Bohdan Mykolayovych Shershun (; 14 May 1981 – 7 January 2024) was a Ukrainian professional

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...

er who played as a

centre-back In the sport of association football, a defender is an outfield player whose primary role is to stop attacks during the game and prevent the opposition from scoring. Defenders fall into four main categories: centre-backs, full-backs, sweepers ...

. He competed in international competitions for the Ukraine national team. Shershun was born in a family of a football coach Mykola Shershun who served as an assistant coach with Vitaliy Kvartsianyi in

Podillia Podolia or Podillia is a historic region in Eastern Europe located in the west-central and southwestern parts of Ukraine and northeastern Moldova (i.e. northern Transnistria). Podolia is bordered by the Dniester River and Boh River. It features ...

and previously played at regional level and served as a referee for some time (1991–1993). Shershun started to play football at academy of the hometown's Podillia and later the Dnipro sports college. Among first coaches of Shershun was Ihor Vetrohonov, a native of

Dnipro Dnipro is Ukraine's fourth-largest city, with about one million inhabitants. It is located in the eastern part of Ukraine, southeast of the Ukrainian capital Kyiv on the Dnieper River, Dnipro River, from which it takes its name. Dnipro is t ...

. In 1997 and 1998 he was a member of the Ukraine national under-16 football team participating in the continental competitions. At professional competitions Shershun debuted in 1997 for

FC Dnipro Football Club Dnipro (, ) was a Ukrainian football club based in Dnipro. The club played its last season in the 2018–19 Ukrainian Amateur League. The club was owned by Ukrainian businessman Ihor Kolomoyskyi. In 2018, FC Dnipro was forced ...

that was managed by

Vyacheslav Hroznyi Vyacheslav Viktorovych Hrozny (; born 12 July 1956) is a Ukrainian football player and manager. Career He is a holder of the 1980 KFK Cup of the Ukrainian SSR as a player of FC Nyva Ternopil when it used to play in Pidhaitsi. Hrozny is a gr ...

and later Mykola Fedorenko. In 1997 Kvartsianyi was offering Shershun to join his team (Podillia), but he refused. In 2002 at age of 21 (more precisely 20, during the 2001–02 season's winter break) he moved to play for

PFC CSKA Moscow Professional Football Club CSKA (, derived from the historical name 'Центральный спортивный клуб армии', English language, English: ''Central Sports Club of the Army''), commonly referred to as CSKA Moscow or ''CSK ...

that picked him up as a former member of Ukrainian squad on finals of the

Euro 2000 The 2000 UEFA European Football Championship, also known as Euro 2000, was the 11th UEFA European Championship, a football tournament held every four years and organised by UEFA, the sport's governing body in Europe. The finals tournament was ...

(under-18) and the 2001 World Championship (under-20). With CSKA, Shershun won the UEFA Cup, but didn't play in the final. According to Kvartsianyi, Shershun was also invited to Dynamo, but he believed that due to the Dynamo's training regime of

Valeriy Lobanovskyi Valeriy Vasylyovych Lobanovskyi (, ; 6 January 1939 – 13 May 2002) was а Soviet and Ukrainian football player and manager. He was Master of Sports of the USSR, Distinguished Coach of the USSR, and a laureate of the UEFA Order of Merit in Rub ...

, Shershun chose to stay with Dnipro and later joining CSKA. In 2005 Shershun was very happy to sign a new contract with his native club. He also was very complimentary about the level of the Russian football yet decided not to bother staying in the Russian Federation. Shershun didn't consider his transfer to Dnipro as a "step down" in his career. He signed 2+1 years contract with Arsenal Kyiv on 21 July 2010. After Arsenal, Shershun signed with Kryvbas Kryvyi Rih that was led by Vitaliy Kvartsianyi and later, after Kryvbas went bankrupt, along with Kvartsianyi transferred to

Volyn Lutsk FC Volyn Lutsk ( ) was a Ukrainian association football, football club based in Lutsk. Since its establishment in 1960, the club became the only major (professional) football club within Volyn Oblast and uncontested leader of football in the reg ...

. Shershun retired from professional football in 2014 and enrolled into the FFU (UAF today) coaching courses. He said that he was not interested to continue his career in Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan, while does not want to go to Russia due to political situation. For couple of more seasons, 2015 to 2017, he played at regional level for Sluch Starokostiantyniv (

Khmelnytskyi Oblast Khmelnytskyi Oblast (), also known as Khmelnychchyna (), is an administrative divisions of Ukraine, oblast (province) in western Ukraine covering portions of the historical regions of western Podolia and southern Volhynia. The Capital (political) ...

). In 2019, Shershun said that the head coach of CSKA and the Russian national football team Valery Gazzaev offered him to apply for a Russian passport, promising to regularly invite him to the Russian national team, but the player refused. After this conversation, Shershun, according to his own words, his participation in matches has decreased. Before 2024 he served as a football expert on television. Shershun died on 7 January 2024, at the age of 42, after a long illness.

Honours

Team

Dnipro *

Ukrainian Premier League The Ukrainian Premier League ( ) or UPL is a professional association football league in Ukraine and the highest level of the Ukrainian football league system. Originally known as the Vyshcha Liha ( , ) it was formed in 1991 during the 1992 in ...

third place: 2000–01 CSKA Moscow *

Russian Football Premier League The Russian Premier League (RPL; , ''Rossiyskaya premyer-liga''; РПЛ), also written as Russian Premier Liga, is a professional association football league in Russia and the highest level of the Russian football league system. It was establis ...

2003 2003 was designated by the United Nations as the International Year of Fresh water, Freshwater. In 2003, a Multi-National Force – Iraq, United States-led coalition 2003 invasion of Iraq, invaded Iraq, starting the Iraq War. Demographic ...

2005 2005 was designated as the International Year for Sport and Physical Education and the International Year of Microcredit. The beginning of 2005 also marked the end of the International Decade of the World's Indigenous Peoples, Internationa ...

* Russian Cup:

2002 The effects of the September 11 attacks of the previous year had a significant impact on the affairs of 2002. The war on terror was a major political focus. Without settled international law, several nations engaged in anti-terror operation ...

Russian Super Cup The Russian Super Cup () is a one-match football (soccer), football annual competition. Its official sponsored name is ''OLIMPBET Russian Supercup'' (). The two participating clubs are the Russian Premier League champions and the Rambler Russian ...

2004 2004 was designated as an International Year of Rice by the United Nations, and the International Year to Commemorate the Struggle Against Slavery and Its Abolition (by UNESCO). Events January * January 3 – Flash Airlines Flight 60 ...

UEFA Cup The asterisk ( ), from Late Latin , from Ancient Greek , , "little star", is a Typography, typographical symbol. It is so called because it resembles a conventional image of a star (heraldry), heraldic star. Computer scientists and Mathematici ...

UEFA Super Cup The UEFA Super Cup is an annual super cup Association football, football match organised by UEFA and contested by the winners of the two main European club competitions: the UEFA Champions League and UEFA Europa League. The competition's offic ...

runner-up:

Ukraine *

UEFA European Under-19 Championship The UEFA European Under-19 Championship, or simply the Euro Under-19, is an annual football competition, contested by the European men's under-19 national teams of the UEFA member associations. Spain is the most successful team in this competit ...

runner-up:

2000 2000 was designated as the International Year for the Culture of Peace and the World Mathematics, Mathematical Year. Popular culture holds the year 2000 as the first year of the 21st century and the 3rd millennium, because of a tende ...

Individual

* Merited Master of Sports

Personal life

Shershun was married.

References

External links