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Italian vice-champion club acknowledged that the Ukrainian national team striker Andriy Shevchenko decided to leave the team this summer due to family reasons. The best player of 2004 confirmed this officially on Milan club's website.
The Ukrainian recently stated that he was considering the possibility of leaving Italy, and although on Friday evening Milan vice president Adriano Galliani tried to convince one of the most dangerous snipers in the world to stay in the team, the footballer did not change his decision - the player, who is married to American model Kristen Pazik, said he wanted to provide his 18-month-old son Jordan with an English education in the future.
"I am leaving for family reasons. I wanted to thank the club for what it has done for me. I want to emphasize that there are no problems in our relationship, and I am not doing this for money," said the 29-year-old Shevchenko, who has recently attracted a lot of interest from a London club. "My wife is not upset. We decided together for the good of our family. I don't speak English, my wife doesn't speak Ukrainian - the only language we can communicate in at the moment is Italian, so the only way to show our love to the children is to do it in English."
"It was a victory for the English language over the Italian language. I did everything I could to persuade him to stay, even up to a minute before the press conference. It was the most painful breakup during my time at Milan Club," mourned Galliani and acknowledged that for the player to move to the English champions' team, both clubs will have to agree - "Now we will start negotiations with Chelsea, but they will not be easy."
Shevchenko, who started his professional career at Kiev's Dynamo club in 1994, won the country's championship title five times and the cup twice in five seasons in Ukraine. He attracted the attention of European giants in 1999 by scoring eight goals in the Champions League and helping Dynamo reach the semifinals of the tournament. After such a fantastic season, the talented Ukrainian joined Milan, which paid 26 million euros to the Kiev club.
In his debut season at Milan, the striker scored 24 goals and became the top scorer in Serie A. In the 2002/03 season, Shevchenko scored the decisive penalty in the Champions League final series and Milan became European champions and won the Italian Cup, while in the 2003/04 season, the striker helped his team win the Italian championship and the European Super Cup. In 2004, "Sheva", as Milan club fans called him, also won the Italian Super Cup and was named the best European footballer, but in the last two seasons, Milan remained without trophies. In total, the Ukrainian spent seven seasons in the Italian team and scored 127 goals in 207 matches.
