Marked for Oleksandr Lebedenko
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market7 Dec 2026
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Victoriia Sumy can pretend not to have heard.
Squad7 Dec 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 Victoriia Sumy this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad7 Dec 2026
“The easiest signature of my career.” Jonathan Reyes and Victoriia Sumy agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad7 Dec 2026
“Some mornings you wake up and you are still a long way from everything you know.” It is not the football and it never was; Victoriia Sumy are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Player ratings7 Dec 2026
A performance of 8.45 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Squad7 Dec 2026
“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.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad9 Nov 2026
Vladyslav Khameliuk 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.
Player ratings9 Nov 2026
Successful dribbles: 20. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Match7 Nov 2026
Inhulets left with the points after a 0‑1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad7 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 Victoriia Sumy this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Market7 Sep 2026
Podillia paid $38.0K and Victoriia Sumy took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
Boardroom7 Sep 2026
Wages eat 692% of everything Victoriia Sumy earn
There is a figure at which a wage bill stops being ambitious and becomes the reason nothing else is possible, and this club has reached it. Nothing is left over for a transfer, a stand or a rainy afternoon.
Match5 Sep 2026
It finished 1‑0, and it was Maksym Yevpak’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Victoriia Sumy.
Player ratings7 Sep 2026
Marked 8.39 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
Squad7 Sep 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Artem Riabyi, and the manager let it.
Player ratings7 Sep 2026
Headers, blocks, tackles, interceptions — 17 of them, and not one goal behind him. The sort of performance that never makes a highlight reel and wins football matches.
Player ratings7 Sep 2026
Headers, blocks, tackles, interceptions — 14 of them, and not one goal behind him. The sort of performance that never makes a highlight reel and wins football matches.
Squad7 Sep 2026
He wheeled away like a man who had been carrying it for months, because he had. Victoriia Sumy have their signing off the mark and one press-conference question retired.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match22 Aug 2026
No end in sight to Victoriia Sumy's wait for a win
4 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Victoriia Sumy has to find a result from somewhere.
Squad24 Aug 2026
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Gastón Vega commits to Victoriia Sumy for another 4 years.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Stanislav Sharay 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.
Match22 Aug 2026
Beaten 0‑1, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 18. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad24 Aug 2026
The manager makes an example of Yuriy Dudnyk
“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 ratings24 Aug 2026
One lapse, one goal, and ninety minutes of honest work counting for nothing. That is the job at Victoriia Sumy, and it is a cruel one.
Squad24 Aug 2026
“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.
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
The one thing Maksym Yevpak could not do
Shots: 7, enough of them from close enough that a striker in form scores two. He is not a striker in form.