Andriy SHEVCHENKO: “Is there a place in the post-Soviet space where the economy has progressed so far that only soccer players mar the overall rise with their failures?..”

Two years ago he caused a great stir throughout Europe with the way he played. The rout of Barcelona in the League of Champions (7:0 in all) and his four goals immediately made the Dynamo top scorer a superstar hunted by all Europe’s fattest wallets, without exception. It became clear even then that Dynamo president Hryhory Surkis, in spite of all his efforts, would not manage to keep this most talented player in his team for long. Mr. Surkis claimed he needed Shevchenko, not the money. But after two triumphal, in the literal sense of the word, league campaigns Shevchenko took the floor himself. In an open letter printed by practically all sport publications of Ukraine, the forward begged Mr. Surkis to sell him to Milan.

He thus caused great commotion throughout what once was the Soviet Union. The hitherto unheard-of amount of $25 million became a reality. And we can only guess about Andriy’s salary in the Italian club.

Andriy seems now to be prepared to surprise the whole world for the third time. He is one of the principal contenders for France Football’s Golden Ball awarded annually to Europe’s best soccer player. Bearing in mind that almost all the world’s best players now play in Europe, this title can be equated with that of the world’s best. However, Andriy takes an absolutely cool attitude toward this prospect, as well as to many other things. You can see it from our dialogue.

“Andriy, will you win the Golden Ball?”

“Who knows? I don’t think about it.”

“And what do you think about?”

“I think about soccer, for soccer is my whole world.”

However, everything started much more prosaically. Word has it that Milan was in no hurry to buy Shevchenko because its president Silvio Berlusconi ordered taking the closest possible look at Andriy’s everyday behavior. Before shelling out $25 million, a very serious amount even for him, the owner of one of the world’s richest clubs was eager to know at what speed his potential player drives his car and how often he drives it to night clubs, which are now almost as numerous in Ukraine’s capital as in Milan. And only after making sure that Shevchenko does not show off much off the pitch, the Milan boss gave the go-ahead to buy the player.

“The Milan-Kyiv-Milan route has become the most popular itinerary for our scouts for two years,” says Revaz Chokhonelidze, one such coach at Milan. “It was important for us to acquire not only a talented soccer player but also a true professional. Twelve players from the former Soviet Union visited Italy before Shevchenko, but, alas, I can’t possibly say that all of them managed to concentrate here primarily on soccer. This eventually kept them from becoming leaders in the teams that invited them. But on closer examination I understood that such prejudices have nothing to do with Shevchenko.”

Chokhonelidze, a former player for Tbilisi and Leningrad Dynamo, decided ten years ago to replace his Soviet coaching diploma with an Italian one, and succeeded in doing so. He has been a more than passing acquaintance of most of the valiant dozen of ex- Soviet players: he remembers very well whose driving license he redeemed more than once from the gripping hands of Italian Carabinieri, and for whom he invented likely sounding stories about a Russian soccer player who once went out for a breath of fresh air at night (something had kept him up) and was suddenly caught in a shower, so he had to seek shelter in a night club. And it rained buckets, so he had to stay until dawn.

Milan reporters have been stalking Shevchenko for five months on end in places so popular for his predecessors, but the quarry refuses the bait, preferring to learn Italian in the intervals between training sessions and to fall into a trivial sleep at night.

Thus his guardian Chokhonelidze is all smiles.

“I think I’ve shown everybody that I came here to play soccer, but they still expect me to pull some stunt. Well, they won’t catch me,” Andriy Shevchenko assures us, looking more the hunter than prey. “They perhaps never heard that the Lobanovsky school teaches you to regard soccer as, first of all, a profession and only then a game. And the fact that I have successfully (knock on wood) fit in with the Milan line-up only shows that back in Kyiv I was taught precisely the soccer played in Europe. Well, I think I behave here as usual, but this surprises many people. I don’t know why.”

Milan’s sport manager says half- seriously that, for Andriy to adapt fully to the Milan life, he should be married off to an Italian girl and simultaneously be granted dual citizenship: in that case he would not be regarded as a foreigner.

