Nikita Vadymovych Rukavytsya or known as Nikita Rukavytsya is a professional football player who plays as a winger and occasionally as a striker for Australian national team and Israeli football club, Maccabi Haifa.
Apart from playing for Maccabi Haifa, he has also played for Dutch club, FC Twente, Belgian football club, KSV Roeselare and German professional football clubs such as Hertha BSC,1.FSV Mainz 05 and FSV Frankfurt.
He has played for Australian in the youth sides and made his senior international debut for Australia in 2009.
Rukavytsya also represented at the 2008 Summer Olympics and 2010 FIFA World Cup.
Nikita Rukavytsya was born to mother, Svitlana Rukavytsya, and father, Vadym Rukavytsya in Mykolayiv, Ukrainian SSR.
He along with his parents moved to Australia when he was a teenager and started his playing career with the Ukrainian amateur club, Torpedo Mykolaiv in 2000.
His annual salary is estimated to be around € 4,00,000 which he receives from playing for his current club, Maccabi Haifa and has a market worth in the region of £630,000 as of 2016.
Looking at his professional playing career, his net worth is estimated to be around $ 5,00,000.
After playing for several youth soccer club of Australia, he started his senior playing career with the Australian soccer club, Perth Glory in 2007.
He later moved to Holland and joined the Eredivisie club, FC Twente in 2009 for a reported transfer fee of $1.2 Million and scored his first goal for the club against SC Joure and was transferred to Belgian club, KSV Roeselare for 2010 as part of a loan deal from Twente.
Rukavytsya was the part of the team that won the Eredivisie for the 2009/10 and signed with the German profession football club, Hertha BSC in the summer of 2010.
He signed with the German club, Mainz 05 for a reported transfer fee of €1 million on 31 August 2010 and was transferred to the fellow German club, FSV Frankfurt as part of the loan deal for 2013/14 season.
The Australian midfielder then moved back to Australia and signed with Western Sydney Wanderers in 2014 and made his debut against Wellington Phoenix.
After his spell with the Australian soccer club, he moved to Israel club and signed with Israeli football club, Beitar Jerusalem in September 2015.
He is currently playing for Maccabi Haifa with whom he signed a three contract in June 2016.
Despite being born in Ukraine he opted to play for Australia and represented Australian in the summer 2008 Olympics.
He made his full international debut for Australia in 2009 and scored his first international goal against South Korea in a friendly on 14 November 2012.
Nikita Rukavytsya played alongside current Australian captain Mile Jedinak, striker Tim Cahill, and midfielder, Mark Milligan at the FIFA World Cup 2010 in South Africa.
Currently, 30 he stands at a height of 6 feet 1 inches tall and weighs around 74 kg. It is reported that he is married to his Israeli girlfriend and is in the process of obtaining an Israeli citizenship.
