Roman Hryhorchuk
Introduction '''Roman Yosypovych Hryhorchuk''' (; born 22 March 1965) is a Ukrainian football manager who is the head coach of Chornomorets Odesa and a former player.
Early life Since the fourth grade (around 11 years of age) Hryhorchuk was interested in handball and competed for local village team at district level. For 2 years he never missed a training session and later had a chance to enroll in the Kyiv sports boarding school, but his mother was against it. Around that time trying to get Roman be involved in music, his father gave him a silver flute as a gift. Also, coincidently in Kornych was created a football team for which Hryhorchuk played on weekends. Eventually Hryhorchuk graduated from Chernivtsi music school and had an opportunity to enroll in a conservatory but decided to concentrate on football career.
Playing career Following his obligatory service in the Soviet Armed Forces, he started playing for Silmash Kolomyia at amateur level (KFK competitions) until he received invitation to Prykarpattya Ivano-Frankivsk. Hryhorchuk made his professional debut in 1988 playing for Prykarpattia at the Soviet third tier (Vtoraya Liga). For a season, in 1990 Hryhorchuk spent playing for the newly created Temp Shepetivka which played at the amateur level and qualified for professional level. In 1991 he returned to Prykarpattia which placed second at the Ukrainian conference of the Soviet Second League B and qualified for the newly established Vyshcha Liha (today Ukrainian Premier League). Along with Prykarpattia Hryhorchuk participated in the first season of the League playing only 6 games. Due to poor performance, the club relegated moving to the second tier (Persha Liha). During the 1992–93 Persha Liha season Hryhorchuk while playing for Prykarpattia became the top-scorers of the League and scored his first career hat-trick in a home win against Avtomobilist Sumy. During the winter breaka of the next season he was transferred to VSE St. Poelten which played in the 1993–94 Austrian Football Bundesliga, but only played 3 matches and VSE St. Poelten eventually relegated while Hryhorchuk returned to Prykarpattia. At the same time the Ivano-Frankivsk club placed first at the second tier and qualified again for the Top League. Without finishing the first half of the 1994–95 Vyshcha Liha season, in October Hryhorchuk moved to Petrochemia Plock. Following the 1994–95 Ekstraklasa Plock relegated and Hryhorchuk returned to Ukraine. For the 1995–96 Vyshcha Liha he joined FC Kryvbas Kryvyi Rih and at the end of the season moved to Russia playing for the second tier FC Saturn Ramenskoye. During mid-season of 1997, Hryhorchuk moved to Dinaburg FC playing in Latvian Virsliga (Top League) but did not play a match for the first team until the next season. In 1998 he finally made debut in the European clubs' competitions, the Intertoto Cup. With Dinaburg in 1998 Hryhorchuk placed 4th in the league and was a runner-up among the league's top scorers with 21 tallies.
Coaching career In his coaching career, he was a successful manager in Latvia with FK Ventspils winning the Latvian championship three times from 2006 to 2008 as well as the Latvian Cup in 2005 and 2007.During the 2009–10 Ukrainian Premier League season, Hryhorchuk was hired by Metalurh Zaporizhzhia. He stayed in that position only until the end of the season, though.On 16 November 2010, Hryhorchuk was appointed as the manager of Chornomorets Odesa. He brought the club back into the Ukrainian Premier League after his 1st season in charge.On 4 March 2012 his team won 1–0 against FC Illichivets Mariupol and couple of weeks later defeated Vorskla Poltava.A year later Chornomorets won another 1-0 match against Metallurg Donetsk which made it possible for it to appear at the Ukrainian Cup by May of the same year. On 23 August 2013 his team played against KF Skënderbeu Korçë.Hryhorchuk was appointed manager of Azerbaijan Premier League side Gabala FK on 21 December 2014, on an 18-month contract. On 20 December 2015, Hryhorchuk extended his Gabala contract for another season, until the end of the 2016–2017 season.Following defeat to Keşla in the 2017–18 Azerbaijan Cup Final, Hryhorchuk left Gabala after his contract was not extended.Roman Hryhorchuk was first coach in UEFA history with Gabala who achieved group stages of UEFA Europe League 2 seasons in a row by winning 4 rounds in qualification. During Gabala period, his team beat such a clubs as Panathinaikos Athens, LOSC Lille, Maribor and etc.On 1 June 2018, FC Astana announced Hryhorchuk as their new manager. On 13 January 2020, Hryhorchuk left Astana by mutual consent.In his first year, Hryhorchuk took FC Astana to group stage of Europe League and lost play-off chance to Rennes with 1 point difference in the same group with Dynamo Kiev, Rennes and Jablonec.In his second year, FC Astana again achieved to group stage of UEFA Europe League but with poor performance during group matches. Only memorable match was against Manchester United at home where they won 2:1.On 5 September 2020, he was hired by Belarusian club Shakhtyor Soligorsk.
Honours ===As Player==='''Temp Shepetivka'''* KFK competitions: 1990 (group winner)'''Prykarpattya Ivano-Frankivsk'''* Ukrainian First League: 1993–94* Top scorer: 1992–93 Ukrainian First League (shared)===As Coach==='''Shakhtyor Soligorsk'''* Belarusian Premier League: 2020'''Astana'''* Kazakhstan Premier League: 2018, 2019* Kazakhstan Super Cup: 2018, 2019, 2020“Gabala”UEFA Europe League Group Stage: 2 seasons in a row to win 4 rounds in qualification roundAzerbaijan Cup runners up: 2017-18'''Chornomorets Odesa'''* Ukrainian First League: 2010–11 * Ukrainian Cup runners-up: 2012–13* Ukrainian Super Cup runners-up: 2013'''Ventspils'''* Virslīga: 2006, 2007, 2008* Latvian Cup: 2005, 2007* Livonia Cup: 2008'''Individual'''*Ukrainian Premier League Manager of the Month: February-March 2023,  July-August 2023
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