Butko joins Lech Poznań

The 29-year-old arrived to Poznan on Sunday to undergo medical tests, however, it wasn’t his first visit to Poland. During the previous examinations, the doctors noticed an injury that could potentially rule him out of training sessions. Therefore, the two clubs agreed to organise additional medical tests to track the progress of Butko’s rehabilitation. Since the injury turned out to be less serious than initially diagnosed and the defender passed the second examinations, Lech decided to bring the player on loan.

The right-back has joined Shakhtar Donetsk a few years ago, however, this season he lost his spot in the starting line-up, therefore he decided to join Lech in order to fight for a chance to compete at Euro 2020.

“I am thrilled to be joining Lech Poznan. It’s a new chapter in my career and I want to show my best. I have not only come here to play regularly, but also to help the team fight for trophies. In addition, it’s an important period for me since my objective is to compete at Euro 2020,” explained Butko.

Bohdan Butko is a homegrown player of the current Ukrainian champions, however, before he was promoted to the senior team, he gathered experience at various clubs such as FC Volyn Lutsk, FK Mariupol, and Amkar Perm. Since the season 2016/17, he’s been representing Shakhtar Donetsk’s A team and appeared in 64 games in total, scoring once, and assisting his teammates 13 times. Throughout his span at Shakhtar, the 29-year-old defender won three championship titles, two national cups, and played in 10 Champions League games.

Butko has also regularly competed for the Ukrainian National Team. So far, he has 32 caps and his resume includes performances at Euro 2012 and 2016. The last time he played for his national team was back in March 2019 in the match against Luxembourg.