Former Dynamo Kyiv striker Volodymyr Lysenko, who also played for Metalist Kharkiv, Kryvbas, Arsenal Kyiv and other Ukrainian clubs, appeared on a new episode of Denys Boyko's YouTube podcast to discuss his career, including two serious injuries that shaped it.
Starting out and joining Dynamo
Lysenko said he began playing football as a child, when friends who went to the CSKA stadium invited him along. He was seven years old at his first training session, wearing sneakers while everyone else had football boots.
He went on to join Dynamo Kyiv's Valeriy Lobanovskyi youth football school, progressing through Dynamo-2 before debuting for the first team in 2008. After a loan spell at Arsenal Kyiv, he returned to Dynamo before moving to Metalist Kharkiv in the summer of 2009.
He named Serhiy Zakarliuka and Yevhen Seleznyov as teammates who played an important role in his career, calling Zakarliuka a top player and mentor, and saying he and Seleznyov formed an effective partnership on the pitch.
The injury at Metalist that changed everything
Lysenko described Metalist Kharkiv at the time as one of the strongest teams in the Ukrainian league, with big ambitions, and said the move looked like a promising career step. He then suffered a severe hamstring injury in Kharkiv following an intense run of matches for the club and Ukraine's under-21 national team.
He said the injury kept him out of the game for a long time and significantly changed the course of his career, preventing him from fully realizing his potential.
A freak eye injury at Kryvbas
Lysenko recalled one of the strangest incidents of his career during his time at Kryvbas, when he suffered a serious eye injury at home while opening a glass bottle of Coca-Cola during a Dynamo match he was watching on television.
He said the bottle cap struck him in the eye, which filled with blood within seconds. He and a teammate first went to the club doctor before he was taken to hospital and later hospitalized in Kyiv for around three weeks, receiving injections in his eye. He said losing his sight would be terrifying and something he would not wish on an enemy.
Life after playing
Lysenko ended his professional career in 2023 at Kolos, the club where he made over 140 appearances, the most of his career. Over his time in Ukraine's top flight he also played for Volyn, Sevastopol, Hoverla, Olimpik and Desna.
He said he only began thinking about his next career step once his playing contract ended, after which he started training as a scouting coach. He now works in Kolos's scouting department and helps train young strikers. Lysenko said he does not regret his career but would change the moments that stopped him from reaching his full potential.
