Person attributes
Other attributes
At the age of eleven, he moved to Mariupol, where he played football for about a year at the Youth Sports School-4. Then he moved to the Ilyichevets academy. In the team of his year of birth, he was recognized as the best player at the international youth tournament "Crimean Snowdrop". In the 2014/15 season, graduation for players born in 1998 in the DUFL, the Ilyichevets team did not play due to hostilities in the Donbass, and Shaparenko and several peers got into the application of the Mariupol team in the Premier League.
In his first senior season, the young footballer went from debuting in the U-19 and U-21 teams to debuting in the first team in a few months. In the Premier League, he first entered the field on April 5, 2015, in the 89th minute of the Illichivets-Shakhtar match, replacing Ivan Matyazh. On the day of his debut, Nikolai turned 16 years 6 months and 1 day old. Shaparenko became the first player born in 1998 to play in the Premier League.
On May 30 of the same year, in the last round of the Premier League championship against Olimpik, Shaparenko came out in the 63rd minute instead of Dmitry Skoblov and scored a goal in stoppage time by the referee. The Ilyichevets midfielder became only the 3rd player to score in the Ukrainian championships at the age of 16. He was only a few days short of the league record held by Vasily Demidyak from Niva Ternopil. Distinguished at 16 years and 238 days, Shaparenko became the second youngest goal scorer in the history of the top division of the championship of Ukraine and the first player born in 1998 to score a goal in the Premier League.
After the end of the championship, information appeared in the press about interest in Shaparenko from the current champion of Ukraine Dynamo Kiev, in which the young footballer ended up in the summer of 2015.
On November 18, 2017, he made his debut for the Dynamo first team in the Premier League match against Zvezda Kropyvnytskyi, coming on as a substitute in the 90th minute instead of Junior Moraes. In the next match, the player made his debut in European competition when Shaparenko came on as a substitute in the Europa League match against Skenderbeu.
On May 31, 2018, he made his debut for the Ukrainian national team in a friendly match against Morocco. Head coach Andriy Shevchenko released Shaparenko on the field at the beginning of the second half instead of Viktor Kovalenko. The match ended in a draw 0:0.
On June 1, 2021, he was included in the official application of the Ukrainian national team by head coach Andriy Shevchenko to participate in the matches of the European Championship 2020.
On September 4, 2021, he scored the first goal for the Ukrainian national team against the French national team (1:1) in the World Cup qualification match, breaking into the left top nine with a powerful kick from outside the penalty area. Tottenham goalkeeper Hugo Lloris stood at the French goal.
Dynamo (Kyiv)
- Champion of Ukraine: 2020/21
- Silver medalist of the championship of Ukraine: 2017/18
- Ukrainian Cup winner: 2019/20, 2020/21
- Winner of the Super Cup of Ukraine: 2018, 2019, 2020
- The second youngest scorer in the history of the top division of the championship of Ukraine
