Brown Ideye's forgotten three years in Kyiv

A five-year deal that lasted three

Ideye arrived at Dynamo Kyiv on 6 July 2011 having signed a five-year contract, fresh from a stint at Sochaux following his move to Europe with Neuchâtel Xamax in 2008. It is easy to forget he was ever a Ukrainian Premier League player at all, since the move sits quietly between his French football and the £10 million switch to West Brom that made headlines in 2014. But the Kyiv spell was not a quiet one on the pitch.

He wasted no time making an impression. In his very first appearance for the club, against Oleksandria on 16 July 2011, he scored twice. In his second match, he scored another brace, this time against Obolon Kyiv. Two games, four goals - a start few new signings manage anywhere.

Continental nights

The goals that have lasted longest in the memory of those who followed it closely came in Europe. On 7 August 2012, Ideye scored the winner against Feyenoord in a Champions League third qualifying round second leg, helping Dynamo progress. The following year, in the play-off round, he scored against Borussia Mönchengladbach; Dynamo lost that particular leg 2-1 but still went through on aggregate, 4-3, and into the group stage of the competition. For a forward who would later be best known in England and Greece, these were significant European nights that rarely get revisited.

Silverware, then a quiet exit

Ideye's time at Dynamo also brought honours: the Ukrainian Super Cup in 2011, not long after he arrived, and the Ukrainian Cup in 2013-14, though by the time of that final win over Shakhtar Donetsk on 15 May 2014, he was an unused substitute rather than a contributor on the pitch. Weeks later, with two years still technically left on the five-year deal he had signed in 2011, he left for West Bromwich Albion, where his fee made him the Baggies' record signing and ensured that the Premier League move, not the Kyiv years, would come to define how he is remembered.

Why it matters

The three seasons at Dynamo Kyiv were not a footnote at the time - they included continental football against Feyenoord and Mönchengladbach, a league-winning Ukrainian Super Cup, a cup final appearance, and a storming start with four goals in his first two games. They simply sit in the shadow of what came after: a British transfer record, a Greek league title with Olympiacos, and an Africa Cup of Nations medal with Nigeria. For a player whose career spanned Switzerland, France, Ukraine, England, Greece, China and Spain, the Kyiv years are the spell that time forgot.