The former Chelsea striker says Ukraine's co-hosting of the European Championship has lengthened his career
This has been a year of extraordinary, sentimental finales. From Zambia in the Africa Cup of Nations to Chelsea in the Champions League via Manchester City's last-gasp triumph in the Premier League, football has wrung every drop of drama and emotion from its climaxes. On 1 July, Andriy Shevchenko hopes there might just be another – this time one tinged with poignancy and followed by a farewell. "For the last five years I've hardly thought about anything but the European Championship that will be held in my country," the 35-year-old says. "It's fair to say this has extended my career. It's my dream."
It would almost be too perfect. Head east down Taras Shevchenko Boulevard to the junction where Chervonoarmiyksa meets Khreschatyk, cross on to Lesi Ukrainky and about half a mile down on the right-hand side is the rebuilt Olympiyskiy, where the Euro 2012 final will be played on 1 July. It was also there that Shevchenko made his name, his partnership with Serhiy Rebrov making Dynamo Kyiv feared opponents in the Champions League. For 28 glorious minutes in 1999, they even led Bayern Munich 3-1 there in the semi-final before two late goals turned the tie the way of the Germans.
Ten years later, after completing his season on loan with Milan, Shevchenko could have returned to Chelsea – managed then by Carlo Ancelotti, under whom he had won the Champions League in his first stint with Milan. The lure of home, though, outweighed the desire to try to put right what had gone wrong in his first stint at Stamford Bridge. "I needed to play more," he says. "At the age of 33 you can't afford to be on the bench. I understood the competition was strong at Chelsea and that at that age I wouldn't have much chance of regular football. When I agreed to leave, I had a choice of five or six big clubs but I didn't really think seriously about them because I'd already decided the journey that began in Kiev would end in Kiev."
The reception Shevchenko received when he ran out for his first game after his return showed just how much the Kiev public welcomed his decision. "That impressed me," he says. It was natural, though, for Shevchenko has taken on a symbolic function as the icon of his nation.
For much of the past 15 years he has been the world's most famous Ukrainian and it adds to his significance that he shares his surname with the national poet. He was even born in the heartland of Ukraine, in the tiny settlement of Dvirkivshchyna. It lies about 60 miles east of Kiev off the road to Kharkiv, amid the rolling hills and gentle rivers that are characteristic of Ukraine's vast central plain.
His father, Mykola, was an ensign in a tank regiment in the Soviet Army and was based for 10 years in East Germany, where Shevchenko's sister Olena was born. He wanted his son to follow him into the army. "I was never a football fan," Mykola says. "I dreamt that my son would become a military man like me. He probably got it from my father Hryhoriy. He was just as skilful and lively. You should have seen him dance: the whole village would come running to watch him."
Wherever he got it from, Shevchenko started early. "He never walked," his mother says. "He ran from the very start." Running with a ball soon followed. "We once sat down and tried to remember who had first brought a ball to the house and given it to Andriy," his uncle Volodymyr says. "It seems to me that he began to kick a ball even before he was walking."
He remembers going to visit his brother once and finding the two-year-old Andriy nursing a bandaged head after chasing a ball into the kitchen and falling into the stove door. "Maybe that was a sign from heaven," he says. "After that I only ever saw him with a ball. He would be out in the yard the whole time thrashing a ball against the wall of the drying house."
When Shevchenko was three, his father's job took him from the countryside back to Kiev, where the family moved into a five-storey apartment block. That did not stop him playing football, though. "All day long, Andriy would disappear to the waste ground behind the school," his mother says. "He would come home dirty and covered in scratches, but telling everybody proudly that he'd scored three goals. We would scold him and tell him that we couldn't afford to buy him new boots every month, but he was prepared to play barefoot. There was once when he broke his hand, but even the next day he was desperate to get back playing. That was when we understood that we'd never kill the footballer in our son."
Volodymyr recalls one of Andriy's early birthdays when, returning from a business trip, he bought his nephew an Adidas ball. "It was the best present for him," he says. "He was so happy he forgot why the guests had come to the house, grabbed the ball and ran straight to the pitch."
Games would be arranged between the offices of various housing associations and it was at one of those, aged nine, that he was spotted by Oleksandr Shpakov, a coach at Dynamo's academy.
Mykola, though, still was not convinced and became increasingly concerned as Shevchenko's grades slid. "I would punish him – forbid him to go to training and shut him in his room," he says. "It helped a bit, but we lived on the first floor, so he'd often just climb through the window and run away. You'd turn away for a second and he'd be out there on the pitch."
Only the Chernobyl nuclear disaster interrupted Shevchenko's progress as he, like thousands of other children, was evacuated to the coastal region of Azov, something he now describes as "pointless". When he returned, three months later, Mykola saw his opportunity to guide his son into the army.
"I'll never forget what we had to do to get Andriy back," Shpakov says. "His father didn't think that football was a proper career for him. I managed to convince him that even if Andriy wasn't going to become a footballer, the training would help his general physical development and self-discipline and would be useful preparation for entering a military institute."
Yet in his early teens there was little to suggest that Shevchenko would go on to become the player he has. "He was a fairly ordinary boy," Shpakov says. "There were brighter players in my squad, but Sheva was extremely purposeful. When he set himself a target, he achieved it. I'd even say that at first Andriy could be a little inattentive, sometimes turning up at the wrong time or at the wrong stadium, but his character was exceptional."
It is that sense of focus and discipline of which Mykola seems most proud. "Everybody in our families was industrious – both in mine and my wife's," he says. "And we taught our children to love people and to love work – any work. Industriousness has been an important component of his success." As it became increasingly obvious that his son was a special talent, he turned down a transfer back to East Germany to allow Andriy to stay at Dynamo.
Shevchenko's target now is the Euros, which he confirmed will be his "last major tournament". His only other one was the World Cup in 2006, an experience he describes as "magnificent for me and for the whole nation because we qualified for the biggest event in the world of football for the first time". He acknowledges that the football was not quite so magnificent. Ukraine were hammered by Spain, beat Saudi Arabia and Tunisia, then overcame Switzerland on penalties after a dire 0-0 draw before being well-beaten by Italy in the quarter-final.
It took a toll on Shevchenko: it seems he returned too early from knee and back problems to play in Germany, which in part explains his sluggish start to life at Chelsea. He admits now that his body is creaking. "I can't manage three games in a week," he says. "I need more time for rehabilitation. That's natural. If I'm not completely fit I don't want to play and let down the fans. I want to do what's best for the side."
Given Ukraine have a pair of very promising young wingers in Yevhen Konoplyanka and Andriy Yarmolenko, it seems probable Oleh Blokhin will opt for a 4-4-2, perhaps with Shevchenko partnering the tall, creative but unpredictable Artem Milevskiy. There has been little consistency of selection, though, and the former Liverpool forward Andriy Voronin and the aggressive Marko Devic could be preferred.
Whoever plays, Shevchenko is confident. "If we show our quality and have a bit of luck," he says, "we can reach the final. I understand that will be extremely difficult but you only get one chance to make history." This is also, almost certainly, his last. Read More
انسخ الكود التالى و ضعه فى موقعك او مدونتك.
