Wednesday’s Special: Meet Andriy Shevchenko

In this eighth episode of Wednesday’s Special, The Writer will bring readers into the life and brief story of a weekly selected footballer. Today, readers will have the chance to meet former holder of the 2004 Ballon d'Or, Andriy Shevchenko; albeit in words only.

Andriy Shevchenko is former Ukrainian football superstar and now is aged 37 years old. His nickname is as simple as 'Sheva'. Sheva started his career at Dynamo Kyiv. In 1994, he made his senior debut for Kyiv against Shakhtar Donetsk. He spent 5 seasons at Dynamo Kyiv and won the Ukrainian league titles in all of those seasons. During those years, he already showed his predatory instinct by scoring 60 goals in 117 appearances for Dynamo Kyiv. 

In 1999, Sheva joined Italian club AC Milan for a then-record transfer fee of $25 million. He made his league debut on 28 August 1999 against Lecce. Being such a clinical striker, Sheva scored 24 goals in 32 appearances in his first season with AC Milan. That was the start of an era where Sheva began his adventure to be AC Milan's most prolific striker in the modern era. Overall he scored 175 goals in 296 appearances for the club in 7-years duration. Sheva was the first Ukrainian player to win the UEFA Champions League when he helped AC Milan won the cup in 2002/2003 season against Juventus. He also won the Italian Serie A, UEFA Super Cup, and Supercoppa Italiana during his time at Italy. The icing on the cake was his proud achievement of winning the 2004 FIFA Ballon d'Or and being included in the FIFA 100 Best of All Time. He was at the peak of his power at AC Milan and The Writer never forget him scoring goals with ease at AC Milan. He was then considered as a legend at AC Milan. The most memorable match he had been involved was against Fenerbahce in 2005 where he scored all four goals in the famous 4-0 win.  

On 28 May 2006, Sheva left AC Milan to join Chelsea for £30.8 million, topping Michael Essien's transfer fee from the previous year and also breaking the record for a player signed by an English club. The record has already been broken in 2014 recently.  He cited that the persistence of Roman Abramovich was a key factor in his move as he decided to reject AC Milan's offer of 6 years contract extension to join Chelsea. Turned out that his move to Chelsea was an unsuccessful journey. He didn't manage to really make an impact at Chelsea and English football as a whole. A persistent hernia injury and operations also hindered his progress at Chelsea. Besides, Chelsea often changed managers at that time and this made Sheva's status as the main striker at the club being jeopardized. He was widely considered as an expensive flop by all corners of the football world, especially in England. It was really sad to see such a great striker unable to enjoy his football in England and his legendary status as a prolific striker had been a little bit tarnished.  Overall Sheva only scored 8 goals in just 49 games for Chelsea. His failure also marked the end of Jose Mourinho's tenure at Chelsea. Roman Abramovich blamed Mourinho for his inability to get the best out of Sheva.

Sheva was loaned back to his old club, AC Milan for the 2008/2009 season as he was deemed surplus to requirements with the appointment of Luiz Felipe Scolari as the new Chelsea manager. However Sheva's second spell at AC Milan was also considered unsuccessful, as he failed to score any league goals and only scored two goals overall in 26 appearances. His situation became from bad to worse and he was at the lowest stage of his eventful career. He returned to Chelsea to finish his balanced of contract after that.

Then on 28 August 2009, Sheva signed a two-year deal at his former first club Dynamo Kyiv. He was mostly used as a left winger, and was unexpectedly named the selected left winger in the Ukrainian league 2009 team of the season. He had a decent return to Ukraine and was at least enjoying his football once more at Dynamo Kyiv. Later on 28 July 2012, Sheva announced that he was quitting football forever and surprisingly decided to join politics. He was standing for election to the Ukrainian Parliament in the October 2012 Ukrainian parliamentary election. But his party failed to win parliamentary representation.

It is also worth mentioned that Sheva has had a great career in international football. Sheva achieved 111 caps and scored 48 goals for the Ukrainian national team, whom he represented at the 2006 FIFA World Cup and EURO 2012. He earned his first cap in 1995 and scored his first international goal in May 1996 in a friendly against Turkey. Besides, Sheva was also the captain of Ukraine national team. He was a great role model to his fellow countrymen in helping them to achieve respectable position in international football. Sheva announced his retirement from international football in 2012 after representing Ukraine in EURO 2012, having been Ukraine's youngest and oldest goalscorer and record marksman in his overall career with the Ukrainian national team.

In all, Sheva was still a legend in the heart of The Writer and all of football fans. His legacy at AC Milan was undoubtedly the best memory of this great finisher of the game. He would certainly walk into any team in this world which shows his undoubted talent. Although his career was in downfall after leaving AC Milan for the first time, he still showed some of his brilliance finishing in some memorable games later in his career. If there is a chance to show young kids on how to be a good striker, look no further than the video of Andriy Shevchenko as a guidance. Those kids would be in awe. Definitely...