- FC Metalurh Donetsk
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Metalurh Donetsk 
Full name Football Club Metalurh Donetsk Nickname(s) MetaDon Founded June 17, 1996 Ground Metalurh Stadium
(Capacity: 5,094)Chairman Serhiy Taruta Manager Volodymyr Pyatenko League Ukrainian Premier League 2010–11 8th 
Home coloursAway coloursFC Metalurh Donetsk is a Ukrainian professional football club from the city of Donetsk. The club currently plays in the Ukrainian Premier League.
Contents
History
Pre-history
Metalurh takes its roots from the Football Club Antratsyt Kirovske that was allowed to participate on the non-amateur level once Ukraine attained its independence. After a disappointing first season in the Second League, in the 1993 season Antratsyt placed third in the Third League and was promoted back to the Second League. Once there, the club relocated to Shakhtarsk and changed its name first to Shakhtar, but then to FC Medita Shahtarsk.
Metalurh Donetsk
A couple of years later, the club was reorganized again and renamed to, already widely accepted, Football Club Metalurh Donetsk. The club was purchased by ISD, Ukrainian industrial corporation owned by Serhiy Taruta, one of the most wealthy businessmen in Ukraine and Europe. After placing second in the Druha Liha Group C, the club gained the promotion to the Persha Liha. In the next season, 1996–97, Metalurh won the Persha Liha championship and were promoted to the Vyscha Liha.
The club successfully started in the Top League and also improved significantly at the domestic Cup competition. Metalurh has managed to obtain few bronze medals in the League and since 1998 made through to at least the quarter-finals of the Ukrainian Cup.
Throughout majority of the first decade of the new millennium, Metalurh's owners developed a close working relationship with well known Ukrainian agent Dmytro Sylyuk, who soon became club's acting chairman and has gained a lot of bad publicity for bringing numerous foreign players into the club. Also, while working with Metalurh, Selyuk has lived in Barcelona and was a rare visitor to Ukraine. For several seasons, the foreigners, Selyuk's clients, have outnumbered domestic players. Many of the signed players were brought in without manager's consent, and a lot have been given an overly generous pay; among those were Yaya Touré, Andrés Mendoza, and Jordi Cruyff. After Sylyuk's questionable tactics, he was dismissed from his position and majority of the players brought in by him also left. As it appeared later, many of them have had contracts with Sylyuk, and not directly with the club.
After the era of Sylyuk ended, Metalurh's performance declined and a hunt for medals turned into a struggle for survival. However, in 2008, Bulgarian specialist Nikolay Kostov was brought in to rebuild the team. In his first season with the club, Kostov turned Metalurh's performance around and the club came fourth in the league, which granted them a spot in newly formed UEFA Europa League.
Stadium
Metalurh has its own small stadium named after the club, Metalurh Stadium. In most of the domestic matches, the club plays at the stadium which just barely exceeds the 5,000 mark for a possible attendance. In case when it is expected for an upcoming game to gather a significantly larger crowd, Metalurh plays at the Shakhtar Stadium, which is the property of the well-established club Shakhtar Donetsk. The Shakhtar Stadium is mostly used for the European competitions. A new stadium with capacity 17,500 is under construction at Makiivka, near Donetsk. It will be the new home ground of Metalurh Donetsk
Rivalry
Metalurh's top rivals are the neighbor club and one of Ukraine's most successful teams, Shakhtar Donetsk. The two clubs have not only had a close history since formation of Metalurh, but the club has also played at Shakhtar's former venue, Shakhtar Stadium. The games between the two clubs have been dubbed by the fans and the media as Donbass Derby, although Shakhtar has been dominant in the rivalry for a decade from 1996 and up until 2006, winning all 18 games between them, matches between the two have always been of a major significance to fans.
Sponsors
- ISD (Industrial Union of Donbas) (main)
- Kremen
- Umbro
- Alchevskkoks
- Keramet
- DMKD
- Enerhomashspecstal
- Ukruglesnab
- Onyx Don
- and others.
Honours
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- 1996–97 Champions
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- 1995–96 Runners-Up Group "B"
Current squad
Squad is given according to the club's official website, as of July 22, 2011 , as reported to Ukrainian Premier League. Note: Flags indicate national team as has been defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.
No. Position Player 4 
DF Vyacheslav Checher (captain) 6 
MF Karlen Mkrtchyan 7 MF Mykola Morozyuk 8 FW Marcos Pizzelli 9 
MF Đorđe Lazić 10 
MF Ricardo Fernandes (vice-captain) 11 FW Gevorg Ghazaryan 12 GK Oleksandr Bandura 14 DF Oleksandr Volovyk 15 
FW Dramane Traoré 17 
MF Zé Soares No. Position Player 18 
MF Velizar Dimitrov (vice-captain) 19 FW Vitaliy Ivanko 20 DF China 22 FW Myroslav Slavov (on loan from Anzhi) 23 GK Rustam Khudzhamov (on loan from Shakhtar) 27 MF Oleksiy Hodin 28 DF Mário Sérgio 30 
MF Mario Gjurovski 31 GK Dmytro Vorobyov 44 DF Vasyl Pryima 84 MF Denys Holaydo For recent transfers, see List of Ukrainian football transfers summer 2010 and List of Ukrainian football transfers summer 2009.
