Everton signed 22-year-old left-back Vitaliy Mykolenko from Ukrainian club Dynamo Kyiv for a reported amount of 23.5 million pounds on January 1 with the full-back signing a contract till June 2026.
The Toffees head coach Rafael Benitez praised the youngster for playing 120 minutes in his FA Cup debut, which helped the club progress to Round 4 of the historic competition. On Saturday, the 22-year-old made his Premier League debut in the 2-1 loss to 20th placed Norwich City and would be looking to put in better performances in the near future after a forgettable debut.
The former Dynamo left-back becomes yet another player to shine and establish himself as one of the best players in the league before moving on to big European giants.
Here, we look at 5 players that were eventually sold to the big European clubs for the most amount of transfer money after shining in Ukraine.
#5 Andriy Shevchenko
Dynamo Kyiv youth academy graduate and went on to establish himself as one of the greats of the club, scoring 60 goals in 117 games before moving to AC Milan for €24 million.
The striker played for the Rossoneri for a number of fruitful seasons making football news headlines and winning the Serie A and the UEFA Champions League before a misadventure at Chelsea, which ended up with him returning to Dynamo winning a solitary Super Cup title in his second stint before hanging up his boots.
#4 Henrikh Mkhitaryan
This journeyman has played across several leagues, but his best period in front of goal came in Ukraine. Playing for Shakhtar Donetsk, the winger scored 38 goals and provided 16 assists in 72 league appearances across three seasons.
The Armenian forward was snapped up by Borussia Dortmund in 2013 for €27.5 million (as per Sport.UA) and the winger further represented European giants like Manchester United, Arsenal, and Roma in an illustrious career.
#3 Dmytro Chyhrynskyi
The centre-back was the first Ukrainian player to take the path of joining Barcelona as the La Liga club signed him for a record-breaking sum of €25 million in 2009.
Chyhrynskyi left Barca in July 2010 after the club retained the league title, but manager Pep Guardiola preferred to play Puyol and Pique in the heart of the defence, with the Ukrainian maligned to the bench.
He to Donetsk the next season and was able to add two more Premier League titles to the three league titles won in the first stint.
#2 Fernandinho
The midfielder started his career at Atletico Paranense before moving to Shakhtar Donetsk in 2005 to in six league titles, four cups, two Super Cups and a UEFA Cup.
Since his move to Manchester City for a whopping €40 million, the Brazilian has been one of the best central holding midfielders in the Premier League history.
#1 Willian
The winger started his career with his current club Corinthians before Shakhtar Donetsk snapped him up for USD 19.6 million. The Brazilian winger stayed at the club for six seasons, winning 10 titles, including the UEFA Cup. He scored 21 goals and provided 44 assists.
Shakhtar earned a whopping €35.5 million for selling Willian to Anzhi Makhachkala before being sold to Chelsea 6 months later. He won two Premier League titles and a UEFA Europa League title with the Blues before moving to rivals Arsenal for a short span of time.