Andriy Shevchenko is the first Ukrainian to win the Cup of Champions

When Andriy Shevchenko played the semifinal match against Inter in the League of Champions, he kept his promise, as befits a true master, to score a goal to commemorate the anniversary of the death of his teacher Valery Lobanovsky who had a striking flair for spotting soccer talents.

The truth is that the world-renowned coach never won the Cup of Champions. His Dynamo Kyiv managed to win the Cup of Cups twice and was even named the world’s best club in 1986. His star team kept on tenterhooks many of those who later became great coaches. It is no secret that none other than Marcello Lippi, the current mentor of Champions League finalist Juventus, used to diligently study Lobanovsky’s notes because he considered him one of his chief gurus. No less diligently did Andriy train under the Maestro’s watchful eye. Just fancy the long way he has gone since his first Champions League goal scored against Bayern Munich (in the same year, incidentally, when Milan last became the League’s winner). Shevchenko has not in the least changed in the past nine years. When you watch him playing, you always tend to forget that he is no longer a golden youth, “the hope of Ukrainian soccer,” but a mature master, one of the world’s most expensive players. Maybe he creates this impression because he remains modest, genial, and judicious off the pitch, always available for an interview or an autograph. He has never been embroiled in dubious affairs which Paul Gascoign’s fans love so. Small wonder, for Lobanovsky would have quickly said good-bye to such a player in his team.

It is unlikely that Andriy, whose transfer price skyrocketed to $70-80 million after the two latest Champions League matches, will tell anybody what he felt when German referee Markus Merk disallowed the goal he scored against Francesco Toldo’s team. Conversely, all of us saw his jubilation after the victorious shot into Juventus’s goal. Shevchenko said after the match that he had been excited the day before the game but was calm and ready coming out on the pitch. This is difficult to believe. For a player does not play a Champions’ Cup final every day. Shevchenko, whom some Ukrainian journalists recently reproached for excessive individualism and ignoring teamwork, was his team’s true leader in the Wednesday match. In reality, only the players who fully believe in their own strength and knowledge can become the best of the best. Especially, when the retinue is no worse than the king — to be more exact, the king and the heir, the teacher and the pupil, the two men without whom Ukrainian soccer would be far more boring and less interesting.

This final showed many firsts. For the first time, two Italian clubs played, and the Cup of Champions was won by a team that ranks only fourth in its home country. For the first time, Ukraine had a personal interest” and the number of Ukrainian fans was hardly lower than that of Italian tiffosi. Finally, a Ukrainian won the Cup of Champions for the first time — for Milan, for himself, for us, and for Him. And we, Ukrainians seeing Andriy run past the grandstands, sporting the national flag with the word Shevchenko on it, can only say proudly, “Made in Dynamo!”