It was a hip club on the banks of the Thames and Andriy Shevchenko was fashionably late. Suddenly the PRs and sponsors swung into action – as a motorboat carrying Chelsea’s £31 million signing roared into view before he stepped onto a specially constructed jetty.

In May 2006, Roman Abramovich had finally got his man.

Such had been the Russian billionaire’s desire to sign ‘Sheva’ that he had made a series of lucrative offers since he bought Chelsea. With the striker approaching his 30th birthday, and with the scale of the bid on the table just too tempting, AC Milan had finally relented.

Now, as the coach of Ukraine, Shevchenko stands in the way of England and a semi-final place at this European Championship. He has coached his country for five years, taking over after they failed to get out of their group at Euro 2016, for which he had been the assistant.

Undeniably, Shevchenko endured a disappointing time at Chelsea and it is not a quantum leap to assume that he will be more motivated than ever not only to win the tie in Rome but to show England his worth.

Yet it was all apparently so different when the striker signed in what was regarded as an astonishing coup.

Jose Mourinho, whose lip would eventually curl at the mere mention of Shevchenko’s name, declared he was happy and said “Andriy has always been my first choice for Chelsea. He has great qualities: ambition, discipline and, of course, he is a great goalscorer”.

Ambition? Mourinho soon decided Shevchenko had come for the money and preferred to work on his golf handicap.

Discipline? The Portuguese despaired at what he felt was Shevchenko’s approach to training. A great goalscorer? Nineteen goals in two seasons was a poor return for such a feted player.

Abramovich despaired. What had happened to Sheva? The Russian blamed Mourinho and maybe Shevchenko became an unwitting pawn in their power struggles.

The alarm bells should have rung when Shevchenko effectively confirmed that his decision to move to Chelsea was partly a lifestyle one. His American wife, the model Kristen Pazik whom he had met at an Armani party, was pregnant with their second child and was keen to establish a home in London, where the Shevchenkos intended to stay after his playing career.

In his book, Preferisco la Coppa, it was illuminating to read Carlo Ancelotti’s revelations relating to a conversation he had with Abramovich about Shevchenko. “Abramovich said: ‘I can’t understand why he’s not playing, because since we’ve brought him to England he’s not the real Sheva’,” Ancelotti wrote.

After his appointment as manager, Ancelotti spoke respectfully about Shevchenko, blaming his problems on the fact that he arrived injured from the 2006 World Cup – where, as now with Euro 2020, he led Ukraine into the last eight, in their first appearance in the finals.

But Ancelotti also made clear that Shevchenko could go. Chelsea tried to find a club but the offers were paltry. Finally, with Shevchenko forgoing the final year of his contract at Stamford Bridge, and more than £5m in wages, he returned to his first club, Dynamo Kiev, in 2009.

He spent three years rebuilding his reputation at the club where it was first earned. The ‘White Ronaldo’ – as Valeriy Lobanovskyi, Dynamo’s legendary coach, called him – was part of a golden era.

Shevchenko had been the poster boy not only for Ukraine sport but for the country. His move to Milan in 1999 bred belief that Ukraine could be European, looking west rather than east, and his image dominated Kiev. He is also fiercely proud of his roots. During a row over whether he had kissed the Chelsea badge after scoring a goal soon after joining the club, which angered Milan fans, he declared the only badge he kissed was Ukraine’s.

There is no doubting how much Shevchenko’s country means to him – he even dabbled in politics briefly after the end of his playing career and he will always be linked to the nuclear disaster at Chernobyl in 1986. Shevchenko was nine when it happened. His village, Dvirkivschyna, was only 80 miles away from the site and he has spoken passionately about the effect it had.

There should be no doubting his motivation and that was evident in the celebrations after the dramatic last-16 win over Sweden in Glasgow. Sheva is back in the spotlight for England and their supporters. 

Telegraph Media Group Limited [2021]