It was only six months after the Russian invasion of Ukraine when I encountered Mykhailo Mudryk shortly after midnight on a balmy September evening in East Germany.
This was September 2022 and Mudryk was then an emerging talent for Ukrainian champions Shakhtar Donetsk. He scored and was the team’s main attacking threat in a shock 4–1 win for Shakhtar in the opening match of their Champions League campaign against German team RB Leipzig.
For Mudryk and his teammates, the Champions League offered a reprieve from the horrors of home. When Russian bombs landed in Ukraine in February 2022, many of Shakhtar’s foreign players took refuge in a windowless room of a Kiev hotel before interventions from multiple national embassies, football federations and UEFA, Europe’s football governing body, devised an escape plan.
Shakhtar had more than a dozen Brazilian players on their books at the time, but many left for safer places when the Ukrainian season ended and did not return. Football resumed in Ukraine for the 2022-2023 season and Shakhtar, who were first driven from their home in Donetsk in 2014 after Russian-backed raids, played home games in the relatively safer city of Lviv, in western Ukraine. still regularly interrupted by air raid sirens.
Shakhtar’s squad was a shadow of its former self, with only one player bought for over £2 million ($2.51 million at today’s rate). This team consisted largely of young and inexperienced men. When they played Real Madrid the following month, their starting squad consisted of ten Ukrainian players, eight produced by the club’s youth system and seven aged 23 or younger.
Mudryk, just 21, suddenly became the poster child for a team whose indomitable spirit and unlikely resistance seemed to encapsulate the Ukrainian struggle.
On that evening in Germany, The Athletics was embedded with the Ukrainian side to produce a documentary about their attempts to continue playing in the middle of the war. I spoke briefly with Mudryk and his teammate and best friend Georgiy Sudakov in midfield as they left their hotel in Leipzig in the early morning hours. Their heads were spinning after an unlikely victory, adrenaline pumping through their veins. But, they explained, they also wanted to walk freely at night, in a place where there were no shelters, no shouting, no air raid sirens to quickly force them underground, to remind themselves of normal life. They did this for half an hour before returning to their rooms.
At that moment, Mudryk’s star was just beginning to shine. He was extremely raw, and without the premature exodus of Brazilian players it is unlikely he would have risen to prominence so quickly.
This was a player who only made his debut for his national team in June 2022, but in January 2023, after a handful of impressive performances in the Champions League, including against Real Madrid, Mudryk became the most expensive Ukrainian footballer in history. He signed for Premier League side Chelsea, who initially committed £62 million, plus £26.5 million in possible additional payments depending on his and Chelsea’s success.
This week’s news that Mudryk has tested positive for the banned substance meldonium is a dagger to the heart of Ukrainian football and leaves the player in a fight to save his career. The extent of the damage will depend on the result of Mudryk’s ‘B’ sample, which is yet to be revealed as the adverse finding relates to his ‘A’ sample, but he has been provisionally suspended by the English Football Association.
Ukraine’s Euro 2024 campaign turned into an emotional symbol of national pride (Andrzej Iwanczuk/NurPhoto via Getty Images)
Chelsea’s commitment to signing the player was significant, locking him down to a seven-and-a-half year contract, with the option of a further year. Even in the midst of the invasion, Shakhtar managed to provoke a bidding war, such was the level of interest. He was previously chased by German side Bayer Leverkusen, as well as Newcastle United, Brentford and Everton in the Premier League, but it came down to a battle between Arsenal and Chelsea.
Shakhtar’s football director Dario Srna said this at the time The Athletics: “If someone wants to buy Mudryk, he has to pay a huge, huge, huge amount of money. Otherwise, the club’s president (Rinat Akhmetov) will not sell him. All clubs must respect the president, respect Shakhtar and ultimately they must respect Mykhaylo Mudryk, one of the best players I have seen. The prize is so great.”
Srna said he rated Mudryk as only behind Kylian Mbappe and Vinicius Junior in his wide forward position and stressed that big money would be needed as Manchester United signed Antony from Ajax in an £86m deal and Jadon Sancho from Borussia Dortmund for £73 million, while Manchester City bought Jack Grealish for £100 million.
