Oleksiy Byelik

Oleksiy Hryhorovych Byelik (; born 15 February 1981) is a Ukrainian former professional footballer who played as a forward. He played for the Ukraine national team, and appeared on the main squad for the 2006 FIFA World Cup. Also with three goals scored, Byelik was a leading scorer for the Ukraine U-20 team at the 2001 FIFA World Youth Championship. He was also on the Ukraine U18 squad at final of the 2000 UEFA European Under-18 Championship.

Career

Shakhtar Donetsk Born in Donetsk, Ukrainian SSR, Byelik started his career in Shakhtar Donetsk. He was a regular starter for the club until 2006 FIFA World Cup, after which he was seldom used.

VfL Bochum In the January 2008 transfer window, Byelik was loaned from Shakhtar to Bundesliga side VfL Bochum. He made his first start for VfL Bochum against VfL Wolfsburg, where he hit the post and received a yellow card, but was substituted in the 58th minute. He was used in a total of four games and returned to Shakhtar in the summer of 2008.

Dnipro Dnipropetrovsk On 5 August 2008, after some short negotiations Byelik signed with Dnipro Dnipropetrovsk on a three-year contract, with a transfer fee of $5.5 million. He debuted for the club on 23 August 2008, in a league match which Dnipro ended drawing 0–0. Byelik was subbed in the 59th minute and made an impact with a few of his shots. He also got a yellow card in the 90+1 minute for shooting the ball after it was called offside.

Metalurh Zaporizhya He last played for Metalurh Zaporizhya in the Ukrainian First League.

International career He was one of the leaders of the Ukrainian junior team (24 games, 15 goals) and youth teams (27 games, 17 goals) at the 2001 FIFA U-20 World Cup in Argentina, scoring three goals in three group stage games and helping the team reach the 1-8 final, where it lost to future semi-finalists from Paraguay. In February 2002, he was called up to the Ukrainian Olympic team by head coach Anatoliy Kroshchenko.

In early September 2004, he was called up to the country's team and scored in the first game against Kazakhstan. His second goal in official games was against Georgia. In total, he has played 20 games and 5 goals for the national team. He was considered to be Andrei Shevchenko's double, but only made it to the main squad in case of injury to the captain of the national team. At the 2006 FIFA World Cup, he came on as a substitute in a match against Italy, playing the last 20 minutes.

Career statistics

Club

International Scores and results list Ukraine's goal tally first, score column indicates score after each Byelik goal.

Honours Ukrainian Premier League: 2001–02, 2004–05, 2005–06 Ukrainian Cup: 2000–01, 2001–02, 2003–04 UEFA European Under-19 Championship runner-up: 2000