Maksym Evgenovich Zhuk (; born 18 August 2003) is 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 ...

player who plays as a

goalkeeper In many team sports that involve scoring goal (sport), goals, the goalkeeper (sometimes termed goaltender, netminder, GK, goalie, or keeper) is a designated player charged with directly preventing the opposing team from scoring by blocking or i ...

for SalPa, on loan from KTP.

Career

Zhuk was born and raised in

Mariupol Mariupol is a city in Donetsk Oblast, Ukraine. It is situated on the northern coast (Pryazovia) of the Sea of Azov, at the mouth of the Kalmius, Kalmius River. Prior to the Russian invasion of Ukraine, it was the tenth-largest city in the coun ...

, Ukraine, and played in a youth sector of local club

FC Mariupol Football Club Mariupol ( ) was a Ukrainian professional Association football, football club based in Mariupol, that competed in the Ukrainian Premier League. The club ceased to exist as a result of the Siege of Mariupol, during the 2022 Russian ...

. In late February 2022, he attended the club's first team's training camp in Turkey. On 24 February, the team was supposed to return to Ukraine, but before the boarding of their flight, the

Russian invasion of Ukraine On 24 February 2022, , starting the largest and deadliest war in Europe since World War II, in a major escalation of the Russo-Ukrainian War, conflict between the two countries which began in 2014. The fighting has caused hundreds of thou ...

escalated and Russia started bombing the country and also Mariupol. His family fled from Ukraine and relocated to

Tallinn Tallinn is the capital city, capital and List of cities in Estonia, most populous city of Estonia. Situated on a Tallinn Bay, bay in north Estonia, on the shore of the Gulf of Finland of the Baltic Sea, it has a population of (as of 2025) and ...

, Estonia. After spending one month in Turkey, Zhuk and the FC Mariupol players started to look for new clubs. Via Croatia and Poland, Zhuk ended up to Estonian club Nõmme Kalju. From Estonia, Zhuk traveled to

Kotka Kotka (; ) is a town in Finland, located on the southeastern coast of the country at the mouth of the Kymi River. The population of Kotka is approximately , while the Kotka-Hamina sub-region, sub-region has a population of approximately . It is th ...

, Finland, and joined local club KTP, with a help from Nõmme Kalju's sporting director

Argo Arbeiter Argo Arbeiter (born 5 December 1973) is an Estonian football manager and former Estonian international footballer. Currently he is the sporting director of Nõmme Kalju. International career Arbeiter earned a total number of 29 caps for the Es ...

, former head coach of KTP. He joined KTP team in summer 2022, but signed his first professional contract for the

2023 Veikkausliiga The 2023 Veikkausliiga was the 93rd season of top-tier football in Finland, which takes place from April to November. The winners ( HJK, their fourth successive title win and thirty-third overall) qualified for the Champions League first qualif ...

season. He played one game with associate club

PEPO Lappeenranta PEPO Lappeenranta (abbreviated PEPO, earlier Uus-Lavolan Peli-Pojat) is a Finnish football club from Uus-Lavola, Lappeenranta. The club was formed in 1958 and their home ground is at the Kimpinen Sports Centre. The men's first team currently ...

in third-tier

Kakkonen Kakkonen or II divisioona is the fourth level in the league system of Finnish football and comprises 36 Finnish football teams. Until the end of 2023, ''Kakkonen'' was the third-highest level in Finland, but after the creation of new second-t ...

, before on 31 July he was loaned out to

Ykkönen ''Ykkönen'' (Finnish language, Finnish for 'Number One'; , previously I divisioona) is the third highest level of the Finnish football league system (after the Veikkausliiga and Ykkösliiga), managed by the Football Association of Finland. Until ...

club

Käpylän Pallo Käpylän Pallo, commonly referred to as KäPa for short, is a football (soccer) club from the Käpylä district of Helsinki. The club currently plays in the Ykkösliiga, the new second tier of the Finnish league system. Their home arena is Max ...

for the rest of the

2023 Catastrophic natural disasters in 2023 included the Lists of 21st-century earthquakes, 5th-deadliest earthquake of the 21st century 2023 Turkey–Syria earthquakes, striking Turkey and Syria, leaving up to 62,000 people dead; Cyclone Freddy ...

season in Finnish second-tier. He returned to KTP for the 2024 season, and in October they secured the new second-tier

Ykkösliiga ''Ykkösliiga'' (English language, English: ''"League One"''; ) is the second highest level of the Finnish football league system (after the Veikkausliiga), managed by the Football Association of Finland. The teams in Ykkösliiga also play a pre-s ...

title and were promoted back to Veikkausliiga.

Career statistics

Honours

KTP *

2024 The year saw the list of ongoing armed conflicts, continuation of major armed conflicts, including the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the Myanmar civil war (2021–present), Myanmar civil war, the Sudanese civil war (2023–present), Sudane ...

KTP varmisti sarjanousun Veikkausliigaan

Yle Yleisradio Oy (; ), abbreviated as Yle () (formerly styled in all uppercase until 2012), translated into English as the Finnish Broadcasting Company, is Finland's national public broadcasting company, founded in 1926. It is a joint-stock comp ...

, 6 October 2024

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Zhuk, Maksym Living people 2003 births Ukrainian men's footballers Men's association football goalkeepers Kakkonen players Ykkönen players Veikkausliiga players FC Mariupol players PEPO Lappeenranta players Käpylän Pallo players Kotkan Työväen Palloilijat players Salon Palloilijat players Ukrainian expatriate men's footballers Ukrainian expatriate sportspeople in Finland Ykkösliiga players Expatriate men's footballers in Finland