“So far I like living alone,” Shevchenko persists in an interview with Izvestiya , “and I haven’t yet found a fiancee in Kyiv, and I don’t think it fitting to invite here a girlfriend for some time to come. In addition, the apartment the club gave me is now under renovation, so I stay at a hotel or the training center, i.e., always among the people, so I never feel lonely, I constantly stay in touch with my friends and relatives by phone. And I don’t need an Italian girlfriend: I think I play not badly even without one.”

Milan, customarily among the leaders of the Italian championship, has nevertheless been knocked out of the Champions League with a bang, without even clinging to third place in the group tournament which could give a consolation chance to play for the UEFA Cup. But Shevchenko became one of those about whom there are as few complaints as possible.

“I was received here very well, although I don’t think I made any special effort to get anybody to like me,” Andriy “defends” himself. “In principle, I’m a friendly person, but I think the coaches’ trust in me accounts for about two-thirds of my successful adaptation, the rest depends on my contacts with partners. For if you are constantly included in the first-string, the players will soon treat it as something independent of them, but if, God forbid, something happens to you, you’ll have to seek help in the team, and then it will be clear if you have been behaving well with respect to it.”

“I am always surprised when politicians in the former Soviet republics say from high tribunes that the soccer team of their country has to go and win something,” continues in the Izvestiya interview the new leader of the “red and black devils,” as Milan players are often referred to. “I’ve got an inner desire to ask them in reply to their paternal admonitions: have you done anything to bring the living standards of your soccer players at least a bit closer to those of the players you want to beat? Is there a place in the post-Soviet space where the economy has progressed so far that only soccer players mar the overall rise with their failures? For example, if Kryvy Rih’s Kryvbas and the Italian Parma come together in a UEFA Cup match, one must, when sizing up their chances, compare the conditions in which players of the two clubs live and work, and it will be clear that only a miracle could help Kryvbas win. Soccer, more often than not, lives according to natural laws rather than miracles.”

One such natural law, in Shevchenko’s opinion, is the second place Ukraine took in the recent qualifer tournament, after France but ahead of Russia. In addition, he does not consider a miracle the goal he scored against Filimonov: “What I completely disliked on the eve of that match was the whipping-up of totally unnecessary politically-hued agitation. Besides, if you looked through the Russian press and watched television, you might conclude you will have to play against almost world champions. But a team like that of Ukraine, which had not been losing official matches for over a year, deserved at least second place in the group to no lesser extent than the Russian team did. The course, of the game did not alter my opinion, but I had a lingering suspicion after Karpin’s goal: is this the end? The referee is soon going to blow the last whistle, and will we lose all chances to play in Belgium and Holland? But I managed to drive this thought away very quickly and concentrate on the game, the more so that there were about fifteen minutes left. Making that now famous free kick from the by-line, I intentionally struck at the goal, believing not so much in my luck as in Filimonov’s mistake. I also thought that either his teammates or rivals would inevitably push him when he will be trying to catch the ball, so I shot at the goal, but the Russian goalie made a mistake even without outside help. It is difficult to say what kind of mistake it was because I only saw the recorded episode the same day in Moscow. I never saw it again: I don’t like gloating over other people’s failures.”

“Andriy, what is the difference between the training sessions conducted by Zaccheroni and Lobanovsky?” a La Gazzetta dello Sport correspondent once asked.

“I haven’t yet seen any major differences. Training sessions both in Dynamo and Milan are aimed only at winning every match.”

“I wonder what you tell Mr. Lobanovsky about the Milan training system.”

“He always asks me how long and in what way they work. He also asks about training methods.”

“And about the deployment of two or three forwards?”

“He never asks about tactics: he has his own point of view.”

“After two or three goals, some people begin to say you remind them of Ronaldo in his best days.”

“I wouldn’t say Ronaldo has become a weak player even now, but it will take him a month to be at his peak. I think he’s got problems with his head, not feet. He’s under too much pressure.”

“Aren’t you afraid you will also come under pressure?”

“I’m not Ronaldo. I can take care of myself. Of course, I don’t like it that things come so fast in Italy. Score three goals, and it’s enough for you to immediately become a genius. Then you don’t score in a couple of matches, and they start talking about crisis.”

“Does this bother you?”

“I don’t like it. It is common knowledge that the Italian championship is backbreaking, but I am prepared for this kind of load. Still, I am not a computer, and even very seldom use one.”

“Do you play computer games?”

“I like pool better. My sister works on a computer, but I don’t much like doing just one thing.”

