FC Kolos Kovalivka

FC Kolos Kovalivka (Ukrainian: Колос Ковалівка) is a professional Ukrainian football club from the village of Kovalivka, Kyiv Oblast which competes in the Ukrainian Premier League, having been promoted from the Ukrainian First League on the 8 June 2019 for the first time in their history. The club colors are white and black. The club has three football teams including women and youth.

Kolos Kovalivka

Full name	FC Kolos Kovalivka
Founded	2012; 13 years ago (2012)
Ground	Kolos Stadium
Capacity	5,000
President	Andriy Zasukha[1]
General Director	Yevhen Yevseyev[1]
Head coach	Ruslan Kostyshyn (interim)
League	Ukrainian Premier League
2024–25	Ukrainian Premier League, 10th of 16
Website	koloskovalivka.com
Home colours Away colours Third colours

The club has made a real cinderella story in 2020 transforming in five years from an amateur team into a continental challengers by advancing through the full league pyramid (4 tiers).^[2] Outside of the league pyramid, the club also holds several honours of regional competitions for Kyiv Oblast which it represents.^[2]

The club is named after the Ukrainian sports society Kolos (Agro-Industrial Complex trade unions) that has existed since after World War II. The main sponsor of the club is the Svitanok agrarian company (firm), formerly the Shchors collective farm (kolkhoz).

History

Previous team

Before establishment of Kolos, the village of Kovalivka had a team Svitanok Kovalivka. In 2008 it made appearance in the Ukrainian Amateur Cup and was eliminated in Round of 16.

Current club

The club was established in 2012 and until 2015 it participated in championship of Kyiv Oblast playing its games in a neighboring town of Hlevakha. The team were champions three times from 2012 to 2014.^[3]

The club in 2014 made their debut in the Ukrainian Football Amateur League. Later that year after winning the Oleh Makarov Memorial Tournament, which is played in winter the head coach Ruslan Kostyshyn announced that the club intended to go into professional football.^[3] That year in 2015 after finishing third in the Ukrainian Football Amateur League, the club obtained professional status and joined the PFL entering into the Ukrainian Second League.^[3]

In their first season the club won the championship and were promoted to the Ukrainian First League.^[4]

On 29 July 2020, FC Kolos in overtime beat FC Mariupol 1–0 and qualified for the European competitions. The head coach Ruslan Kostyshyn was merely shocked stating that did not expect his club to place higher the 8th place.^[5]

Honours

Club emblem (2012–18)

• Ukrainian First League
  • Runners-up (1): 2018–19
• Ukrainian Second League
  • Winners (1): 2015–16
• Kyiv Oblast Football Championship
  • Winners (3): 2012, 2013, 2014
• Football cup of Kyiv Oblast
  • Winners (1): 2014

Squad

As of 4 July 2025^[6][7]

Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules; some limited exceptions apply. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.

No. Pos. Nation Player 4 DF  UKR Vladyslav Shershen 5 DF  UKR Valeriy Bondarenko (captain) 6 DF  UKR Mykyta Burda 7 MF  UKR Oleksandr Demchenko 8 MF  UKR Vladyslav Veleten 9 DF  UKR Andriy Tsurikov 10 MF  KOS Albin Krasniqi 14 MF  MLI Ibrahim Kane 15 FW  UKR Artem Husol 16 DF  KOS Ilir Krasniqi 17 FW  UKR Oleksiy Sydorov (on loan from Metalist 1925 Kharkiv) 20 MF  GEO Nika Gagnidze 23 FW  UKR Ivan Holovkin (on loan from Zorya Luhansk)

No. Pos. Nation Player 23 GK  UKR Roman Mysak 27 DF  UKR Tymofiy Sukhar 29 DF  UKR Vladyslav Yemets 31 GK  UKR Ivan Pakholyuk 32 DF  UKR Eduard Kozik (on loan from Shakhtar Donetsk) 33 MF  UKR Maksym Tretyakov 48 MF  UKR Oleh Kryvoruchko 54 DF  UKR Artem Tyeryekhov 55 MF  BRA Elias 77 FW  UKR Danyil Alefirenko 78 MF  UKR Pavlo Orikhovskyi 81 DF  UKR Yehor Popravka 88 DF  UKR Andriy Boyko 99 MF  ALB Arinaldo Rrapaj

Out on loan

Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules; some limited exceptions apply. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.

