It’s fitting that Andriy Shevchenko used to be a boxer as a kid. The forgotten 32-year-old Chelsea forward is at the moment like a struggling fighter, lying on the canvas after a 10th round knock-down. He looks beaten, tired and fed up with what he’s putting himself through, but he knows he has to get up. He knows he can’t give in and succumb to throwing in the towel with his career on the line.

It was boxing which first captured the imagination of sports-mad Shevchenko as a kid, and he even competed at LLWI Ukrainian junior league level before discovering his gift for football. But after being coached at both sports as a youngster, the former Dinamo Kiev striker needs to take a boxer’s mentality into his current profession, and he needs it now more than ever.

Carlo Ancelotti took over the reigns at Chelsea at the beginning of this month, and for Shevchenko it must have felt like the bell sounding a second after he’d found his feet on time following that 10th round flooring.

After all, Ancelotti is the coach who guided him to great things at Milan. To winning the Champions League in 2003 and following it up with the Seria A title the next year, polished off with the prestigious Ballon d’Or award.

Under the Italian boss Shevchenko became the most feared striker in the planet and when Roman Abramovich sweet talked his fellow Eastern European into joining his billionaire’s playground at Chelsea in 2006, defences up and down the country feared for their dignity.

When the Russian finally landed the Ukrainian for £30.8m they were getting an AC Milan legend. The Rossineri’s second all-time goalscorer, who at the time was the 3rd highest scorer in the history of European club football. A genuine modern legend, who simply couldn’t fail to live up to his billing upon his switch to London.

Except he could…and he did. It wasn’t entirely the player’s fault however as he was brought to the club in circumstances the English game is not yet equipped to deal with. Jose Mourinho was the Chelsea boss but Shevchenko certainly wasn’t his signing, and the Portuguese master showed both the Ukrainian and Abramovich exactly why they called him the ‘boss’.

Mourinho was reluctant to use the Ukrainian as a mainstay in his starting line up, instead preferring Didier Drogba, the signing he himself had arranged. ‘The Special One’ proved exactly why the formula of chairmen and owners buying players simply doesn’t work in English football. Rafael Benitez reiterated this with his similar shabby treatment of Robbie Keane, a £20m flop signed by then Liverpool chief executive Rick Parry.





It’s the players who suffer ultimately, and boy has Shevchenko suffered. Keane, incidentally, has since returned successfully to Tottenham where Liverpool bought him from in a move which mirrored that of Shevchenko’s loan return to his ‘home’ at AC Milan last year.

Mirrored except for one thing – success. While normal service was resumed for Keane at White Hart Lane, it has been a different story for the Ukrainian’s return to the San Siro. The striker did not find the net once in his 17 league outings last term for Milan and was largely subject to embarrassing cameo appearances to please the crowd towards the end of the campaign.

Just two goals in all competitions after 26 games has damaged his previously incredible record for the Italian giants. But his performances were so poor and his confidence so low that not even his beloved Milan fans would take him back again.

And so the fallen star returns to Stamford Bridge with hopes of making an impact in the final year of his contract, and with his former Milan boss now in charge his hopes actually seem very real. He had the opportunity to join Monaco and bask in a luxury villa reflecting on what has been an amazing career. But upon hearing of Ancelotti’s arrival in London, the man who once coached him to be the best striker in the world, he fancies another crack at the Premier League.

At 32, Shevchenko is sitting in the corner ready to come out for the 11th round of his career. The next round is crucial if he is to prolong his career the full distance. He knows he hasn’t got long, he knows he’s already been knocked down, but he also knows it’s not over. The Ukrainian is now reunited with his father-figure coach, determined not to go out of his Chelsea career without a fight.

It’ll take all the patience, discipline and skill of a boxer to turn this one around, but for Shevchenko, next season is there for the taking. So don’t rule him out just yet, because this one could yet go to the scorecards.