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World Football Cup |
Andriy Shevchenko
Andriy Mykolayovych Shevchenko (Ukrainian:
Андрій Миколайович Шевченко, Andrij
Mykolajovyč Ševčenko; commonly known as Andrei Shevchenko;
born 29 September 1976 in Yagotyn, Kiev Oblast) is a Ukrainian football
striker who plays for Milan and the Ukraine national team. He is the
fourth-highest scorer in the history of European club competition with 61
goals, behind Filippo Inzaghi, Raúl and Gerd Müller.[1]
Shevchenko's career has been highlighted by many awards, the most prestigious of which were the Ballon d'Or in 2004 and the UEFA Champions League in 2003 with Milan. Along with this, he has won various league and cup titles in Ukraine, Italy, and England. Besides the Golden Ball, Shevchenko was awarded other individual awards. In his international career, the striker led Ukraine as captain to the quarterfinals in their first ever FIFA World Cup appearance in 2006.
BiographyShevchenko was nine when the Chernobyl nuclear disaster occurred in April 1986. His village was affected by the disaster, and his family was forced to abandon their home and relocate to the coast to escape the after-effects.[2] At an early age, he was a competitive boxer in the LLWI Ukrainian junior league, but eventually he elected to move on to football. Club careerDynamo KyivIn 1986, Shevchenko failed a dribbling test for entrance to a specialist sports school in Kyiv, but happened to catch the eye of a Dynamo Kyiv scout while playing in a youth tournament, and was thus brought to the club. Four years later, Shevchenko was on the Dynamo Kyiv under-14 team for the Ian Rush Cup (now the Welsh Super Cup); he finished as the tournament's top scorer and was awarded a pair of Rush's boots as a prize by the then-Liverpool player. In 1992-93, Shevchenko was the top scorer for Dynamo-2 with twelve goals, and he made his first appearance in the starting eleven. He won his second league title next season, scoring 6 goals in 20 matches, and scored a hat trick in the first half of a 1997-98 Champions League road match against Barcelona, which Dynamo won 4-0. His nineteen goals in 23 league matches and six goals in ten Champions League matches were followed by 28 total goals in all competitions in 1998-99. He won the domestic league title with Dynamo in each of his five seasons with the club. MilanIn 1999, Shevchenko joined Milan for a then-record transfer fee of $25 million. He made his Serie A debut on 28 August 1999 in a 2-2 draw with Lecce. He became the first foreign player to win the Serie A scoring title in his debut season, finishing with 24 goals in 32 matches. Despite netting only five times in 24 matches, Shevchenko became the first Ukrainian-born player to win the Champions League after Milan lifted their sixth trophy in 2002-03. He scored the winning penalty in the shoot out against arch-rivals Juventus in the final, which had ended goalless after extra time. He finished top goalscorer in Serie A (2003-04) for the second time in his career, scoring 24 goals in 32 matches as Milan won the Scudetto for the first time in four years. Shevchenko capped off the year by being named the 2004 European Player of the Year, becoming the third Ukrainian player ever to win the award after Oleg Blokhin and Igor Belanov. He scored seventeen goals in the 2004–05 season after missing several games with a fractured cheekbone. Shevchenko made Champions League history the following season; on 23 November 2005, he scored all four goals in Milan's 4-0 group-stage drubbing of Fenerbahçe, becoming only the fifth player to accomplish this feat (his company includes Marco van Basten, Filippo Inzaghi, Dado Pršo and Ruud van Nistelrooy). He scored his last Milan goal in the second leg of the quarterfinals as they eliminated Olympique Lyonnais after a last-minute comeback, but then fell to eventual winners Barcelona in the semifinals. On 8 February 2006, he became Milan's second all-time goalscorer, behind Gunnar Nordahl, after netting against Treviso.[3] ChelseaDuring the summer of 2005, there were persistent reports that Chelsea owner Roman Abramovich offered a record sum of €35.2 million and striker Hernán Crespo to Milan in exchange for Shevchenko.[4] Milan refused the monetary offer but took Crespo on loan. Chelsea chief executive Peter Kenyon was quoted as saying, "I think Shevchenko is the type of player we would like. At the end of the day to improve what we have got, it has to be a great player and Shevchenko certainly comes into that class."[5] Shevchenko cited that the persistence of Abramovich was a key factor in his move.[6] On 28 May 2006, Shevchenko left Milan for Chelsea for £30 million, topping Michael Essien's transfer fee from the previous year and also breaking the record for a player signed by an English club.[7] He received the number seven shirt, as Chelsea coach José Mourinho said that Shevchenko could continue wearing it.