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Revealed: Mudryk's Chelsea contract includes obligation to play friendly match against Shakhtar in Ukraine

Chelsea are contractually bound to play Shakhtar Donetsk in a friendly in Donbass as part of their £89m deal to sign Mykhaylo Mudryk.

Chelsea signed Mudryk from Shakhtar
As part of deal they will play friendly in Ukraine
Agreed made verbally & also written into contract

WHAT HAPPENED? Chelsea snapped up the 22-year-old winger during the January transfer window, with the Blues beating London rivals Arsenal to a big-money deal. During the negotiations, Chelsea co-owner, Behdad Eghbali, proposed a future friendly between the two clubs in Donetsk. Shakhtar CEO Serhii Palkin has now confirmed that the proposal is not only verbal but is also written into Mudryk's contract.

WHAT THEY SAID: "Yes, it is written into the contract. But actually, we did not even need to read it in the contract because Behdad spoke with our president. Behdad supports Ukraine a lot because he is American and it is an English club, so for us this is a positive triangle because when you say England and Ukraine, it is important for our war support at this moment. They spoke very well and shook hands," Palkin said in an interview with The Athletic.

"I know because I translated. I liked the conversation very much and I believe that it does not matter if it is in the contract or not. It was Behdad who proposed [the friendly], because he said he wanted to help Ukraine, to help Ukrainian refugees and to support Ukrainian people. For us, this match [in Donetsk] would be like a miracle (having not played in their home city since 2014). We would have this match every weekend if we could.

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THE BIGGER PICTURE: Shakhtar president Rinat Akhmetov first mentioned about the friendly in a statement on the club's official website, while also announcing that part of the £89m ($109m) fee generated from the sale of Mykhailo Mudruk will go towards supporting Ukrainian soldiers. "I am confident that we will win [the war against Russia]. And we will play a friendly against Chelsea at Donbass Arena in a Ukrainian Donetsk. We have to do everything we can to bring this day closer," he said.

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