They sit proudly on top of their domestic league, have thrilled supporters with their lavish outlay on signings, have the backing of a billionaire tycoon and are desperate for Champions League success. No, not Chelsea, but Ukraine’s Shakhtar Donetsk.
The club’s latest extravagant outlay was on 19-year-old Brazilian Willian for 14 million euros from Corinthians. His capture takes the clubs spending, which is backed by Rinat Akhmetov, to 60 million euros.
Italian striker Cristiano Lucarelli, Brazilian defender Ilsinho and Mexico attacking midfielder Neri Castillo are among the other signings, but Shakhtar have not just been investing on the playing side of things.
They now have a new 50,000-seat stadium on the way, although the return leg of their Champions League third qualifying round against Austrian side Salzburg on Wednesday night is in the smaller Olympiyskiy Stadium*.
“Shakhtar are becoming a team at a high European level with structure, the stadium and the players, their Romanian coach Mircea Lucescu said.
Shakhtar lost the first leg 1-0 but if they manage to pull through there will be many a club from one of the bigger leagues wary of being drawn to play them in the group phase.
Patrick Johnston
* Note: This sentence about the match venue was corrected at 1329 GMT on Thursday (hat tip Jerry P in the comments below)
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3 comments so far
Shakhtar’s new 50,000 seat stadium is not yet ready. They will be playing at the smaller 25,000 seat RSC Olympic Stadium.
And they won too…
- Posted by Jerry PQuite right, Jerry. I’ll correct that in the piece and leave a note accordingly.
- Posted by Kevin FylanAnd what a comeback it was! I was watching the UEFA scores updates and I thought they were down and out after the early Salzburg goal.
Celtic, Milan and Benfica will have the honour. That looks a difficult group, in fact. Don’t think Milan will relish it.
- Posted by London