No. Pos. Nation Player — MF  UKR Oleh Ilyin (at Obolon Kyiv until 30 June 2025) — FW  LTU Gytis Paulauskas (at Dinamo Batumi until 31 December 2025)

No. Pos. Nation Player — FW  UKR Anton Salabay (at Vorskla Poltava until 30 June 2025)

Notable players

Had international caps for their respective countries. Players whose name is listed in bold represented their countries while playing for Kolos Kovalivka.

Ukraine Andriy Bohdanov Serhiy Bolbat Mykyta Burda Ihor Kharatin Vitaliy Lysytskyi Serhiy Myakushko Yevhen Seleznyov

Europe Arinaldo Rrapaj Rustam Akhmedzade Anatoliy Nuriyev Aleksandr Pavlovets Nikolay Zolotov Árni Vilhjálmsson Ilir Krasniqi Gytis Paulauskas

Africa Mamadou Danfa South America Jovanny Bolívar

Coaches and administration

Administration[8]	Coaching[6] (senior team)	Coaching (U-19 team)
President – Andriy Zasukha General director – Yevhen Yevseyev Sporting director – Vitaliy Lysytskyi First Vice-President – Irina (Faizutdinova) Zasukha	Head coach – Oleksandr Pozdeyev Assistant coach – Serhiy Kozyr Assistant coach – Andriy Hyrcha Goalkeeping coach – Vyacheslav Kernozenko Fitness coach – Vitaliy Mandzyuk	Senior coach – Vitaliy Havrysh Assistant coach – Yevheniy Novak Assistant coach – Vadym Milko Goalkeeper coach U19 - Serhiy Sitalo

League and cup history

Season	Div.	Pos.	Pl.	W	D	L	GS	GA	P	Ukrainian Cup	Other		Notes
2014	4th (Championship among amateurs)	2	10	6	3	1	19	5	21		AC	1⁄2 finals
		2	3	1	1	1	2	4	4
2015		1	6	6	0	0	26	3	18
		2	10	5	1	4	17	5	16				joined the Second League
2015–16	3rd (Second League)	1	26	19	3	4	62	22	60	1⁄32 finals			Promoted
2016–17	2nd (First League)	5	34	16	9	9	52	38	57	1⁄32 finals
2017–18		5	34	19	4	11	39	30	61	1⁄16 finals
2018–19		2	28	15	9	4	45	18	54	1⁄32 finals			Promoted[9]
2019–20	1st (Premier League)	6	32	10	2	20	33	59	32	1⁄8 finals
2020–21		4	26	10	11	5	36	26	41	1⁄4 finals	EL	3QR
2021–22		8	18	7	3	8	14	23	24	1⁄16 finals	ECL	3QR
2022–23		8	30	10	6	14	23	36	36	None
2023–24		11	30	7	11	12	22	31	32	1⁄16 finals
2024–25		10	25	6	9	10	22	22	27	1⁄16 finals

European record

Kolos Kovalivka has participated in European competition since 2020, playing its first game against Aris Thessaloniki in the 2020–21 UEFA Europa League. Participating in only two European seasons, Kolos played only at the qualification stage.

Season	Competition	Round	Club	Home	Away	Aggregate
2020–21	UEFA Europa League	2Q	Aris	—	2–1	—
		3Q	Rijeka	—	0–2 (a.e.t.)	—
2021–22	UEFA Europa Conference League	3Q	Shakhter Karagandy	0–0	0–0 (a.e.t.)	0–0 (1–3 p)

Reserves and academy

Kolos-2

It was announced that Kolos will be fielding its second squad in the 2024–25 Ukrainian Second League. Kolos-2 would be formed based on another football club of Kyiv Oblast, Shturm Ivankiv, that competed at amateur and regional levels.^[10]

Youth squads

Since 2017 Kolos fields its under-19 squad in youth competitions. Also, in 2019–2021 there existed Kolos U-21 which competed in respective competitions of the Ukrainian Premier League (UPL under-21).

Academy and junior squads

In 2017 there were formed first junior squads of the Academy.^[11] At first there were under-17 and under-15 squads which expanded substantially by 2021.

Notable players

• Ruslan Kostyshyn

Managers

• Kostyantyn Sakharov (2012 – 2014)
• Ruslan Kostyshyn (6 February 2014 – 29 August 2021)
• Syarhey Kuznyatsow (interim) (29 August 2021 – November 2021)
• Yaroslav Vyshnyak (November 2021 – present)

External links

• Kolos Kovalivka at the Professional Football League of Ukraine (archived 16 February 2017)
• Official website