'''Andriy Shevchenko''' (, nicknamed "Sheva", born 29 September 1976, Dvirkivschyna, Kiev Oblast) is a Ukrainian football striker who is contracted to English club of the Premier League championship. He has played 69 matches and scored 31 goals for the national team of Ukraine, which he represented at the 2006 FIFA World Cup.
At an early age, Shevchenko was a competitive boxer in the LLWI Ukrainian junior league. Due to his size, he was forced to move on to football where he flourished. He began his career with Ukrainian side Dynamo Kyiv, with whom he won five Ukrainian Premier League titles and two Ukrainian Cups in five seasons between 1994 and 1999. With Italian club AC Milan, he won one Serie A title, one UEFA Champions League, one European Super Cup, one Italian Cup and one Italian Super Cup between 1999 and 2006.
In December 2004, Shevchenko was named the European Footballer of the Year. He was also named by Pelé as one of the top 125 greatest living footballers in March 2004. Also in 2004, Shevchenko was awarded the title Hero of Ukraine by former President of Ukraine, Leonid Kuchma.
Biography
Early life and career at Dynamo Kyiv
Andriy 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.
[http://www.fifa.com/en/mens/awards/gala/0,2418,104455,00.html?articleid=104455 Andriy Shevchenko, the lethal weapon, ''FIFA'', 29 November 2004] Later the same year, Andriy failed a dribbling test for entrance to a specialist sports school in Kyiv. However 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, was top scorer in the tournament, and was awarded a pair of Rush's boots as prize by the player himself.
In 1993-94, Andriy was the top scorer for Dynamo-2 with twelve goals, and he made an appearance in the first team list, taking Dynamo to their second successive league victory. He 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
