Andriy Shevchenko was amongst the first players to ever represent Ukraine at the World Cup in 2006. It was his country’s first ever appearance at a major finals after Ukraine qualified impressively from a group which also contained Greece, Turkey and Denmark. Ukraine topped the group, losing only one game in the process and ‘Sheva’ played a big roll in this success, scoring 6 of his country’s 18 goals.
At the World Cup things didn’t start well for Ukraine though, they lost their first game to Spain 4-0. However they battled back and beat Saudi Arabia by the same amount in the second game with Sheva a finding the target. In the second round they beat Switzerland on penalties, before finally losing to the eventual winners Italy in the quarterfinals. This represented a solid performance for a team who had never played at the final stages of a tournament before.
This was yet another famous first in an array of impressive firsts for Shevchenko. In May he became the first footballer to sign for a British club for a fee of over £30 million when he signed for Chelsea from Italian giants AC Milan. In his first season for Milan back in 1999-2000 he scored 24 goals in 32 games and became the first player ever to top Serie A’s scoring charts in their first season in the league. In 2002 – 2003 he became the first Ukrainian ever to win a Champions League medal and in 2004, as well as winning the European Footballer of the year award he also became the first Ukrainian footballer to receive his country’s highest order, ‘Hero of Ukraine.’
Andriy is therefore no stranger to the big stage, from 1994 – 1999 he played for Dynamo Kyiv, where he won 5 championships and 2 Ukrainian Cups. He also holds the record for the most goals in the Champions League and in 1997-8 scored a first half hat trick to help beat a stunned Barcelona 4-0. The season after he helped take Dynamo to the semi-finals where they lost 4-3 to Bayern Munich.
In 1999 Andriy signed for Milan, where he played up until the end of last season. In his time at Milan, as well as continuing an impressive scoring record, which led to him becoming the club’s second highest scorer of all time; he also won Serie A, Champions League, European Super Cup, Italian Cup and Italian Super Cup medals. The highlight of his time in Milan was probably the 2003 Champions League final, where he scored the winning penalty, which he dedicated to his former coach at Dynamo, Valeriy Lobanovskiy.
Andriy who had to abandon his family home and move to Kyiv at the age of 9 in 1986, due to the Chernobyl disaster has never forgotten his roots. As well as dedicating the winning penalty to Lobanovskiy, he was also allowed to take the trophy to Ukraine to show his fans. He also openly backed ‘The Orange Revolution’ of 2004 and has reportedly said he would love to end his career at Dynamo. It seems fitting, therefore that this legendary player will soon be allowed to shine for his country on the World’s biggest stage, especially after the devastation of 2002, when Ukraine lost in the play-offs to Germany.
- Neil Holloway
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