Usyk the football player, a diaspora team with a Spanish collection and a terrible earthquake – how the 2023 Winter Cup of TK Football begins

Today in Turkey, in the most football region of the off-season Antalya-Belek, the second draw of the Winter Cup from TC Football starts. In a special Sport Arena article – a preview of the tournament and a story about its history and main features.

Boxer Usyk won the first Winter Cup 2022

On the eve of the start of the full-scale phase of the war, the first trophy was drawn. Winter Cup 2022 was then held by the Football 1/2/3 TV channel, sponsored by powerful companies associated with the participants – Yaroslavsky’s DCH and Butkevich’s BGV Group.

Four domestic clubs played at the tournament – UPL representatives Veres (Rivne) and Chernomorets (Odesa), representatives of the First League – Metalist (Kharkiv) and Polissya (Zhytomyr). To assess the level of the tournament, we note that it was also Metalist with Kucher and Krasnikov, for whom Sarapiy, Peixoto, Casares, Baluli, Riascos, Harris and other stars played. Grigorchuk also had Tsitaishvili, Morozyuk, Vanderson, Petkov, Pozheg Vantsash, Rusin in Chernomorets. Later profitably sold Panasenko and E. Pasich still played in Veres.

The first trophy was won by Polissya Zhytomyr, ahead of Metalist (winning 2:0 with goals from Kozak and Morozko). Among the winners of the tournament led by Yuri Kalitvintsev was the world boxing champion Alexander Usik.

Now the tournament has gained a title sponsor and international status

In 2023, the tournament was organized by One Pitch Group, the operator of the multi-million dollar YouTube channels left after the closure of TK Football 1/2/3. Its top manager, ex-head of Football Alexander Denisov, announced that a foreign team would be among the participants in the 2023 Winter Cup.

True, Levadia from Estonia is not completely alien to Ukraine. Club Founder and President Viktor Levada – originally from the Alexandria district of the Kirovograd region. At all times, this club has had enough of our legionnaires, and now, under the leadership of the former defender of Valencia and the Spanish national team, a Ukrainian, Odessa striker Ilya Markovsky, plays.

The remaining participants are Vorskla (Poltava), Polissya (Zhytomyr) and Chernomorets (Odessa). Thus, the owner of the trophy Polesie will try to defend his trophy. By the way, the title sponsor of the tournament was its longtime partner – BGV Group. The resource-industrial company belongs to the co-founder of ATB and the owner of FC Polissya Butkevich.

Who, besides the Olympic boxing champion, to watch now at the tournament

Yes, Oleksandr Usyk confirmed participation in the Winter Cup as part of Polissya. The great boxer is ready to replace the most scoring center forward of Zhytomyr – the former striker of Shakhtar, Zorya and the Ukrainian national team Philip Budkovsky. By the way, he is the leader of the scorers of the First League with 10 goals.

Polissya is not only the leader of the First League, but also its most expensive participant. Now the players of the Zhytomyr club are valued at €4.87 million, while the closest team in terms of cost – Karpaty (Lviv) – is estimated at €3.79 million. Polissya would not be lost in the UPL in terms of the total cost of players either – it would definitely be more expensive than Minay and Lvov, quite could be equal to Veres, Ingulets and, possibly, Krivbass.

The team leaders are the former goalkeeper of FC Mariupol and the youth team of Shakhtar Kudrikopornik Ogiryawho spent his best years in the Olympic and Desna, as well as the 38-year-old ex-defender of the Desna and Alexandria Gitchenko. Team head coach Yuri Kalitvintsev for a mighty season in the First League (leader without defeat) was recognized as the Coach of the Year by the All-Ukrainian Association of Football Coaches.

UPL representative Vorskla brought to the tournament all the star players, including the goalkeeper Riznykamidfielder Yurchenko and attacker Stepanyuk. Main feature Viktor Skrypnyk – rookie brazilian Ricardo Lopez from Japan’s JEF United. It is not clear what the veteran is capable of now, but in his best years the guy tore Asian tournaments.

Veres arrived without Evgeny Pasich, who was sold to Dnepr-1, however, with newcomers. Two of them are defenders Berezyansky and midfielder Tishinov from the lower leagues – invited according to the results of the “popular selection”, that is, the viewing of all comers. Also Yuri Wirth will introduce already signed debutants: defender Balan went through the school of Dynamo, Dnipro and Chernomorets, reached the final of the Ukrainian Cup with Ingulets, recently played in the Czech Republic, defender Honda invited from the outsider of the First League Gornyak-Sport, and once the main talent of the Dnieper Bliznichenko arrived after Ingulets, where he did not play any important role in the composition.

But what about Levadia? The team is led by a former defender of Valencia and the Spanish national team Curro Torres – Participant of the 2002 World Cup. Levadia and Ukraine are connected by numerous personnel intersections. Not so long ago, Schedry and Khoblenko played here on loan from Kryvbas. Now African defender Ivan Dibango is on loan in Kryvbas, having spent a short time in Levadia after Belarus. Midfielder of the Estonian national team Bogdan Vashchuk, who once tried his hand at Vorskla, also left Levadiia – at the beginning of the year he signed with the Irish Sligo Rovers.

There are no Ukrainians in the team, except Ilya Markovskywho was injured. The striker has previously played for a number of clubs in Greece, Cyprus, Slovenia and Israel. For many years he belonged to PAOK, but he never played for the main team (in the youth team – 11 matches, 8 goals). Also, the main player of the Levada and Torres team is the 23-year-old Malian defender Burama Fomba, who a year ago tried to break into the base of FC Alexandria.

Yaroslav Smelyansky