Dynamo's young forward breaks Shakhtar's hegemony

The Golden Talent project has determined the second best Ukrainian footballer of the month in 2023 in the U-21 age category, traditionally interviewing more than 100 experts, and created an April ranking of players born in 2002-2003 based on their questionnaires

According to the results of the Golden Talent project's poll, Dynamo Kyiv and Ukraine's youth national team forward Vladyslav Vanat was named the best Ukrainian footballer in April 2023 in the U-21 age category. It was the first time he won our project's poll and broke the hegemony of Shakhtar players, who held the lead in the U-21 category in 2021-2022 and early 2023: Anatoliy Trubin, Mykhailo Mudryk, and Heorhiy Sudakov in turn...

This time, Sudakov is second in the April rankings. He was included in 80 questionnaires out of 129 (in 26 cases - under No. 1), and Vanat - in 85 (in 45 - under No. 1). The quantitative and qualitative advantage of the experts' votes resulted in a difference of almost 50 points.

In April, Vanat showed very effective football - he scored in four of the five UPL matches he played. The 21-year-old forward scored the winning goal against Lviv (Kyiv won 2-0), the second goal against Minaj (2-0), a goal against Rukh (1-1) and the winning goal against Metalist (3-1).

Who voted for whom. The full list

Let us remind you who is taking part in the Golden Talent project survey. These are coaches, former players and journalists who are well-versed in the subject.

According to their collective opinion, Vladimir Brazhko, a midfielder whom Zorya loaned from Dynamo, lost out to Sudakov by a small margin. He was mentioned in the questionnaires 70 times (Sudakov - 80), they had an equal number of first places (26 each), but Brazhko was more often put in second place (27:22), making the difference between him and the Pitman in terms of the number of points minimal - 149:154.

Due to the greater number of first and second places in the questionnaires, defender Volodymyr Saliuk (Chornomorets) outperformed his Zorya colleague Arseniy Batagov. Although Batagov was included in the questionnaires 24 times, and Saliuk - 21, it was the Odesa player who was higher in the April rankings.

The best players of Ukraine U-21: April 2023