© AFP
Following the record sale of 22-year-old winger Mykhailo Mudryk to Chelsea for €100 million, Shakhtar’s chairman will donate €25 million to help Ukrainian soldiers and their families.
Michael Van Damme
Shakhtar, top club from war-torn Ukraine, signs for the most expensive outgoing transfer of this winter mercato: the sale of Mykhailo Mudryk to Chelsea for 100 million euros, of which 70 million euros is paid immediately and the rest is fixed in bonuses. Chelsea came out on top in a bid against fellow townsman Arsenal. Mudryk signed a contract of no less than 8.5 years.
In a statement, Shakhtar Donetsk boss Rinat Akhmetov expressed his desire to host a friendly match against Chelsea at the Donbass Arena, Shakhtar’s home venue currently inaccessible due to the war. To make this possible, Akhmetov set up a fund.
“I decided to create the Heart of Azovstal project, through which we want to help the defenders of Mariupol, fallen soldiers and their families. It is thanks to their sacrifice and courage in the first months of the war that Ukraine’s victory is inevitable. We will allocate 25 million euros to help these soldiers and their families with medical treatment, psychological help and other needs.”
That money goes from Chelsea to Ukrainian soldiers and their families is remarkable, because at the outbreak of the Russo-Ukrainian war, the London club was still owned by the Russian oligarch Roman Abramovich, who had close ties to Russian president Vladimir Putin. Abramovich canceled all the club’s debts to himself and deposited the proceeds from the sale of his club into a fund that supports victims of the war.