“You are compared with van Basten, which places great responsibility on you, while nostalgia for the Dutchman has put many of your colleagues in a quandary.”

“I am not van Basten, and nobody else is except him. For example, Denis Bergkamp went to England and showed he is a great player. I think that had Patrick Kluivert played another year in Italy, he would also have shown his worth. Just look at how he plays for Barcelona.”

“Italy never liked him, and he also had lots of problems outside soccer.”

“What goes on outside the pitch should be nobody’s business.”

“Yet, many of your colleagues constantly face the curiosity of people who think they are through. This is happening, for example, with Ronaldo. Why do you still think he is better than you?”

“Because he has played for many years in top European championships. Ronaldo is Ronaldo. Only then come Shevchenko, Batistuta, and Raul. We are all different.”

“Is Milan able to win the championship?”

“We are as good as the other teams. “

“Do you feel any support from Kyiv?”

“Yes, I often receive calls from Mr. Lobanovsky.”

“How is adaptation to a new club going?”

“It is difficult not to adapt yourself to a team like this. The players are friendly, and they are all true professionals.”

“Which partners are most suitable for you to play with?”

“All of them. I respect all the players very much.”

“Which of your teammates have you already made friends with?”

“I have a good relationship with them all. I share a room with Ambrosini, I get on very well with Costacurta, Albertini, Boban, Ganz, and others.

“We recently celebrated my birthday. It was fun. All my teammates came with their wives and fianc О es.”

“Did you feel lonely? For soccer players of your age already have children, and you don’t even have a fianc О e.”

“I don’t have the time now; soccer comes first. I sometimes ask myself why the players who came here earlier from the Soviet Union failed to make it in Italy.”

“Were there too many things that led them astray?”

“I don’t know, but I would like to be all right ethically. Besides, soccer is not the only thing in the world.”

“Do you like the city of Milan?”

“Especially in the evening and when there is no traffic. I can’t stand car horns, and the drivers are so nervous.”

“And what do you think of Italy?”

“I like practically everything: from the food to how people treat me. But the language is very complicated: there are 4-5 words meaning the same thing. I am learning and speaking it in the team, or, to be more exact, trying to. I am not embarrassed and try to speak a lot without too much regret that I cannot always express my thoughts correctly and put it across to those I talk to. I am learning it together with Serginho. It is easier for him, but I am sometimes at a loss. In general, language is my main problem now.”

“Andriy, is there anything that scares you?”

“Once we were returning to Ukraine after a match with the Armenian national team. We were in the plane and suddenly heard a loud crack, then one more. Everybody was scared, but not me, for God decides everything. So if He has made a decision, you don’t have to worry.”

QUESTION OF THE DAY

Does Andriy Shevchenko have a chance to win the 1999 Golden Ball?

Serhiy KACHKAROV, chief coach of the women’s soccer team of Ukraine, chairman of the women’s soccer committee at the Ukrainian Soccer Federation:

“I think Shevchenko, by virtue of his playing standards, can of course contest the Golden Ball, but the Ukrainian team’s fiasco in the matches versus Slovenia and failure of Milan, whose colors Andriy is defending, to go through to the next leg of the Champions League have somewhat reduced his ranking. He is unlikely to win this honorary trophy — the struggle for Europe’s best player title is most likely to go between the Englishman David Backham and the Brazilian Rivaldo.”

Andriy BILEYCHUK, correspondent of the newspaper Komanda, Kyiv: /B>

“Having done the school of Lobanovsky and Dynamo Kyiv, Andriy, much to his honor, did not get lost in Milan and is even high on the list of Series-A strikers. He was give a very big credit of trust, and I think he has fully returned it. But only the future will show if he is capable enough of bearing this brunt. No doubt, Shevchenko is one of the main contenders for victory in the poll, but still I don’t think the Golden Ball will go to the formed Dynamo player: his Milan came a cropper in the Champions League, and the national team of Ukraine has not qualified for the championship of Europe. Whatever you say, the result is the cornerstone in sports, and France Football journalists are sure to consider not so much personal as team-related performance. I think David Backham will win, for Manchester United won both the Superleague and the Intercontinental Cup, with the Mancunian halfback being one of the main forgers of this and other victories of Alex Ferguson’s team.”