Three of them made it into Rangers’ top 100 signings
On August 6th in Lublin in the first match of the third qualifying round Champions League Dynamo will play against Rangers. Despite the rich European Cup history of the clubs from Kyiv and Glasgow, this is only the second duel between the teams. But Four former Dynamo footballers once played for Rangers.
Until now, the teams have met in European competitions in the 1987/1988 season at the 1/16 stage of the Champions Cup. Dynamo won at home – 1:0, but lost in Glasgow (0:2). Dynamo’s only goal in the match was scored by Alexei Mikhailchenko, who four years later would end up in the Rangers squad. But he was not the pioneer in Glasgow.
The first to move from Dynamo to Rangers was defender Oleg Kuznetsov, who moved to Glasgow in the summer of 1990. Unfortunately, injuries prevented the Ukrainian from fully showing his skills in Scotland – just over 30 matches in four years, but he has four championship titles and one national Cup in his collection.
A year later, newly-crowned Italian champion Oleksiy Mykhaylichenko moved to Kuznetsov. Rangers paid Sampdoria 2.5 million euros (according to today’s recalculations) for the transfer of the Ukrainian. Mykhaylichenko played in Glasgow longer and more than all the former Dynamo players: five years, 131 matches (25 goals). The Ukrainian left Glasgow with a solid collection: five championship titles and three national Cups.
Oleg Salenko also “dropped in” to Rangers for a year. Valencia received 3 million euros for his transfer (according to recalculation), and his transfer ranks 44th in the list of the most expensive purchases of a Scottish club. The forward spent a season in Glasgow, played 16 matches (seven goals) and left for Turkey with the title of Scottish champion.
The most expensive transfer for Rangers among former Dynamo players remains the transfer of Andrei Kanchelskis, a native of Kropyvnytskyi, who later took Russian citizenship and since 2014 has been emphasizing his loyalty to the aggressor country. For his transfer in the summer of 1998, Rangers paid Fiorentina 5.5 million euros – this is 16th place in the list of the most expensive purchases of the Scottish club. Kanchelskis played for Rangers until 2002, with a short loan to Manchester City, played 106 matches (17 goals), won two championship titles and three national Cups.
Source: Sportarena
I’m Scott Moore, a professional writer and journalist based in the US. I’ve been writing for various publications for over 8 years now, and have been working as an author at athletistic for the past five years. My work has been featured by some of the leading sports websites and magazines across Europe.
