Kyiv is rightly considered the capital of Ukrainian football. Its pride is FC Dynamo, the most titled in our country.
Dynamo players won "gold" of the former Union championship 13 times (a record), 12 times - won "silver", three times - "bronze". Nine times the Kyivians reached the cup top.
The grandiose achievements of Dynamo in independent Ukraine - 16 sets of gold medals, 12 - silver and once bronze.
Two Cup Cups (1975 and 1986), UEFA Super Cup (1975) are in the rich collection of the Bilo-Syni awards. A lot of trophies won at prestigious international tournaments in Spain, Italy, Germany, USA, Israel....
Many outstanding footballers of different generations played in the capital club. Most of them you know well.
Beautiful stadiums in Kyiv. The NSC Olimpiyskiy is on a par with the grandiose European arenas, such as London's Wembley, Madrid's Santiago Bernabeu, Paris' Parc de Prince, Rome's Olimpico.
The main sports arena of the country hosted matches of the football tournament of the Olympics-80, Euro 2012 (including the final), the final of the Champions League-2018, matches of European cup tournaments, matches of the national team of Ukraine.
The stadium "Dynamo" named after Valeriy Lobanovskiy is one of the cosiest in the country, as well as "Obolon Arena", NTK named after Viktor Bannikov.
The Czechs brought the football ball to Kyiv
When did Kyiv citizens get acquainted with football? I am sure, friends, many of you do not know it. We owe our acquaintance with this magical game to the Czechs.
At the turn of the XIX and XX centuries, in the spring of 1900, on the initiative of Vaclav Kašpar, an engineer of the Grether and Krivanek factory (later renamed to "Bolshevik"), the first demonstration football match in Kiev took place on the ground near the Syretsk hippodrome.
Later, in the Sokol sports club, Kašpar, together with his compatriot Vladimir Kozhukh, organised the football team "South". Kiev gymnasium students also played in it together with Czech factory workers.
Kiev citizens liked the game, especially the students. In 1906, professors of the Polytechnic Institute Nikolay Tanlnaev, Nikolay Delaunay and Vladimir Plotnikov created the team "Polytechnics". A year later this team had a field of almost standard size.
In 1911 there were already 15 teams in the city, five of them led by "Polytechnics" formed the first class, the rest - the second.
The leadership of the Kiev Football League was elected. And the first match of the city championship took place on 11 October 1911. The teams of the Imperial Alexander Gymnasium and the fourth gymnasium met. The first winner of the championship, as expected, was the team "Polytechnics", which was awarded a beautiful silver cup, specially made for this tournament by the famous Kiev jeweller Leonid Kumilovsky-Fedosov.
The star became a mega-star
In 1923, the Kiev Football League already had more than 900 players. The participants of the city championship were divided into five groups. The strongest at that time were railwaymen, the team "Zheldor - the future "Lokomotiv". The champions of the city competed with the teams "Raikomvod" and "Sovtorgsluzhashchie".
On the 13th of May 1927 a star was lit on the Kiev football sky - the name of which was "Dynamo". And it was destined to become a football mega-star, the hallmark of Ukrainian football.
Kyiv citizens, and not only them, loved, love and will love Dynamo.
"After all, without Dynamo Kyiv is impossible as St Vladimir without the cross!". Dynamo fans sang.
Oleksandr LIPENKO for Dynamo.kiev.ua