Out on loan
Note: Flags indicate national team as has been defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.
No. Position Player GK Dmytro Nepohodov (to FC Banants)GK Kostyantyn Odolskyi (to FC Banants)MF Vitaliy Havrysh (to Stal Alchevsk) No. Position Player MF Chavdar Yankov (to 
FC Rostov)
FW Fanendo Adi (to FC Dynamo Kyiv) Notable former players
- Europe
- Serhiy Atelkin
- Oleksandr Kosyrin
- Serhiy Shyschenko
- Yuri Virt
- Ararat Arakelyan
- Ara Hakobyan
- Yegishe Melikyan
- Samvel Melkonyan
- Henrikh Mkhitaryan
Constantinos Makrides
Georgi Demetradze- Gocha Jamarauli
Jordi Cruyff- Ricardo Fernandes
Marian Aliuţă- Daniel Florea
- South America
- Aílton da Silva
Andrés Mendoza
- Africa
Head coaches
- Volodymyr Onyschenko (1997–98)
- Volodymyr Havrylov (1998)
- Ihor Yavorskyi (1999)
- Mykhaylo Sokolovskyi (1999)
- Semen Altman (1999–02)
- Oleksandr Sevidov (2003)
- Wim Vrosch (2003)
- Ton Caanen (2003–04)
- Slavoljub Muslin (2004–05)
- Vitaly Shevchenko (2004–05)
- Oleksandr Sevidov (2005)
- Stepan Matviyiv (2006)
Ángel Alonso (2006)- Co Adriaanse (2006–07)
Jos Daerden (2007)- Serhiy Yaschenko (2007–08)
- Nikolay Kostov (2008–2010)
- Volodymyr Pyatenko (caretaker) (2010–2011)
- Andrei Gordeyev (2011)
- Volodymyr Pyatenko (2011–)
League and Cup history
Information since Ukraine's Independence
Season Div. Pos. Pl. W D L GS GA P Domestic Cup Europe Notes 1992 3rd "B" 8 16 2 3 11 15 32 7 1/16 finals Relegated
as Antratsyt Kirovske1992–93 4th 3 34 22 5 7 46 32 49 N/A Promoted
as Antratsyt Kirovske1993–94 3rd 8 42 18 6 18 50 41 42 1/32 finals as Medita Shakhtarsk 1994–95 3rd 7 42 22 8 12 57 36 74 1/64 finals as Medita Shakhtarsk 1995–96 3rd "B" 2 38 24 7 7 53 27 94 1/32 finals Promoted 1996–97 2nd 1 46 32 5 9 77 39 101 1/16 finals Promoted 1997–98 1st 6 30 11 7 12 28 27 40 Semi-finals 1998–99 1st 14 30 7 7 16 27 51 28 1/4 finals 1999–00 1st 7 30 11 10 9 39 35 43 1/4 finals 2000–01 1st 5 26 11 9 6 30 24 42 Semi-finals 2001–02 1st 3 26 12 6 8 38 28 42 Semi-finals 2002–03 1st 3 30 18 6 6 44 26 60 1/4 finals UC 1R Lost to 
Werder Bremen 10–22003–04 1st 4 30 14 10 6 51 34 52 1/4 finals UC 1R Lost to 
Parma 4–12004–05 1st 3 30 14 7 9 38 35 49 1/4 finals UC 1R Lost to Lazio 6–02005–06 1st 9 30 10 9 11 35 35 39 Semi-finals UC 1R Lost to 
PAOK 3-3 (away goal)2006–07 1st 9 30 9 9 12 26 35 36 1/4 finals 2007–08 1st 12 30 6 13 11 34 39 31 Semi-finals 2008–09 1st 4 30 14 7 9 36 27 49 1/4 finals 2009–10 1st 8 30 11 7 12 41 33 40 Runners Up EL Play-off round 2010–11 1st 8 30 11 5 14 36 45 38 1/16 finals 2011-12 1st 1/4 finals See also
External links
2011–12 Ukrainian Premier League Arsenal Kyiv · Chornomorets Odesa · Dnipro Dnipropetrovsk · Dynamo Kyiv · Illichivets Mariupol · Karpaty Lviv · Kryvbas Kryvyi Rih · Metalist Kharkiv · Metalurh Donetsk · Obolon Kyiv · PFC Oleksandria · Shakhtar Donetsk · Tavriya Simferopol · Volyn Lutsk · Vorskla Poltava · Zorya LuhanskCategories:- FC Metalurh Donetsk
- Ukrainian football clubs
- Association football clubs established in 1996
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