KIEV, July 27 – Andriy Shevchenko, Ukraine’s most successful soccer player of recent times, announced on Saturday he has ended his sports carrier to join a political party running for Parliamentary seats at October 28 elections.

Shevchenko will be joining Forward Ukraine, a party led by Natalia Korolevska, a lawmaker who was expelled from the largest opposition group Batkivshchyna earlier this year for allegedly working with the authorities.