Oleksiy Mykhaylychenko

Oleksiy Oleksandrovych Mykhaylychenko (Ukrainian: Олексій Олександрович Михайличенко; born March 30, 1963) is a Ukrainian football coach and former professional football player. He is a Distinguished Master of Sports of the USSR and a Distinguished Coach of Ukraine. During his playing days he was a versatile midfielder known for his stamina and passing capability. Also noted for his technique, Mykhaylychenko usually played as central attacking midfielder.

Mykhailychenko currently holds an administrative position in his home club, Dynamo Kyiv, as director of sport. His name is commonly romanised as Alexei Mikhailichenko from the Russian spelling of his name (Алексей Александрович Михайличенко).

Mikhailichenko played for Dynamo Kyiv, Sampdoria and Rangers. He then became a coach, starting with assistant coach to Dynamo Kyiv's legendary Valeriy Lobanovsky. Following the death of Lobanovsky, Mykhailychenko replaced him as head coach. In 2004, he took charge of the Ukraine's national under-21 team. He was head coach of the Ukraine national football team senior side for two years after that.

Club

Mikhailichenko began his football career in the youth system of Dynamo Kyiv, under the guidance of Anatoliy Byshovets. He made his debut in the Soviet Top League in 1981, and went on to have a great career with Dynamo, winning four championships and three runner-up medals. He also won the Soviet Cup three times. His biggest success with Dynamo came when they won the 1986 European Cup Winner's Cup. He was awarded the Soviet Footballer of the Year award in 1988, as well as two Ukrainian Footballer of the Year awards in 1987 and 1988. In 1990, he was signed by the Italian club Sampdoria, who won their first Serie A title that season.

The following season he moved to play with the Scottish Premier Division team Rangers. With Rangers Mikhailichenko managed to win another five champion's medals. All-in-all Mykhaylychenko won championship medals in 3 different leagues, and for 7 consecutive seasons – USSR in 1990, Italy in 1991 and Scotland from 1992 to 1996. He remained in Scotland until retiring from playing on May 31, 1996.

His first season at Ibrox was undoubtedly his most successful, as they completed the double of the league title and Scottish Cup and Mikhailichenko was a regular in the side with 10 goals from 27 league games. He featured in 29 league games as Rangers won a domestic treble a year later, but managed just five goals. He was even more frequent a choice in the first team during 1993–94, playing 34 games but managed just five goals. But then came the arrival of Brian Laudrup, whose presence in the team restricted Mikhailichenko to a mere nine league appearances and two goals in 1994–95. He made 11 goalless league appearances in the 1995–96 (during which Wolverhampton Wanderers made an unsuccessful approach for him) before retiring from playing at the age of 33.[1]

National team

At national level Mikhailichenko was capped 41 times, scoring nine goals for the USSR/CIS. He won the Gold Medal at the 1988 Summer Olympics, and was part of the silver-medal-winning Soviet squad at Euro 88. He also played in the Euro 92 championship but injury deprived him of a place in the Italia 90 squad and he was sorely missed as the Soviets crashed out in the first round. Mykhaylychenko also played twice for Ukraine.

In 1983 Mikhailichenko took part in the Summer Spartakiad of the Peoples of the USSR in the team of Ukrainian SSR.

His first game for the Soviet team Mykhailychenko played on April 29, 1987 home against GDR team. On October 28, 1992 Mykhailychenko at age 29 played for the Ukrainian team away against Belarus.

After retiring from playing football in 1997, Mikhailichenko went back to Ukraine to begin coaching under the legendary Kyiv manager Valeri Lobanovsky, remaining his assistant for five years. When Lobanovsky died in 2002 Mikhailichenko took over as caretaker manager, before assuming full control of the team in the 2002/03 season. Mikhailichenko led the team to two league titles and the 2003 Ukrainian Cup, but was replaced in August 2004. In 2004, he became the head coach of the Ukraine national under-21 football team. In that capacity he led the team to the final of the 2006 UEFA European Under-21 Football Championship, which they lost to Netherlands.

On June 16, 2006, it was reported that Mikhailichenko would take over as head coach of Scottish Premier League club, Heart of Midlothian. Hearts did not follow up their reported interest and instead appointed caretaker Valdas Ivanauskas on a full-time basis. Mikhailichenko was announced as head coach of the Ukraine national football team on January 11, 2008. After Mikhailichenko's contract expired on December 1, 2009 the Football Federation of Ukraine did not renew the contract after the national team failed to qualify for the 2010 World Cup in South Africa.

International

International goals

Score and results list Soviet Union's goal tally first.

#	Date	Venue	Opponent	Score	Result	Competition
1.	9 September 1987	Central Lenin Stadium, Moscow	France	1–1	1–1	UEFA Euro 1988 qualifying
2.	18 June 1988	Waldstadion, Frankfurt	England	2–1	3–1	UEFA Euro 1988
3.	19 October 1988	Republican Stadium, Kiev	Austria	1–0	2–0	1990 FIFA World Cup qualification
4.	23 November 1988	Adailiya Stadium, Kuwait City	Kuwait	0–1	0–1	Friendly
5.	10 May 1989	Ali Sami Yen Stadium, Istanbul	Turkey	0–1	0–1	1990 FIFA World Cup qualification
6.	16 May 1990	Ramat Gan Stadium, Tel Aviv	Israel	2–2	3–2	Friendly
7.	29 August 1990	Luzhniki Stadium, Moscow	Romania	1–2	1–2	Friendly
8.	17 April 1991	Népstadion, Budapest	Hungary	0–1	0–1	UEFA Euro 1992 qualifying
9.	29 May 1991	Central Lenin Stadium, Moscow	Cyprus	2–0	4–0	UEFA Euro 1992 qualifying

Club

Dynamo Kyiv

• Soviet Top League Champion: 1981, 1985, 1986, 1990
• Soviet Top League Runner-up: 1982, 1988, 1989 (3rd place)
• Soviet Cup Champion: 1985, 1987, 1990
• European Cup Winners’ Cup Champion: 1986

Sampdoria

• Italian Serie A Champion: 1991

Rangers

• Scottish Premier Division Champion: 1992, 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996
• Scottish Cup Champion: 1992, 1993, 1996
• Scottish Cup Runner-up: 1994

International

Soviet Union

Individual

• Ukrainian Footballer of the Year: 1987, 1988
• Soviet Footballer of the Year: 1988

Ballon d'Or

• 1988 – 4th
• 1989 – 12th
• 1991 – 21st

As coach

• Ukrainian Premier League Champion: 2003, 2004
• Ukrainian Premier League Runner-up: 2002
• Ukrainian Cup Champion: 2003
• UEFA Under-21 Championship Runner-up: 2006