His blonde locks weren't quite so refined. Neither was his talent. Yet the 17-year-old wearing the No.91 shirt for Shakhtar Donetsk still caught the eye on his professional debut, which came from the substitutes' bench in the Ukrainian Cup against Olimpik Donetsk.
The player in question was Mykhailo Mudryk and few could have envisaged the trajectory of the winger's career that October night in 2018. Mudryk was still at the start of his football journey and his experience of life in the Shakhtar first team was fleeting. It's why he joined Arsenal Kyiv on loan later that season.
But the winger made an impression on Paulo Fonseca, the Portuguese coach who spent three years in charge of the Ukrainian giants before leaving for Roma in 2019. "He was only with us for four or five weeks but is a player with a lot of qualities – and he's very fast," recalled Fonseca, who is now in charge at Ligue 1 side Lille.
