Mudryk could be seventh in Ballon d’Or running but instead faces four-year ban | OneFootball

A four-year anti-doping ban threatens to bring the career of Mykhaylo Mudryk to a tragically premature end when he could be in the running to win the most coveted individual prize in football.

Mudryk joined Chelsea for an initial £62m from Shakhtar Donetsk in January 2023 in one of the more memorable transfer hijacks in Premier League history, as Todd Boehly as good as hog-tied the winger to stop him moving to Arsenal.

He had burst onto the Champions League scene that season, catching the eye through his extraordinary acceleration and speed with the ball at his feet. It was considered a huge BlueCo coup to land a generational talent who very quickly became the first of many sticks to beat the new regime with.

After a stunning 35-minute cameo on debut against Liverpool which had Chelsea fans drooling and Arsenal counterparts cursing their club, Mudryk produced almost nothing of note in his remaining 72 games for the Blues before an “adverse finding in a routine urine test” led to his provisional suspension from football in November 2024.

A drugs test while on duty with the Ukraine national team in October 2024 is said to have found cardiovascular medication meldonium in Mudryk’s system, which can increase respiratory capactity and stamina.

He now faces a ban of four years, imposed by the FA after an investigation.

Mudryk described his “complete shock” and said he had “never knowingly used any banned substances or broken any rules” soon after his suspension and hasn’t made a public statement since, though is now appealing the process with the Court of Arbitration for Sport.

“CAS confirms it has received an appeal by Mykhailo Mudryk against the FA, filed on 25 February 2026,” the Switzerland-based court told BBC Sport.

“The parties are currently exchanging written submissions, and a hearing is yet to be scheduled.”

It’s understood Mudryk wants to return to football this year and is keeping fit by training at non-league Uxbridge FC with a private coach, having hired goalkeepers to work with.

Mudryk was neck and neck Khvicha Kvaratskhelia in a battle to be the breakout star of European football when he joined Chelsea. Their trajectories could not have been more contrasting since.

Continued excellence for Napoli saw Kvaratskhelia win the Serie A title and earn a £60m move to Paris Saint-Germain, for whom he played a key role in them winning their first Champions League title last term having arrived in January 2025.

He’s having an even greater impact as they look to retain the title this season. After a brilliant brace in the wonderful 5-4 win over Bayern Munich in the first leg of their semi-final, the Georgian now has six goals and two assists in PSG’s five knockout games to lift him to seventh in the running for the Ballon d’Or.

It could have been Mudryk, who has made a series of horrible decisions even if – as he claims – he wasn’t aware of taking a performance-enhancing substance.

Leaving Shakhtar, joining Chelsea and not joining Arsenal are all reasons for regret in the career of footballer who was tipped for the top but has reached rock bottom while his peer routinely diddles the best defenders in the world on the biggest stages to the gasps of fans and pundits.

In just over three years Kvaratskhelia’s stock has continued to rise as his unique, maverick stylings make him a breath of fresh air in the increasingly sterile world of modern football.

And the day after puffing cheeks at his display in a Champions League semi-final, his plaudits have been reminded of just how brutal a world it can be too, upon the revelation that a footballer thought to be his parallel not all that long ago who may now never play football again, let alone reach those same dizzying heights.