World Football Quest

Recently more known by their conflict with Russia than for any other thing, and hopefully this changes soon. Ukraine has not been, almost never, a nation with real political power in the international stage, but it had (and still) a great influence in strategic movements in almost every era. Very important because their cereal production, Ukraine has almost ever been part of a bigger empire or nation, as they were the Kievan Rus', the Lithuanian, Polish and Ottoman domination, and finally as part of the ancient USSR, so if you study history or you're a passionate of it, Ukraine can really be a heaven for you (or a hell if you don't like it).

Of course what you can find here is not only history, as their culture is great at a similar level at least, with many different types of influences that have forged a very rich culture, architecture and cuisine.

About sports (and specially football), as many other ex-soviet countries, their base is very powerfull, so that's why many great players have come from this land. 3 Ukranian players, 2 of them under the USSR Flag, have won the Ballon D'Or in their history: Oleg Blokhin in 1975, Igor Belanov in 1986 and Andry Shevchenko in 2004. Since their national team is relatively new (first match as an independent nation in 1992), many of this great players have not defended the yellow and blue shirt of the Zbirna, and the actual national team doesn't have the great level that the USSR team had in the past (in other way it's logical, as that was composed by 15 different nations).

The shirt here is the away design used in 2006, when they played in the World Cup (and we won them 4-0, equalizing their worst result ever in a single match). That was unfortunately the only World Cup where the world could see Shevchenko in action, a great miss for football lovers. I found this shirt on ebay for only 9€ and it's almost new, I wanted one of their national team specially as one of my best friends was born here. I'm always talking to her about my collection, even she doesn't like football (Hi Iryna!)