Players Who Will Be Remembered For The Wrong Reasons - Part 2
Andriy Shevchenko: caught the eye of a Dynamo Kyiv scout when he failed a dribbling test. He started off with Dynamo in 1992, being crowned the top scorer with 12 goals in his first season. He scored 6 goals in the next season where he made
an appearance in 20 matches. He scored a hat trick in a Champions League match against Barcelona, which Dynamo won 4-0, in the 1997-1998 season. His 19 goals in the 23 league matches where he started and the six goals in the 10 Champions League appearances
in the 1998-1999 season, made him a valuable asset for the club. While he was at Dynamo, he won the domestic league title with the club in each of his five seasons there.
In 1999 Shevchenko moved to AC Milan for a record fee of $25 million. He scored 24 goals in his first season in only 32 appearances and became the first foreign player to win the Serie A highest goal scoring title in his debut season. In his second season,
when his tally of goals went down considerably, the Ukrainian managing only 5 goals in 24 matches but won the Champions League with Milan in the 2002-2003 season.
He won over the AC Milan supporters when he scored the winning penalty in the Champions League final against arch rivals Juventus, which was an intense but goal less match. He ended another season as the top goal scorer in the Serie A with 24 goals in 32
matches. The same year, 2003-2004 Milan won the Scudetto for the first time in over four years. The highlight of his year came when was named the European Player of the Year in 2004, the other two Ukrainian players before him to ever win this prestigious award
were Oleg Blokhin and Igor Belanov.
Next season he scored 17 goals even though he missed several matches because of a fractured cheekbone. However, he made Champions League history when he scored all four of Milan’s goals in their 4-0 win over Fenerbahce in the group stages; other players
to achieve this feat include Marco van Basten, Simone Inzaghi, Dado Prso, Ruud van Nistelrooy and recently Lionel Messi. Milan eventually lost out to Liverpool in the final because of Shevchenko, who missed a crucial penalty and basically handed Liverpool
the win. This was his last season with the Italian giants but before leaving he left his name in Milan’s books by becoming the second all time goal scorer, behind Gunnar Nordahl, with his goal against Treviso.
It was in the summer of 2005 that Chelsea admitted their interest in the Ukrainian striker and offered a sum of €75.2 million and Hernan Crespo for him. Peter Kenyon, Chelsea chief executive said, “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.” Next year Shevchenko joined Chelsea for £30.8 million, breaking the record for a player signed by an English Premier League club.
Shevchenko could not duplicate his success at the London club; he was a great flop only scoring from time to time and was unable to measure up to the already established Didier Drogba. As disappointing as his debut season was, the second season was worse,
the striker suffered an injury after which he had to be sidelined for the most part of the remaining season. When he did return he was faced with more disappointment as he had trouble adjusting to his teammates.
He realized he could not adjust to English football and requested to be loaned to AC Milan, who agreed to take him back. He spent the 2008-2009 season with the Italian giants, where once again he had an average season. At the San Siro he scored about two
goals in the 26 appearances he made in the entire season. He returned to Chelsea the next season and revealed that he wished to leave. He signed a two year deal with his first club, Dynamo Kyiv.
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