Do we like Andriy Shevchenko?
Our score: 7 out of 10. A decent record with a lot of war-time charity work, held back by a thin record on LGBTQ+ issues and an unanswered football-politics cloud.
Shevchenko grew up in Obolon, a district of Kyiv, and came through Dynamo Kyiv before AC Milan made him one of Ukraine's most famous players. He won the 2004 Ballon d'Or, had a patchier stint at Chelsea, and returned to Dynamo in 2009. He turned 50 on 29 September 2026, when a parody-style death hoax did the rounds and was knocked down as false.
In 2012 he surprised everyone by quitting football for politics, saying “my future has nothing to do with soccer”. He joined Natalia Korolevska's Ukraine–Forward! party, which was placed him high on its list. The party took just 1.58 per cent in October's election and missed the threshold, so he never held a seat.
The war changed everything for him. Days after the 2022 invasion he said “Football doesn't exist for me any more” and backed Russia's suspension from international football. He became the first ambassador of the government's UNITED24 fundraising platform in May 2022 and organised about a dozen charity projects. In 2023 Zelensky named him an independent adviser.
He has led the Ukrainian Association of Football since January 2024. In April 2025 he finished fourth in the vote for a UEFA Executive Committee seat and blamed “political factors”. In July 2025 journalist Ihor Burbas released recordings that allegedly show a regional official pressuring a Kherson rep over a local election, and which allegedly mention Shevchenko repeatedly. No response from him was reported, a complaint went to the federation's ethics committee, and he isn't reported as accused of anything himself.
The recent story is the national team. After Ukraine lost the World Cup playoff to Sweden, Rebrov stepped down in April and Shevchenko picked Maldera, setting a Euro 2028 target. Separately, an Italian report says he told a June interview he was hurt by Italian former teammates travelling to Russia. Where you land depends on whether you see that as moral clarity or a mate's quarrel.
On the harm test, we found no words or acts from him aimed at LGBTQ+ people, women, migrants or the planet, and no slide into conspiracy theories. His public positions are about the war: Russia stays banned while the fighting goes on. We found nothing on LGBTQ+ issues either way, so call it a clean but thin pass.