Yevhen Konoplyanka

Yevhen Olehovych Konoplyanka (Ukrainian: Євген Олегович Коноплянка; born 29 September 1989) is a Ukrainian professional footballer who plays as a winger for German club Schalke 04 (on loan from Spanish club Sevilla) and the Ukraine national team.

He began his professional career at Dnipro, where he made his debut in 2007 and featured in 211 matches across all competitions, scoring 45 goals and helping them to the 2015 UEFA Europa League Final. He then moved to the team who won that match, Sevilla, on a free transfer, and won the Europa League in his first season in Spain.

A full international since 2010, Konoplyanka has earned over 50 caps for Ukraine, and scored 13 international goals. He played for Ukraine in Euro 2012 and Euro 2016, and is a three-time Ukrainian Footballer of the Year.

At age seven, Konoplyanka signed up for a karate class, which he did simultaneously with football, eventually reaching black belt. He is a product of the youth system of FC Olimpik Kirovohrad, and coach Yuriy Kevlych. He also participated in the Ukrainian National Youth Competition, representing DYuSSh-2 Kirovohrad.

Dnipro Dnipropetrovsk

Konoplyanka was signed as a youth by Dnipro Dnipropetrovsk at age 16. In the winter of 2006 he was promoted to the Dnipro reserves with a starting salary of 300 dollars.

Konoplyanka with Dnipro in 2013.

Konoplaynka's senior team debut came in an Ukrainian Premier League match on 26 August 2007 in a home game against Zakarpattia Uzhhorod which ended 0–0. Konoplyanka came on during the 83rd minute, replacing Jaba Kankava.

His first goal in the Ukrainian Premier League came 28 February 2010 in a home game against Zorya Luhansk which ended 2–2. In the second half of the 2009–10 season, Konoplyanka started and played the full 90 minutes in all of the remaining games.

In March 2011, Dynamo Kyiv interim coach Oleh Luzhny expressed his desire to see Konoplyanka in his ranks and the media reported that Dynamo would make an offer to Dnipro worth 14 million euro. In response, Dnipro coach Juande Ramos placed a sensational scare price-tag ranging from 50 to 60 million euro, commenting that "in order to build a great team, great players should play there."

In January 2014, Konoplyanka nearly moved to English team Liverpool for £16 million, his buyout clause, but Dnipro president Ihor Kolomoyskyi refused to sanction the transfer.

Konoplyanka was a major catalyst in Dnipro's successful 2014–15 season where he helped them to a 3rd place in the domestic league and a place in the Europa League Final. He was named in the Europa League's Squad of the season.

Sevilla

Konoplyanka scored on his debut for Sevilla in the UEFA Super Cup against Barcelona

On 2 July 2015, Europa League holders Sevilla FC announced that Konoplyanka was undergoing a medical. A week later, the Spanish club confirmed that he had joined on a free transfer, and signed a four-year deal, with a reported release clause of €40 million.

On 11 August, he made his competitive debut for Sevilla in the 2015 UEFA Super Cup against FC Barcelona, as a 68th-minute substitute for captain José Antonio Reyes. He scored an 81st-minute equaliser as Sevilla came from behind to draw 4–4, but they lost 5–4 after extra time. Ten days later, he made his La Liga debut in a goalless draw at Málaga CF, again as a 65th-minute substitute for Reyes, and on 16 September he scored on his UEFA Champions League debut, concluding a 3–0 group stage win over Borussia Mönchengladbach at the Estadio Ramon Sánchez Pizjuán with his first touch of the game. Ten days later, after coming off the bench against Rayo Vallecano, he attained his first league goal for the Andalusians, winning the match 3–2 with a late free kick for a first victory of the campaign.

At the end of the calendar year, Konoplyanka was one of the shortlisted nominees for UEFA Team of the Year. He was an unused substitute in the 2016 UEFA Europa League Final, where Sevilla beat Liverpool 3–1 in Basel to claim their fifth trophy. He played seven matches in their Copa del Rey campaign, scoring a late equaliser as a substitute in a 2–2 draw at Celta de Vigo in the semi-finals (6–2 aggregate), and also came off the bench in the final where they lost 2–0 to Barcelona after extra time.

