The story behind Shakhtar Donetsk’s Brazilian connection.

Why is it that Shakhtar has had so many Brazilian players? The School of Football gives us another great footballing lesson.

Over the last 18 years the Ukrainian club has become the hottest destination for fledgeling Brazilian superstars and today we look at how the unlikeliest of relationships was formed.

Brandao - The first Brazilian at Shakhtar

In 2002, Shakhtar signed Brazilian striker Brandão from Irarty and in the process, he became the first-ever Brazilian to play for the “miners”. In 7 years he scored 91 goals which puts him 5th on their all-time top scorers list, yet the signing was more of an accident than part of a wider plan.

It was the appointment of Romanian manager Mircea Lucescu in 2004 which was the real catalyst for the revolution. When he arrived, Shakhtar were a mid-table side and Lusescu formulated a plan;

“Create a team capable of competing with Dynamo Kiev.”

He wanted to form a highly technical team which blended homegrown defensive talent with Brazilian flair and President of the club, Rinat Akhmetov gave Lucescu his financial backing for the plan to begin.

Shakhtar beat Madrid 2-0 - December 2020

Lucescu in Year 1 - The Brazilian revolution begins

In his first year, they signed Brazilian midfielders Jádson, Elano, Matuzalém and Fernandinho. They poured huge money into their scouting network and the samba signings kept flowing with Willian, Luiz Adriano and Ilsinho all singing in 2007.

This culminated in unprecedented success, winning 3 league titles in Lucescu’s first 4 seasons and most notably they won the 2009 UEFA Cup beating Weder Bremen 2-1 in the final AET with both goals being scored by Brazilians, Luiz Adriano and Jádson.

Lucescu - 12 Years of sucess

In 12 years Lucescu won 8 League titles and 6 Ukrainian Cups. Before his arrival the club had won just 1 League title in their history.

Fast forward to today and the connection is still alive, on the 2nd December 2020, they beat Real Madrid 2-0 in the UCL with Brazilian Dentinho scoring the first goal. Of their 22 man squad, 12 were Brazilian and 10 played in the match.

This unique connection won’t stop anytime soon as Donetsk have kept the same philosophy which is to sign the best players in the U20 Brazilian team and convince them to use Shakhtar as a stepping stone into Europe.

After the 2019 U20 South American Championship they signed 4 players from the Brazilian side all who play for Shakhtar’s first team today.

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