Father’s footsteps

Maryan was not the first Shved to play for Karpaty Lviv. Nearly four years ago, in March 2015, the player followed in his father’s footsteps by playing for the club.

Vasyl featured a number of times for the Lions in the early 2000s before his son joined the club’s academy aged seven.

Ukraine's Maryan Shved is on the verge of signing for Celtic. Picture: SERGEI SUPINSKY/AFP/Getty

Maryan was 17 when he made his debut and was soon attracting significant interest from some of Spain’s biggest clubs. A little less than a month after his 18th birthday he was on the move.

Once on the books of Sevilla

The summer of 2015 saw Shved presented with a big choice: Valencia or Sevilla?

The latter was chosen for two reasons: Sevilla “followed me especially in the qualifying phase for the U19 European Championship, and there’s (Ukrainian international Yevhen) Konoplyanka there too.”

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Signed on a five-year contract, the player, who was described by his new team as “one of the great promises of Ukrainian football”, was immediately placed in the Sevilla Atletico squad with the intention of progressing to the first team in the medium term.

Shved struggled to adapt on and off the pitch despite his family joining him in Andalusia.

He told Estadio Deportivo: “At the beginning it was very hard, even when it came to playing football, it seemed like I did not know how to do anything, the coach, when you’re fine, does not stop screaming and when you’re bad, too, they never stop screaming, so I never knew when I was doing it right and when bad.”

Appearances came in the Uefa Youth League, plus a goal against Juventus, but he did not get a regular outing for Sevilla Atlético.

The second season was a disaster. A cruciate ligament rupture saw him miss the whole campaign and it signalled the end of his Sevilla career.

Home comforts

Shved returned to Karpaty and on 1 October, 2017, he made his first appearance in well over a year.

The first chunk of the Ukrainian season was about regaining fitness, confidence and trust in his ability. For many players, even those with an abundance of experience, it can take many months to find their feet after such an injury.

Having made just four appearances in the first 22 matches of the league campaign, he started all ten fixtures after the split, scoring five as his side lost just twice.

2018 - a special year

Between 11 March and the end of the year, Shved scored 13 goals, becoming an influential player for Karpaty and one of the best young players in Ukraine.

His form was enough to earn him his first international cap, coming off the bench in a friendly with Turkey.

The player sits third in the goalscoring charts this season, averaging 0.54 goals per 90 minutes. His scoring has been helped by accuracy when shooting, hitting the target with 50 per cent of his 36 efforts. Only Shaktar Donetsk’s Junior Moreas performs better in this regard.

Style and position

It is easy to see why Celtic are interested in the player, even if Brendan Rodgers has his reservations. Strong, quick and with excellent balance, his style is reminiscent of West Ham’s Marko Arnautovic.

Shved is a danger on the counter-attack, driving and dribbling the ball from A to B quickly and efficiently - his 106 dribbles are the fourth highest in the league.

This season he has either played as part of a strike partnership or cutting in from the right onto his favoured left - seven of his eight goals have arrived from his stronger foot.

There is a confidence, bordering on arrogance, when he has the ball at his feet, an understanding that he has plenty of skill as well as the physical attributes to best opponents. Shved is also capable of the spectacular as is common with such players.

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