Marked for Facundo Coelli
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad3 Jul 2028
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Obolon this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad3 Jul 2028
Mykyta Kravchenko falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Squad3 Jul 2028
“I have given this everything, but my family is not here and neither am I, not really.” A footballer can be coached out of bad form. Nobody has ever been coached out of this, and Obolon know it.
Squad3 Jul 2028
The manager makes an example of Facundo Coelli
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
Boardroom3 Jul 2028
Obolon sign 7 boys into the academy
None of them will be seen by anybody outside the training ground for three years, most of them will never play a senior match, and one of them might change the club. That is the whole proposition, and it is why academies exist.
Market3 Jul 2028
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Denys Ustymenko signs something — a contract at Obolon or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad18 Oct 2027
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 10 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Squad18 Oct 2027
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 22 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Market18 Oct 2027
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Obolon, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad18 Oct 2027
Tempers go at Obolon
Mathías Bogado was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Squad18 Oct 2027
Mykyta Kravchenko falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Match16 Oct 2027
A bad afternoon for Obolon against Polissia
0‑2 to Polissia, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad11 Oct 2027
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 29 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Squad11 Oct 2027
Words at Obolon training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Pavlo Polehenko is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Player ratings11 Oct 2027
Maksym Tretiakov was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.72. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
Player ratings11 Oct 2027
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.22, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Squad11 Oct 2027
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
Squad11 Oct 2027
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Obolon this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match9 Oct 2027
It needed Maksym Tretiakov to find the net to bring anything home at all: 1‑1 against Poltava, and half the dressing room will call it a point won.
Player ratings11 Oct 2027
Shots: 7. Goals: none. The chances were there and they were good ones, and they went into the stand, the goalkeeper's arms and the side netting in roughly that order.
Market11 Oct 2027
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Obolon know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market29 Mar 2027
Maksym Chekh hands in a written request
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Obolon can pretend not to have heard.
Squad29 Mar 2027
“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.
Squad29 Mar 2027
Oleksii Tovarchi is a better footballer than he was
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 19 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad22 Mar 2027
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Obolon have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Squad22 Mar 2027
Words at Obolon training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mykyta Kravchenko is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Squad22 Mar 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Pavlo Polehenko, and the manager let it.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market15 Feb 2027
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Squad15 Feb 2027
A fracture rules Nikita Vorobiov out for 40 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Obolon will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Player ratings15 Feb 2027
Defensive actions: 30, and a clean sheet at the end of it. A centre-half's best afternoons look like nothing happening, which is precisely the point.
Squad15 Feb 2027
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 6 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Match13 Feb 2027
The wait goes on for Obolon
5 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
Market15 Feb 2027
The fee is $660.0K, the contract is signed, and the argument about whether he is worth it can begin. Polissia drove a hard bargain; time will say who won it.
Squad15 Feb 2027
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Obolon this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match13 Feb 2027
Obolon cannot find the net
3 games without scoring. Strikers stop looking up, midfielders take the extra touch, and every shot that clears the bar is followed by a groan that has been building since the last goal.
Squad15 Feb 2027
The manager makes an example of Pavlo Polehenko
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market1 Feb 2027
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Obolon, and it is not being withdrawn.
Player ratings1 Feb 2027
Successful dribbles: 23. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad1 Feb 2027
Pavlo Polehenko falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Loan watch1 Feb 2027
“I am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at Obolon, and 2 appearances in 25 say he has earned the hearing.
Squad1 Feb 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Serhii Sukhanov, and the manager let it.
Player ratings1 Feb 2027
Marked 7.67 on an afternoon he ran from the first whistle to the last. Whatever else went wrong, Obolon had the best player on the pitch.
Squad1 Feb 2027
The one version of being left out a player cannot argue with, and the one he takes worst. Somebody else has been better and the team sheet says so, in public, every week until it changes.
Squad1 Feb 2027
Facundo Coelli asks for a word with the manager
“I would rather say it to his face than read about it.” The meeting was requested by the player, which tells you most of what you need to know.
Market1 Feb 2027
Denys Tesliuk is free to find somewhere else
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Obolon has been clear about where Denys Tesliuk stands, which is more than many ever get.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad25 Jan 2027
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 14 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Match23 Jan 2027
Beaten 1‑3, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Squad25 Jan 2027
The manager makes an example of Maksym Chekh
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
Player ratings25 Jan 2027
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.02, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Squad25 Jan 2027
Nobody will confirm this and nothing else explains the last month of selections. A costly error buys a player a period of being second choice that is always longer than the error was.
Squad25 Jan 2027
5 goals and a season average of 7.25. Form like that gets noticed well beyond this town.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad18 Jan 2027
A fracture rules Nikita Vorobiov out for 22 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Obolon will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Squad18 Jan 2027
Pavlo Polehenko falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Match16 Jan 2027
Beaten 0‑2, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Squad18 Jan 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Pavlo Polehenko, and the manager let it.
Player ratings18 Jan 2027
Successful dribbles: 19. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad18 Jan 2027
A defender's mistake gets tidied up by somebody else; a goalkeeper's ends up in the net. He knew before the ball crossed the line, and so did everybody in the ground.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad21 Dec 2026
There were 8 saves in it, and at least three that had no business being saves at all. The ten outfield players owe him a drink and they know it.
Match19 Dec 2026
6 matches without a win for Obolon
The run now stands at 6, and the questions being asked around Obolon are no longer polite ones.
Match19 Dec 2026
A bad afternoon for Obolon against Polissia
1‑3 to Polissia, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Squad21 Dec 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Facundo Coelli, and the manager let it.
Player ratings21 Dec 2026
Ninety minutes of Roman Volokhatyi at his very best
Marked 8.52. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Obolon.
Player ratings21 Dec 2026
Successful dribbles: 15. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad28 Sep 2026
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 43 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Match26 Sep 2026
8 unbeaten for Obolon
Hard to beat is not the same as winning, but 8 matches without defeat is a foundation Obolon did not have in the autumn.
Squad28 Sep 2026
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Obolon this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad28 Sep 2026
The manager makes an example of Facundo Coelli
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
Player ratings28 Sep 2026
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.55, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Player ratings28 Sep 2026
Ninety minutes of Vladyslav Pryimak at his very best
Marked 8.39. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Obolon.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad7 Sep 2026
A fracture rules Denys Ustymenko out for 67 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Obolon will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Market7 Sep 2026
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Match5 Sep 2026
7 matches without a win for Obolon
The run now stands at 7, and the questions being asked around Obolon are no longer polite ones.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Words at Obolon training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Pavlo Polehenko is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Player ratings7 Sep 2026
Ninety minutes of Roman Volokhatyi at his very best
Marked 9.02. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Obolon.
Boardroom7 Sep 2026
253% of the income goes out in wages at Obolon
Every club in football pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time somebody has tried it.
Squad7 Sep 2026
The manager makes an example of Ivan Nesterenko
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
Match5 Sep 2026
It finished 1‑1, and it somehow always looked like it would. One of those afternoons where the table moves less than the tempers.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Facundo Coelli knocks on the manager’s door
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Facundo Coelli trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.