Ukraine 4

 

Olha Boichenko (in back, Zhytoblud-1)
vs. Northern Ireland (0:2) | Euros Qualifier | 2021 in Northern Ireland

This is an absolutely historic shirt! It is a matchworn shirt of Olha Boichenko from the Euros 2022 qualifier playoffs vs. Northern Ireland, which Ukraine lost 1:4 in aggregrate, narrowly losing out on qualifying for a women's Euros for a second time in their history. Even better, it was worn by Boichenko, one of the few Ukrainian players that already played in the only Euros tournament Ukraine featured in - the 2007 edition in Finland, where they went out in the group stage, beating just the winner of their group and host Finland.

Boichenko is an interesting player, too. She left Ukraine towards Russia aged 21 in 2010, playing five years for Zvezda Perm in the highest Russian league, winning the league even in 2014 and 2015 and making it to the Champions League quarter final with the club in her first season in 2011. She then moved to WFC Rossiyanka, still in Russia, the then reigning champion. After failing to defend the title, she moved on to Ryazan-VDV to lift the Russian title a third time. She then ended her career, aged just 28, and did not play professional football for a couple of years, before restarting her career in Ukraine for Zhytoblud-1 in 2020. She immediately won the Ukrainian league then, scoring 19 goals in her 21 matches, before moving to Kryvbas Kryvyi Rih and becoming Ukrainian runners-up with that club. Since 2023, now aged 36, she is playing at SeaSters Odesa, a second divison club, where she is standing at 46 goals in 22 matches at the time of writing. What a career!

Now, I got this shirt for as little as 40 Euro somewhere on a small ads site and am quite sure that it is legit and genuinely matchworn. While Ukraine wasn't on the winning side of the playoff this shirt was worn in, I am over the moon with this one, given the importance of the match.