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#1 Andriy Shevchenko
Despite largely going out with a whimper rather than a bang – he flopped hugely after a mega-money move to Chelsea and never truly recovered – Ukrainian Andriy Shevchenko will still go down as one of Europe’s all-time great strikers. The stats largely speak for themselves – with 67 goals, he’s currently ranked as the fifth-top goalscorer in all European competitions, he’s the second most prolific goalscorer in AC Milan history with 175 goals, and he’s also Ukraine’s all-time leading goalscorer with 48.
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Shevchenko rose to fame with his first club Dynamo Kiev in the mid to late 1990’s, and it was during his final two seasons with the club that he really began to open the eyes of the fans. He scored 33 goals in all competitions in both 1997/98 and 1998/99, and during that time he scored goals against the likes of Barcelona and Real Madrid as Dynamo excelled in the Champions League. His move to Milan followed in 1999/00, and he was an instant hit, becoming just the sixth foreign player to be Serie A’s top scorer in his debut season.
His goalscoring record with Milan was simply phenomenal – he scored a total of 24 goals in Serie A in 2000/01, a notoriously difficult league to score goals in, and overall he averaged around a goal every two games. He won the Champions League with them in 2002/03 – a feat that helped him to be awarded the Ballon d’Or that year – and then scored the goals – 24 in 32 games - that allowed them to win Serie A in 2003/04.
With Ukraine, he only appeared in two international tournaments. He played in the World Cup in 2006, captaining his team and leading them to the quarter-finals with two goals in the group stages, and he also appeared at Euro 2012 which was held in Ukraine. There he scored his final international goals – a brace against Sweden – but couldn’t get Ukraine out of the group stages. A natural goalscorer, he will go down as one of the best European strikers of all time, point blank.
