Ivan Babenko

Striker - Metalist U18
19 Sep 2038
Sunday
Process

Marked for Ivan Babenko

627 Edition

The Metalist Herald

2 Aug 2038
From our football correspondent Upbeat

Squad

Matías Sosa damages knee ligaments — 43 days out

The words a physio says slowly. 43 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.

Player ratings

A brace, and Nazar Popov takes the afternoon — 8.86

There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Nazar Popov provided it, and the 8.86 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.

Market

Artem Marlos is on his way

The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Metalist is pretending he will be back in the shirt.

Squad

Vasyl Lutsiv signs a new deal

“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Vasyl Lutsiv commits to Metalist for another 2 years.

Squad

Tempers go at Metalist

Thomas Jaimes 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.

Boardroom

Graduation day at Metalist

13 boys move up, and somewhere in the building the people who coached them at twelve are quietly having the best morning of their working year. Nothing about this shows up in a result and it is why the academy exists.

Match

Metalist find a way past Metalist

Metalist made Metalist work for it, but the scoreboard read 2‑1 at the end and the table does not ask how.

Market

Metalist promote Ivan Babenko from within

The academy exists for exactly this morning. Ivan Babenko has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.

Market

One of our own: Maksym Karavayev joins the Metalist first team

Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Maksym Karavayev is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.

In brief