JAKARTA - Andriy Shevchenko's sporting story is admirable, he rose from domestic football in Ukraine to become one of the scariest center-attackers of the modern era. Now, he is the coach of the national team.
However, there was pain in Shevchenko. The former AC Milan and Chelsea forward confirmed that his friends from Kiev were all dead.
Shevchenko has written details about his life and childhood in a new book 'La mia vita, il mio calcium', written by Alessandro Alciato.
In 1986, Ukraine was still part of the Soviet Union. When the Chernobyl disaster occurred, it was only about 200 kilometers from where Shevchenko grew up.
"I hope not to surprise anyone by saying that everything seems normal to me," explained Shevchenko in an interview with Corriere Della Sera.
"I was 10 years old, I was having fun like crazy playing football everywhere, they took me to Dynamo Kiev academy.
"Then reactor 4 exploded and they took us all, I am still in pain, the bus from the USSR arrived and took us all the children between the ages of 6 and 15 years. I was 1,500 kilometers from home and I remember living as if I were as it were. be in a movie. "
What followed was the collapse of the Soviet Union. Yes, Shevchenko's real predicament did not stem from the Chernobyl disaster, but from other life influences.
"In my neighborhood, I started getting less and less, all my friends died, not from radiation, but from alcohol, drugs or problems with weapons," he added.
"The cracks in the walls of the USSR are getting bigger, the world we know is collapsing, and like everyone else, my friends no longer believe in anything and are lost.
"Only my parents' love and football saved me."
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