Experts determined the best coach, player, and symbolic team of the 5th round
The Ukrainian Premier League continues to honor the heroes of the 2026/27 season and has compiled a symbolic team of the 5th round of the UPL Championship, as well as named the best player and coach of the 5th round. Traditionally, this was done together with hosts, experts, commentators of the UPL.TB and representatives of leading sports media in Ukraine. This time there were 38 of them.
In the survey by UPL.TB, Vitaliy Volochay, Volodymyr Zverov, Bohdan Kostiuk, Oleksandr Kostiuk, Pavlo Lukianchuk, Oleksandr Melnychenko, Vadym Skichko, Vitaliy Shalota, Vadym Shevyakin, and Dmytro Shpirko took part.
Journalists who voted included Ilya Bereza (Football.ua), Ihor Boyko, Vasyl Obaraz (both from "Maincast" / "UPL Evening"), Daniil Vereitin ("Champion Radio"), Mykhailo Hema (Channel 24), Oleksandr Zolotogorsky (FootballHub), Eduard Kinzersky ("Sport-arena"), Oleksiy Klykov ("Sportarena"), Serhiy Koval (founder of the TG channel "Football from a helicopter"), Andriy Kovalsky (ICTV), Andriy Kostenko ("RBC-Ukraine"), Pavlo Kushneruk ("Brutal Football"), Andriy Pavlechko (NV), Andriy Piskun ("Ukrainian Football"), Oleksandr Popov ("Dynamo from Shurik"), Artem Rossinsky ("SportObos"), Oleksandr Sazhko ("Tribune"), Ihor Semyon (Ua-football), Serhiy Sytnyk ("Footboom"), Yevhen Sidash ("Dinamo Mania"), Mykhailo Smoloviy ("That's What It Is"), Valeriy Sokhan ("Autoradio"), Andriy Todos ("Zorya London"), Anton Fedortsiv ("Glavkom"), Serhiy Tsyba (Sport.ua), Dmytro Chornobai (Sport-express.ua), Serhiy Shakhovets ("Champion"), Mykhailo Yukhimenko ("Football 24"), and Yevhen Yasenov ("Terrikon").
By the decision of the collective of 38 experts, the best coach of the 5th round was recognized as Arda Turan, who with "Shakhtar" achieved a strong victory in the central match of the round against "Karpaty" (2:1), who were the leaders of the UPL before the round. The second place was taken by Mladen Bartulovic ("Kharkiv" scored five goals against "Obolon" in the first half -- 5:0), and the third place went to Ruslan Rotan ("Polissya" defeated "Kudrivka" 5:1).
The title of the best player of the 5th round was awarded to the center forward of "Kharkiv" Peter Itodo, who scored two goals and provided an assist to Baton Zabergdja in the match against "Obolonnia". He significantly outperformed all potential competitors in terms of points. The top 5 also included: Ihor Krasnopyr ("Polissya"), Baton Zabergdja ("Kharkiv"), Alisson ("Shakhtar"), and Dmytro Ledvii (LNZ).
Overall, the experts mentioned 26 players and 12 (a unique situation!) coaches when determining the heroes of the 5th round, as well as 66 candidates for the symbolic team. Therefore, in addition to the 11 players in the hypothetical starting lineup, we traditionally added a hypothetical reserve of the round's symbolic team: Nikita Fedotov ("Epicenter"), Mykola Matviienko ("Shakhtar"), Ivan Kaliuzhnyi ("Kharkiv"), Marlon Gomes ("Shakhtar"), Izaki ("Shakhtar"), Vladyslav Veleten ("Polissya"), Nazarii Rusyn ("Karpaty").
