The UPL Player of the Season for 2025/26 Has Been Named
Gleiker Mendoza, the Venezuelan winger for Kryvbas Kryvyi Rih, was named the Ukrainian Premier League’s Player of the Year for the 2025–26 season.
In the voting for the prestigious award, the foreign player managed to edge out some serious competition.
In particular, he finished ahead of Kyiv Dynamo forward Matviy Ponomarenko and Donetsk Shakhtar’s Brazilian midfielder Alisson.
It is worth noting that Ponomarenko, representing Kyiv, had previously won the award for the UPL’s best young player and topped the scoring charts.
Throughout the successful 2025/26 season, the Latin American footballer demonstrated exceptional productivity on the field.
Mendoza played in 26 national league matches, scoring 11 goals and providing 11 assists to his teammates. Such a high “goal plus assist” tally allowed the Kryvyi Rih team’s leader to attract the attention of the giants of Ukrainian football.
Immediately after the official season ended, the talented winger changed clubs and signed a contract with Donetsk’s Shakhtar. The management of the reigning Ukrainian champions paid the full transfer fee stipulated in the player’s contract.
This transfer cost the “Miners” a fixed buyout clause of 3 million euros.
This was officially announced by the press service of the Ukrainian Premier League.
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