Without any major hype, Ukrainian midfielder Evgeniy Levchenko has quietly finished up his tenure at Adelaide United.
Without any major hype, Ukrainian midfielder Evgeniy Levchenko has quietly finished up his tenure at Adelaide United.
Levchenko-s contract was set to officially end on April 1, but with him not in the Reds- AFC Champions League squad, the club agreed to release him early, the 34 year old saying his good-byes to his team mates last weekend.
Unfortunately and almost sadly, injury prevented Reds fans from getting to see the best of Levchenko during his time at the club. He played in the first two games of the season but then managed only two appearances out of the next 17 matches.
Once he returned to fitness, his season was revitalised when Coach John Kosmina used him as a central defender between Week 18 and 22 due to the Reds having limited options at the back due to injuries and players on national duty.
Starting to acclimatise to his new position, Levchenko went on to score his debut goal for the club in the AFC Champions League Play-off win over Persipura, but then after the Reds- numbers in defence were replenished with Daniel Mullen and Antony Golec returning from the Olyroos and Jon McKain back from injury, it left Kosmina with a tough decision to make.
With clubs only permitted three foreigners in their ACL squad, Levchenko-s lack of games over the course of the season, coupled with the depth in United-s defensive stocks, ended up counting against him as Kosmina chose to go with Francisco Usucar instead for the final foreigner place on the club-s ACL roster. At the time Kosmina admitted it was an extremely tough call to make, particularly after being impressed by what he saw from Levchenko in his time playing as a centre back.
Player arrivals and departures are all too common in today-s modern football, and the club thanks Levchenko for his contribution and wishes him the best of luck in his future endeavours. Levchenko made 10 Hyundai A-League appearances, nine of which he started.
