In the summer, Dynamo defender Kostyantyn Vivcharenko was linked to a number of teams, including Porto, Tottenham, Burnley and an unnamed Spanish club from the Segunda. Insiders even mentioned the price of 15 million euros that the capital's club wanted to receive for their player.
Konstantin Vivcharenko. Photo by Yuriy YurievIs Kostya worth that kind of money? At the moment, probably not. But he definitely has the potential to be worth even more. It turns out that this is an asset that you can invest in, and then everything will come back with interest. 15 million euros is money that is available to every team in the Premier League. If the coach sees a prospect in the Ukrainian defender, there will be no problems with the transfer.
The Kyiv left-back had a successful second half. He was the main player of the Ukrainian national team at the Youth Euro. Ruslan Rotan's team reached the semi-finals. There are certain prerequisites.
In 2023, there was a certain event around Vivcharenko that went completely unnoticed. Kostya changed his agent. He used to work with Vadim Shabliy's ProStar company. Now his interests are represented by the foreign company CSM SPORT & ENTERTAINMENT. The managers of this office represent France, Portugal and England. The company has 20 players. Vivcharenko is the most expensive among them. Transfermarkt estimates him at €2 million.
When does an agent change agents, or when does he start working with a foreign representative? If he is satisfied with everything at his current club, then he does not need a new agent. Especially from abroad.
Not so long ago, there was a story when Viktor Tsygankov started working with Pep Guardiola's brother Pere. Although before that, his interests had always been represented exclusively by his father Vitaly. At the beginning of 2022, the parties began to cooperate (they signed an agreement during the Scotland-Ukraine match on 7 June), and at the beginning of 2023, Vitya joined Girona. A foreign agent is needed when a player wants to change clubs or go to play in Europe.
It's no big secret that Vadym Shabliy has a near monopoly on the Ukrainian football market. Most players in the Ukrainian Premier League work with him. Even some clubs are formed exclusively by Shabliy. If we look at the current Dynamo squad, there are not many people who do not work with Shabliy - Nazar Voloshyn, Vladyslav Supryaha, Anton Tsarenko, plus foreigners such as Samba Diallo, Benito and Reshat Ramadani. Plus the aforementioned Vivcharenko. Of all these, not many people have a real connection to the first team.
Shabliy's peculiarity is that he never goes against the club's owners. If there is any disagreement between the player and the club, Vadym always takes the side of the club because he is connected to the owner. And they trust the agent that he won't sell the player somewhere behind his back. If Tsygankov had Shabliy as his agent, it is highly likely that Tsygankov would have signed a new contract with Dynamo.
"Foreign agents will twist arms and set some conditions. That's why our clubs simply don't have them (except for Vivcharenko). It is much easier and calmer for clubs to work with Shabliy. The parties know each other and trust each other completely.
After changing agents, things did not go well for Vivcharenko on the football field. He was not called up, neither to the national team nor to the youth team. The youth team had one official match in September against Northern Ireland. Kostya had too many yellow cards at the youth Euros. Perhaps the reason is that he misses the next official match. But there was a friendly against Germany. There is a new coaching staff to get to know. I see that Unai Melgosa is counting more on Polissia's Artem Smolyakov in this position Artem Smolyakov.
At the club level, Vivcharenko played only 2 games out of 7 matches (3 in the league and four in the LC qualifiers) in the UPL. But in total, he spent 98 minutes on the field. That's not enough. The player's contract with Dynamo is valid until the end of the calendar year 2025. Two full seasons and another half. Kostya signed a new deal a year ago.
Transfermarkt gives Kostya a Bulgarian passport. They very rarely make mistakes when they show a second citizenship. Most footballers from Zakarpattia have Hungarian passports. Ihor Plastun has been playing in Bulgaria for a long time, so he is not only a Ukrainian but also a Bulgarian. There are different forms of acquiring a country's citizenship: origin, residence, and purchase of housing. It is not necessary to leave Ukraine to have another citizenship. If indeed Kostya has a Bulgarian passport, this primarily simplifies his ability to travel abroad. There will be no problems with this.
From the above, I draw two conclusions:
1. The player's agents are working on the transfer of the player. There is an agent lobby that offers players to different clubs. CSM SPORT & ENTERTAINMENT is not the biggest agency. For them, the potential transfer of Vivcharenko is a real opportunity to make good money. Dynamo may not like this situation. The story with Tsygankov taught us something. An agent from outside your own orbit can cause problems.
2. Vivcharenko has not yet gained form. After last season, there was a youth Euro. There was no rest and no preparation for the new season. Almost all the players from the youth team are not in the best condition now. They just need to catch their breath and get fit.
Serhii Tyshchenko
