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ANDRIY SHEVCHENKO
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PICTURES |
PROFILE |
BIOGRAPHY |
AWARDS |
LINKS |
CONTACT |
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SHEVCHENKO WITH DYNAMO KIEV |
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 Andriy Shevchenko was nine when the Chernobyl
nuclear 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.
Later the same year, Andriy failed a dribbling test for entrance
to a specialist sports school in Kyiv, as he had a mutated foot.
But he happened to catch the sight 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 in their junior teams. In 1990, Andriy,
playing for the Dynamo Kyiv Under-14 team in the Ian Rush Cup in
Wales, top scored in the tournament, and was awarded a pair of
Rush's boots as prize by the Liverpool player himself.
In 1993-94, Andriy top-scored for Dynamo-2 with twelve goals,
and made an appearance in the first team list for FC Dynamo Kyiv
for next season. Andriy's debut in the league for Dynamo came
under manager Yozef Szabo on 28 October 1994, in Donetsk, Dynamo
defeating the home team Shakhtar Donetsk 3-1. He scored his
first league goal in the 4-2 home win against Dnipro on December
1, 1994. Though that was the only goal that Shevchenko scored in
the league that season, he scored another in two matches played
in the UEFA Champions League, and also earned his national team
call-up. His first cap for Ukraine was earned at the age of 19
years and 177 days, in a 0-4 loss to Croatia on 25 March, 1995
at Zagreb. Shevchenko's exceptional ability to convert scoring
chances into goals was fully displayed next season, when he
scored 16 goals in just 31 matches, taking Dynamo to their
second successive league victory. He also scored his first
international goal in May 1996, in a friendly against Turkey, at
Samsun. Shevchenko won the league again next season with Dynamo,
scoring 6 goals in 20 games. The next two seasons, 1997-98 and
1998-99, were abundantly productive for Shevchenko. The
highlight of his 1997-98 season was his first-half hat-trick
against FC Barcelona in the Champions League, helping Dynamo
produce a shock 4-0 away win over the highly decorated Spanish
side. His 19 goals in 23 league matches, 6 goals in 10 Champions
League matches, and another league victory with Dynamo in
1997-98 was followed by 28 goals in all competitions in 1998-99,
and the league top-scorer award for his 18 goals there. His
exploits in the Champions League took Dynamo to the semifinal
stage of the tournament, before they lost to Bayern Munich 3-4
on aggregate.
Shevchenko won the domestic league with Dynamo each of the five
seasons he was with the club. Under the guidance of Valeri
Lobanovsky, the manager of Dynamo from January 1997 to May 2002
(his third spell in the post), he flourished into one of the
team's most prominent and skillful players.
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