Chelsea poached Mykhailo Mudryk from under the noses of Premier League leaders, and London rivals, Arsenal over the weekend.
At €100million (£88.7m, $108.2m), the deal is a record for a Ukrainian player and for Shakhtar Donetsk, who sold him.
The 22-year-old winger was paraded on the pitch at half-time during Chelsea’s 1-0 win over Crystal Palace on Sunday, after signing a seven-and-a-half-year contract.
Here, Shakhtar chief executive Sergei Palkin tells The Athletic’s Adam Crafton:
- How Arsenal first made contact with the player “in October or November” last year — a month before their interest was formalised with Shakhtar
- That the two London clubs offered the same amount for Mudryk, but the add-ons built into Chelsea’s bid were more “achievable and realistic”
- Why Shakhtar suspected a sale might get pushed back to the summer until Chelsea’s interest crystalised last week
- How Chelsea’s new owners are overseeing a project to “build one of the best clubs in the world”
- Chelsea co-owner Behdad Eghbali proposed a future friendly against Shakhtar in Donetsk.
Adam Crafton: A lot of supporters of Premier League clubs are fascinated by this transfer. It looked like Mudryk would go to Arsenal but then, in the space of 24 hours, he joined Chelsea. When did you realise Chelsea would be the destination?
Sergei Palkin: I realised two days ago (Saturday) when Chelsea arrived here — the co-owner Behdad Eghbali and (director of global talent and transfers) Paul Winstanley. They came to Antalya in Turkey (where Shakhtar have been at a training camp during their domestic season’s winter break). Before Chelsea arrived, I did not know they were close, because I communicated with Arsenal in the same way as I had with Chelsea. Even I can tell you more: I met Arsenal more times than Chelsea. Therefore, before this last meeting, Arsenal was close, or a little bit closer to this deal than Chelsea.
How many times did you meet Arsenal?
If you don’t count telephone conversations, it was three times.
From our conversations with sources close to the deal, the impression I have is that Arsenal were confident you would have found a compromise with them, and we had even seen the player himself on social media watching Arsenal matches. What, in your view, changed things? Was it the willingness of Chelsea to fly to Turkey and to meet the figure?
From my point of view, (this) is why everybody talked about Arsenal. It is because Arsenal contacted the player almost one and a half months before they contacted us. Can you imagine, for example, to have (the Arsenal coach) Mikel Arteta, (Arsenal’s Ukrainian player) Oleksandr Zinchenko and the sporting director (Edu) calling you, to have Arsenal calling you almost every day, every two days, every three days? You can want or not want the move but you follow this kind of reception and contacts. If you talk about Chelsea, they called me at the end of December and asked if they can contact Mudryk because they are interested in him and want to talk with him. I said, ‘No problem, you can contact him’. The first time they contacted him was around the end of December or the start of January. They contacted the player and the agent of the player and they met the financial conditions. Therefore, why did many people around it have the impression that Mudryk was going to Arsenal? It is because Arsenal contacted him and then Mudryk started to watch some games of Arsenal. But negotiations are negotiations. When you didn’t close everything, when you did not (close) the last dot, then you cannot finish the deal. Therefore it was just an outside visual impression that Mudryk is close to Arsenal.
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Were any other clubs close to a deal?
There were some contacts but not serious. So it was just two clubs.
Did you ask Arsenal whether it was right for them to contact the player before they spoke to the club? Normally, clubs make a complaint when that happens.
When I met Arsenal and they mentioned they had already talked to the player and they had contacted the player, to be honest, I knew beforehand that they had started to contact him. I said, ‘OK, you start to contact him but first of all you should close it with us’. But OK, we have what we have.
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So you didn’t make a formal complaint to FIFA?
We didn’t do a formal complaint. They did what they did.
Our understanding is that in the final offers from the two clubs, the total figures were basically the same but the difference was the speed of payments. Is that correct?
Overall, it was the same. Not approximately the same — it was the same figure. The fixed part, variable part, bonuses. But if you look inside the fixed part and bonuses, it was completely different.
In what way?
Different time (schedule) of the payments, different kinds of bonuses. Yes, we can talk about bonuses, but these bonuses should be somehow achievable and realistic, let’s say. Therefore, in this case, Chelsea was much more serious and fair in some points. When we met Chelsea, we stayed all together. For you to understand the context, it was for nine or 10 hours. They invited the player and explained to us the whole project. We realised that, yes, if you look right now, Chelsea have some kinds of problems but it is normal because they have a transition period from one owner to another. It is understandable. They would like to change a lot. So when they explain to you the whole story and you look for the next two, three, four, five years, then you see they have a serious project. I believe they will build one of the best clubs in the world because I am telling you, they are very serious in all directions: sports science, the stadium side, the commercial side, on all things. For us, they looked very ambitious.
Our information is that the Chelsea deal includes add-ons if they win the Premier League or Champions League. Is that accurate?
Yes. It has these kinds of bonuses.
