Andriy Voronin

Andriy Viktorovych Voronin (Ukrainian: Андрій Вікторович Воронін, born 21 July 1979 in Odessa) is a Ukrainian footballer, who currently plays for Hertha Berlin, on loan from Liverpool FC. He usually plays as a striker, but can also play on the wing or as a play-maker.^[1] His previous clubs include Chornomorets Odessa, Borussia Mönchengladbach, Mainz, Köln and Bayer 04 Leverkusen. In the 2002-03 season, Voronin became top goalscorer in the 2nd Bundesliga. At international level he has frequently been played in midfield.

Career

Borussia Mönchengladbach

Voronin left his youth club Chornomorets Odessa in 1995 to move to Germany where he joined Borussia Mönchengladbach. He made his debut in the German Bundesliga against Bayern Munich in 1997 at the age of 18 but went on to spend a couple of years mainly in Mönchengladbach's youth teams. Having played just 7 games and scored 1 goal in the top division, he saw his team relegated and after one season and just two matches in the 2nd Bundesliga joined fellow second division strugglers Mainz in the for a fee of €45,000.^[1]

Mainz

He became Mainz' leading striker in his two seasons at the club, and in his third season became the top scorer in the 2nd Bundesliga with 20 goals. Voronin's start to the 2002-03 season with Mainz prompted the following quote from German football daily Kicker: "The star of the 23 year old forward is on a rise due to the new role he plays for the team - he has complete freedom of actions."^[2] This led to speculations about his future, with Dynamo Kyiv reported to be willing to bring him back to Ukraine.^[3]

Stuttgart, Bologna and a number of other clubs were then reported to approach his agent and Mainz initiated negotiations to extend his contract. UEFA.com described Voronin as "one of the most sought-after talents in Germany."^[1] However, come the end of the season Mainz failed to win promotion. Voronin decided not to renew his contract and ultimately chose to continue his career with 1. FC Köln, who had just been promoted to the top division.

FC Köln / Bayer Leverkusen

Köln were relegated at the end of the season, however Voronin stayed in the top flight after signing for Bayer Leverkusen. Bayer had been interested in Voronin since his time at Mainz and were also impressed with his performance for Köln in a 2-2 draw against them when Voronin scored one and created the other of Köln's goals. After that game Express called him "the only true good footballer at Köln" and Bild wrote: "Köln's only striker (Voronin) was more dangerous than Bayer's entire star attack (Schneider, Ponte, Neuville and Berbatov)."^[4]

After a successful first two seasons with Bayer as well as at the international level (culminating in participation in the 2006 World Cup in Germany where Ukraine reached the quarterfinals), Voronin's contract was running out at the end of the 2006-07 season and he was reported to have declined Bayer's offer of an extension. According to the player, he was approached by clubs from France, Spain, Italy and Scotland (Celtic were reported to be contemplating a move).

Liverpool

On 26 February, Liverpool announced that they had signed Voronin on a free transfer and that he would join the team during the summer.^[5] Voronin was unveiled as a Liverpool player on 6 July 2007 after signing a four-year deal.^[6] Voronin was given the number 10 shirt, a number once worn by Anfield legends such as John Barnes and Michael Owen.

Voronin made his Liverpool debut in a friendly against Crewe Alexandra F.C. and played well in the 3–0 victory. He scored his first goal on 17 July 2007 against Werder Bremen in a friendly, to give Liverpool a 1–0 lead. He then scored his second goal in the 61st minute as Liverpool went 3–1 up, eventually winning the game 3-2.^[7] He has been nicknamed 'The Crow' by a large portion of Liverpool fans, copying the trait started by the Ukrainian national team fans who have renamed Voronin as 'Vorona' - which means 'The Crow'. Voronin made his Premier League debut on 11 August 2007, coming on as a substitute in the 78th minute against Aston Villa. A few days later on 15 August 2007, he scored his first competitive goal for Liverpool when he struck a left-footed drive from 25 yards to give Liverpool the lead in the Champions league qualifier against Toulouse.

Benítez was clearly impressed with Voronin, saying:

"He is clever, has great game awareness and gives us so many more options in attack. He can play behind a main striker, lead the line himself, or come into the attack from the flanks."

