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...

Top 3 & Worst 3 Performers of the Week and Goal of the Week: EPL 14/15 Week 5

Week 5 has just passed and here The Writer offers his view on the key performers and performances of the week that are worth mentioned. The award goes to...

Top 3 Performers of the Week

Gold Medal (1st): Jamie Vardy

This has to be the week for the man of the moment. JAMIE VARDY. Remember the name. He gave a tireless and speedy performance on the flanks for Leicester. He was involved in almost all of Leicester goals against Manchester United. He is super quick and hungry to beat defenders, even in the tightest space of the byline. He reminds The Writer about Craig Bellamy, but not with the arrogant and volatile nature. Vardy is a humble hardworking player. Usually, players who performed against big teams will be considered as a kind of small legends in the league which will be remembered forever. If Vardy can maintain this sort of confident performance, he will save Leicester from relegation this season and maybe attracting the interests of bigger clubs. Might as well following Bellamy’s path in joining ManCity. Who knows?

Silver Medal (2nd): Papiss Cisse

Papiss Cisse is somewhat a forgotten man. He disappeared a long time ago with lack of goals and long injury lay-off. The departure of his strike partner and Senegalese national squad teammate, Demba Ba from Newcastle also was one of the factors to his down of form. But on Saturday, Cisse was back at his very best. He scored 2 goals in fact. He saved his team with one point and also might save his manager’s job too. The first goal was a case of perseverance where Cisse tried his luck by shooting the ball accurately into Hull’s net in a tight and impossible angle. And the second one was a case of being instinctive. That’s what all strikers would do, sprinting into the penalty box and smashed any opportunity ball into goals.     

Bronze Medal (3rd): Mesut Ozil

Much has been said about Mesut Ozil form and his worthiness for Arsenal football club. He clearly was not performing prior to this Aston Villa match, as he was frequently placed on the left flank. He was never a player who has a high workrate and placing him in the flank with a duty to track opponents back, was a huge waste and a big mistake. He has creativity and an eye for goals in abundance in the centre of the park and he showed it by scoring and assisting after being placed just behind Danny Welbeck at the centre of Arsenal midfield. Ozil is a magical player, just like Juan Mata and David Silva. Arsenal just has to appreciate him.

  

Worst 3 Performers of the Week

Rubbish (1st): Wilfried Bony

Two yellow cards that resulted in a red card and the sending off. No goal from him in a match where he failed to help his team from losing against Southampton. He was too aggressive in a wrong way and very deserved this Rubbish award.  

Scrapped Paper (2nd): Mamadou Sakho

He was a sub and just came on when Liverpool was already 0-2 behind West Ham. But he didn’t improve Liverpool by coming in either. In fact he made Liverpool worse. He clashed with Dejan Lovren in a heading ball situation which left Lovren wounded. That showed lack of communication. And then he gave the ball away to Stewart Downing that lead to the third goal scored by Morgan Amalfitano. Embarassing!

Reject Paper (3rd): Tyler Blackett

Although he is still young and is still learning the game, The Writer is too tempted to highlight his error in the game against Leicester. He often waited too long for the ball in the air which gave Vardy the edge everytime to beat him in the speed race. The final speed race against Vardy, Blackett lost his control and was sent off for the mandatory challenge on Vardy from behind in the penalty box. He has much to learn but no senior and good enough defenders at United to teach him. Poor boy.

Goal of the Week

The best goal of this week 5 goes to Angel Di Maria. He showed his outrageous brilliance by chipping the ball on top of Leicester City goalkeeper, Kasper Schmeichel into the open goal net. Aware that Kasper was off his line, Di Maria instinctively scooping the ball with a perfect timing and weight on the ball, leaving Kasper and the other Leicester defenders flabbergasted. It was simply a beautiful goal, that only special player could score. In week 4, Di Maria score a freak but decent free-kick. And he continued to show his bag of tricks and skills in finding the net. EPL is very grateful to have Angel Di Maria! 

Announcement 1

 

The previous Pre-Match EPL 14/15 & Analysis EPL 14/15 sections have been abolished with immediate effect starting from 23 September 2014. There will be a new section which will be called 'Top 3 & Worst 3 Performers of the Week and Goal of the Week' starting also from today (23 September 2014).

This section is like a re-branding version of the the above-mentioned previous sections, namely Pre-Match EPL 14/15 & Analysis EPL 14/15, which is created to give a simpler approach on the overall performances of the 20 EPL clubs and their players every week. Having said that, this section will comprise football analysis on the best and the worst performers and performances throughout the 10 matches played weekly. Hopefully this new version will give more satisfaction and enjoyment to the readers who are always The Writer’s priority.

Thank you and Ciao!