Viktor Goncharenko


Viktar Mihailavich Hancharenka, is a Belarusian football manager, currently in charge of CSKA Moscow. He is the youngest ever manager to lead a team in the final group stage of the UEFA Champions League. He set this record on 17 September 2008, in a match against Real Madrid, at the age of 31, while managing Belarussian club BATE Borisov.

Early life and career

Formative years and education

Viktar Mihailavich Hancharenka was born in 1977 to a middle-class family in Khoiniki, Belarus. He is the son of Mikhail Hancharenka, a Belarusian engineer who died in 1993 in the wake of the infamous Chernobyl disaster and who was a big football fan. His mother was the manager of a small shop in Belarus. Viktor joined a football school at the young age of 9 years old where his parents encouraged him to do his best to be as successful as possible.
Football was a major part of his life and his father was very impressed with his knowledge of the sport. In 1995, after his father's death, Viktor became a student at the Republic College of Olympic Reserve in Minsk, Belarus. In the RUOR, Viktor got most of his footballing knowledge. He also met other famous Belarusian footballers Alexander Hleb, Vitali Kutuzov and Yuri Zhevnov.
In 1998, Viktor joined BATE Borisov.

Playing career

Hancharenka's playing career began in 1995, when he made his debut as a defender aged 18. While playing for BATE Borisov Viktar became a champion of Belarusian Premier League in 1999, 2002, silver prize winner in 1998, 2000 and bronze prize winner in 2001. At the age of 25 Hancharenka was forced to retire through injury.

Coaching career

Before he became head manager of BATE, Hancharenka was assistant manager at FC BATE under coaches Yuri Puntus and Igor Kriushenko. In 2007 Viktar become a head coach of BATE and won the national championship. Under Hancharenka's leadership, BATE in 2008 became the first club from Belarus to qualify for the lucrative group stages of the UEFA Champions League and in 2009–2010 of the UEFA Europa League.
In 2011 Hancharenka and his BATE defeated AZ 4–1 in the group stage of the UEFA Europa League and this allowed the team to advance to the 1/16 stages of the UEFA Europa League Cup.
In August 2011 Hancharenka led his club into the group stage of the Champions League again.

Kuban Krasnodar

On 12 October 2013, Hancharenka was appointed as manager of Russian Premier League side Kuban Krasnodar. Leaving the club by mutual consent on 13 November 2014.

Ural

Hancharenka was appointed as manager of Ural Sverdlovsk Oblast on 14 June 2015. After only 6 games in charge, on 25 August 2016, it was reported that Hancharenka had left Ural, and that he wouldn't take charge of the clubs week 7 fixture on 28 August 2015 against Terek Grozny. Subsequently, Hancharenka's contract being terminated by mutual consent on 1 September 2015.

Ufa

On 6 June 2016, Hancharenka was appointed as manager of FC Ufa. On 12 December 2016, he left Ufa by mutual consent.

CSKA Moscow

On 12 December 2016, Hancharenka was announced as the new manager of CSKA Moscow, on a two-year contract. Under his management, CSKA won the 2018 Russian Super Cup. In the 2018–19 UEFA Champions League group stage, CSKA defeated the title holders Real Madrid twice, including a 3–0 victory away at Santiago Bernabéu, but remained last in the group as they only gained 1 point in 4 remaining group games.
On 20 May 2020, Goncharenko extended his contract with CSKA until the summer of 2021.

Managerial statistics

Honours

As player

BATE Borisov
BATE Borisov
CSKA Moscow
Hancharenka is married to Margarita. They have a son.