Aleksandar Lazevski has agreed to continue his career in Ukraine with top division side Hoverla.

Macedonian left-back Aleksandar Lazevski was looking for a new club after his contract with Partizan expired at the conclusion of the 2012-13 season.  Partizan opted not to offer Lazevski a new contract, making him a free agent.  After briefly being linked with French club Nice, which proved baseless, Lazevski has agreed in principle to a three year deal with Hoverla from the city of Uzhhorod.  At Hoverla, Lazevski will have a familiar face as a teammate in fellow defender Nemanja Rnić.  Lazevski and Rnić were formerly teammates at Partizan and will now reunite once again at Hoverla.

Aleksandar spent the majority of his career with Partizan, first on its various youth teams before reaching the first team.  He also played for Teleoptik, Partizan’s feeder club, where he gained experience as a player.  Lazevski was born in Serbia but decided to represent Macedonia internationally.  Thus far, he has accumulated 13 caps for the senior national team.  Lazevski has been the starting left-back as of late after the previous starter at the position, Goran Popov, had a falling out with manager Chedomir Janevski.

Hoverla finished last season in 15th place out of 16 teams in Ukraine’s top division, but the club was not relegated as they benefited from the Ukrainian federation not giving licenses to several teams from the first and second divisions.  Kryvbas from the top division was relegated after not obtaining a license for financial problems, while second division side Stal refused promotion by indicating that they did not have the adequate resources and infrastructure as they would have needed to play their home games away from their own venue in Alchevsk which allowed Hoverla to remain in the top flight for this upcoming season.  Hoverla recently announced Vyacheslav Hrozny as its new manager to improve the team’s fortunes for next season.

Even with Lazevski’s signing, the Macedonian contingent in Ukraine could be getting smaller in time for the 2013/14 season.  Martin Bogatinov has been told to look for a new club by Karpaty, Dushan Savikj is a free agent after last playing for Volyn, while the future is uncertain for Besart Ibraimi who is coming off a disappointing season, first with Sevastopol and then on his loan with Metalurh Zaporizhya.  Vanche Shikov, meanwhile, has one year remaining on his contract with Volyn, but he could be sold by the club in the summer as they also experienced financial difficulties last season.