Andriy Shevchenko

Andriy Mykolayovych Shevchenko is an Ukrainian international football player who currently features for the English Premier League side Chelsea. He plays as a striker and is considered as a legend both in Ukraine and at AC Milan with whom he won the Italian Serie A and the UEFA Champions League. He won the Ballon D’or in 2004.

Andriy Shevchenko began his career in 1994 for Ukrainian giants Dynamo Kyiv. He helped the club to five successive domestic league titles during his stay there and made 117 league appearances from 994 to 1999 and scored 60 goals. He was a huge influence for Dynamo in the UEFA Champions League too and helped the cub reached the semi-finals of the competition in the 1998-1999 season.

Andriy Shevchenko was signed by AC Milan in the summer of 1999 for a then record transfer fee of 25 million euros and made his debut for the Milan giants in the Italian Serie A in August 1999 in a 2-2 draw with Lecce. He won the scudetto in his debut season(1999-2000), scoring 24 goals in 32 league matches and became the first foreign player to win the Serie A title in his maden season.

Sheva them carried on playing marvelously and with effectiveness for Milan and won the Champions League in 2002-2003. He scored the winning penalty in the final at Old Trafford against arch-rivals Juventus. Sheva played for Milan until the summer of 2006 and scored 127 times in 208 Serie A matches. He is second all time goalscorer of Milan and shares a very congenial relationship with Milan supremo Silvio Berlusconi(who is Sheva’s first son’s Godfather) and the Milan supporters.

In the summer of 2006, Andriy Shevchenko was signed by Chelsea for a record fee of 30 million pounds. But he was a huge flop in his first season at Stamford Bridge as he failed to repeat his goalscoring form and often looked like he was past his prime. So much so that he was times dropped from the side by the then Chelsea manager Jose Mourinho. His form only slightly improved in the 2007-2008 season as he became livelier but failed to find the target in league matches.

Andriy Shevchenko made his international debut for Ukraine in 1995 and has played 80 matches for his nation and has scored 37 goals. He captained his nation at the 2006 Germany World Cup.