Dmytro Kovalenko

Dima Kovalenko
Dima Kowalenko (2004)
Personnel
Surname	Dmytro Kovalenko
birthday	August 28, 1977
place of birth	Kiev ,  Soviet Union
position	midfield
Juniors
Years	station
1996-1998	Indiana Hoosiers
Men's
Years	station	Games (goals) 1
1999-2002	Chicago Fire	90 (22)
2002	→  FC St. Pauli  (loan)	5 0(0)
2003-2005	DC United	77 (12)
2006	Metalurh Zaporizhia	2 0(0)
2006-2007	New York Red Bulls	31 0(2)
2008	Real Salt Lake	22 0(1)
2009-2010	Los Angeles Galaxy	30 0(1)
1 Only league games are given.

Dmytro "Dima" Kowalenko ( Ukrainian Дмитро Коваленко ; born August 28, 1977 in Kiev ) is a former Ukrainian football player .

Career

Kowalenko emigrated to the United States in 1992 and played for the University of Indiana college team between 1996 and 1998 . With the Indiana Hoosiers , he was elected national college soccer champion in 1998 and was elected to the All-Star Team.

Kowalenko was originally assigned to Dallas Burn in 1999 , but his wish to play for Chicago Fire was approved, Chicago ceded rights in the next draft . In his first professional season, Kowalenko was rarely used, but made headlines with a brutal foul on Brandon Pollard , defender of Dallas Burn. Pollard broke his leg and had to end his career a year after the injury.

2000 Kowalenko was able to increase significantly on the striker position. He scored ten goals in 31 games and won the US Open Cup with Chicago . In 2001 he was retired to the offensive midfield, but remained a top performer of his team and brought it to eight goals and seven assists in 25 games. In the following season Kowalenko could not quite build on his good performances from the previous season, he only managed one goal (eight assists) in 23 games.

The relegation-threatened German first division club FC St. Pauli reported during the winter break of the 2001/02 season and loaned Kowalenko for a fee of 30,000 euros for the second half of the season, with an additional purchase option of 600,000 euros. Kowalenko, who should strengthen the right side of midfield, could not meet the expectations placed in him and only came to five appearances, including the game against the reigning World Cup winner Bayern Munich on February 6, 2002 when St. Pauli surprisingly won 2-1.

In March 2002, just two months after moving to St. Pauli, he was informed that the purchase option would not be exercised and that he could return to MLS with immediate effect . After his return he stayed with Chicago for a few months. In 2003 he was swapped for Justin Mapp with DC United , mainly in order not to exceed the salary ceiling. Kowalenko played for the club from Washington for three years and was a regular player. He made negative headlines again in 2003 when he and Ronnie O'Brien broke the shin of a player from Dalls Burn in a tough tackle and caused his season to end. In 2004 he won the MLS Cup with DC and thus his first championship title in the MLS. Kowalenko saw the red card in the final against Kansas City in the 57th minute after a handball in the penalty area, the penalty was converted to 2: 3, which also meant the final score.

In January 2006 he returned to Ukraine after unable to reach an agreement with DC United on his future salary. At Metalurh Zaporischschja , however, Kovalenko only came on two missions, so that he returned to the United States after half a year and signed a new contract with the New York Red Bulls . In 2008 he was transferred to Real Salt Lake .

From January 14, 2009, he played for Los Angeles Galaxy and reached the play-offs in the following two seasons, as in all of his ten previous MLS seasons. After he was not signed by Galaxy beyond the end of the 2010 season, he ended his professional career.

Web links

• Dima Kowalenko in the database of weltfussball.de
• Dima Kowalenko in the database of MLSSoccer.com (English)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ washingtonpost.com: MLS veteran Dema Kovalenko is retiring (February 14, 2011) , accessed September 16, 2019