Ukrainians in Soviet Union national football team

Consistent (soccer) football competitions were taken place in Ukraine in the beginning of the 20th century when the modern country was divided between Hungary, Poland, Romania, and Russia. The most progressive league where Ukrainian participated were Polish (infamous Pogoń Lwów) and, USSR championships (Dinamo Kyiv is known worldwide). Pogoń's players even though are considered to be Polish, most of them were born in Galicia (Halychyna) and stayed in their native land moving west after the Soviet advance. In the 1970s and 1980's the backbone of the USSR national team were players out of the Dinamo Kyiv's first team while the team was also coached by the Kievan native and the Dinamo Kyiv franchise person -- Valery Lobanovsky. Oleh Blokhin, another Kievan native and the greatest Ukrainian player and coach ever, at least for now, is the USSR national team leader in games participated and goals scored for his team. He reflected the mentorship of his coach, Valery Lobanovsky, and justifying the long possessed football traditions in his own country by taking the Ukraine national team to quarter finals of the World Cup in 2006. Football Federation of Ukraine (FFU) was created and recognized by FIFA in early 1990s therefore Ukrainians had no other choice, but to play under the flag of foreign countries. While waiting for recognition from FIFA, the national team of Ukraine failed to gain to be seeded on time for the World Cup qualification competition from Europe. This in turn forced many football (soccer) players to jump national teams.

References

[http://ukrsoccerhistory.com/sources/pages.aspx?language=ukr&page=ussr_nt_players] Here you may find the original list.