The West Ham United supporters may have had a few reasons to keep a keen eye on the Ukrainian Premier League title race this season.
Because as Andriy Yarmolenko fires Dynamo Kyiv to glory – the veteran winger scored the title-winning penalty on Sunday afternoon while attaching blue and white ribbons to the trophy for the first time in four years – the division’s runaway top scorer might just be on his way to the London Stadium this summer.
Reports indicate that Leeds and Fulham are the two clubs most interested in signing Vladyslav Vanat at the present moment in time.
However, the £17 million-rated Vanat is on West Ham’s radar too, according to TBR Football.
An instinctive and increasingly reliable goalscorer, he claimed Ukraine’s Golden Boot last term. Vanat will retain the prize, too, unless Shakhtar Donetsk talisman Georgiy Sudakov hits a quartet of goals on the final day of the 2025/26 campaign this weekend.
Vladyslav Vanat opens West Ham United door as Dynamo Kyiv win title
Speaking after he and Yarmolenko fired Dynamo Kyiv to their first domestic crown since 2021, Vanat admitted that he is holding out for a switch to one of Europe’s major leagues in the coming weeks or months.
So, with Leeds, Fulham, Brentford and Wolves interested in England alone – not to mention a West Ham side once again scouring the market for potential long-term centre-forward solutions – Vanat is likely to be offered the chance to follow in Yarmolenko’s Premier League footsteps.
“I think every footballer wants to play in Europe, and I am no exception,” Vanat tells Dynamo Mania, heading into the final matchday with 21 goals and eight assists to his name.
“I hope that sooner or later an offer will come that will suit both the club president and me, and everything will work out.
“I don’t know [about specific interest]. Nobody told me anything. For me, the most important thing was to win the championship. Of course, I wanted to win the Cup but it didn’t work out [Dynamo Kyiv lost on penalties to Shakhtar in the final].
“We won the championship, summer is coming. We will see.”
Vanat could follow Artem Dovbyk and Andriy Yarmolenko
The identity of the last Ukrainian Golden Boot winner to secure a big-money move to a major European league, meanwhile, feels like a good omen for Vanat’s chances of success on foreign soil.
Artem Dovbyk followed up one Golden Boot-winning campaign with another after swapping Dnipro for Girona. The late-blooming targetman now leads the line for Roma in Serie A.
“The most promising [player] in terms of a potential sale, in my opinion, is Vanat,” reporter Viktor Vasko explains. “He is 23 years old, a player in the national team, and is the top scorer in the Ukrainian championship for two seasons in a row.
“This will be taken into account, and I am sure that there is interest in him.
“I think that a price of about 20 million euros with a 20 or 30 per cent [sell-on clause] for the next sale will be a good option for Dynamo Kyiv. And this is what clubs from the top five European championships will be able to afford.
“Whether Dynamo will be satisfied with this conditional 20 million euro [sale] is the most interesting question in this context.”
Receive a digest of our best West Ham content each week direct to your mailbox
