Igor Kostyuk is a famous Ukrainian footballer, winner of the Ukrainian Cup and two-time winner of the Ukrainian Championship as part of Dynamo Kiev. He played as a midfielder, played one match for the national team of his country. After completing his playing career, he is engaged in coaching.
Biography: early years, early career
Igor Vladimirovich Kostyuk was born on September 14, 1975 in Kiev. Father Vladimir Petrovich worked in production, mother Lyubov Vladimirovna was a trade worker. Spouses Kostyuk raised three children: Igor, his younger brother Andrey and younger sister Olga.
From childhood, the future footballer was fond of sports, but did not single out something specific for himself. He was little by little engaged in handball, wrestling, figure skating, dancing, and looked closely at basketball, although he did not have enough height. Football was also present in Igor's life: he chased the ball with his friends in the yard with passion. And soon this sport supplanted all the other hobbies of the guy.
Kostyuk first learned the basics of professional play in the Lokomotiv children's team. He played as a forward and scored a lot. At the city competitions, the talented guy was noticed by Alexander Shpakov - the coach of the Dynamo Sports School - and invited him to take part in the training session at the Nyvky base together with his wards. As a result, Igor was offered to stay, and he happily agreed. The future stars of Ukrainian and European football played in the same team with Kostyuk:
- Andrey Shevchenko;
- Alexander Golokolosov;
- Maxim Pavlenko;
- Vyacheslav Kernozenko;
- Bohdan Balanchuk;
- Vladimir Anikeev;
- Vitaly Brunko.
Some of them later switched to futsal, but one way or another, all young athletes built worthy careers. Although the coach Shpakov saw the greatest potential in Kostyuk, he considered him the main star of the team. It seemed that Igor had a great football future.
Sports career
Kostyuk got into adult football early. He was not even eighteen when he played for the Dynamo-2 club for the first time together with the same inexperienced comrades in the sports school. Young footballers showed themselves excellently from the first matches and saved the team from relegation from the first league. From the 1993-1994 season, Kostyuk began playing for Dynamo-2. His game looked mature beyond his years, and their tandem with Andriy Shevchenko pleased the mentors with excellent results. Igor was transferred to the midfielder position, which became his permanent place on the football field.
In April 1996 he made his debut for Dynamo Kiev. The footballer played the entire game against Shakhtar Donetsk, in which his team won 3: 1. It took Kostyuk less than a month to score his first goal for the new club. On May 6, 1996, the footballer sent the ball into the gates of Odesa "Chornomorets" at the stadium in Kiev, the meeting ended with a score of 3: 0 in favor of the home team. An annoying injury prevented the player from gaining a foothold in Dynamo's roster: playing for Dynamo-2, he broke his ankle.
After a course of rehabilitation, Kostyuk left for Russia, tried to play for the Tyumen club. But very quickly he returned to his homeland and joined the Poltava "Vorskla". The footballer calls that period of his life the "black stripe". And this streak ended with the move to Poltava. The Vorskla coaches appreciated the talented player. Very soon he became one of the leaders of the team. Even when there was a change in the coaching staff, Kostyuk did not go into the shadows, but played even brighter, more confident. True, his football takeoff was overshadowed by the financial problems of Vorskla. The club has accumulated impressive salary debts to its players, and as a result, part of the money has not been paid to them.
An impressive performance at Vorskla helped Kostyuk attract the attention of the head coach of the Ukrainian national football team. Prior to that, in September 1996, he had a chance to play for the national youth team of the country in a match against Georgia, the Ukrainians won 3: 1. At the end of 1999, the national team was preparing for the qualifying games for getting to the European Championship 2000. Igor Kostyuk was considered by the coaching staff to participate in the matches against Slovenia. But his only performance for the Ukrainian national team took place on April 22, 2000 in a match against Bulgaria. The footballer spent the entire second half on the field and witnessed how his youth friend Andriy Shevchenko scored the winning goal against the opponent.
In the spring of 2000, Kostyuk returned to his native Dynamo for a short time. Unfortunately, here he was given little playing practice, often leaving him on the bench. During the season, he entered the field in five matches. Then the footballer agreed with the management to return to Vorskla on loan. But luck turned away from Kostyuk here too. In a friendly match of the Poltava team, he received a cruciate ligament rupture, an operation was required. After completing the course of treatment, the footballer changed several teams:
- "Transcarpathia" (Uzhgorod);
- Dynamo-2 (Kiev);
- Borisfen (Boryspil);
- Arsenal (Kiev).
In 2004, Kostyuk began playing for Arsenal Kiev, getting a place in the first team. For a season and a half, he demonstrated a decent level of play, and then old injuries began to worry. The footballer understood that his career was nearing completion. The coach of CSKA Kiev, which played in the first league, prevented the final point in it. He offered Kostyuk a place in his team. Agreeing, rather, to keep fit, the footballer stayed at CSKA for three seasons. He left big football quietly and imperceptibly.
Coaching and personal life
After completing his playing career, Kostyuk admitted that he would like to devote more time to his wife and children. He met his wife Marina in the company of mutual friends. The girl worked as an administrator in a dental clinic, and the football player was just doing dental treatment. Discussing a familiar topic helped new acquaintances quickly and imperceptibly get closer. The couple are raising two daughters, and the youngest, Mirra, was born in 2017, when her older sister was 16 years old.
Together with his wife, Kostyuk develops the family business, but football still occupies an important place in his life. After completing his playing career, he worked as an assistant head coach of the CSKA team, underwent training at the UEFA licensing center. Then for some time he himself took exams from those wishing to receive a coaching diploma. In 2012, he came to work at the Dynamo Academy, where he trains young footballers. Since the 2017-2018 season, Igor Kostyuk has been appointed head coach of the Dynamo youth team, in which children under 19 play.
