Recently, Artem Kravets, an adviser to Dynamo president Ihor Surkis on the development of children's and youth football, was asked which of the players of the club's Academy he could single out. Kravets avoided answering. In his status, there is no point in naming names so as not to offend anyone. The club must count on everyone. It's a question for journalists and experts to single out someone from the young players. For example, Shakhtar's director of football Dario Srna has already singled out Viktor Tsukanov and Artem Zubriy. In the first case, it did not end well.
I will be brave and bold enough to name Ivan Andreyko as Dynamo's main talent instead of Kravets.
Ivan is only 16 years old. It was a big surprise that this season he found himself in the youth team. In the first match against Oleksandriya, Ivan scored a goal.
It should be understood that the U-19s have very serious competition on the attacking flanks - 19-year-old Dmytro Kremchanin and Andriy Matkevych, a year older Oleksandr Shevchenko and Kyrylo Pashko (now recovering from injury). Vladyslav Kalyn did not even find a place in the lineup.
I saw Andriyko's matches at the U-19 level and the youth national team of Ukraine in 2008. He is a very fast, even explosive player who can easily play one-on-one, knows how to use space. He works with the ball very easily and has an understanding of the game. It's very easy for him to beat, to sharpen - it's very easy for him. He has a goal-scoring instinct.
Scoring two goals in five matches at the U-19 level at the age of 16 is a very serious result. I don't remember the last time this happened at Dynamo level.
I haven't seen a talent of this level since Viktor Tsygankov, a player who stood out so much by his individual actions and had such a thirst for football.
Ivan made a lot of progress thanks to Ihor Kostiuk. It was clear that he stood out at the level of the 2008 team in the DUFL. But few expected that he could already play successfully at the level of the youth championship. Working with Dynamo U-19 helped Ivan a lot mentally. He simply became a player of a different level.
The main problem is that he lacks muscles. You need to have courage to withstand physical struggle and stress. Ivan is not yet able to play the entire match at the youth championship level. This is all natural. Andriy needs to work very hard on himself to get a chance in the first team.
Serhii Tyshchenko