Born on this day in 1998 is current Sunderland forward/winger Nazariy Rusyn. He hasn’t featured much so far but there are increasing calls from our fanbase for him to start games.
Born in the Ukrainian city of Novoyavorivsk, Rusyn began his career with nearby team FC Lviv in 2011.
In 2015 he made his first appearance on the international stage for Ukraine’s U17 and U18 teams as well as transferring to Dynamo Kyiv. Two years later and he scored on his professional debut in the Europa League in stoppage time.
The following campaign was when he began to really get involved with the first team, playing 24 games and finding the net five times. The following year, he made a total of 30 appearances for both Dynamo Kyiv and during a loan spell with Zorya Luhansk. He scored nine times in total and was the Ukrainian Premier League Player of the Month for August.
Unfortunately the next season would turn out to be one to forget for Rusyn as he was loaned out to Legia Warsaw of Poland and forced into the reserves because of a falling out with their manager. A loan spell at Dnipro-1 in 21/22 ended his time with Dynamo Kyiv and he moved permanently to Zorya Luhansk ahead of the 2022-23 season.
His only full season with Zorya was a massive success and he scored 13 in 30 games and was once again the Ukrainian Premier League Player of the Month for May-June.
This was when Sunderland first targeted him and he was signed on deadline day at the start of this season, although he wouldn’t make his debut for us until the 24th September due a protracted saga involving a work permit. Since then he has only featured off the bench but there are increasing questions of why he hasn’t yet given the fact neither Hemir and Burstow both have not found the net with much more game time. Since moving to Wearside, he has also earned himself his first ever call up for the senior Ukrainian squad. Rusyn unfortunately did not manage to get off the bench but his time will surely come.
