# Ukrainian Premier League Under-21 and Under-19

The Ukrainian Premier League youth competitions is a complex of youth competitions within the Ukrainian Premier League and is part of youth competitions in Ukraine. The events include championship among two age categories under 19 and under 21 years old.
Following the 2020–21 season, competitions among under-21 teams were discontinued.

## History
### First steps

Soon after establishing the Professional Football League of Ukraine (PFL) in 1996, a discussion arose about developing younger generation of football players. In 1998 in Ukraine started competition of academies of football clubs which participate in competitions of PFL (Higher, First and Second leagues). In 2001 there was established a separate organization, Ukrainian Youth Football League (Ukrainian: Дитячо-юнацька футбольна ліга України), that took over administration of youth competitions. Originally, competitions were conducted in four age groups between 14 and 17. In 2002 in coordination with the PFL there was introduced competition among youth under 19 years of age.

### Ukrainian Youth Football League championship among junior teams (Unofficial competitions)

| Season | Champion | Runner-up | Third place |
| 2002-03 | FC Shakhtar Donetsk | FC Kryvbas Kryvyi Rih | SC Tavriya Simferopol |
| 2003-04 | SC Tavriya Simferopol | FC Shakhtar Donetsk | MFC Oleksandriya |
| 2004-05 | MFC Oleksandriya | FC Kryvbas Kryvyi Rih | FC Lokomotyv Odessa |
| 2005-06 | FC Obriy Nikopol | FC Lokomotyv Odessa | FC Luzhany |

### Reserves competitions

In 2004 the PFL introduced competition among the Vyshcha Liha (Higher League) clubs' double teams (reserve teams). The reason for introduction of the Vyshcha Liha competitions among doubles was partly connected with necessity to free the PFL lower league competitions from the Higher League clubs' second teams. With introduction of the double competitions in 2004, professional clubs started to remove their second teams from the 2004-05 Ukrainian Second League and even more in the following season. The age restriction for the Vyshcha Liha double teams at first was conditional. In 2006 the PFL discontinued joint youth competition among under-19 teams conducted along with the Youth Football League.

### Conversion of reserve competitions and addition of other UPL junior competitions

In 2008 there was established the Ukrainian Premier League which took the administration over the Higher League clubs' competitions including the competitions among doubles. Those competitions were renamed as the UPL championship and the UPL youth championship. The UPL youth competition became age restrictive and involved players of under-21 years of age.
In 2012 now as part of the Ukrainian Premier League, there was reestablished competitions among under-19 teams. To avoid ambiguity, the UPL youth championship was renamed as the UPL U-21 championship, while the other competition received the name of UPL U-19 championship.

### Plans of establishing separate professional junior league competitions

In 2016 the competitions among youth teams with age category under 19 years of age were reintroduced in the Professional Football League now for teams of the Persha Liha and Druha Liha (First and Second leagues), as well as amateur level youth football-oriented institutions, i.e. youth football clubs, sports schools. The competitions received the name of Persha Liha U-19 competitions. In 2017 discussions were taking place to expand the UPL to include competitions of the Persha Liha (First League) as well as the Persha Liha U-19 competitions and allowing exchange between Premier League and First League among the youth teams.
The UPL youth competitions are considered as a development league and therefore its participants' performance does not result in the team's relegation from it. The relegation occurs only based on their final league position of their respective senior teams in the Ukrainian Premier League. If the senior team is relegated from the Ukrainian Premier League, then its reserve team is relegated from the Premier Reserve League and replaced by a reserve team of another newly promoted club from the Ukrainian First League.

