Oleh Luzhny alternatively Romanised as Oleg Luzhny, born August 5, 1968 in Lviv, Ukraine) is a Ukrainian former football player, currently assistant coach at FC Dynamo Kyiv.
Luzhny first played for Ukrainian clubs Volyn Lutsk (1985-88) and Karpaty Lviv (1988-89). He signed for Dynamo Kyiv in 1989 and became a regular at right back, winning the USSR domestic double in 1990 and seven consecutive Ukrainian league titles between 1993 and 1999, as well as impressing in the Champions League, reaching the semi-finals in 1998-99. By then he had become club captain.
Meanwhile, on the international stage, Luzhny had made his debut at the age of 21 for the Soviet Union in 1989, winning eight caps. After the USSR’s dissolution, Luzhny went on to play for Ukraine, playing 52 times for his country between 1992 and 2003, although his side never reached a tournament finals.
Luzhny captained the national side a record 39 times and achieved immense personal recognition in his country. In December 2000 he was voted into the Ukrainian ‘Team of the Century’ according to a poll by The Ukrainsky Futbol weekly. Luzhny received the fourth biggest number of votes, behind only to Oleg Blokhin, Andriy Shevchenko and Anatoly Demyanenko.
Luzhny signed for English club Arsenal in the summer of 1999, as cover for Lee Dixon, although he was unable to fully displace the England international. While never a first-team regular at the Gunners (the young Cameroonian Lauren was signed a year later as Dixon’s long-term replacement), Luzhny still played 120 matches in four years at the club, either at right back, or less frequently at centre back, winning an FA Premier League winners medal in 2002. His last match for the Gunners was the 2003 FA Cup final (which Arsenal won, beating Southampton 1-0).
He signed for newly-promoted Wolverhampton Wanderers in the summer of 2003, and spent a single season there, but only made four appearances for the side. He was released by Wolves in the summer of 2004 and had a brief spell at Latvian side FK Venta as player-coach, but left the club after it ran into financial problems.
In May 2006 Luzhny became assistant coach at Dynamo Kyiv.