David Fesyuk

In March 2024 a photograph of a goalkeeper caked from head to boots in mud ran across the Croatian press. The pitch at the match against league leaders Zrinjski had turned to a bog after heavy rain, and David Fesyuk, on loan at NK Croatia Zmijavci, came off it unrecognisable.

His route there ran through three countries. Born in Lutsk, he moved to Slovakia as a child and took up football at Marek Hamšík's academy, RSC Hamsik Academy, in Banská Bystrica. At 11 he spent time in youth sides elsewhere in Slovakia before returning to the Hamšík set-up. In 2021 he joined the youth academy at HNK Hajduk Split, and a year later was moved up to the first-team squad. His debut for that squad came in May 2022, in an exhibition match against Shakhtar Donetsk on the Shakhtar Global Tour for Peace in Ukraine, which finished 3-3.

The 2022/23 season took Hajduk's youth team to the final of the UEFA Youth League — the first Croatian club to get that far. Fesyuk was one of two goalkeepers named in the squad for the final against AZ on 24 April 2023, alongside Borna Buljan, but did not play.

Valencia looked at him twice, in 2020 when he was 15 and again in 2023. Bureaucratic obstacles stopped a move both times.

He has played for Ukraine at youth level: two caps at under-17 across 2021 and 2022, in European Championship qualifying, and four at under-19 in 2023, among them the qualifier against Malta on 15 November.