Dynamo Kyiv
Also written as Dyn. Kyiv, Dynamo Kiev.
The club
FC Dynamo Kyiv were founded on 13 May 1927 and are the most decorated club in Ukrainian football. They are known as the Bilo-sini, the Blue and Whites, and have played in blue and white for nearly all of their history, the exception being the closing Soviet years when they wore the Ukrainian national colours. The club's two grounds are the Olimpiyskiy National Sports Complex, capacity 70,050, and the Valeriy Lobanovskyi Dynamo Stadium, capacity 16,000, which is named after the coach who defined the club. Ihor Surkis is president and majority owner. Since the Russian invasion, UEFA has required Ukrainian clubs to play their home European matches at neutral venues, and Dynamo's have been staged at the Arena Lublin in Poland.
The football feed shortens the name to "Dyn. Kyiv".
Recent seasons
Dynamo won the Ukrainian Premier League in 2024/25, their 17th title and 30th domestic championship counting the Soviet era. They were runners-up in 2023/24. The club's own season-by-season record puts them fourth in 2022/23.
The 2025/26 season ended fourth of 16 with 17 wins, 6 draws and 7 defeats from 30 matches, 66 goals scored and 36 conceded, behind Shakhtar Donetsk, LNZ Cherkasy and Polissya Zhytomyr. Matviy Ponomarenko was the league's top scorer with 13 goals. The season was saved by the Ukrainian Cup, which Dynamo won, and which carried them into the Europa League. The highest-scoring league game of that season was Kryvbas 5-6 Dynamo on 26 April 2026.
Honours and landmarks
Dynamo have won the Ukrainian Premier League 17 times, a record, from the first independent championship in 1992/93 through to 2024/25. They have won the Ukrainian Cup 14 times, most recently in 2025/26, and the Ukrainian Super Cup nine times, also a record. In the Soviet era they won the Soviet Top League 13 times, more than any other club, including three in a row in 1966, 1967 and 1968, the Soviet Cup nine times and the Soviet Super Cup three times.
Oleh Blokhin, a Dynamo forward, is the Soviet Top League's all-time leading scorer with 211 goals and its record appearance-maker with 432, and the Soviet Union's leading international scorer with 42 goals in 112 caps.
Notable scorelines
Dynamo won both of their European Cup Winners' Cup finals 3-0: against Ferencvaros at the St Jakob Stadium in Basel in 1975, and against Atletico Madrid at the Stade de Gerland in Lyon in 1986. The 1975 European Super Cup was played over two legs against Bayern Munich and won 1-0 and 2-0. They lost the 1986 Super Cup 1-0 to Steaua Bucharest in Monaco.
The most-remembered modern result is the 6-0 defeat of Besiktas in Kyiv in the 2016/17 Champions League group stage, in a campaign Dynamo otherwise finished bottom of. The heaviest is the 8-0 aggregate loss to Chelsea in the last 16 of the 2018/19 Europa League. The club's all-time record win and record defeat were not established from the sources read here.
European record
Dynamo entered European competition in the 1965/66 Cup Winners' Cup and reached the quarter-finals, losing to Celtic. They have played in over 50 UEFA tournaments and have not missed a season since 1990; since 1973 they have been absent only twice, in 1984/85 and 1988/89.
The two Cup Winners' Cups, in 1974/75 and 1985/86, and the 1975 European Super Cup are the trophies. Beyond those, Dynamo reached the semi-finals of the European Cup or Champions League three times, in 1977, 1987 and 1999, and the semi-finals of the UEFA Cup in 2009. Under Valeriy Lobanovskyi the club supplied most of the Soviet Union national team.
The modern record is thinner. Under Alyaksandr Khatskevich they twice failed to reach the Champions League group stage and twice went out of the Europa League in the last 16, losing 4-2 on aggregate to Lazio in 2017/18 and 8-0 to Chelsea in 2018/19. Mircea Lucescu took charge in July 2020 and won the league and cup double in 2020/21 but no European progress followed. Oleksandr Shovkovskyi succeeded him in 2023 and was replaced by Ihor Kostyuk in late 2025.
In 2026/27 Dynamo entered the Europa League first qualifying round as Ukrainian Cup holders and drew 0-0 with Universitatea Cluj at the Arena Lublin on 9 July 2026 in front of 1,795, then drew the return 0-0 after extra time at the Cluj Arena on 16 July before winning 4-2 on penalties, Andriy Yarmolenko, Volodymyr Brazhko, Ponomarenko and Justin Lonwijk all scoring from the spot. PAOK then ended the Europa League run: Dynamo lost the first leg 3-2 in Lublin on 23 July, Brazhko scoring after three minutes and Lonwijk on 77 against goals from Giannis Konstantelias, Christos Zafeiris and Baptiste Santamaria, and lost the second leg 2-0 at the Toumba Stadium on 30 July, Konstantelias scoring twice. That is 5-2 on aggregate and a drop into the Conference League.