## Under-21 results
### Top League championship among reserve teams

| Season | Champion | Runner-up | Third place | Top goalscorer |
| 2004–05 | Dynamo Kyiv | Metalist Kharkiv | Illichivets Mariupol | Roberto Nanni (Dynamo Kyiv, 9 goals) Syarhey Karnilenka (Dynamo Kyiv, 9 goals) |
| 2005–06 | Dynamo Kyiv | Metalist Kharkiv | Illichivets Mariupol | Serhiy Davydov (Metalist Kharkiv, 21 goals) |
| 2006–07 | Dynamo Kyiv | Shakhtar Donetsk | Chornomorets Odesa | Oleksandr Aliyev (Dynamo Kyiv, 21 goals) |
| 2007–08 | Dynamo Kyiv | Metalurh Zaporizhya | Metalist Kharkiv | Oleksandr Aliyev (Dynamo Kyiv, 18 goals) |

### Ukrainian Premier League youth's (U-21) championship

| Season | Champion | Runner-up | Third place | Top goalscorer |
| 2008–09 | Shakhtar Donetsk | Dynamo Kyiv | Chornomorets Odesa | Roman Zozulya (Dynamo Kyiv, 19 goals) |
| 2009–10 | Karpaty Lviv | Shakhtar Donetsk | Dynamo Kyiv | Yuriy Furta (Karpaty Lviv, 15 goals) Artem Hromov (Vorskla Poltava, 15 goals) |
| 2010–11 | Shakhtar Donetsk | Metalist Kharkiv | Dnipro Dnipropetrovsk | Yevhen Budnik (Metalist Kharkiv, 13 goals) Oleh Barannik (Vorskla Poltava, 13 goals) |
| 2011–12 | Shakhtar Donetsk | Zorya Luhansk | Obolon Kyiv | Vladyslav Kulach (Shakhtar Donetsk, 14 goals) |
| 2012–13 | Zorya Luhansk | Dynamo Kyiv | Shakhtar Donetsk | Yevhen Troyanovskyi (Metalurh Donetsk, 16 goals) |
| 2013–14 | Illichivets Mariupol | Shakhtar Donetsk | Dnipro Dnipropetrovsk | Oleh Barannik (Vorskla Poltava, 18 goals) |
| 2014–15 | Dnipro Dnipropetrovsk | Dynamo Kyiv | Vorskla Poltava | Artur Zahorulko (Shakhtar Donetsk, 17 goals) |
| 2015–16 | Dynamo Kyiv | Shakhtar Donetsk | Dnipro Dnipropetrovsk | Andriy Boryachuk (Shakhtar Donetsk, 20 goals) |
| 2016–17 | Dynamo Kyiv | Shakhtar Donetsk | Karpaty Lviv | Stanislav Bilenkyi (Olimpik Donetsk, 16 goals) |
| 2017–18 | Shakhtar Donetsk | Dynamo Kyiv | FC Oleksandriya | Bohdan Lyednyev (Dynamo Kyiv, 16 goals) |
| 2018–19 | Dynamo Kyiv | FC Oleksandriya | Shakhtar Donetsk | Andriy Kulakov (Shakhtar Donetsk, 14 goals) |
| 2019–20 | (Shakhtar Donetsk) | (Dynamo Kyiv) | (Vorskla Poltava) | ( Illia Shevtsov (Desna Chernihiv, 13 goals)) |
| 2020–21 | Dynamo Kyiv | Shakhtar Donetsk | Rukh Lviv | Vladyslav Vanat (Dynamo Kyiv, 26 goals) |

### Top three

All-time U-21 UPL scorers :
| Rank | Player | Goals |
| 1 | Oleksandr Aliev | 68 |
| 2 | Oleh Barannik | 58 |
| 3 | Serhiy Davydov | 50 |
| 4 | Yevhen Bokhashvili | 49 |
| 5 | Oleksandr Antonenko | 41 |
| 6 | Artur Zahorulko | 40 |
| 7 | Yuriy Furta | 37 |
| 8 | Andriy Boryachuk | 36 |
| 9 | Yevhen Budnik | 35 |
| 9 | Yevhen Troyanovskyi | 35 |
| Players in bold are still playing in UPL under-21 Data as of 31 October 2018 ||||
| Club | Winner | Runner-up | Winning years |
| Dynamo U-21 | 8 | 4 | 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2016, 2017, 2019, 2021 |
| Shakhtar U-21 | 4 | 6 | 2009, 2011, 2012, 2018, (2020) |
| Zorya U-21 | 1 | 1 | 2013 |
| Dnipro U-21 | 1 | 0 | 2015 |
| Mariupol U-21 | 1 | 0 | 2014 |
| Karpaty U-21 | 1 | 0 | 2010 |
| Metalist U-21 | 0 | 3 | |
| Oleksandriya U-21 | 0 | 1 | |
| Metalurh U-21 | 0 | 1 | |

