Andriy Yarmolenko

Early career

Yarmolenko is a graduate of the Chernihiv Youth Sports School "Yunist". He joined the Dynamo Kyiv Youth Academy aged 13. However, he returned to Chernihiv after a year being unable to meet physical requirements in training. Before his move to Dynamo Kyiv in 2007, he played for Yunist Chernihiv, Desna Chernihiv, Lokomotyv Kyiv, Vidradnyi Kyiv and again Yunist Chernihiv

Desna Chernihiv

In the summer 2006, from Yunist Chernihiv, he joined to Desna Chernihiv, the main club in Chernihiv, under the coach Oleksandr Tomakh. Here he played in the season 2006–07 in Ukrainian First League, where he made nine appearances and scored four goals.

Dynamo Kyiv

In 2007, Yarmolenko signed a five-year contract with Ukrainian club Dynamo Kyiv, where he joined its second team, Dynamo-2, which plays in lower leagues, for a couple of seasons. The talented youngster was praised as the "new Andriy Shevchenko" by journalists, who noted his qualities of good physique, shot and especially his speed. The then vice-president of Dynamo, Yozhef Sabo, also praised the youngster, saying, "Yarmolenko has all the makings to become a top-level player." On 11 May 2008, Yarmolenko debuted for Dynamo's first team in an away match against Vorskla Poltava and scored the winning goal in Kyiv's 2–1 victory. He scored 7 goals in 21 games in his first season and 11 in 19 in his second. He is now regularly used as a left or centre forward. In a match in October 2015, Yarmolenko…

On 11 August 2007 Yarmolenko represented Ukraine under-19 team in an away exhibition game against Japan, winning 1–0. He also participated in the 2008 UEFA European Under-19 Championship qualification. After the qualification on 10 October 2008, Yarmolenko was invited to the under-21 squad which played against the Netherlands. He later participated in qualification and finals of the 2011 UEFA European Under-21 Football Championship. On 5 September 2009, in the 2010 FIFA World Cup qualification game against Andorra, Yarmolenko made his first senior appearance for Ukraine and scored in a 5–0 win. On 2 September 2011, in an international friendly against Uruguay in Kharkiv, Yarmolenko set a national team record by scoring 14 seconds into the match, the fastest time in which a Ukraine national team player has scored a goal. Yarmolenko scored a hat-trick on 15 November 2014, netting all of Ukraine's goals in a 3–0 victory away to Luxembourg in UEFA Euro 2016 qualifying. In November 2015, Yarmolenko scored in both legs of Ukraine's 3–1 play-off victory over Slovenia to qualify the nation for Euro 2016 final stages. Yarmolenko was subsequently included in Ukraine's squad for Euro 2016, where he played in all three matches as Ukraine failed to score and finished bottom of the group. Yarmolenko scored against Netherlands at Johan Cruyff Arena in Amsterdam and against North Macedonia at Arena Națională in Bucharest for UEFA Euro 2020 and he has been elected Star of the Match. On 1…

On 20 September 2024, Yarmolenko received his UEFA "A" coaching license by successfully completing the coaching courses in Kyiv, Ukraine.

Yarmolenko's parents, native Ukrainians, were originally from Smolianka village, Kulykivka Raion, Chernihiv Oblast. After their marriage, Valentyna and Mykola Yarmolenko moved to Leningrad where Andriy was born in 1989. He has a younger sister. After a period of three years (after the dissolution of the Soviet Union), the family moved back to their native country and settled in the city of Chernihiv. His mother recollected that Andriy began to play with the ball from the age of 4–5 years. "In the beginning he did not even have a proper ball, so had to play with a self-made one. We were poor and real football was a luxury in those times". Yarmolenko was noticed by Mykola Lypoviy who invited him to football school (Youth Sports School "Yunist" in Chernihiv) and became his first coach.