Sports

Doping test Mykhailo Modric “a dagger in the heart of Ukrainian football”


It was only six months after the Russian invasion of Ukraine when, on a balmy September evening in eastern Germany, I met Mykhaylo Modryk, just after midnight.

It was September 2022, and Modric was at the time an emerging talent for Ukrainian champions, Shakhtar Donetsk. He scored and was the team’s main attacking threat in a shock 4-1 win for Shakhtar in the opening match of the Champions League campaign against German side RB Leipzig.

For Modric and his teammates, the Champions League was a respite from the horrors of home. When Russian bombs fell on Ukraine in February 2022, several foreign Shakhtar players took refuge in a windowless room in a Kiev hotel, before the interventions of several national embassies, football federations and UEFA devised an escape plan.

Shakhtar, at the time, had more than a dozen Brazilian players on their books, but several of them left for safer climes when the Ukrainian season was halted and did not return. Football has resumed in Ukraine for the 2022-23 season, and Shakhtar, which was first expelled from its Donetsk home in 2014 after Russian-backed incursions, has been playing its home matches in the relatively safer city of Lviv, in western Ukraine – although… The matches were closed. Still frequently paused by air raid sirens.

Shakhtar’s squad was a shell of its former self, featuring just one player bought for more than £2 million ($2.51 million at current prices). This band was composed largely of young and inexperienced people. When they played against Real Madrid the following month, their starting squad included 10 Ukrainian players, eight of whom had been produced by the club’s youth system and seven who were 23 or younger.

At just 21 years old, Modryk was suddenly the star of a team whose indomitable spirit and unbearable resistance seemed the embodiment of the Ukrainian struggle.

That evening in Germany, The athlete It was combined with the Ukrainian side to produce a documentary about their attempts to continue playing in the midst of the war. I spoke briefly with Modric and fellow midfielder and best friend Georgi Sudakov as they exited their hotel in Leipzig in the early hours of the morning. Their heads were spinning after an unexpected victory, and adrenaline was flowing through their veins. But they explained that they also wanted to walk freely at night, in a place where there were no shelters, no screaming, and no air-raid sirens to force them down quickly, to remind themselves of normalcy. They did this for half an hour, before returning to their rooms.

At that point, Modric’s star was just beginning to shine. He was cruel to the extreme, and if it were not for the sudden departure of the Brazilian players, it is unlikely that he would have risen to fame so quickly.

This was a player who only made his debut for his country in June 2022, but by January 2023, after a string of impressive performances in the Champions League, including against Real Madrid, Modryk had become the most expensive Ukrainian footballer in history. He signed with Premier League side Chelsea, who pledged an initial sum of £62 million, plus £26.5 million in potential additional payments dependent on his and Chelsea’s success.

This week’s news that Modric has tested positive for the banned substance meldonium is a dagger through the heart of Ukrainian football and leaves the player in a battle to save his career. The extent of the damage will depend on the result of Modric’s ‘B’ sample, which has not yet been revealed, as the negative result relates to the ‘A’ sample, but has been temporarily suspended by the FA.


Ukraine’s Euro 2024 campaign has turned into an emotional symbol of national pride (Andrzej Iwanczuk/NurPhoto via Getty Images)

Chelsea’s commitment to signing the player was significant, as they tied him to a seven-and-a-half-year contract, with the option to extend for another year. Even in the middle of the conquest, Shakhtar managed to attract a bidding war, such was the interest. German Bayer Leverkusen was pursuing him before, as were Newcastle United, Brentford and Everton in the English Premier League, but the matter reached a battle between Arsenal and Chelsea.

Dario Srna, Shakhtar’s director of football, said at the time: The athlete: “If someone wants to buy Modric, they have to pay huge, huge, huge money. Otherwise the club president (Rinat Akhmetov) will not sell him. All clubs must respect the president, respect Shakhtar, and in the end they must respect Mykhailo Modric, who is one of The best players I’ve seen. The price is very high.”

Srna said he rates Modric as behind only Kylian Mbappe and Vinicius Junior in his forward position and insisted big money is needed, considering Manchester United signed Anthony from Ajax in an £86m deal and Jadon Sancho from Borussia Dortmund for £73 million, while Manchester United signed City bought Jack Grealish for £100 million.

