Andrei Shevchenko – From a “living legend” to no one (“Who is he?”)!

Few years back when I asked a dummy if he knows Shevchenko he told me he’s the greatest striker ever. Most strikers in football are either a “fox in the box” kind of players or physically strong or good in aerial attacks but Shevchenko was one of the very few complete strikers who had all those ability instilled in him at that time. Recently I asked the same question to another dummy and his response was like “Who the hell is he?” That itself tells a story!

Shevchenko joined A.C. Milan in 1999 for a then-record transfer fee of $25 million. He made his Serie A debut on 28 August 1999 in a 2-2 draw with Lecce. He became the first foreign player to win the Serie A scoring title in his debut season, finishing with 24 goals in 32 matches. Scoring goals is never an easy task in Serie A and in spite of that he managed to capture everyone’s attention by his goal scoring ability.

He scored the then match deciding penalty that gave AC Milan their sixth champions league trophy, the icing on the cake was when Shevchenko was named the 2004 European Player of the Year, becoming the third Ukrainian player ever to win the award.

This was all achieved mainly due to the support given to him by AC Milan, the coach, teammates, technical staffs, management, and not forgetting the fans. He was adored by many Milan fans all over the world, including me.

The first thing that strikes ones mind upon coming across his name is the term “living legend”. He was deemed the next big thing after the great Marco Van Basten by the AC Milan faithfuls. He was the living legend in AC Milan Team along with the greats such as Paolo Maldini, Kaka, and Alessando Nesta.

When he was being treated like almost the prince of Milan, he had other ideas. He decided to leave Milan and join Chelsea mainly due to the fact that Chelsea offered more money and more than him, his wife was attracted more to it. The reason for him to leave was that, in Italy his children were not assured proper education whereas in England his children will be given better education. It seemed to be more like an excuse than a proper reason.


One of the fan actually pleaded shevchenko(shown in the picture) while he was in the stands asking him to be with Milan but it seemed to have gone to deaf ears as his move was confirmed.
He was never the same from the first game he played for Chelsea. He was unable to convert his chances to goals and something was clearly wrong. Initially it was thought the reason behind it was mainly due to the change in style from the Italian league to English league, but he was never able to adapt even after mid season. He was put in reserves and his carrier was taking a stinging blow at that point.

On 23 August 2008 it was announced that Shevchenko had re-joined AC Milan on a transfer deal from Chelsea. But whether or not will he be the same Shevchenko will only be answered after the season begins and as it progresses.



Arvind

History of football

Football is the word given to a number of similar team sports, all of which involve (to varying degrees) kicking a ball with the foot in an attempt to score a goal. The most popular of these sports world-wide is association football, also known as "soccer" and most commonly just "football". The English language word "football" is also applied to gridiron football (which includes games like American football and Canadian football), Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugby football (rugby league and rugby union), and related games. Each of these codes (specific sets of rules, or the games defined by them) is referred to as "football".

These games involve:

* two teams of usually between 11 and 18 players. ("Six-man" and "eight-man" football are also played in less-populated parts of the United States).
* a clearly defined area in which to play the game;
* scoring goals and/or points, by moving the ball to an opposing team's end of the field and either into a goal area, or over a line;
* the goal and/or line being defended by the opposing team;
* players being required to move the ball—depending on the code—by kicking, carrying and/or hand passing the ball; and
* goals and/or points resulting from players putting the ball between two goalposts.

In most codes, there are rules restricting the movement of players offside, and players scoring a goal must put the ball either under or over a crossbar between the goalposts. Other features common to several football codes include: points being mostly scored by players carrying the ball across the goal line and; players receiving a free kick after they take a mark/make a fair catch.

Peoples from around the world have played games which involved kicking and/or carrying a ball, since ancient times. However, most of the modern codes of football have their origins in England.

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