At the start of last season he was an unknown outside of Ukraine with a transfer value of under £1m. Now he is one of the most coveted young players in Europe. Following an explosive rise, Mykhailo Mudryk looks destined for big things.
The 21-year-old, who showcased his thrilling speed and one-on-one ability in the Champions League group stage earlier this season, has been described by Darijo Srna, Shakhtar Donetsk’s director of football, as “the best player in Europe in his position” after Kylian Mbappe and Vinicius Junior.
There may be a hint of exaggeration to that statement but Srna is not the only one to hold Mudryk in high regard.
His list of suitors is a long one and Premier League leaders Arsenal sit at the top of it, the Gunners having submitted an opening bid worth around £55m plus add-ons to sign him in January.
One source has told Sky Sports News there is a cautious optimism a deal can be done, with Arsenal thought to be encouraged by the player’s desire to join them.
Shakhtar, however, are said to be demanding a fee of £85m – “if someone wants to buy Mudryk, they must spend a lot of money and respect our club,” added Srna recently – so is the hype justified?
Attitude shift under De Zerbi
Mudryk has long been viewed as a player of huge potential in Ukraine, where he started out in Metalist Kharkiv’s academy before moving to Dnipro and then Shakhtar, but it took longer than many expected for him to start flourishing.
Paulo Fonseca, Shakhtar’s former manager, saw his potential during his time in charge, bringing him into the first-team fold and handing him his senior debut at the age of 17 in 2018.
For all Mudryk’s talent, though, his attitude caused doubts.
“He sometimes didn’t hear what the coach said to him,” reflected Shakhtar captain Taras Stepanenko recently. Fonseca, meanwhile, aired his own concerns after a friendly win over Azerbaijani side Qarabag in January of 2019.
“Mykhaylo scored today, but he still has a lot to learn,” he said. “I am definitely convinced by his talent, but first of all, he must understand that he still has a lot of ways he can improve… he has to change his attitude a bit on the pitch.”
Mudryk was sent on loan to Ukrainian Premier League rivals Arsenal Kyiv only a few weeks later. Another loan spell, this time at Desna Chernihiv, would follow that, with Shakhtar hoping greater exposure at senior level would help him mature.
But it was only after the appointment of Roberto De Zerbi, now of Brighton, in the summer of 2021, at a time when Mudryk was valued at under £1m by Transfermarkt, that his fortunes – and indeed his attitude – began to change back at his parent club.
“Everybody knows Mudryk is an amazing talent but not a lot of coaches can find a connection with him,” explained Srna, before adding that one of De Zerbi’s first acts in charge of Shakhtar was to pick up the phone to the on-loan youngster.
“He told him, ‘You will become a player with me, or you will not be a football player,'” added Srna of that De Zerbi phone call. “From that day, Mudryk changed things completely.”
De Zerbi made Mudryk a personal project.
“I need not only to win the league and the cup, as well as to play well in the Champions League, but also to educate young players,” he said. “Mudryk is one of the best young footballers in Europe. If I don’t bring him to a high level, I will consider it a personal defeat.”
Mudryk was one of several Shakhtar academy products thrown into the team by De Zerbi and he rewarded his faith emphatically, the winger becoming a regular starter before the 2021/22 campaign was disrupted by the pandemic, and subsequently breaking into Andriy Shevchenko’s national team.
Champions League breakout turns heads
The doubts over Mudryk’s attitude swiftly disappeared and soon his ability was coming to the fore.
Indeed, since his breakthrough at the start of last season, he has scored nine goals and provided 13 assists in 23 Ukrainian Premier League appearances – and that despite the upheaval caused by Russia’s invasion of the country as well as the pandemic.
The numbers are impressive but it is on the European stage that Mudryk has really turned heads.
He was used primarily as a substitute during Shakhtar’s group-stage campaign last season, but he certainly made his mark on his first start, his eye-catching display in a 2-1 defeat to Real Madrid earning him an ovation from the home fans at the Bernabeu when he was substituted in the second half.
It was a significant moment in Mudryk’s rise to prominence and this season he has continued to grow in stature, starting all six of Shakhtar’s group games and contributing three goals and two assists, a combined total bettered by only seven players in the competition so far.
Celtic will not remember their meetings with him fondly.
In the first of them, played in Warsaw in September, Mudryk scored Shakhtar’s equaliser with a powerful, diagonal finish having latched onto a Heorhii Sudakov through-ball with a well-timed, and explosively fast, run in behind Celtic right-back Josip Juranovic.
Then, at Celtic Park a month later, he again made another decisive contribution, scoring another equaliser, this time with a stunning individual effort from outside the box following a counter-attack as Ange Postecoglou’s side were knocked out of the competition.
Mudryk was even better in the 4-1 win over RB Leipzig which came prior to those two games, setting up Shakhtar’s opener after darting inside from the left and outfoxing his marker with a series of stepovers, then finishing off a rapid counter-attack himself before producing another assist with a low cross for striker Lassina Traore.
Mudryk’s main strengths were plain to see in those games – his pace and power when cutting inside from the left to use his stronger right foot; his speed in transition; his clinical finishing ability – and his ability to do it on the Champions League stage only added to his appeal to a growing list of suitors which includes Arsenal.
Arsenal’s interest explained
Gabriel Jesus’ knee injury has left Arsenal fans wondering whether the club will act to sign a striker in January but Mikel Arteta’s desire to strengthen his wide attacking options is a long-standing priority.
Bukayo Saka and Gabriel Martinelli have shone this season, scoring their fifth and sixth Premier League goals respectively in the 3-1 win over West Ham on Boxing Day, but there is a lack of depth beneath them, especially with Emile Smith Rowe currently unavailable.
Mudryk would offer direct competition for Martinelli on the left-hand side, where, like the Brazilian, he operates as an inverted winger. He can, however, also play on the opposite side.
“It’s more comfortable for me when I play on the line where I can show all my potential one against one,” he said when asked about his favoured position in an interview with The Times in September.
“I have more space to move to the front and I can create a lot more chances when I play on the line. There are more people in the middle. But, you know, the middle is also OK for me.
“My inspiration is Cristiano Ronaldo because of what you can do if you work hard and believe in yourself. I like the way Cristiano plays. I see myself like that – a winger.”
That is not to say he might not one day be comfortable playing centrally too – “I need more time to change my position from 11 or 7 to 9, but with time it is possible,” he added to The Times – but he is above all someone who would enhance Arsenal’s threat from the flanks.
He is not dissimilar to Martinelli and Saka in terms of his dribbling ability and directness, but his blistering acceleration from a standing position and the speed at which he transitions from defence to attack mean he would offer Arteta’s side something different.
It remains to be seen what happens next but it looks increasingly likely that Mudryk, although a little-known figure outside of Ukraine only a year ago, has a tantalisingly bright future ahead of him.
This content was originally published here.
