Dynamo Kyiv in the 90s, who passed away on April 17 at the age of 50, at the Dynamo Stadium named after V. Lobanovsky.
Photo: fcdynamo.comThe midfielder was born in Zaporizhzhia, where he began his career at the local Metalurg. He made his debut for the first team at the age of 17 and reached the top league of the USSR championship with the team. Already in the first championship of independent Ukraine, Dynamo became interested in the young midfielder's play, and he was offered a move to the capital's club, and he agreed.
He is best known for his performances at Dynamo, with whom he became a 6-time champion of Ukraine. He also won the National Cup three times. Pavlo played 10 matches for the Ukrainian national team.
He played one of his best matches for the White and Blues in the 1993/94 season in the Champions League against Catalan side Barcelona. In the first match, Kyiv won 3-1, and Shkapenko scored a header. In total, he played 121 matches for Dynamo Kyiv and scored 33 goals.
Shkapenko is survived by two daughters.
On Thursday, a large number of people gathered at the Dynamo Stadium named after V. Lobanovsky to honor Pavlo Shkapenko's professional qualities, kindness and humanity. Dynamo veterans, the management of the Kyiv club, former partners, numerous friends and colleagues came to honor his memory, say goodbye and send him to his last journey together with his family. Among them were Dynamo President Ihor Surkis, First Vice President Vitaliy Sivkov, Vice President Oleksiy Semenenko, former players of different generations Volodymyr Bezsonov, Oleh Salenko, Serhiy Konovalov, and others, as well as the club's employees.
Pavlo Shkapenko's former Dynamo teammate Serhii Rebrov, who is currently coaching Al Ain in the UAE, conveyed his condolences to the family and a wreath for Pavlo Shkapenko. At the start of their football careers, they shared the same room, supported each other and even became friends.
During the farewell, sincere words and bright memories were addressed to Pavel Leonidovich, because he was a wonderful and decent person with whom there was always something to talk about. He was a man with a capital M for everyone he was friends with and worked with.
After the public memorial service, Pavlo Shkapenko was buried at the Sovske Cemetery, located at 6 Koloskova Street in the Solomianskyi district of Kyiv.