Schalke 04

On 30 August 2016, Konoplyanka was loaned to Schalke 04 with an obligatory buyout clause at the end of the campaign.

Konoplyanka challenging Sweden's Mikael Lustig at UEFA Euro 2012.

In April 2010, Konoplyanka was first called up to Ukraine's senior national team by head coach Myron Markevych. He made his international debut on 25 May, playing the entirety of a 4–0 friendly win over Lithuania in Kharkiv. Four days later at the Arena Lviv, he scored the equaliser as Ukraine came from behind to defeat Romania 3–2 in another friendly.

In the Euro 2012 tournament Konoplyanka started in all three of Ukraine's matches as the co-hosts exited in the group stage. In their opening game at the Olympic Stadium in Kyiv, he assisted Andriy Shevchenko's winning goal with a corner for a 2–1 victory against Sweden.

On 11 September 2012, Konoplyanka scored a long-range goal in a 1–1 draw against England at Wembley Stadium in a 2014 FIFA World Cup qualifier. The BBC said of his performance: "the tremendous Yevhen Konoplyanka delivered a masterful performance to dictate in midfield". He scored two more goals in Ukraine's qualifying campaign, in victories over San Marino and Montenegro, but the team lost to France in a play-off for the tournament.

Konoplyanka scored twice in 11 matches as Ukraine qualified for UEFA Euro 2016, their first successful qualification campaign. He captained the team for their 3–1 aggregate win over Slovenia in the play-off in November 2015.

He was included in Ukraine's squad for Euro 2016 in France, where Ukraine failed to score and finished bottom of the group.

Club

International

International goals

#	Date	Venue	Opponent	Score	Result	Competition
1.	29 May 2010	Ukraina Stadium, Lviv, Ukraine	Romania	2–2	3–2	Friendly
2.	17 November 2010	Stade de Genève, Geneva, Switzerland	Switzerland	2–2	2–2	Friendly
3.	2 September 2011	Metalist Stadium, Kharkiv, Ukraine	Uruguay	2–1	2–3	Friendly
4.	11 November 2011	NSC Olympiyskiy Stadium, Kyiv, Ukraine	Germany	2–0	3–3	Friendly
5.	29 February 2012	HaMoshava Stadium, Petah Tikva, Israel	Israel	0–2	2–3	Friendly
6.	11 September 2012	Wembley, London, England	England	0–1	1–1	2014 FIFA World Cup qualifiers
7.	7 June 2013	Podgorica City Stadium, Podgorica, Montenegro	Montenegro	0–2	0–4	2014 FIFA World Cup qualifiers
8.	6 September 2013	Arena Lviv, Lviv, Ukraine	San Marino	5–0	9–0	2014 FIFA World Cup qualifiers
9.	9 June 2015	Linzer Stadion, Linz, Austria	Georgia	2–0	2–1	Friendly
10.	15 June 2015	Arena Lviv, Lviv, Ukraine	Luxembourg	3–0	3–0	UEFA Euro 2016 qualifiers
11.	5 September 2015	Arena Lviv, Lviv, Ukraine	Belarus	3–0	3–1	UEFA Euro 2016 qualifiers
12.	29 May 2016	Stadio Olimpico Grande Torino, Turin, Italy	Romania	1–3	3–4	Friendly
13.	3 June 2016	Stadio Atleti Azzurri d'Italia, Bergamo, Italy	Albania	1–3	1–3	Friendly

Club

• UEFA Europa League Runner-up: 2014–15

• UEFA Europa League: 2015–16
• UEFA Super Cup Runner-up: 2015, 2016
• Copa del Rey Runner-up: 2015–16
• Supercopa de España Runner-up: 2016

Individual

• Ukrainian Footballer of the Year (3): 2010, 2012, 2013 (Jointly shared with Andriy Yarmolenko)
• UEFA Europa League Squad of the Season: 2014–15