Andriy Shevchenko

Andriy Mykolayovych Shevchenko (, born 29 September 1976, Dvirkivschyna, Kiev Oblast) is a Ukraine football (soccer) striker who plays for Chelsea F.C. in the Premier League.

Shevchenko began his career in the youth team at FC Dynamo Kyiv and soon played in the first team. He won five consecutive Ukrainian Premier League from 1994–99. Shevchenko played for A.C. Milan from 1999–2006, scoring 127 goals in 208 appearances and becoming the club's second-highest all-time goal scorer. He joined Chelsea in 2006.

Shevchenko won the 2004 European Footballer of the Year award, and was named by Pelé as one of the FIFA 100 in 2004. He was named a starting striker on the 2005 FIFPro World XI team, and is the second-highest goal scorer of all-time in European club competitions with 60 goals, behind only Gerd Müller.

Biography

Andriy was nine when the Chernobyl disaster occurred in April 1986. His village, not far from Chernobyl, was also affected by the disaster, and his family was one amongst the thousands who had to abandon their homes and relocate to the coast to escape the after effects. At an early age, he was a competitive boxing in the LLWI Ukrainian junior league, but due to his size, he was forced to move on to football, where he flourished.

Club career

Dynamo Kyiv

In 1986, after his family relocated to escape the Chernobyl disaster, Shevchenko failed a dribbling test for entrance to a specialist sports school in Kiev. However, he happened to catch the eye of a Dynamo Kyiv scout while playing in a youth tournament, and was thus brought to the club. He was extremely successful in the youth system at the club, honing his skills on the junior teams. In 1990, Shevchenko, playing for the Dynamo Kyiv under-14 team in the Ian Rush Cup in Wales, was top scorer in the tournament, and was awarded a pair of Rush's boots as a prize by the Liverpool F.C] player himself.

Chelsea

During the summer of 2004, there were persistent reports that Chelsea owner Roman Abramovich offered a record sum of £50 million and striker Hernán Crespo to A.C. Milan in exchange for Shevchenko. 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."
Meanwhile, Shevchenko repeatedly denied that he wanted to leave, claiming that he wanted to become a Milan legend like Franco Baresi and Paolo Maldini. But on 11 May 2006, Shevchenko publicly announced that he would be leaving the club after all, to join the Premier League holders.

On May 14, 2006, during the last Serie A encounter between Milan and A.S. Roma, Shevchenko watched the first half in the stands with Milan supporters; two weeks later, he left Milan for Chelsea. The fee was disclosed on the official website of UEFA as £30 million, which would make it the most expensive transfer in English football. Shevchenko joined up with his new team after the 2006 FIFA World Cup. He received the number seven shirt, as Chelsea coach José Mourinho said that Shevchenko could continue wearing it.

Shevchenko made his debut for Chelsea on August 13, 2006 in the FA Community Shield, scoring his side's goal in a 2-1 loss to Liverpool. On August 23, he scored his first FA Premier League goal — and his 300th in top-flight and international football — in a 2-1 loss to Middlesbrough F.C.. He scored goals sporadically throughout the season, including crucial equalisers against FC Porto and Valencia CF in the UEFA Champions League 2006-07 and another against Tottenham Hotspur F.C. to help take his side into the FA Cup semi-finals. He finished with a total of 14 from 51 games.

During the campaign he netted his 57th career goal in European competitions, leaving him 2nd in the all-time European goalscorers list, behind Gerd Muller. Shevchenko's 2006/07 season was cut short due to injury and a hernia operation. He missed the UEFA Champions League 2006-07 Knockout Stage Semi-finalss against Liverpool and the FA Cup Final 2007 against Manchester United at the new Wembley Stadium on May 19, 2007.

Shevchenko has vowed that he will find his true form in the Premier League 2007-08, reiterating his desire to remain in London despite interest from Milan president Adriano Galliani to bring Shevchenko back to Italy.
Despite it, rumors are speculating that AC Milan are close to bringing back Shevchenko to AC Milan, with his wife stating that she "misses Italy" and that she "wants to go back home." Dynamo Kyiv revealed they wanted to sign Shevchenko on loan.

Shevchenko was handed his first start against Blackburn Rovers at home to cover up for the injured Didler Drogba. However, the game finished 0-0.

He scored in Chelsea's first game of the UEFA Champions League 2007-08 with a header against Rosenborg B.K], the game ending 1-1.

International career

Shevchenko has 76 caps and 34 goals for the Ukraine national football team, whom he represented at the 2006 FIFA World Cup.

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 national football team.
In the Euro Cup 2008 qualifiers, Shevchenko has scored four goals.

Personal life

Shevchenko is married to United States model (person) Kristen Pazik. The couple met at a Giorgio Armani afterparty in 2002, and married on July 14, 2004 in a private ceremony on a golf course in Washington, DC. They communicate with each other in Italian, though Shevchenko has made public his desire to learn English. Media commentators have speculated that Pazik was a major influence on Shevchenko's decision to sign with Chelsea, citing her friendship with Abramovich's wife and her desire to raise their children in an English-speaking culture. Shevchenko has stated that his move to Chelsea was "a family decision" about what was best for their children. AC Milan supremo Silvio Berlusconi is the Godfather of Andriy's first son, Jordan. The day after Christian's birth, Shevchenko scored in a 4-0 Chelsea victory over Watford F.C., and he and several of his teammates gathered and performed the popular Goal celebration Common celebrations as a tribute.

Shevchenko is a close friend of fashion designer Giorgio Armani, and has modelled for Armani and opened two boutiques with him in Kyiv.

Name

Shevchenko's first name (Андрій in Ukrainian alphabet) does not have a single way of being transliteration from its original spelling in the Cyrillic alphabet into the Latin alphabet. Andriy is the spelling used throughout the player's official web site ([t 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 magazine and Andrei by Sky Sports). The correct pronunciation is . Dynamo Kyiv fans gave him the nickname Sheva, a contraction of Shevchenko.