The 22-year-old has scored just 12 goals at club level and yet Chelsea have just made the winger one of the most expensive players in history…
Shakhtar Donetsk president Rinat Akhmetov had "mixed feelings" about selling Mykhailo Mudryk. On one hand, he wanted to hold on such a talented young player "in order to win European trophies". On the other, how could he possibly turn down an £89 million ($109m) package for an unproven 22-year-old with just 65 senior appearances under his belt?
Indeed, even in a world in which the transfer market has long since gone mad, this deal has made everyone sit up and take notice.
Remember, it wasn't just Chelsea who were willing to pay £62m ($76m) up front for Mudryk, Arsenal had also agreed an identical initial fee with Shakhtar.
And yet this is a player that so few pundits and supporters have ever seen play. So, who is Mykhailo Mudryk and is he really worth such an incredible fee?
GOAL has the lowdown on the Ukrainian and his remarkably rapid rise to the top…
Where it all began
Mudryk was born in Krasnohrad but began his footballing career in nearby Kharkiv, joining Metalist in 2010.
He was just nine at the time and suffered from insomnia. However, everything changed when his grandmother gave him a prayer card of Archangel Michael. Mudryk has been a devout Christian ever since, as underlined by several religious tattoos, the most prominent of which sits on his neck and reads 'Only Jesus'.
His faith in both God and his own ability has fuelled his football career.
He spent four years at Metalist before joining Dnipro Dnipropetrovsk, where he began to establish himself as one of Ukrainian football's most exciting under-age stars. Indeed, it came as no surprise when he was snapped up by Shakhtar in 2016.
AdvertisementThe big break
Two years after arriving at Shakhtar, Mudryk made his first senior appearance in a Ukrainian Cup match against Olimpik Donetsk, handed his professional debut at 17 by then-coach Paulo Fonseca.
However, it was clear that this was a raw talent not quite ready for the first team, and Mudryk was loaned to Arsenal Kyiv for the second half of the 2018-19 campaign.
He returned to make his first Ukrainian League appearance for Shaktar the following season, but went back out on loan in 2020, this time joining Desna Chernihiv. It was only after returning for a second time that Mudryk really began to make an impact.
Indeed, he made 19 appearances and scored two goals before the 2021-22 season was cut short because of Russia's invasion of Ukraine last March. He had played particularly well in Shakhtar's 2-1 loss to Real Madrid in the group stage of the Champions League, effectively announcing himself to the rest of Europe, and drawing a round of applause from the Santiago Bernabeu crowd in the process, after tormenting Dani Carvajal with an exhilarating exhibition of his pace and trickery.
There was even talk of a Premier League transfer during the summer, with the likes of Everton and Brentford expressing an interest in his services. However, Mudryk was already targeting a transfer to a top team.
"With all due respect, I will definitely not be moving to Brentford," he told . "They're a mid-table Premier League side that doesn't compete in European cups. For me, the most important thing is the Champions League."
GettyHow it's been going
The reason for the sudden interest among Europe's elite was Mudryk's improvement during the first half of the current campaign, particularly in terms of his finishing. Despite the constant praise for his skillset, there had been reservations before the season began over his end product.
However, he's now added goals to his game, netting 10 times in all competitions before the break for the World Cup – and thrice in the group stage of the Champions League – as well as contributing nine assists.
The feeling was, then, at both Chelsea and Arsenal, that they couldn't afford to wait any longer to make their move, given Mudryk's value was only likely to increase between now and the end of 2022-23.
GettyBiggest strengths
What first grabs your attention is Mudryk's incredible pace. There was no quicker player on show in the group stage of this season's Champions League. Literally. He clocked a top speed of 36.6 km/h – a figure only matched by Barcelona winger Ousmane Dembele. What's more, Mudryk believes that he can run even faster. He is confident that he can hit 40 km/h.
Mudryk is also wonderfully agile, which can be at least partially attributed to the fact that his mother only agreed to let him take up football as a child if he also did dance lessons.
Then there's the fact that he often looks as comfortable striking the ball with his left foot as he does his right.
It is this combination of pace, nimbleness and two-footedness which makes him a nightmare for defenders in one-v-one situations, as he is capable of racing away in either direction.
