Dynamo Kyiv has announced a staff reinforcement that has been perceived within the Ukrainian football community as one of the most high-profile personnel moves of recent seasons. Ivan Kotsyuba, a specialist who spent nearly a decade building the youth development system within the structure of Shakhtar Donetsk, has been appointed head of the scouting department at the Valeriy Lobanovskyi Dynamo Youth Football School. This was reported by Sport RBC.UA, citing the official website of the capital club.
Nearly a decade of experience at Shakhtar
Ivan Kotsyuba had been working at the Donetsk club since July 2017. He initially held the position of head of the scouting department, and as of 2025, he was promoted to director of the entire youth football department at Shakhtar. During this time, he built a multi-level system for scouting and selecting young talents, becoming one of the key figures in the infrastructure of one of Ukraine's most powerful football projects. His departure from the Donetsk structure coincided with the appointment of Patrick van Leeuwen as head of the Shakhtar academy, effectively concluding a management shift in the youth football strategy of the "Miners".
A return to a club with past connections
Kotsyuba is no stranger to the Kyiv giants: he previously worked at the Dynamo academy during the time when Serhiy Rebrov was head coach. This prior professional experience, according to the official himself, was one of the deciding factors in his decision to move. "This offer was a pleasant opportunity for me to return to a club with which I have past professional experience. I resonate with the vision and the development vector that Dynamo is choosing today," Kotsyuba stated in an interview with the club's press service. He emphasized that the capital club's commitment to the systemic development of Ukrainian players and their revised youth academy strategy were the deciding factors.
A team that followed Kotsyuba
The new head of the scouting service did not start building his department from scratch: he was joined by two experienced scouts, Oleksandr Buhera and Vadym Smoliak, with whom Kotsyuba had collaborated for a long time at Shakhtar. This suggests that Dynamo has acquired not just a single manager, but a ready-made working group that is already well-synchronized and possesses established selection methodologies. Such a practice of moving entire teams of specialists between clubs is rare in Ukrainian football and speaks to the seriousness of Dynamo's intentions.
Strategy: systematic scouting across the country
The main task of the updated department will be to build a systematic scouting network in all regions of Ukraine. The priority is to search for technically strong, intellectually advanced players with high potential who can eventually strengthen Dynamo's first team. Expanding the geography of talent search means that the Kyiv side intends not to limit itself to the capital and its suburbs, but to build a full-scale scouting infrastructure covering the entire territory of the country. This directly aligns with the club's stated strategy of prioritizing Ukrainian players and reducing reliance on foreign players in youth age groups.
Context: reshuffling at the academies of the two main rivals
Kotsyuba's personnel move fits into a broader context of transformations in the youth football of the two main Ukrainian clubs. While Shakhtar changed its management model by handing the academy over to Patrick van Leeuwen, Dynamo has opted to bring back a familiar specialist with proven experience. Both clubs are essentially rebuilding their scouting units, which could heighten the competition for young talent in the coming seasons and improve the overall level of youth football in Ukraine.
