Football Club Kharkiv (), formerly FC Metalist 1925 Kharkiv () is a professional football club from Kharkiv, Ukraine. Founded in 2016, the club plays in the Ukrainian Premier League, the top tier of Ukrainian football after promotion from the Ukrainian First League in 2024–25. Their home stadium is the Metalist State Sports Complex, with 40,003 capacity.
Metalist Kharkiv was promoted to the Ukrainian Premier League after finishing in third place in the 2020–21 Ukrainian First League. They earned promotion on two previous occasions: placing second in the 2016–17 Ukrainian Football Amateur League and placing third in the 2017–18 Ukrainian Second League.
History The club was established in the summer of 2016 after the original club, FC Metalist Kharkiv, was refused a license by the Football Federation of Ukraine and expelled from national competitions. The process of creation of the club started the former first vice-president of the Football Federation of Ukraine, Serhiy Storozhenko. In his interview in May of 2017, Storozhenko emphasized that the club is created to be governed by local fans, for whom was created the Metalist 1925 fan club. The members of the club could be part of the governing body and governing committees of the FC Metalist 1925 Kharkiv. Storozhenko said straightforwardly that the new club has no relations to FC Metalist Kharkiv.
At first, the club was registered as Avanhard Kharkiv and had two teams, Metalist 1925 participating in the national amateur championship and Metalist Yunior in the Kharkiv Oblast championship. During the certification with the Professional Football League of Ukraine, on May 15, 2017, the club was re-registered as FC Metalist 1925 Kharkiv. Concerning naming, Serhiy Storozhenko stated that the name of Metalist is a tribute to Kharkiv as a city of workers, while the number of 1925 has two versions of how they came up with it. The first version is that 19 participants created FC Avanhard Kharkiv, while 25 is the number of footballers who can be listed for the team. The second version is that until 1925 there was a championship of cities in Ukraine, and Kharkiv was among the first champions of the Soviet Union. And it is in 1925 that the first football clubs appeared in Ukraine.
Former Metalist player like Volodymyr Linke, who is one of the founders of FC Metalist 1925 Kharkiv, became the club's general director."Fans created our club for fans". In Kharkiv they went the other way ("Наш клуб создали болельщики для болельщиков". В Харькове пошли другим путем). UA-Football. 5 August 2017.
In 2016, FC Metalist 1925 entered the Ukrainian Football Amateur League for the 2016–17 season where it reached the league's final. Later in the summer of 2017, it was admitted to the Ukrainian Second League.
In 2018, the club was promoted to the Ukrainian First League and, from 2021, it has played in the highest tier of Ukrainian association football – the Ukrainian Premier League.
On 1 June 2025, Metalist 1925 secured promotion to the Ukrainian Premier League from next season after a win against Livyi Bereh Kyiv on a 2–0 aggregate in the promotion-relegation play-off, and returned to the top tier after a one-year absence.
On 15 June 2026, Metalist 1925 announced an official rebranding and renaming to FC Kharkiv, starting the following season.
Crest and colour
FC Kharkiv colour is Maroon and Yellow previously Yellow and Dark Blue.
Infrastructure FC Kharkiv plays its games at Metalist Stadium. It has its own training site in the town of Vysokyi.
Squad Players
Other players under contract
Out on loan
International players Had international caps for their respective countries. Players whose name is listed in bold represented their countries while playing for Kharkiv.
Ukraine Andriy Boryachuk Edmar Denys Harmash Oleksandr Horyainov Ivan Kalyuzhnyi
Dmytro Kryskiv Oleksandr Martynyuk Artem Shabanov Africa Golden Mafwenta
Europe Solomon Kvirkvelia Baton Zabërgja
Administration and coaches
Administration Owner – LLC FC Metalist 1925 Kharkiv
Current staff (senior team) Head coach – Mladen Bartulović Assistant coach – Maksym Tsvirenko Assistant coach – Andriy Polunin Assistant coach – Oleksandr Chyzhov Assistant coach – Yevhen Shakhov Goalkeeping coach – Serhiy Dolhanskyi Analysts – Valentyn Yermak Fitness Coach – Andriy Shabalin Fitness Coach – Dragan Todorovic
General Directors 2016–2020 Volodymyr Linke 2020–2023 Yaroslav Vdovenko 2023–2024 Andriy Niedielin 2024–present Anton Ivanov
Presidents and vice-presidents 2023–present Volodymyr Nosov 2023–present Yuriy Korotun
Managers Oleksandr Pryzetko (16 Aug 2016 – 26 September 2017)Oleksandr Pryzetko is a head coach of Metalist 1925 Vyacheslav Khruslov (caretaker) (26 September 2017 – 28 September 2017) Oleksandr Ivanov (28 September 2017 – 3 May 2018) Serhiy Ralyuchenko (caretaker) (3 May 2018 – 8 May 2018) Serhiy Valyayev (8 May 2018 – 11 September 2018) Oleksandr Horyainov (caretaker) (11 September 2018 – 10 December 2018) Oleksandr Horyainov (10 December 2018 – 4 June 2019) Andriy Demchenko (4 June 2019 – 21 July 2020) Vyacheslav Khruslov (caretaker) (21 July 2020 – 21 August 2020) Valeriy Kriventsov (21 August 2020 – 22 October 2022) Edmar (caretaker) (23 October 2022 – 5 November 2023) Oleh Holodyuk (caretaker) (5 November 2023 – 20 December 2023) Viktor Skrypnyk (20 December 2023 – 28 July 2024) Serhiy Karpenko (caretaker) (28 July 2024 – 20 August 2024) Patrick van Leeuwen (20 August 2024 – 18 May 2025) Oleksandr Chyzhov (caretaker) (20 May 2025 – 20 June 2025) Mladen Bartulović (20 June 2025 – present)
Honours Ukrainian First League Third place (1): 2020–21 Ukrainian Second League Third place (1): 2017–18 Ukrainian Amateur Football Championship Runners-up (1): 2016–17
Seasons Season Div. Pos. Pl. W D L GS GA PDomestic CupOtherNotes2016–174th(Championship among amateurs)1201343461843 -2017–183rd "B"23321 4877 2767 finals--2018–192nd42815 6735 2051 finals---2019–2073015 6944 3451 finals---2020–213 30 16 8 6 36 22 56 finals--2021–221st1018/306111172919 finals-- began on 24.02.2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine2022–23123061410234232Not played---2023–2416305817325723 finals--2024–252nd Gr"B" 2 168532110293rd round--Admitted to Promotion Group2nd "Promotion" 3221066292036-- win play-off Livyi Bereh Kyiv 1:0 1:0 2025–261st530131253619511⁄2 finals---2026–27931022431⁄8 finals--Rename from Metalist 1925 Kharkiv
Women, reserves teams and academy Metalist 1925-2 The club created their second squad as early as 2016. At first, they were competing as Metalist Yunior.
It was announced that Metalist 1925 will be fielding its second squad in the 2024–25 Ukrainian Second League. Metalist 1925-2 would be formed based on Metalist 1925 under-19 team that competed at the UPL U-19 competitions.
Metalist 1925 (women)
Created in 2006 as Zhilstroi-1 Kharkiv (Zhytlobud-1), in 2024 the women's team from Kharkiv was fully integrated by Metalist 1925 as their women's team. Zhilstroi-1/Zhytlobud-1 is a leader of the women club's football in Ukraine.
References
External links
“Ми більше не хочемо президента-олігарха“. Сергій Стороженко про Металіст 1925. UA-Football (www.ua-football.com). 29 May 2017