Ukraine boss Shevchenko is a close friend of Armani – and has a American wife

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Andriy Shevchenko has gone from Ballon d'Or winning striker to accomplished manager by taking Ukraine to the quarter-finals of Euro 2020 – but not all of his ventures have been quite as successful.

The 44-year-old, who was on the books at Dynamo Kyiv between 1986 and 1999, was born in Dvirkivshchyna back in 1986 before moving to Obolon, and even temporarily evacuated the city following the accident at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant.

Moving forward, he was a competitive boxer in the Ukrainian junior leagues, but decided to turn his attention to football which would prove to be his home for the next 30 years.

After catching the eye of a Dynamo Kyiv scout while playing in a youth tournament – at the age of 13 he won a pair of Ian Rush's boots by finishing as top scorer in the international Welsh Super Cup.

Progressing into the first-team to make his debut at the age of just 16, following time with the reserves, he smashed home 94 goals across 166 outings and caught the eye of European giants Milan in 1999.

Moving for a club record fee of around £22m, he instantly proved his worth by scoring 29 goals across 43 appearances and picked up the Serie A golden boot in doing so.

There would be seven full seasons in Milan, during which he scored a total of 173 times in 296 outings, winning the Coppa Italia and Champions League in 2002/03 and the league title in 2003/04 – a season which also clinched him the Ballon d'Or.

Despite his love for the fans, and their love for him, Milan's second highest all-time goalscorer left the club during the summer of 2005 for £30.8m, and would wear No.7 under Jose Mourinho at Chelsea.

Can Ukraine beat England to reach the semi-finals of Euro 2020? Give us your score prediction in the comments section

Although he didn't quite find that same form and ended up on loan back at Milan, he ended his career on a high back with Dynamo, scoring 30 times across 83 games and calling time on his career.

Throughout that time he was a star for his country, scoring 48 goals across 111 fixtures, including a memorable double in the win over Sweden at Euro 2012.

He was also supported during that time by his wife, American model Kristen Pazik, who he met at a party with good friend Giorgio Armani way back in 2002.

The former striker has since modelled for Armani, and opened two boutiques with him in Kyiv.

Kristen and her husband communicate with each other in the shared language of Italian, and have had four sons together, Jordan born in 2004, Kristian born in 2006, Alexander born in October 2012 and Rider Gabriel born in 2014.

Shevchenko is also a keen golfer, and competed in the professional Kharkov Superior Cup in September 2013, and later created a foundation to support orphaned children to give back to his community.

While he is now loved as the coach of the national side, he did try his hand at politics with party Ukraine – Forward! But they got less than 2% of the national votes and no constituencies.

Back in football, Shevchenko served as the assistant manager of the Ukraine national team between February and July 2016, and was appointed as boss to replace Mykhaylo Fomenko after Euro 2016 group stage elimination.

Shevchenko led Ukraine to Euro 2020 qualification with a memorable win over Portugal, and got them out of the group despite two defeats from three fixtures.

Following a narrow 3-2 defeat to Netherlands, they squeezed past North Macedonia 2-1 before a 1-0 loss to Austria, which gave them a nervy wait over the third place table.

Despite being the only side to make it through with just three points, they made it into the last eight of the tournament with a last-gasp extra time goal against Sweden in Glasgow.

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While they now have the tricky task of taking on the jubilant England, Shevchenko has insisted that his side are up for the challenge, as he looks to further his already golden legacy.

He says of Three Lions: "They are incredibly difficult to score against but their strength shouldn't scare us.

"It should motivate us because everything is possible in football as in life and we will play our hearts out to give our fans even more to cheer about."

Buy the official EURO 2020 Tournament Programme with a special Wembley London cover now: https://reachsportshop.com/team/euro-2020/

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