Andriy Voronin

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Andriy Voronin
Personal information
Date of birth	July 21, 1979 (age 27)
Place of birth	Odessa, Ukraine
Height	5 ft 10 in (1.79 m)
Nickname	Vorona (Crow)
Playing position	Striker
Club information
Current club	Bayer Leverkusen (to join Liverpool in July 2007)
Number	12
Youth clubs
	Chornomorets Odessa
Senior clubs1
Years	Club	App (Gls)*
1995–2000 2000–2002 2003–2004 2004–Present 2007–	Borussia Mönchengladbach Mainz Köln Bayer Leverkusen Liverpool	07 0(1) 75 (29) 19 0(5) 83 (29)
National team2
2002–	Ukraine	43 0(5)
1 Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only and correct as of 00:04, March 3 2007 (UTC). 2 National team caps and goals correct as of 28 March 2007. * Appearances (Goals)

Andriy Voronin (Ukrainian: Андрій Воронін), born 21 July 1979 in Odessa) is a Ukrainian footballer. He has been a striker with Bayer 04 Leverkusen since 2004. His previous clubs include Chornomorets Odessa, Borussia Mönchengladbach, Mainz and Köln. In the 2002-03 season, Voronin became top goalscorer in the 2nd Bundesliga. On the international level he has frequently been played in midfield.

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 joined Mainz in the 2nd Bundesliga. He became Mainz' leading striker in his two seasons at the club, and in his second season became the top scorer in the second Bundesliga with 20 goals.

While at Mainz, Voronin was called up initially to the Ukraine 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." [1]

However, Voronin had a storming start to the 2002-03 season with Mainz, prompting 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]

Voronin was ultimately recalled to the national side, scoring his first international goal in a 2-0 Euro 2004 qualifying defeat of Greece in September 2002 and a second one in a 2-2 draw against Spain in March 2003. 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" [4] The player ultimately chose to continue his career with 1.FC Koln in the top division.

Koln 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 Koln in a 2-2 draw against them when Voronin scored one and created the other of Koln's goals. After that game Express called him "the only true footballer at Koln" and Bild wrote: "Koeln's only striker (Voronin) was more dangerous than Bayer's entire star attack (Schneider, Ponte, Neuville and Berbatov)." [5]

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 goalscoring record tailed off in 2006-07. His contract was running out at the end of the 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).

On 18 February 2007, it was reported that Voronin has agreed to sign for Liverpool on a free transfer at the end of the season, in a deal thought to be four years long.^[1][2]

On 26 February 2007, Liverpool officially announced that they have signed Voronin on a free transfer and that he will join the team during the summer.^[3]

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• Leverkusen who's who

Bayer Leverkusen - Current Squad
1 Butt | 2 Stenman | 3 R. Júnior | 4 Juan | 5 Haggui | 6 Rolfes | 7 Barnetta | 9 Barbarez | 10 Freier | 11 Kießling | 12 Voronin | 13 Athirson | 14 Tadić | 16 Schwegler | 17 Meyer | 19 Babić | 20 Fernandez | 22 Adler | 23 Madouni | 24 Touré | 25 Schneider | 26 Papadopulos | 27 Castro | 28 Ramelow | 29 Callsen-Bracker | 32 De Wit | 44 Hübener

	Ukraine squad - 2006 FIFA World Cup Quarter-finalists
1 Shovkovskiy | 2 Nesmachniy | 3 Yatsenko | 4 Tymoschuk | 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