Shakhtar, aware of the power of sport to direct the narrative around war, also announced upon completion of the transfer that its owner, Rinat Akhmetov, would donate $25 million to the war effort, to particularly support the defense of Mariupol and the club. Families of those who lost loved ones. The agreement with Chelsea also included a clause stipulating that Shakhtar would play a future friendly match against Chelsea in Donetsk, when and if that region of Ukraine is no longer occupied by Russian forces.

“This is written in the contract,” Shakhtar CEO Sergei Balkin said. The athlete In January 2023. But in reality, we didn’t even need to read it into the contract because Behdad Eghbali (co-owner of Chelsea) spoke to our president. Behdad supports Ukraine a lot because he is an American and it is an English club, so this is a positive triangle. When you say England and Ukraine, it is important to support us in the war.

He added: “Bahdad was the one who suggested (the friendly match), because he said he wanted to help Ukraine, help the Ukrainian refugees, and support the Ukrainian people. This match (in Donetsk) will be a miracle (as they have not played in their city since 2014). “We would play this game every weekend if we could.”

When Modric was unveiled at Stamford Bridge, he was draped in a Ukrainian flag. The player was born and raised in the city of Krasnograd, near Kharkiv, one of the most brutally affected areas in the country. “Since the beginning of the all-out war, my city has been bombarded with missiles day and night,” Modric said, speaking in a strong tone. video A collection of 13 Ukrainian players talking about the impact of the war on their hometown, released by the Ukrainian Football Association ahead of the European Championship in the summer of 2024.


Modric (left) tussles with Arsenal’s Martin Odegaard last month (Ryan Pearce/Getty Images)

He is a more conservative figure than his fellow Ukrainian Oleksandr Zinchenko, who has been at the forefront of media initiatives to promote solidarity with Ukraine. He appears to be a devout religious figure, a follower of the Orthodox Christian faith, and carries religious icons with him to the games. On his chest is a tattoo that reads: “Dear God, if I lose hope today, please remind me that your plans are better than my dreams.”

As for his national team, the talk was mostly on the field, most notably when he scored the winning goal against Iceland to lead his country to Euro 2024. Ukraine exited that tournament in the group stage and Modric did not score. Although his country was eliminated on goal difference only, the four teams in Group E were tied on four points from three matches.

For club and country, he has yet to fulfill his potential. He has scored just five goals and provided four assists in 53 Premier League appearances for Chelsea. This week’s revelations have cast doubt on his ability to play at all, as meldonium is the drug that previously led to tennis star Maria Sharapova being banned from competing.

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The negative test was reported during a routine urine test, according to a Chelsea statement. The club added that Modric “conclusively confirmed that he never knowingly used any prohibited substances.”

The result “came as a complete shock because I have never intentionally used any banned substances or broken any rules,” Modric wrote on Instagram.

He added: “I am working closely with my team to investigate how this happened.

“I know I didn’t do anything wrong, and I still hope to be back on the field soon. I can’t say more now due to the confidentiality of the process, but I will do so as soon as possible.

The FA’s anti-doping regulations state that any breaches will be treated as strict liability breaches. For example, a player will be found guilty of a violation if a banned substance is found in that player’s body. It is not necessary to show intent. The player’s alleged lack of intent or knowledge is not a valid defense to the charge.

Violating the FA anti-doping regulations carries a maximum penalty of a four-year ban, although mitigating factors could reduce that from two years to just one month. Sample B will be the key.


Shakhtar player Georgi Sudakov expressed his support for his friend Modric (Christoph Koepsel/Getty Images)

While Modric’s career is on the line, the Ukrainian football establishment appears to have his back. Multiple sources in Ukraine, who remained anonymous because they did not have permission to speak, indicated as much The athlete That the player suspects he may have been vandalized while away with his national team this season – a claim we have seen no evidence to support – but is being taken seriously in his country.

On Instagram, Shakhtar midfielder Sudakov posted a message of support, urging his friend to “stay strong.”

Meanwhile, Shakhtar CEO Balkin wrote that Modric is a “high-level professional athlete”, adding that he has full confidence that the player “has not used any banned substance”.

“I’m confident he will prove his innocence,” Balkin said. Time will tell if their faith is justified.

(Top image: Etsu Hara/Getty Images; Design: Dan Goldfarb)

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