Taras Mykhalyk

Mykhalyk is a product of the football youth system of his native Volyn region, where he was a striker.[1]

After graduating from the Vocational technical school in his region, Mykhalyk enrolled in the Institute of Physical Education at the Volyn National University, and played in the team there that participated in the championship of the Volyn Oblast.

The 18-year-old Mykhalyk joined the Ukrainian First League club CSKA Kyiv in 2001. He established himself into the starting line-up of the squad, playing 89 matches in the four seasons that he was there. He also managed to net 10 goals.[2]

Mykhalyk was a member of the Ukrainian Under-21 National football team that finished as runners-up in the UEFA U-21 Championship 2006. He was in the main squad in Oleksiy Mykhailychenko's squad even up to the final, which Ukraine lost to the Netherlands 3–0.[12]

Mykhalyk received his first call-up for the senior national team by head coach Oleh Blokhin for a match against Azerbaijan on 15 August 2006. Ukraine went on to win 6–0 and Mykhalyk played 30 minutes of the game.[3] He went on to play five more games under Blokhin's leadership, two more friendly matches and three UEFA Euro 2008 Qualifying games.

Mykhalyk was reunited with his former under-21 manager in 2008 when Oleksiy Mykhailychenko took the helm of the national team in its attempt to qualify for the 2010 World Cup after Blokhin's failure to qualify for the Euro. Mykhalyk established himself as one of the main players this time, playing center-back usually alongside Shakhtar Donetsk's Dmytro Chyhrynskyi. He went on to play 7 out of the 10 qualifying games as well as 3 friendlies. Ukraine finished second in its qualifying group and was drawn to play against Greece in the play-offs. However Mykhalyk did not take part in these games because of injury, neither did Chygrynskiy who had recently transferred to FC Barcelona and did not get enough game practice there. Ukraine went on to lose the play-off round due mostly to its weak defence and the Ukrainian Football Federation did not renew Mykhailychenko's contract.

Taras Mykhalyk is not single, which he confirmed in a recent interview, stating that he spends much of spare time with his girlfriend. He also stated that on the winter breaks his favorite pastime is hunting, while in the summer he prefers to go fishing.[13]

Mykhalyk's father works in a school as a teacher of physical education, while his mother works in the regional state administration. He is from a large family: he has one older brother and five younger sisters. He stated that he is financially aiding his parents, and helping to pay for the education of one of his sisters at the Kyiv Theological Seminary and another at the National Aviation University.[3]

• Taras Mykhalyk at UAF and archived FFU page (in Ukrainian)
• Taras Mykhalyk at Soccerway
• Taras Mykhalyk at FootballFacts.ru (in Russian)