From Rio to Donetsk: Why Shakhtar Became a Hub for Brazilian Football Talents

"This situation is one of despair," were the words of Shakhtar Donetsk forward Junior Moraes on the day Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022. The Brazilian-born forward was one of thousands of Ukrainians who endured hours of bombing as their home was irreversibly damaged.

Yet alongside the Ukrainians, in a bunker somewhere in Donetsk, there was a group of around twenty Brazilians—consisting of Shakhtar players and their families—who had lost their way of life overnight. Shakhtar had signed no fewer than 35 Brazilians in the two decades leading up to the invasion. As such, the two had become synonymous.

This is the story of how that connection came to be—and how it shaped Ukrainian football as we know it.

One name Brazilian wingers are back at Shakhtar nature is finally healing https://t.co/a9IHJsJtoK

— // (@aggzzx) December 10, 2024

The Rise of the Brazilian Project

Despite signing their first Brazilian in 2002—Brandão, a young, fairly uninspiring forward—Shakhtar's new strategy didn’t truly take form until 2004.

It was at this point that the club established a plan to increase investment and reignite fan passion through an exciting, free-flowing style of play. To aid this, they hired Mircea Lucescu—a Romanian manager renowned for his high-tempo, energetic, and risk-taking approach.

It was this appointment that birthed the Brazilian focus. Lucescu, eager to inject flair into his new side, brought in Frank Henouda—a French-Algerian agent with strong connections in Brazil. Under new instruction, Henouda sought out young talents who had “technique and speed... Lucescu knew he could improve their physique and teach them tactics.”

Within three years, Lucescu had signed six Brazilians, including a baby-faced Fernandinho and a young Luiz Adriano.

By 2009, Shakhtar’s Brazilian journey had reached its peak. Lucescu’s side won the 2008/09 UEFA Cup, with Brazilian players scoring 12 of their 14 goals in the knockout stages.

Over time, Shakhtar shifted from signing established Serie A talents—such as Taison, Douglas Costa, and Alex Teixeira—to nurturing promising raw prospects, aiming to mould them into players capable of thriving in Europe.

⚽️🇧🇷 1,000 goals by Brazilians in the history of Shakhtar! 🧡

⚒️ Marlon Gomes took his place in the club's history by scoring the milestone goal for Brazilian players.#Shakhtar #history #Brazil pic.twitter.com/hdDICTZeqX

— FC SHAKHTAR ENGLISH (@FCShakhtar_eng) April 19, 2025

The Cultural Shift

For all the standout individuals, it is the cultural transformation brought by this collective movement that is arguably most impressive. It's no overstatement to say that Brazilian youngsters have played a major role in shaping modern Ukrainian football.

To grasp the magnitude of this transition, it’s worth considering how football took root in the region.

Though first introduced by British workers in Odesa in the late 1800s, Ukrainian football drew most of its identity from the central European style of the 1940s and '50s—one that prized athleticism and physicality, founded on the belief that these qualities would outmatch the technical skill of Western opponents.

No one embodied this ethos more than Valerii Lobanovskyi. Most renowned for managing Dynamo Kyiv and the USSR national team, Lobanovskyi was methodical, collectivist, and wildly successful—guiding the USSR to the final of Euro 1988.

So when Brazilian flair arrived in Ukraine in the early 21st century, it represented a radical contrast to the dominant playing philosophy of the previous 50 years.

This revolution also coincided with an upturn in the national team’s fortunes, culminating in a quarter-final appearance at the 2006 World Cup.

Essentially, the Brazilian influence on Ukrainian football is twofold. Many individuals—Willian and Fernandinho among them—have used it as a springboard to European success. But more broadly, the project instilled a cultural shift: one that helped reshape the identity of Ukrainian football itself.