Shakhtar, aware of the power of sport in driving the narrative surrounding the war, also announced upon completion of the handover that their own owner, Rinat Akhmetov, would donate $25 million to the war effort, specifically to support the defense of Mariupol and the families of those who have lost loved ones. The agreement with Chelsea also included a clause that said Shakhtar would play a friendly match against Chelsea in Donetsk in the future, when and if that area of Ukraine is no longer occupied by Russian forces.
“It’s written in the contract,” Shakhtar CEO Sergei Palkin said The Athletics in January 2023. “But actually we didn’t even have to read it in the contract, because Behdad Eghbali (the co-owner of Chelsea) spoke to our president. Behdad supports Ukraine a lot because he is American and it is an English club, so this is a positive triangle. When you say England and Ukraine, that is important for our war support.
“It was Behdad who proposed (the friendly meeting) because he said he wanted to help Ukraine, help Ukrainian refugees and support the Ukrainian people. This match (in Donetsk) would be a miracle (having not played in their home city since 2014). If we could, we would have this game every weekend.”
When Mudryk was unveiled at Stamford Bridge, he did so wrapped in a Ukraine flag. The player was born and raised in the city of Krasnohrad, close to Kharkov, one of the worst affected areas of the country. “Since the start of the full-scale war, my city has been bombarded with rockets day and night,” Mudryk said forcefully. video of 13 Ukrainian players talking about the impact of the war on their hometown, released by the Ukrainian Football Association ahead of the European Championship in the summer of 2024.
Mudryk (left) competes with Arsenal’s Martin Odegaard last month (Ryan Pierse/Getty Images)
He is a more reserved figure than his Ukrainian compatriot Oleksandr Zinchenko, who has been at the forefront of media initiatives to promote solidarity with Ukraine. He appears to be a devout religious figure, a follower of the orthodox Christian faith, who carries religious icons with him to games. On his chest he has a tattoo that reads: “Dear God – if I lose my hope today, please remind me that your plans are better than my dreams.”
His national team is often talked about on the pitch, most notably when he scored the winner in a victory over Iceland to take his country to Euro 2024. Ukraine exited that tournament in the group stage and Mudryk did not score. although his country only led on goal difference, while all four teams in Group E were level on four points after three games.
He has yet to fulfill his potential for club and country. He scored just five goals and provided four assists in 53 Premier League games for Chelsea. This week’s preview reveal cast doubt on his ability to play at all, as meldonium is a drug for which tennis star Maria Sharapova was previously barred from playing.
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The adverse test was reported during a routine urine test, according to a statement from Chelsea. The club added that Mudryk has “categorically confirmed that he has never knowingly used prohibited substances.”
Mudryk wrote on Instagram that the result was “a complete shock, as I have never knowingly used banned substances or broken any rules.”
He added: “I am working closely with my team to investigate how this could have happened.
“I know I have done nothing wrong and remain hopeful that I will be back on the field soon. I cannot say more now due to the confidentiality of the process, but I will do so as soon as possible.”
The English Football Association (FA) Anti-Doping Rules state that any breaches will be treated as strict liability breaches. For example, a player is found guilty of an offense if a prohibited substance is found in that player’s body. It is not necessary to prove intent. A player’s alleged lack of intent or knowledge is not a valid defense to a charge.
Breaching the FA’s anti-doping rules carries a maximum ban of four years, although mitigating factors could reduce that ban from two years to just one month. The B sample will be the key.
Shakhtar’s Georgiy Sudakov expressed his support for his friend Mudryk (Christof Koepsel / Getty Images)
While Mudryk’s career hangs in the balance, the Ukrainian football establishment appears to be rallying behind him. Several sources in Ukraine, who remain anonymous because they were not authorized to speak, have indicated that they want this The Athletics that the player suspects he was sabotaged while away with his country’s national team this season – a claim we have seen no evidence of – but which is taken seriously in his own country.
Shakhtar midfielder Sudakov posted a message of support on Instagram, urging his friend to “stay strong”.
Shakhtar CEO Palkin, meanwhile, wrote that Mudryk is a “high-profile professional athlete,” adding that he fully trusts the player “has not used any banned substances.”
Palkin said: “I am confident he will prove his innocence.” Time will tell if their faith is justified.
(Top photo: Etsuo Hara/Getty Images; design: Dan Goldfarb)