### All-time table

There was a total of 17 seasons in the UPL competitions among under-21 teams.
| Rank | Team | Seasons | P | W | D | L | GF | GA | Pts | Achievement |
| 1 | Dynamo Kyiv | 15 | 444 | 276 | 82 | 76 | 1059 | 430 | 940 | champions (7) |
| 2 | Shakhtar Donetsk | 15 | 444 | 260 | 79 | 105 | 971 | 521 | 859 | champions (4) |
| 3 | Vorskla Poltava | 15 | 444 | 201 | 80 | 163 | 702 | 573 | 683 | 3rd (1) |
| 4 | Dnipro | 13 | 380 | 190 | 72 | 118 | 691 | 475 | 642 | champions (1) |
| 5 | Metalist Kharkiv | 12 | 348 | 179 | 59 | 110 | 587 | 436 | 596 | vice champions (3) |
| 6 | Karpaty Lviv | 13 | 384 | 174 | 74 | 136 | 632 | 536 | 596 | champions (1) |
| 7 | Chornomorets Odesa | 14 | 414 | 168 | 75 | 171 | 632 | 636 | 579 | 3rd (2) |
| 8 | FC Mariupol | 12 | 356 | 164 | 68 | 124 | 569 | 497 | 560 | champions (1) |
| 9 | Zorya Luhansk | 13 | 384 | 160 | 64 | 160 | 534 | 550 | 544 | champions (1) |
| 10 | Metalurh Zaporizhia | 11 | 319 | 126 | 68 | 125 | 470 | 456 | 446 | vice champions (1) |
| 11 | Metalurh Donetsk | 11 | 322 | 119 | 57 | 146 | 489 | 495 | 414 | 5th (1) |
| 12 | Arsenal Kyiv | 10 | 302 | 90 | 51 | 161 | 343 | 537 | 321 | 6th (1) |
| 13 | Kryvbas Kryvyi Rih | 9 | 270 | 82 | 47 | 141 | 313 | 473 | 293 | 8th (1) |
| 14 | Volyn Lutsk | 9 | 260 | 79 | 43 | 138 | 377 | 578 | 280 | 9th (1) |
| 15 | Tavriya Simferopol | 10 | 297 | 69 | 60 | 168 | 327 | 597 | 267 | 10th (1) |
| 16 | FC Oleksandriya | 5 | 152 | 53 | 42 | 57 | 185 | 187 | 201 | vice champions (1) |
| 17 | Obolon Kyiv | 4 | 120 | 50 | 24 | 46 | 165 | 168 | 174 | 3rd (1) |
| 18 | FC Kharkiv | 4 | 120 | 44 | 18 | 58 | 168 | 222 | 150 | 6th (1) |
| 19 | Olimpik Donetsk | 5 | 148 | 41 | 23 | 84 | 174 | 281 | 146 | 4th (1) |
| 20 | Hoverla Uzhhorod | 8 | 228 | 34 | 39 | 155 | 179 | 597 | 141 | 12th (1) |
| 21 | Stal Kamianske | 3 | 90 | 31 | 25 | 34 | 133 | 166 | 118 | 4th (1) |
| 22 | Stal Alchevsk | 2 | 60 | 17 | 11 | 32 | 72 | 106 | 62 | 14th (1) |
| 23 | FC Sevastopol | 2 | 56 | 19 | 5 | 32 | 89 | 126 | 62 | 10th (1) |
| 24 | FC Lviv | 2 | 62 | 14 | 8 | 40 | 64 | 140 | 50 | 11th (1) |
| 25 | Zirka Kropyvnytskyi | 2 | 64 | 8 | 14 | 42 | 54 | 143 | 38 | 12th (1) |
| 26 | Naftovyk Okhtyrka | 1 | 30 | 10 | 6 | 14 | 38 | 46 | 36 | 11th (1) |
| 27 | Borysfen Boryspil | 1 | 30 | 7 | 9 | 14 | 29 | 41 | 30 | 14th (1) |
| 28 | Desna Chernihiv | 1 | 32 | 8 | 4 | 20 | 41 | 81 | 28 | 10th (1) |
| 29 | Veres Rivne | 1 | 32 | 6 | 9 | 17 | 31 | 60 | 27 | 10th (1) |

