Shakhtar Donetsk owner and president Rinat Akhmetov has donated over £20million to the Ukraine war effort after selling Mykhaylo Mudryk to Chelsea.
After being chased by Arsenal, Mudryk joined the Blues in an £87m transfer from Shakhtar over the weekend. The 22-year-old winger will earn a reported £100,000-a-week at Chelsea, who acted fast and doubled their offer to gazump the Gunners in the January transfer window.
The transfer fee is a huge reward for Shakhtar, who held out in negotiations with Arsenal to get the best price for their star player. It will come as a significant boost to the club, who have been displaced from their home in Donetsk by the war against Russia.
On Monday morning, Akhmetov released a statement about Mudryk’s transfer in which he paid tribute to the Ukrainian army fighting the Russian invaders. The 56-year-old mining magnate, who is Ukraine’s richest man, has used the opportunity to launch “a project designed to help Mariupol defenders and the families of fallen soldiers”.
He wrote: “I am allocating $25 million (UAH 1 billion, £20m) today to help our soldiers, defenders, and their families. The money will be used to cover different needs – from providing medical and prosthetic treatment and psychological support to meeting specific requests.
“To ensure transparency, the project will have a professional independent team that will be in touch with the Azovstal defenders, their families, care providers, and volunteers.”
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Akhmetov added that it was “impossible” for Shakhtar to hold on to talented players like Mudryk due to the ongoing war against Russia. He said he was confident Ukraine would eventually prevail against Vladimir Putin ’s unjust war, enabling Shakhtar to return to the Donbass Arena, where they would like to play Chelsea in a friendly.
Chelsea confirmed the signing of Mudryk before their 1-0 win over Crystal Palace on Sunday. Mudryk paraded in front of the fans at Stamford Bridge with a Ukraine flag draped over his shoulders.
Mudryk regularly dropped not-so-subtle hints about his desire to join Arsenal on social media over the past few weeks. However, speaking to the Blues’ website, he made it clear that he was delighted to move to Chelsea.
"I’m so happy to sign for Chelsea," he said. "This is a huge club, in a fantastic league and it is a very attractive project for me at this stage of my career. I’m excited to meet my new team-mates and I’m looking forward to working and learning under Graham Potter and his staff."
Mudryk is Chelsea’s fifth signing of the January transfer window. He follows Joao Felix, Andrey Santos, Benoit Badiashile and David Datro Fofana in joining the club. The Blues have spent over £400m on transfers since the consortium fronted by Todd Boehly took over the club from Roman Abramovich in May.
