Metalist

USSR competitions

The team has played under the following names:

Dzerzhinets (1947–1952) – All-Union Dzerzhinets sports society (merger into Avangard in 1956)

Avanhard/Avangard (1956–1967) – Republican Avanhard sports society (until 1957 All-Union Avangard sports society)

Metalist/Metallist (since 1967) – All-Union Zenit sports society (part of reinstating and separating from Avanhard)

FC Metalist Kharkiv was initially founded on 11 December 1925 as KhPZ (Kharkovskiy Parovoznyi Zavod – Kharkiv Steam Locomotive Factory), when a local locomotive construction facility (Kharkiv Steam-locomotive Factory, today the Malyshev Factory) provided funding and allowed use of its land to start a football club. The first factory team however played under the name of "Parovoznik" since 1922. A big impulse to development of football among factory teams was construction of the Traktor Stadium (today Metalist Stadium) which was opened in September 1926. The stadium was built on a directive of Anastas Mikoyan (Minister of Foreign and Home Trade). It was built by workers of the Lokomotive Factory and became the biggest in the city. After the opening a team of KhPZ met with the city team of Dnipropetrovsk (renamed in previous month from Yekaterinoslav) tying the match in 2:2 with 8,000 spectators observing the match. In August 1927, the stadium was hosting the Ukrainian Spartakiade final stage.

Ten years later in 1935, the club won the city of Kharkiv championship, which allowed the club to enter the USSR Cup in the following season. Until the World War II, the team was completely in shadow of some other Kharkiv teams such as FC Dynamo Kharkiv, FC Silmash Kharkiv, and others. Among notable players of the early period, it should be mentioned Mykola Krotov who in 1927 moved to KhPZ from the Dynamo's predecessor Shturm Kharkiv.

Following World War II, the factory team joined the Dzerzhinets sports society assuming its name and resumed playing in local competitions, promoting itself to the Second Group (Soviet Second Division) in 1947 only to be demoted three seasons later. In the first post-war decade the club was completely overshadowed by its another city rival FC Lokomotyv Kharkiv which was member of the Soviet Lokomotiv sports society.

In 1956, Metalist as Avanhard returned to the Soviet Second League B replacing its city rivals Lokomotyv Kharkiv. Many players from Lokomotyv joined the Avanhard factory team among which were Heorhiy Borzenko, Mykola Uhraitskyi, Vitaliy Zub and others. Soon thereafter Avanhard was promoted first to Soviet First League in 1958, and later to the Soviet Top League in 1960. The club stayed in Top League for 4 seasons, but was demoted to First League in 1963, continuing its decline with demotion to Second League. In 1978, the club was promoted to the Soviet First League and two years later, the club finished third in the competition narrowly missing promotion to the top flight. The following season, the club improved on their previous performance and won the Soviet First League outright to earn a spot in Soviet Top League. The club sustained 10 seasons of the Soviet Top League with several successes on the domestic front. In 1983, Metalist was the runner-up in the USSR Cup (losing 1–0 to Shakhtar Donetsk) and a few years later in 1988 would win the cup, beating Torpedo Moscow 2–0. As a result, Metalist Kharkiv earned a trip to the UEFA Cup Winners' Cup. Metalist only advanced to the last sixteen of the competition, beating Yugoslavian side Borac Banja Luka and losing to the Dutch club Roda JC.