Name: Maxym Koval
Club: Dynamo Kiev
Nationality: Ukrainian
Position: Goalkeeper
Who is he?
At the age of 16 the young keeper kept a clean sheet on his Ukrainian Premier League debut for home-town club Metalurh Zaporizhya in November 2009, having come through their youth academy.
After excelling in his first season, Koval then caught the eye of Ukraine’s most famous club, Dynamo Kiev by saving an injury time penalty against the capital club.
Achievements
Although brought in as a back-up to veteran Oleksandr Shovkovskiy, Koval signed for Dynamo at the start of the 2010/11 season and hit the ground running straight away due to the established No 1’s early-season injury. On his Champions League debut against Ajax he played a key role in foiling an attack spearheaded by Luis Suarez (earning a 1 – 1 draw) and earned rave reviews in the domestic league.
By the end of that season, he had received his first call up for the Ukrainian national team.
However Shovkovskiy would fall foul of injury at the end of 2011-12 which saw Koval fill in with distinction and replace the veteran in Ukraine’s Euro 2012 squad on home soil. Although he did not play during the tournament, he did make his senior debut against Austria in a pre-tournament friendly.
This season he has become Dynamo’s No 1, despite Shovkovskiy’s return and won rave reviews for his performance against Feyenoord in the Champions League qualifiers (you can watch his saves from that game below).
Attributes
This season Koval has kept the joint most clean-sheets in the Ukrainian league with 10 from 18 games, conceding a goal every 125 minutes or every 1.3 games. He also managed to keep a clean-sheet against Porto in the Champions League group stages.
At 6 foot 2, he is tall but not particularly lanky compared to many goalkeepers, he makes up for this through cat-like reflexes. His distribution has also been praised.
Potential
Pinpointed as one of the 100 best young players in the world by Spanish football magazine Don Ballon in 2011, Koval has a very bright future and is among a clutch of young keepers including David De Gea and Marc-Andre Ter Stegen who are expected to become their countries’ long-term No 1s over the next decade. Koval has also been linked with Arsenal.