[8] Shevchenko made his debut for Chelsea on 13 August 2006 in the FA Community Shield, scoring his side's goal in a 2–1 loss to Liverpool. On 23 August, he scored his first Premier League goal — and his 300th in top-flight and international football — in a 2–1 loss to Middlesbrough. He scored goals sporadically throughout the season, including equalisers against Porto and Valencia in the UEFA Champions League and another against Tottenham Hotspur to help take his side into the FA Cup semifinals. He finished with a total of 14 from 51 games. During the campaign he netted his 57th career goal in European competitions, leaving him second behind Gerd Muller on the all-time European goalscorers list, before Filippo Inzaghi made the record his own in the 2007-08 season.[9] Shevchenko's 2006–07 season was cut short due to injury and a hernia operation. He missed the Champions League semi-finals against Liverpool and the FA Cup Final against Manchester United at the new Wembley Stadium on 19 May 2007.[10] Shevchenko was handed his first start of the season against Blackburn Rovers at home to cover for the injured Didier Drogba, but the game finished goalless. His first goal of the season came three days later in a match against Rosenborg, on 18 September 2007. Shevchenko was in and out of the starting lineup because of injuries and the appointment of Avram Grant following the departure of José Mourinho the day after the Rosenborg game, and finished with five league goals for the season. Shevchenko scored his last goal in the 2007-08 season in the 1-1 draw with Bolton Wanderers. Return to MilanOn 23 August 2008, Milan reacquired Shevchenko on loan from Chelsea. The move was criticised by Milan assistant coach Alessandro Costacurta.[11] Shevchenko was the third player after Ronaldinho and Mathieu Flamini to take his year of birth, 76, as his squad number; this was due to Alexandre Pato occupying the number 7 shirt. On 31 August 2008, Shevchenko made his debut in Milan's 1-2 season-opening loss to Bologna, coming on for Marek Jankulovski at half-time. On 2 October 2008, Shevchenko scored his first goal since his return to Milan in a UEFA Cup match against Zürich. Milan won the match 1-0, going through to the group stages with a 4-1 aggregate victory.[12] In his time back at AC Milan, Shevchenko did not manage to break into the starting lineup and made only a handful of appearances, mostly in UEFA Cup and Coppa Italia games. On 30 March 2009 he confirmed he expects to leave AC Milan at the end of the season.[13] International careerShevchenko has 85 caps and 40 goals for the Ukrainian national team, whom he represented at the 2006 FIFA World Cup. He scored his first international goal in May 1996, in a friendly against Turkey. In March 2000, Dynamo manager Valeri Lobanovsky became the Ukraine coach, with the aim to qualify for the 2002 FIFA World Cup finals. Shevchenko scored 10 goals in the qualifiers, but Ukraine failed to qualify after losing a play-off against Germany. He scored a total of five goals in Ukraine's Euro 2008 qualifiers. After only playing two games for AC Milan in the season 08/09 there was a lot of speculation (especially before England vs Ukraine in the world cup qualifiers) of Andriy being past his best but he silenced his critics after he fired in an equaliser against England at the New Wembley Stadium, however Ukraine went on to lose the game. Personal lifeShevchenko is married to American model Kristen Pazik. The couple met at a Giorgio Armani afterparty in 2002, and married on 14 July 2004 in a private ceremony on a golf course in Washington, DC.[14][15] They communicate with each other in Italian,[16] though Shevchenko had previously made public his desire to learn English.[17] The couple have two sons: Jordan,[16] born on 29 October 2004, and Christian, born on 10 November 2006. Andriy commemorated Jordan's birth by scoring against Sampdoria the following day (Milan won 1–0).[18] Milan supremo Silvio Berlusconi is the Godfather of Andriy's first son, Jordan.[19] The day after Christian's birth, Shevchenko scored in a 4–0 Chelsea victory over Watford, and he and several of his teammates gathered and performed the popular "rock-the-baby" goal celebration as a tribute.[20] Shevchenko is a close friend of fashion designer Giorgio Armani, and has modelled for Armani and opened two boutiques with him in Kyiv.[14] In June 2005, he became an ambassador for the SOS Children's Villages charity.[21] NameShevchenko's first name (Андрій in Ukrainian) does not have a single way of being transliterated from its original spelling in the Cyrillic alphabet into the Latin alphabet. Andriy is the spelling used throughout the player's official web site ([1]). It has also been adopted by UEFA and FIFA and is the preferred spelling in most English publications (although Andrii is used by World Soccer magazine and Andrei by Sky Sports). The correct pronunciation is [an.ˈdrij]. Dinamo Kiev fans gave him the nickname Sheva, a contraction of Shevchenko. HonoursDynamo Kyiv
Milan
Chelsea
Individual
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