Once integrated, and dominant in, the Soviet Top League or Higher League, the collapse of the USSR in 1991 ushered in a new era for Ukrainian football with the founding of the Ukrainian Premier League.
As the best team in the Soviet Union-wide competition prior, Dynamo Kyiv continued to be the biggest club in Ukrainian football for over a decade. Then, Shakhtar Donetsk rose to prominence at the turn of the millennium.
Over the years, many once-successful teams have fallen by the wayside – including former champions Tavriya Simferopol, Dnipro, Dnipro-1, and Metalurh Donetsk – with some having their operations suspended due to the Russian invasion of the country and its attacks on sports infrastructure.
Yet, even in the face of this abhorrent aggression, the UPL has carried on to defy the odds – much as the nation’s premier heavyweight boxer, Oleksandr Usyk, has – with its biggest football clubs continuing to qualify for European competitions.
Biggest Clubs in Ukrainian Football
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Dynamo Kyiv
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Shakhtar Donetsk
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Chornomorets Odesa
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Zorya Luhansk
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Metalist Kharkiv
Of the teams that remain active in the Ukrainian football system, only two have won the Ukrainian Premier League, which is why Dynamo Kyiv and Shakhtar Donetsk clearly rank as the biggest clubs in the country.
In terms of domestic success, success on the continent, fandom, and global fame, these two are the clear frontrunners, while the other high-ranking clubs have been able to finish as runners-up in the UPL and snag some silverware elsewhere.
With a clear bracket between the elite and the next best, here’s a look at the biggest clubs in Ukrainian football.
5) Metalist Kharkiv
Having struggled tremendously through the 2023/24 season to land 16th with only 23 points, Metalist Kharkiv were relegated to the Persha Liga for the 2024/25 campaign.
Prior to their relegation, Metalist had reaffirmed their standing in the UPL, landing tenth and 12th after achieving promotion in 2020/21, giving them a chance to possibly add the club’s eighth top-three finish in the seasons to come.
Despite a relatively small sample size, Metalist Kharkiv rank among Ukraine’s most successful on the European stage, collecting 30 wins, 15 draws, and only 19 losses in nine entries to European contests.
Following the 2014 Ukrainian Revolution, however, the club was booted from the top tier after its owner, Serhiy Kurchenko, absconded.
The club would later be confiscated by the government, made into state property, and banned from sanctioned competitions. In 2020, the team returned with Oleksandr Yaroslavskyi seeking to clear the club’s debts.
For now, Metalist Kharkiv continue to exist, competing in the Persha Liga with eyes on promotion to the Premier Liga.
4) Zorya Luhansk
Originally founded in 1931, Zorya Luhansk became a true force of Soviet football in 1964 by becoming an amalgamation of two sports clubs. By 1972, Zaria Voroshilovgrad – as they were known – had won the Soviet Top League.
The biggest Ukrainian club from the Luhansk Oblast, Zorya Luhansk has climbed as high as third in the Ukrainian Premier League on four occasions and have featured in Europe as recently as the 2023/24 season.
Zorya didn’t make it out of the group in the UEFA Europa Conference League last season but still added another two wins to their tally of 20 wins from 60 games on the continent.
Firmly a mid-table club in the UPL over the last couple of seasons, the club has had to play away from its home ground in the city of Luhansk due to the Russian invasion of the region.
3) Chornomorets Odesa
Formed in 1936, Chornomorets Odesa was one of the founding members of the Ukrainian Premier League and has rarely left the top flight.
On the odd occasion that Odesa were relegated, they always secured promotion the following season or after just two seasons below.
While in the UPL, Odesa have ranked as the best also-rans to remain active with three third-place finishes and landing as the runners-up twice, earning them several berths to the European stage.
In 50 games played in Europe, the club boasts a fairly decent record of 19 wins, 12 draws, and 19 losses with a +4 goal difference, but their last showing was back in the 2014/15 campaign.
Domestically, Chornomorets Odesa have also hoisted the Ukrainian Cup twice and, before the 1990s, conquered the Soviet Second Division twice.
2) Shakhtar Donetsk
Now, we enter the elite tier of the biggest clubs in Ukrainian football with the most successful team of the modern era: Shakhtar Donetsk.
Once Ukraine became independent, Shakhtar established itself as one of the big two, but success in the Ukrainian Premier League would have to wait for nearly a decade.
After Akhat Bragin died in a bombing at the team’s stadium in 1995, Rinat Akhmetov took over as the club’s president. It was his heavy investment that laid the foundations of what would become a dominant club.
Shakhtar haven’t been home since Russia first started to push into Ukraine with the War in Donbas, stripping the Kroty (the Moles) from their new Donbas Arena to Lviv in 2014 and then forcing them out to Kharkiv in 2017.
Despite this, since the 2013/14 season, the Ukrainian club has finished top of the league eight times and won the Ukrainian Cup six times. Now, Shakhtar are 16-time UPL champions and have won the Cup 13 times.
All of this success in the league has allowed Shakhtar to be a regular feature of UEFA competitions, and even this season, they’re among the favourites in the online betting markets to secure a 9-24 spot in the Champions League.
In the 2008/09 campaign, Shakhtar Donetsk truly became a force in Europe, making up for a Group Stage exit in the UCL to go all the way in the UEFA Cup.
As of last season, their record in Europe stands as the second-best among Ukrainian football clubs at 123 wins, 58 draws, and 99 losses.
1) Dynamo Kyiv
Currently leading in the Ukrainian Premier League, top picks in the football betting each week, and the all-time leaders in almost all domestic and European stats, Dynamo Kyiv remains the biggest football club in Ukraine.
Playing in a stadium that could host over 70,000 people, Dynamo Kyiv hasn’t ever failed to compete in either the Ukrainian Premier League or the Soviet Top League.
The perpetual top-tier team has turned that dominance into 16 Ukrainian Premier League titles, 13 silver medals, 13 Ukrainian Cups, and three European trophies.
In over 50 entries to European competitions, Dynamo Kyiv has collected a decent record of 174 wins, 102 draws, and 140 losses, but with a staggering goal difference of +109 as of December last year.
This season, they’ll be looking to wrangle back the UPL title to stop Shakhtar Donetsk from drawing level with them on league titles, but the club from the capital’s last triumph was back in 2020/21.
Deciding the biggest football club in Ukraine will be a two-horse race for many years to come, but in the near future, Shakhtar Donetsk might just be able to surpass Dynamo Kyiv if they keep claiming trophies.
*Credit for the photos in this article belongs to Adobe*
