FC Kharkiv

The club was established in the summer of 2016 after the original club, FC Metalist Kharkiv, was refused a license by the Football Federation of Ukraine and expelled from national competitions. The process of creation of the club started the former first vice-president of the Football Federation of Ukraine, Serhiy Storozhenko. In his interview in May of 2017, Storozhenko emphasized that the club is created to be governed by local fans, for whom was created the Metalist 1925 fan club. The members of the club could be part of the governing body and governing committees of the FC Metalist 1925 Kharkiv. Storozhenko said straightforwardly that the new club has no relations to FC Metalist Kharkiv.

At first, the club was registered as Avanhard Kharkiv and had two teams, Metalist 1925 participating in the national amateur championship and Metalist Yunior in the Kharkiv Oblast championship. During the certification with the Professional Football League of Ukraine, on May 15, 2017, the club was re-registered as FC Metalist 1925 Kharkiv. Concerning naming, Serhiy Storozhenko stated that the name of Metalist is a tribute to Kharkiv as a city of workers, while the number of 1925 has two versions of how they came up with it. The first version is that 19 participants created FC Avanhard Kharkiv, while 25 is the number of footballers who can be listed for the team. The second version is that until 1925 there was a championship of cities in Ukraine, and Kharkiv was among the first champions of the Soviet Union. And it is in 1925 that the first football clubs appeared in Ukraine.

Former Metalist player like Volodymyr Linke, who is one of the founders of FC Metalist 1925 Kharkiv, became the club's general director.

In 2016, FC Metalist 1925 entered the Ukrainian Football Amateur League for the 2016–17 season where it reached the league's final. Later in the summer of 2017, it was admitted to the Ukrainian Second League.

In 2018, the club was promoted to the Ukrainian First League and, from 2021, it has played in the highest tier of Ukrainian association football – the Ukrainian Premier League.

On 1 June 2025, Metalist 1925 secured promotion to the Ukrainian Premier League from next season after a win against Livyi Bereh Kyiv on a 2–0 aggregate in the promotion-relegation play-off, and returned to the top tier after a one-year absence.

On 15 June 2026, Metalist 1925 announced an official rebranding and renaming to FC Kharkiv, starting the following season.