Oleh Romanovych Luzhnyi (Ukrainian: Олег Романович Лужний; born 5 August 1968) is a Ukrainian former professional footballer who played as a right-back.
On the international stage, Luzhnyi made his debut at the age of 20 for the Soviet Union in 1989, winning eight caps but missing the 1990 World Cup because of injury. After the Soviet Union's dissolution, Luzhnyi went on to play for Ukraine, playing 52 times for his country between 1992 and 2003, although his side never reached a tournament finals, losing three times in the play-offs.
Luzhnyi 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. Luzhnyi received the fourth biggest number of votes, behind only to Oleg Blokhin, Andriy Shevchenko and Anatoliy Demyanenko.
Luzhnyi had a brief spell at Latvian side FK Venta as player-coach in 2005, but left the club after it ran into financial problems. He has now retired from playing and in June 2006 became assistant coach at Dynamo Kyiv.
Luzhnyi was named interim manager of Dynamo Kyiv on 5 November 2007 after the resignation of Yozhef Sabo. He led the club to three league wins in three matches, including a 2–1 home victory against perennial rivals Shakhtar Donetsk, as well as into the semifinals of the Ukrainian Cup. However, during the same period Dynamo suffered heavy Champions League defeats away at Manchester United and Sporting Lisbon and at home to Roma.
On 8 December 2007, Dynamo Kyiv unveiled a new permanent manager, Yury Syomin, and a few days later it was announced that Luzhnyi would continue as an assistant coach under the new manager.
On 1 October 2010, he was again named as interim manager of Dynamo Kyiv after the resignation of Valery Gazzaev. The first match was lost 2–0 to Shakhtar Donetsk at Donbas Arena. After the 19th round match against PFC Sevastopol Luzhnyi informed the fans that he will not return after the winter break. He was replaced by Yury Syomin on 24 December 2010.
Luzhnyi turned down the chance to coach in England in 2022 in order to fight for Ukraine after the Russian invasion.
1989-1999 |
1999-2003 |
2003-2004 |
| Arsenal | Appearances | English Premier League | 2000-2001 | 19 |
| Arsenal | Assists | English Premier League | 2000-2001 | 1 |