Young Player Worth the Watch #4- Andriy Lunin

Biodata

Full Name: Andriy Oleksiyovych Lunin

Nationality: Ukrainian

Date of Birth: 11 February 1999

Height: 1.92m (6ft 4in)

Position: Goalkeeper

Current Club: Real Madrid

Current Market Price: 2.70mil Euro (Updated in April 2020)

Highest Market Price: 8.50mil Euro (Jul 2018)

Former Clubs:

2016- 2017 Dnipro

2017- 2018 Zorya Luhansk

2018- 2019 Leganes (loan)

2019- 2020 Valladolid (loan)

2020 Oviedo (loan)

International Career:

2014- 2015 Ukraine U16

2015- 2016 Ukraine U17

2016 Ukraine U18

2017 Ukraine U19

2019 Ukraine U20

2017- Ukraine U21

2018- Ukraine

Achievement:

Ukraine U20

2019 FIFA U20 World Cup

Strength

• Penalty Saving

• Long Passing

• Saving Long Shots

Weakness

• Catching Crosses

Career

The way that a goalkeeper progresses is projected differently with the other outfield players as a goalkeeper’s career can be a long-lasting one. Just look at Gianluigi Buffon, he is still yet to hang up his gloves at the age of 42 at the time of writing. Therefore, a young goalkeeper prospect can only progress better as they gained more experience and read the game better. In the same time, when a mega-club like Real Madrid came calling and signed a player at a very young age, you know that that player has a special something. This is what happened in the main character of this article, Andriy Lunin.

Lunin was a graduate of FC Dnipro Youth Sportive School Systems. His impressive form in the youth rank had earned him a call-up from Ukraine U17 side where he represented his national team in 2016 European U-17 Championship in Azerbaijan. Once he was graduated from the youth team in 2016, Lunin straight promoted to the FC Dnipro Dnipropetrovsk reserve side. He even got his first senior team appearance on October 2016 against FC Karpaty Lviv, aged just 17 at that time. Since then, Lunin was the first choice goalkeeper for the remaining of the season. However, things get out of control. Dnipro was relegated directly to the third tier of Ukrainian football league due to financial irregularities. Lunin was allowed to leave the club.

Lunin joined FC Zorya Luhansk in the next season and he was once again been quickly established himself as the first goalkeeper in the team. In the same season, Lunin made his European debut in a Europa League match against Swedish side Ostersund. This is his breakout season as he played 36 matches in all competition, where 10 of the matches he managed to keep a clean sheet. Despite FC Zorya Luhansk were knocked out on the group stage in the Europa League, Lunin was still managed to help his team to finish 4th in the Ukrainian League. He also got his first national team cap on the senior level in March 2018, where he played a full 90 minutes in a friendly match against Saudi Arabia, where the match ended with a 1-1 draw. This performance had certainly caught the attention of Real Madrid when they signed him for 8.5million Euro plus 5million add-ons on June 2018.

In order to secure more game-time, Lunin was loaned out by Real Madrid to fellow La Liga side Leganes for the 2018-2019 season. He finally experienced a more competitive league as Lunin was the understudy for Ivan Cuellar in Leganes. His first ever match for Leganes was against Rayo Vallecano in Copa del Rey, in which he held a clean sheet in the second leg to help Leganes to qualify to the next round. His first ever La Liga match was against Girona, where he replaced the injured Ivan Cuellar for the last four minutes of the match. Overall, his performance in Leganes was impressive despite his lack of playing time. Lunin still managed to secure 3 clean sheets in his 7 matches played in all competition.

Lunin’s career-defining moment came when he represented Ukraine U20 team to participate in the U20 World Cup in Poland. He played 6 out of 7 matches in the tournament where this Ukraine U20 side eventually won the whole tournament and kept 2 clean sheets in the process. He was undoubtedly the Golden Glove winner in this tournament. Fun fact, Lunin never conceded more than one goal in a match in this tournament. However, this performance wasn’t enough to persuade Real Madrid to let him stay in the club to fight for his chance. Lunin was loaned out to another La Liga side, Real Valladolid for the 2019-2020 season. Unlike his spell in Leganes on the previous season, he only appeared twice in Copa del Rey for Real Valladolid. His loan deal with Real Valladolid was terminated on January 2020.

Once his loan deal with Real Valladolid was terminated, Lunin was immediately loaned out to another Spanish club. This time to a La Liga 2 side, Real Oviedo. When he first joined Real Oviedo, the team was fighting against relegation for the remaining of the season as they were in 17th position out of 22 teams in the league. Lunin was immediately been established as the main goalkeeper as he remained his goalkeeping ability in the Spanish second tier. Among 20 league game played for Real Oviedo, Lunin managed to keep 6 clean sheets and managed to help Real Oviedo to escape relegation with a 15th placed finish in the league and 2 points above the relegation zone. With the competitiveness in the Real Madrid squad, Lunin will be likely for another loan move to continuously develop his relatively young career as a goalkeeper.

Verdict

Potential: 8.5. As mentioned before, the timeline for a goalkeeper is relatively longer compared to another outfield player. Therefore, there is still time for Lunin to truly establish himself as a top-class goalkeeper, no matter in a Real Madrid shirt or in another club. All he needs is probably just more game time for him to progress and increase his experience to develop his goalkeeping ability.