Quotes
- "It's good that we won. But there were a lot of mistakes, and we need to correct them." - Matviy Ponomarenko, Dynamo Kyiv forward, to the club's official site after the Qarabag first leg, 6 August 2026. https://fcdynamo.com/en/news/matvii-ponomarenko-spodivayusya-mene-prorvalo-i-dali-bude-bilse
- "Thank God, the ball went in, so I ended my goalless run." - Matviy Ponomarenko, Dynamo Kyiv forward, to the club's official site, 6 August 2026. https://fcdynamo.com/en/news/matvii-ponomarenko-spodivayusya-mene-prorvalo-i-dali-bude-bilse
- "Today we earned a minimal handicap, and we'll try to win in Baku as well and go through to the next round." - Matviy Ponomarenko, Dynamo Kyiv forward, to the club's official site, 6 August 2026. https://fcdynamo.com/en/news/matvii-ponomarenko-spodivayusya-mene-prorvalo-i-dali-bude-bilse
- "Thanks to our character, thanks to the fact that there was a real team on the pitch today." - Ihor Kostyuk, Dynamo Kyiv head coach, at his post-match press conference, club official site, 6 August 2026. https://fcdynamo.com/en/news/liga-konferencii-dinamo-karabax-10-pislyamatceva-preskonferenciya-igorya-kostyuka
- "Many players have returned to us from loan spells, and we are looking for new connections, new combinations, and working on different game options." - Ihor Kostyuk, Dynamo Kyiv head coach, at his post-match press conference, club official site, 6 August 2026. https://fcdynamo.com/en/news/liga-konferencii-dinamo-karabax-10-pislyamatceva-preskonferenciya-igorya-kostyuka
- "We have a sufficiently deep squad, and this match will give the team more confidence and a better understanding of what it takes to achieve results." - Ihor Kostyuk, Dynamo Kyiv head coach, at his post-match press conference, club official site, 6 August 2026. https://fcdynamo.com/en/news/liga-konferencii-dinamo-karabax-10-pislyamatceva-preskonferenciya-igorya-kostyuka
All six are published in English on the club's own site, which carries an English edition alongside the Ukrainian.
Right now (2026/27)
Ihor Kostyuk is head coach. Dynamo play league football at the Valeriy Lobanovskyi Stadium and European football at the Arena Lublin.
The summer was one of small deals. Goalkeeper Illia Olkhovyi arrived from Nyva Ternopil on 13 June 2026 for an undisclosed fee. Tomasz Kedziora returned to the club from PAOK on 19 June on a two-year contract. The forward Pierre Mounguengue signed from Paris Saint-Germain on 24 June on a three-year deal, and the defender Oleksiy Sych came from Karpaty Lviv on 21 July on a three-year contract with the option of a fourth. Ponomarenko extended his own contract to the summer of 2031 on 23 July.
Going out: Oleksandr Karavayev left at the end of his contract on 10 June and rejoined Shakhtar Donetsk, Oleksandr Yatsyk left on 19 June, Maksym Braharu joined Polissya Zhytomyr permanently on 20 June after a loan season, and Denys Ignatenko, Vitinho, Giorgi Tsitaishvili and Valentyn Morgun all departed at the end of June or on 1 July. Maksym Dyachuk went on loan to Banik Ostrava on 10 July, Anton Tsarenko to Blau-Weiss Linz on 14 July and Angel Torres to Operario Ferroviario on 8 August, all until 30 June 2027.
The Premier League began on 31 July 2026. Dynamo's first league result of the season was a 2-1 win away at Veres Rivne on 9 August, Oleksandr Tymchyk scoring on 38 minutes and Ponomarenko converting a penalty in the second minute of stoppage time after Ihor Kharatin had equalised on 53. They sit sixth. Kolos Kovalivka visit the Lobanovskyi Stadium on 16 August.
The European tie they are in right now is the Conference League third qualifying round, Main Path, against Qarabag of Azerbaijan. Dynamo won the first leg 1-0 at the Arena Lublin on 6 August 2026, Ponomarenko scoring on 10 minutes, in front of 4,335, with Morten Krogh of Denmark refereeing; Cebrail Makreckis of Qarabag was sent off in the first minute of stoppage time. The second leg is at the Tofiq Bahramov Republican Stadium in Baku on 13 August 2026, refereed by Stuart Attwell of England. The winners face the winners of Twente against DAC Dunajska Streda in the play-off round on 20 and 27 August 2026.
Sources
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FC_Dynamo_Kyiv https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2026%E2%80%9327_FC_Dynamo_Kyiv_season https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2025%E2%80%9326_Ukrainian_Premier_League https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2026%E2%80%9327_Ukrainian_Premier_League https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2026%E2%80%9327_UEFA_Europa_League_qualifying https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2026%E2%80%9327_UEFA_Conference_League_qualifying https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2026%E2%80%9327_UEFA_Conference_League_qualifying_(third_and_play-off_round_matches) https://fcdynamo.com/en/news/liga-konferencii-dinamo-karabax-10-pislyamatceva-preskonferenciya-igorya-kostyuka https://fcdynamo.com/en/news/matvii-ponomarenko-spodivayusya-mene-prorvalo-i-dali-bude-bilse https://fcdynamo.com/en/news/liga-konferencii-dinamo-karabax-10-zvit-pro-matc
Researched and written for not4quarters. Where a fact could not be established from the sources read, this page says so rather than guessing.