On 25 August 2007 Voronin scored his first Premier League goal against Sunderland in the 87th minute. He then scored his next goal in the next league game against Derby County which Liverpool comfortably won 6–0 to move top of the Premier League table. He also scored the first goal in the 2–2 draw with Tottenham Hotspur on 7 October 2007.

In the 8–0 win against Besiktas in Champions League, Voronin got 2 clear assists to his name with a cross for Benayoun's first goal and backheel to Gerrard whose shot was deflected into the net. He also helped make 2 other goals with a pass for Crouch's first and playing through Riise whose shot was saved by the keeper, although the rebound was put away by Benayoun for his second.

Despite his early success at the club, he has since struggled to find his form at Liverpool. He has managed just 4 goals in 19 league games for the Reds.

On January 25 2008 Voronin injured his ankle during training.^[8] He underwent surgery and made a small number of appearances at the end of the season but failed to make an impact. This led to rumours that Rafa Benítez would sell him in order to raise funds for the summer 2008 transfer window, however Voronin played some of the summer friendlies scoring a total of 3 goals in the process.

Hertha Berlin

On the last day of the transfer market Andriy Voronin agreed to be loaned to Hertha Berlin for a season.^[9]

The official Liverpool website states that Voronin has so far failed to establish himself as a first choice regular on Merseyside and has taken up the opportunity of spending the next season in the Bundesliga, after joining on a Bosman in the summer of 2007.^[10]

International career

While at Mainz, Voronin was called up initially to Ukraine's Under-21 team and in January 2002 to the national team, at the age of 22. He made his international debut in a 4-1 friendly defeat to Romania in March 2002, however was dropped after that, with coach Leonid Buriak explaining: "I've been to Germany twice to watch him and made a conclusion Andriy cannot compete with Shevchenko, Rebrov and Vorobei as a forward. He can play in midfield as well but he still has to improve some aspects of his game. Anyway, we count on Voronin especially considering his young age."^[11]

Voronin was ultimately recalled to the national side, scoring his first international goal in a 2-0 Euro 2004 qualifying win over Greece in September 2002 and a second one in a 2-2 draw against Spain in March 2003.

He was in the Ukrainian squad for the Fifa World Cup 2006, in which Ukraine got to the quarterfinals, where they were knocked out by Italy.

Career statistics

Club career

International goals

Andriy Voronin: International Goals
(as of 21 November 2007)

#	Date	Venue	Opponent	Score	Result	Competition
1.	12 October 2002	Kyiv, Ukraine	Greece	2-0	Won	EC 2004 Qual
2.	28 March 2003	Kyiv, Ukraine	Spain	2-2	Draw	EC 2004 Qual
3.	30 March 2005	Kyiv, Ukraine	Denmark	1-0	Won	WC 2006 Qual
4.	8 June 2006	Luxembourg, Luxembourg	Luxembourg	3-0	Won	Friendly
5.	15 August 2006	Kyiv, Ukraine	Azerbaijan	6-0	Won	Friendly
6.	21 November 2007	Kyiv, Ukraine	France	2-2	Draw	EC 2008 Qual

References

External links

• Thisisanfield.com player profile
• Official Liverpool profile
• Andriy Voronin career stats at Soccerbase
• Leverkusen who's who
• Voronin profile and statistics by season at kicker.de
• Voronin profile and statistics by season while at Mainz at FSV05.de
• Voronin profile, fotos and all goals
• LFChistory.net player profile

Ukraine squad – 2006 FIFA World Cup 1 Shovkovskiy • 2 Nesmachniy • 3 Yatsenko • 4 Tymoshchuk • 5 Yezerskiy • 6 Rusol • 7 Shevchenko • 8 Shelayev • 9 Husyev • 10 Voronin • 11 Rebrov • 12 Pyatov • 13 Chygrynskiy • 14 Husin • 15 Milevskiy • 16 Vorobei • 17 Vashchuk • 18 Nazarenko • 19 Kalynychenko • 20 Byelik • 21 Rotan • 22 Sviderskiy • 23 Shust • Coach: Blokhin