Andriy Nesmachnyi

Andriy Mykolayovych Nesmachnyi (Ukrainian: Андрій Миколайович Несмачний, born 28 February 1979) is a retired Russian-born Ukrainian footballer. He has spent his entire career at Dynamo Kyiv in the Ukrainian Premier League. He was a skillful, attacking left-back who could also play as central defender and left midfielder. Nesmachniy also played for the Ukraine national football team and is the second most capped foreign-born player for Ukraine with 67 matches.

Club career

Andriy Mykolayovych Nesmachniy was born to ethnic Russian parents on 28 February 1979 in Bryansk, Soviet Union. He started as a graduate of the Tavriya Simferopol school. He then joined Dynamo Kyiv in 1996 playing at amateur level for the Dynamo's reserve teams and in the 1997–98 Vyshcha Liha season made his debut for the first team in the away match against FC Metalurh Donetsk (Round 19) on 18 June 1998. He was originally intended for the main team but spent the next two seasons at the reserve team Dynamo-2 Kyiv. Beginning in the 2000–01 season, Nesmachniy appeared much more often on the main team, where he has stayed until 2011. Nesmachniy retired in 2011 to concentrate on his religious beliefs as he became one of Jehovah's Witnesses.

Nesmachniy almost joined Blackburn Rovers of the English Premier League during the January 2007 transfer window. Manager Mark Hughes had confirmed his interest saying that he had "good football intelligence" and "a great international experience". He also confirmed that the defender was training with the squad in late December 2006. However, he did not make a promise that a move was going to be a possibility. Nesmachniy in the end, did not join Blackburn.