Artem Dovbyk

Artem Oleksandrovych Dovbyk (Ukrainian: Артем Олександрович Довбик; born 21 June 1997) is a Ukrainian professional footballer who plays as a striker for La Liga club Girona and the Ukraine national team.

Club career

Cherkaskyi Dnipro

Born in Cherkasy, Ukraine, Dovbyk is a product of the FC Cherkaskyi Dnipro academy after graduating from the Olympic Reserve Specialized Sports School Slavutych in Cherkasy. He made his debut against Skala on 26 July 2014. A month later, on 16 August, he scored his first goal in a 3–1 victory against Krystal Kherson, aged 17 years and 55 days, becoming the youngest scorer for his club in history. Later that year, on 12 October, he scored his first hat-trick in a 5–0 victory over Arsenal Bila Tserkva. He won the 2014–15 Ukrainian Second League, scoring 7 goals.

Dnipro

In summer 2015, he signed a contract with FC Dnipro, but in April 2016, he was then sent on a three-month loan to Moldovan club FC Zaria Bălți, where he won the Moldovan Cup. He would go on to score a joint team high 6 goals as he won the 2016–17 Ukrainian Premier League Best Young Player award. This prompted Ukraine national team coach Andriy Shevchenko to call him up for 2018 FIFA World Cup qualifiers.

Midtjylland

When Dnipro were relegated due to incurring debt, Dovbyk stayed with the club. He would go on to score 12 goals in 13 games in the Ukrainian Second League, gaining interest from foreign clubs, and in 2018 he joined Danish club FC Midtjylland on a free transfer. In 2018 with FC Midtjylland Dovbyk became a national champion and in 2019 becoming a national cup holder. On 2 September 2019, he was loaned out to SønderjyskE for the 2019–20 season. With SønderjyskE, Dovbyk for the second time became a Danish cup holder.

Dnipro-1

After lacking regular playing time and dry run-on scoresheet, Dovbyk returned to Ukraine in July 2020 signing with the recently established SC Dnipro-1 that was just promoted to the Ukrainian premiers in previous season. While his league performance was somewhat under par from what expected, Dovbyk made a nice score run in the Ukrainian Cup netting 4 goals in three games, becoming one of the three top scorers in the tournament.

Once the 2021–22 season was cancelled at the start of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Dovbyk made a temporary move to Dynamo Kyiv who were playing charity matches in Europe for the rest of the season to stay in form. In the 2022–23 season, he scored two hat-tricks for Dnipro-1 against Zorya Luhansk and Kolos Kovalivka, thus becoming only the tenth player in the league's history to achieve this feat. He finished the season as top scorer with 24 goals.

Girona

On 6 August 2023, Dovbyk signed for La Liga club Girona by signing a contract until 2028, for a reported fee of €7m, to be the most expensive player in club's history. On 12 August, he scored a goal on his debut in a 1–1 away draw against Real Sociedad. On 21 January 2024, he scored his first hat-trick within six minutes in a 5–1 victory over Sevilla. On 4 May, he scored his 20th goal in La Liga and provided an assist in a 4–2 win over Barcelona, contributing to his club's first ever qualification to the UEFA Champions League. Dovbyk scored his second hat-trick in a 7–0 rout of relegated Granada on 25 May. Hence, he surpassed Alexander Sørloth to achieve the Pichichi Trophy with 24 goals in his debut season.

International career

Dovbyk was called up in the training camp of the Ukraine U19 national team, but did not play any match.

At the age of 19, Dovbyk received his first call-up to the senior national team when he was named in the 31-player senior squad for the 2018 FIFA World Cup qualification match against Iceland on 5 September 2016. On 31 March 2021, Dovbyk debuted for the Ukrainian senior squad in a World Cup qualifier against Kazakhstan.

Dovbyk was selected for UEFA Euro 2020 on 29 June 2021, coming on as a substitute for Andriy Yarmolenko in the extra time of the round of 16 against Sweden. He scored the winning goal in the stoppage time to secure a 2–1 victory for Ukraine and advance to the quarter-finals.

Career statistics

Club

As of match played 24 May 2024

International

As of match played 11 June 2024

As of match played 11 June 2024. Scores and results list Ukraine's goal tally first, score column indicates score after each Dovbyk goal.

Honours

Cherkaskyi Dnipro

• Ukrainian Second League: 2014–15

Zaria

• Moldovan Cup: 2016

Midtjylland

• Danish Superliga: 2017–18
• Danish Cup: 2018–19

SønderjyskE

• Danish Cup: 2019–20

Individual

• Ukrainian Premier League top goalscorers (2): 2021–22, 2022–23
• Pichichi Trophy: 2023–24
• Ukrainian Cup top goalscorers: 2020–21
• Ukrainian Premier League Best Young Player: 2016–17
• Ukrainian Premier League Player of the Month (5): August 2021, November 2021, October 2022, November–December 2022, April 2023,
• La Liga Player of the Month: December 2023
• La Liga Team of the Season: 2023–24

References

External links

• Artem Dovbyk at the Ukrainian Premier League
• Artem Dovbyk at the Football Premier League (archived) (in Ukrainian)
• Artem Dovbyk at the Professional Football League (in Ukrainian)
• Artem Dovbyk at UAF and archived FFU page (in Ukrainian)
• Artem Dovbyk at Soccerway