Hall of Fame: Andriy Shevchenko - the Ukrainian goal machine who lit up Milan

Shevchenko was born in the Soviet Union, or more accurately, in Dvirkivscyna, a Ukrainian village that lies 100 kilometres east of Kyiv. A city that, 50 years after the birth of one of its greatest-ever champions, would be ravaged by Putin's Russian bombs.

Kyiv was and still is life for Shevchenko. He began kicking a ball around in the small parks among the Soviet buildings of the communist regime near his school, before he honed his craft at Dynamo Kyiv under the watchful eye of Valeriy Lobanovskyi.

Shevchenko faced a fight just to be able to reach the academy of a professional team, however. His father, Nikolai, was against the idea of Andriy pursuing a career in sport, as he instead wanted his son to follow in his own footsteps and enrol into the military.

The family also lived on the opposite side of the city from the sport centre, while Shevchenko failed to impress enough during a trial as a 10-year-old to earn admission to a specialist sports school. It was around this time that the Chernobyl nuclear disaster of 1986 took place, which forced the whole Shevchenko family to leave their home and move to the coast.

Shevchenko was eventually spotted by Dynamo and, by 1989, he was part of a team that would travel to Italy, of all places, to take part in the famed Citta di Agropoli tournament. The 13-year-old forward was the star of the show, as he scored 10 goals over the course of the competition, including five in the space of 20 minutes during the final, to win the trophy alongside Sergey Rebrov, with whom he would later form a devastating striker partnership that helped deliver five league titles and three Ukranian Cups to Dynamo, as well as a run to the Champions League semi-finals in 1999.

A year later, Dynamo won the Ian Rush Cup held in Wales, with Shevchenko again the top scorer, which earned him a pair of the Liverpool legend's boots as a prize.

Shevchenko looked like being a star of the future, but his lifestyle was not yet that of a professional. Lobanovskyi, his mentor and the most important person in his life, brought him into Dynamo's reserve team and immediately began weaning Shevchenko off smoking. Lobanovskyi used such a massive nicotine injection that even today, just looking at a cigarette makes Shevchenko feel nauseous. 

Shevchenko feels that he owes his career to Lobanovskyi, and he showed his thanks to the legendary coach years later when he first brought the Champions League trophy he won with Milan in 2003 to his mentor's grave in Baikove, followed by the Ballon d'Or a year later.

The rigour, dedication and expertise instilled in Shevchenko by Lobanovskyi would prove fundamental to the golden career of a man who would be dubbed 'The King of the East'.

His training sessions would be almost endless, with hours and hours spent kicking the ball into the goal. Years later, his Milan team-mate Gennaro Gattuso, said of Shevchenko:"I have never seen a footballer capable of hitting the target with such high percentages". 

It was that dedication, combined with a natural ability, that allowed Shevchenko to become the third Ukrainian Ballon d'Or winner, following in the footsteps of Oleg Blochin in 1975 and Igor Belanov in 1986.

In 322 games for Milan, Shevchenko scored 175 goals while delivering the Scudetto in 2004 a year after winning the Champions League following a penalty shootout victory over Juventus in the final at Old Trafford. He remains the top scorer in the history of Milan derbies with 14 goals, and is revered as much as Marco van Basten by the Rossoneri faithful. A true legend - and a Hall of Famer.