## Under-19 results
### Premier League junior (U-19) championship

| Season | Champion | Runner-up | Third place | Top goalscorer |
| 2012–13 | Dynamo Kyiv | Illichivets Mariupol | Shakhtar Donetsk | Roman Yaremchuk (Dynamo Kyiv, 14 goals) |
| 2013–14 | Metalist Kharkiv | Shakhtar Donetsk | Karpaty Lviv | Artur Miranyan (Shakhtar Donetsk, 12 goals) |
| 2014–15 | Shakhtar Donetsk | Dynamo Kyiv | Karpaty Lviv | Ihor Karpenko (Karpaty Lviv, 16 goals) |
| 2015–16 | Dynamo Kyiv | Olimpik Donetsk | Shakhtar Donetsk | Vladyslav Khomutov (Olimpik Donetsk, 15 goals) |
| 2016–17 | Dynamo Kyiv | Oleksandriya | Shakhtar Donetsk | Mykhailo Plokhotnyuk (Chornomorets Odesa, 19 goals) |
| 2017–18 | Dynamo Kyiv | Shakhtar Donetsk | Karpaty Lviv | Yevhen Isayenko (Dynamo Kyiv, 17 goals) |
| 2018–19 | Dynamo Kyiv | Shakhtar Donetsk | Karpaty Lviv | Artem Bondarenko (Shakhtar Donetsk, 20 goals) |
| 2019–20 | (Dynamo Kyiv) | (Shakhtar Donetsk) | (Vorskla Poltava) | ( Abdulla Abdullayev (Shakhtar Donetsk, 21 goals)) |
| 2020–21 | Shakhtar Donetsk | Dynamo Kyiv | Zorya Luhansk | Kiril Popov (Dynamo Kyiv, 19 goals) |
| 2021–22 | (Rukh Lviv) | (Dynamo Kyiv) | (Shakhtar Donetsk) | Daniel Kivinda (SC Dnipro-1, 14 goals) |
| 2022–23 | Rukh Lviv | Dynamo Kyiv | Shakhtar Donetsk | Vladyslav Pohorilyi (Shakhtar Donetsk, 16 goals) |
| 2023–24 | Dynamo Kyiv | Shakhtar Donetsk | SC Dnipro-1 | Matviy Ponomarenko (Dynamo Kyiv, 24 goals) |

### Top three

| Club | Winner | Runner-up | Winning years |
| Dynamo U-19 | 6 | 4 | 2013, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, (2020), 2024 |
| Shakhtar U-19 | 2 | 4 | 2015, 2021 |
| Rukh U-19 | 1 | 0 | (2022), 2023 |
| Metalist U-19 | 1 | 0 | 2014 |
| Mariupol U-19 | 0 | 1 | |
| FC Oleksandriya U-19 | 0 | 1 | |
| Olimpik U-19 | 0 | 1 | |