Is there a clause relating to Mudryk winning the Ballon d’Or?
Chelsea’s offer has no Ballon d’Or (clause). It is achievable bonuses that we feel, and they feel, can be reached. Maybe not this year but in the next two, three or four years.
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There’s no deadline then? If they win the Premier League or Champions League in 2029, the bonuses still apply?
It’s eight years, or seven and a half. The length of contract is eight years — seven plus one.
Did Mudryk ever say to you, ‘Let me leave in January’? Or would he have waited until the summer if you had not permitted a transfer?
We had no detailed discussions with Mudryk. He was professional, he did not push us. He did not want to meet us to ask why we had not sold him or complain he had not been sold for €50million, €60million. We just said, ‘Mykhailo, we are running negotiations. We want to help you and we believe that we will finalise it, so just relax, train properly and that’s it’. There was no pressure from his side or the agent’s side. Maybe you even saw his agent do an interview to say Mudryk is professional, training well and that they respect he belongs to Shakhtar.
Did he speak to Chelsea head coach Graham Potter before joining the club?
Mykhailo spoke with him this weekend.
On Monday, Shakhtar president Rinat Akhmetov announced that his team will play a friendly with Chelsea in Donetsk (when and if that area of Ukraine is no longer occupied by Russian forces). Can you clarify if this is actually written into the transfer agreement?
Yes, it is written into the contract. But actually, we did not even need to read it in the contract because Behdad spoke with our president. Behdad supports Ukraine a lot because he is American and it is an English club, so for us this is a positive triangle because when you say England and Ukraine, it is important for our war support at this moment. They spoke very well and shook hands. I know because I translated. I liked the conversation very much and I believe that it does not matter if it is in the contract or not. It was Behdad who proposed (the friendly), because he said he wanted to help Ukraine, to help Ukrainian refugees and to support Ukrainian people. For us, this match (in Donetsk) would be like a miracle (having not played in their home city since 2014). We would have this match every weekend if we could.
Was their conversation with Akhmetov by phone?
Yes, on the phone. He has never left Ukraine since the beginning of the war.
It has been reported that $25million from the deal will go directly to assist the medical and psychological needs of soldiers who have defended Mariupol in Ukraine, or the families who have lost loved ones.
No, it is our president’s own money. He will donate it himself to the fund. They are organising a fund to help the defenders of Mariupol and the families of the defenders who lost their husbands and fathers.
From the wider reporting, it appeared that Arsenal made a final offer on Thursday or Friday. Did you speak to Arsenal to tell them it was all done with Chelsea?
Before Chelsea arrived in Turkey, we almost agreed with Arsenal that there was no chance to close (the deal). When they proposed the final offer of €70million plus €30million (in add-ons), we sat down and started to talk internally about how it will be fulfilled in terms of the payments, the fixed part and the bonus issues. We realised we will not close this deal (with Arsenal). I said to Edu that I did my best but it was not possible.
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So it was a relief when Chelsea then came?
When Chelsea arrived, they just called and said, ‘OK, we know you negotiated with Arsenal, we know you are close with some kind of figures. We want to meet’. I said, ‘OK, let’s meet’. I told Muydrk, ‘If I do not sell you in winter, we will definitely sell you in the summer’. I said, ‘Maybe you will cost even more in summertime’. We were ready to accept different scenarios. We would not be rushed.
So while meeting Chelsea, did you need to keep a poker face to say Arsenal are still involved?
But this football world is quite close. I know for sure that everybody knows what is going on. From (the) Arsenal side, Chelsea side, these kinds of negotiations involve a lot of people. A lot of journalists are around it, too. A lot of guys who can provide some kind of info. So, everyone knows what is going on.
It’s a record deal for a Ukrainian footballer. What does this mean for Ukraine right now? To have somebody promoted globally in the biggest league in the world, to have an ambassador with the Ukrainian flag (which Mudryk wore as he greeted the crowd on Sunday) at Stamford Bridge…
For social media alone, the coverage was something like 60 million across those platforms. I am not counting newspapers or TV channels. Ukraine got absolutely top-level coverage across the world, and for us it is positive promotion of our country. Mudryk became an ambassador of Ukraine across the world. I like very much that he went to the Premier League because it is the best league in the world, and also England supports Ukraine a lot. It is one of the best countries for that, which is very important for us. For the whole world and Ukraine, it is an important transfer. We have context in this transfer: American owners, England, Ukraine – this triangle. Today, we are as close as ever. It is an important point.
This time last year, Chelsea were owned by (Russian oligarch) Roman Abramovich. He faced sanctions from the British government before Chelsea were sold to the new ownership. Now the club is a very different place. Is that important as well?
I think yes, because if there was no new owner of Chelsea, there would be a lot of critics in respect of us, because of these kinds of connections.
Probably impossible (to make this deal in those circumstances)?
Maybe even impossible.
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(Top photo: Joupin Ghamsari/Chelsea FC via Getty Images)
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