Marko Devich

Marko Devich

Personal information
Full name	Marko Devich
Date of birth	27 October 1983 (1983-10-27) (age 28)
Place of birth	Belgrade, Yugoslavia
Height	1.85 m (6 ft 1 in)
Playing position	Winger / Striker
Club information
Current club	FC Metalist Kharkiv
Number	33
Senior career*
Years	Team	Apps†	(Gls)†
2000–2002	FK Zvezdara	14	(2)
2002–2003	FK Železnik	19	(1)
2003–2004	Radnički Novi Beograd	16	(1)
2004	FK Voždovac	14	(0)
2005–2006	Volyn Lutsk	32	(2)
2006–	Metalist Kharkiv	123	(53)
National team‡
2008–	Ukraine	17	(2)
* Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only and correct as of 23 May 2011. † Appearances (Goals). ‡ National team caps and goals correct as of 6 May 2011

Marko Devich (Serbian Cyrillic: Марко Девић, Ukrainian: Марко Девич, Marko Devych; born 27 October 1983) is a Serbian-Ukrainian footballer playing for Metalist Kharkiv initially as an attacking midfielder and later as a forward.

Club career

Serbia

Devich started his career in his city of birth, Belgrade. His first club was FK Zvezdara. He later played for FK Železnik, FK Radnički Jugopetrol, FK Voždovac, all in Serbia.^[1]

Ukraine

In 2005, Devich was bought by the Ukrainian club Volyn Lutsk which was then in the Ukrainian Premier League. At the end of the season the club was going to be relegated and Devich was considering to go back to Serbia.

Noticing Devich, Myron Markevych had him bought by Vyscha Liha club Metalist Kharkiv. In the 2007–08 season, he was top scorer of the Ukrainian Premier League with 19 goals in 27 matches played. Close behind him were Oleksandr Hladky, Oleksandr Kosyrin, and Yevhen Seleznyov, each with 17 goals scored.^[2] Devich had a slow start in the beginning of the 2008–09 season but in the 13th round he scored both goals in a 2–0 win over Chornomorets Odessa.

Career statistics

As of 23 May 2011

Club	Season	League		Cup		Europe		Super Cup		Total
		Apps	Goals	Apps	Goals	Apps	Goals	Apps	Goals	Apps	Goals
Volyn Lutsk	2004–05	14	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	14	0
	2005–06	18	2	1	0	0	0	0	0	19	2
	Total	32	2	1	0	0	0	0	0	33	2
Metalist Kharkiv	2006–07	27	4	4	0	0	0	0	0	31	4
	2007-08	27	19	1	1	2	0	0	0	30	20
	2008-09	24	8	3	2	9	1	0	0	36	11
	2009-10	20	8	1	0	4	0	0	0	25	8
	2010-11	24	14	0	0	6	2	0	0	30	16
	Total	122	53	9	3	21	3	0	0	152	59
Career	Total	154	55	10	3	21	3	0	0	185	61

International career

In June 2008 the 24-year old Devich became a naturalized Ukrainian citizen in hopes of playing for the Ukraine national football team.^[3] Devich is not the first footballer outside of the former Soviet Union to accept the Ukrainian citizenship, however, his decision has stirred numerous discussions in press-media on a subject for the adoption of foreign players. The first international player who became naturalized Ukrainian became Mamadi Sangare from Conakry, Guinea who in 2008 played in FC Desna Chernihiv and before that in FC CSKA Kyiv.

Devich also had a very successful season in 2007/08 scoring 19 goals and becoming the top scorer which in turn put some pressure at that time on head coach of the national team Olexiy Mykhailychenko who hesitated with Devic's selection. In his defense Mykhailychenko stated that just because a striker had one great season that might not be enough to consider Devic for selection. Nonetheless Devich was first called-up to the team by Oleksiy Mykhailychenko for a friendly match against Norway on 19 November 2008,^[4] becoming the third naturalized citizen on the Ukraine national football team called up at that time, along with Oleksandr Aliyev and Artem Milevskiy. He played the second half of the match and he was wearing a number 10 football shirt. In the next couple of years his match participation dropped noticeably, due to his low performance in the Premier League as well as having a "dry run" on the national team.

References

1. ^ Club history and transfer dates – transfermarkt.de, (German)
2. ^ List of Top Goalscorers for 2007–08 season – UAFootball.net.ua, (Russian)
3. ^ Marko Dević: I am very happy to have received Ukrainian citizenship – UA-Football.com, (Ukrainian), 7 March 2008
4. ^ Mykhailychenko called up three players from Metalist – UA-Football.com, (Ukrainian), 11 October 2008

External links

• Profile at Metalist's official website (Russian)
• Marko Devich at National-Football-Teams.com

Persondata
Name	Devic, Marko
Alternative names
Short description	Footballer
Date of birth	27 October 1983
Place of birth	Belgrade, SFR Yugoslavia
Date of death
Place of death