Vitaly Shevchenko was born on October 2, 1951 in Baku. Like many boys, he started playing football on the streets in the narrow neighborhoods of Baku. Vitaly Shevchenko came to Neftchi at the age of 17. It is true that two years have passed since the "historic bronze", but "Neftchi" remained a difficult opponent for other teams. Young Vitaly was able to attract the attention of the coaching staff at the beginning of the season. Shevchenko scored a double in the match against Krylya Sovetov (Samara) and made his debut in the main team against Ararat (Yerevan). The match in the 82nd minute resulted in a 2-0 victory for our team.

The first season at Neftchi was not so successful. Shevchenko scored once in 17 appearances, and the team finished ninth in the league. He played 17 games the following season, but this time he scored two goals. Shevchenko became one of the leaders of the team. It is no coincidence that he scored 8 goals in 27 games that season.

Vitaly Viktorovich recalls one of the games he played for Neftchi in 1971: We were ahead 1-0 in the game with the Army Club, and they started to "kill" us. After the second goal from offside, goalkeeper Sergei Kramarenko could not stand the injustice and hit the referee. As a result, Kramarenko was disqualified for 3 years. In the remaining 3 matches, Neftchi lost 0: 3. But after the intervention of the party leadership, especially Heydar Aliyev, the team was kept in the top league. Only the injured Hajiyev and Semiglazov, who were rare at the time, were disqualified.

Although Shevchenko was invited to Dynamo Kyiv in 1973, he failed to establish himself in the team, and Vitaly, who played only seven games (1 goal) in 1973-1975, transferred to Chernomorets. Interestingly, Shevchenko scored his first goal for Neftchi's main team on September 5, 1968 against Odessa, where he finished his career at Lokomotiv.

Shevchenko's coaching career is also rich in the number of teams. He has worked in Bolivia, Israel, Russia and Ukraine. His work at Torpedo was more successful. The Moscow club won a bronze medal at the Russian Championship in 2000 under his leadership, and Shevchenko's last job was at Volgograd's Rotor (2010).