Marko Devych - International Career

International Career

In June 2008 the 24-year old Dević became a naturalized Ukrainian citizen in hopes of playing for the Ukrainian national football team. Although Dević is not the first footballer from outside the former Soviet Union to accept Ukrainian citizenship, his decision has led to numerous discussions in the media on the adoption of foreign players. The first international player to become a naturalized Ukrainian was Mamadi Sangare from Conakry, Guinea who in 2008 played for FC Desna Chernihiv and before that FC CSKA Kyiv.

Dević also had a very successful season in 2007/08, scoring 19 goals and becoming the top scorer; this in turn put some pressure on the head coach of the national team Olexiy Mykhailychenko who hesitated with Dević's selection. In his defense Mykhailychenko stated that just because a striker had one great season that might not be enough to consider Dević for selection. Nonetheless Dević was first called up to the team by Oleksiy Mykhailychenko for a friendly match against Norway on 19 November 2008, becoming the third naturalized citizen on the Ukraine national football team called up at that time, along with Oleksandr Aliyev and Artem Milevskiy. Dević played the second half of the match and wore the number 10 shirt. In the next couple of years his match participation dropped noticeably, due to his low performance in the Premier League as well as not scoring with the national team.

Dević was a member of Ukraine's squad for UEFA Euro 2012. On 19 June 2012, he was in the starting line-up for the game against England in the final round of games before the quarter-finals. Ukraine lost 0–1, with Wayne Rooney's scrappy second-half finish carrying England through at the Donbass Arena in Donetsk. However, Dević had a goal disallowed in the second half after John Terry hooked the ball clear from behind the line, as confirmed by video replays. England ultimately won Group D (after Sweden unexpectedly overturned France) and Ukraine were dumped out of their own tournament. Dević's "ghost goal" reopened football's goal-line technology debate. While replays of the build-up also appeared to show Dević's teammate Artem Milevskiy — who set up Dević — in an offside position when the ball was played to him, which too went unnoticed by the officials. The following day, UEFA and its chief refereeing officer Pierluigi Collina admitted an error had been made and that Dević and Ukraine had been denied a legitimate goal.