### All-time table

| Rank | Team | Seasons | P | W | D | L | GF | GA | Pts | Achievement |
| 1 | Dynamo Kyiv | 7 | 188 | 139 | 20 | 29 | 495 | 168 | 437 | champions (5) |
| 2 | Shakhtar Donetsk | 7 | 188 | 128 | 28 | 32 | 472 | 171 | 412 | champions (1) |
| 3 | Karpaty Lviv | 7 | 188 | 104 | 26 | 58 | 362 | 256 | 338 | 3rd (4) |
| 4 | Zorya Luhansk | 7 | 185 | 76 | 37 | 72 | 264 | 246 | 265 | 5th (2) |
| 5 | Chornomorets Odesa | 7 | 188 | 73 | 34 | 81 | 254 | 265 | 253 | 4th (2) |
| 6 | Vorskla Poltava | 7 | 184 | 68 | 44 | 72 | 259 | 271 | 248 | 5th (1) |
| 7 | FC Mariupol | 6 | 157 | 60 | 30 | 67 | 228 | 260 | 210 | vice champions (1) |
| 8 | Volyn Lutsk | 6 | 157 | 61 | 18 | 78 | 249 | 269 | 201 | 4th (1) |
| 9 | Dnipro | 5 | 136 | 60 | 20 | 56 | 232 | 220 | 200 | 4th (1) |
| 10 | Metalurh Zaporizhia | 5 | 134 | 56 | 13 | 67 | 215 | 225 | 175 | 7th (1) |
| 11 | Olimpik Donetsk | 5 | 132 | 46 | 28 | 58 | 171 | 188 | 166 | vice champions (1) |
| 12 | FC Oleksandriya | 4 | 108 | 43 | 20 | 45 | 141 | 140 | 149 | vice champions (1) |
| 13 | Metalist Kharkiv | 4 | 110 | 43 | 15 | 52 | 162 | 166 | 144 | champions (1) |
| 14 | Skala Stryi | 4 | 108 | 38 | 22 | 48 | 130 | 178 | 136 | 6th (1) |
| 15 | Arsenal Kyiv | 5 | 130 | 32 | 21 | 67 | 168 | 274 | 117 | 7th (1) |
| 16 | Metalurh Donetsk | 3 | 78 | 32 | 10 | 36 | 122 | 139 | 106 | 6th (1) |
| 17 | Stal Kamianske | 3 | 82 | 27 | 16 | 39 | 106 | 152 | 97 | 5th (1) |
| 18 | Hoverla Uzhhorod | 4 | 104 | 22 | 11 | 71 | 103 | 263 | 77 | 12th (1) |
| 19 | Tavriya Simferopol | 2 | 51 | 15 | 10 | 26 | 64 | 93 | 55 | 9th (1) |
| 20 | Veres Rivne | 1 | 26 | 14 | 6 | 6 | 49 | 32 | 48 | 4th (1) |
| 21 | FC Lviv | 1 | 26 | 9 | 4 | 13 | 30 | 50 | 31 | 10th (1) |
| 22 | Zirka Kropyvnytskyi | 2 | 52 | 6 | 9 | 37 | 30 | 124 | 27 | 14th (2) |
| 23 | Kryvbas Kryvyi Rih | 1 | 28 | 6 | 8 | 14 | 32 | 56 | 26 | 16th (1) |
| 24 | FC Sevastopol | 1 | 20 | 4 | 4 | 12 | 18 | 43 | 16 | 15th (1) |
| 25 | Desna Chernihiv | 1 | 26 | 1 | 0 | 25 | 16 | 124 | 3 | 14th (1) |

### People of the Under-19 competitions

All-time Premier League appearance leaders :
| Player | Games | Years |
| Vitaliy Kholod | 78 | 2021– |
| Oleh Kryvoruchko | 75 | 2021– |
| Ivan Pakholyuk | 74 | 2021– |
| Artem Benedyuk | 73 | 2021– |
| Stanislav Prus | 73 | 2021– |
| Players in bold are still playing in Premier League Data as of 7 January 2024 |||
All-time Premier League scorers :
| Player | Goals | Years |
| Vladyslav Vanat | 36 | 2019–2021 |
| Yevhen Isayenko | 34 | 2018–2019 |
| Artur Miranyan | 33 | 2013–2014 |
| Artem Dudik | 32 | 2014–2016 |
| Mykhailo Plokhotnyuk | 31 | 2016–2018 |
| Players in bold are still playing in Premier League Data as of 6 January 2024 |||
All-time top-10 managers with league games :
| Rank | Coach | Games | Clubs | Seasons | Seasons |
| 1 | Ihor Kostyuk | 157 | Dynamo Kyiv | 2018 | |
| 2 | Vadym Mandriyevskyi | 105 | Vorskla Poltava | 2015 | 2018 |
| 3 | Yuriy Dudnyk | 103 | Zorya Luhansk | 2013 | 2016 |
| 4 | Oleksandr Pozdeyev | 92 | Kolos Kovalivka | 2021 | |
| 5 | Oleh Kolobych | 91 | Veres Rivne → FC Lviv | 2018 | 2021 |
| 5 | Vasyl Baranov | 91 | Zorya (50), Vorskla (41) | 2017 | |
| Coaches in bold are still active in the League Data as of 10 January 2024 ||||||