The club's names and etymology The team has played under the following names: Stakhanovets (1936–46), Shakhtyor (Shakhtar) (1946–92), and FC Shakhtar (1992–present). The club has a meaningful association with the
Donets Basin underground coal-mining using
vertical mining shafts, called
Schacht in German. This was taken over into Cyrillic
Шахтн, end re-transcribed into Latin letters as, for example,
shakt in English use. As part of the so-called
Stalin industrialisation and
Stakhanovite movement, in 1936 the local football teams of Dynamo sports societies of Horlivka and Stalino (today Donetsk) established a joint team that represented the mining volunteer sports society Stakhanovets (later Shakhter). The team was transferred from the sports society for the
NKVD to a trade union "volunteered sports society" (DSO). Following the
World War II, the DSO Stakhanovets changed its name to DSO Shakhter which in the Ukrainian SSR had its local corresponding nomenclature as DSS Shakhtar. The word "Shakhter" or "Shakhtar" means a coal miner working at a
sub-surface mine, shafted mine, shakhta is a derivative of shaft. During the
dissolution of the Soviet Union (1989–1992), the Donetsk club was reorganized and commercialized as a professional football team. It also made its Ukrainian name as its only name, Шахтар Донецьк, with
Shakhtar Donetsk in English,
Schachtar Donezk in German and
Szachtar Donieck in Polish, the latter two being languages of countries that hosted international "home" games for the club due to the situation since 2014.
Early years – first two decades The Shakhtar club was originally formed on a decision of the
All-Union Council on Physical Culture and Sports of 3 April 1936. It was initially named
Stakhanovets, meaning "the participant of
Stakhanovite movement", which derived from
Aleksei Stakhanov, a coal-miner in the
Donbas and propaganda celebrity in 1935. The first team was based upon two other local teams, the participants of the All-Ukrainian
Spartakiads:
Dynamo Horlivka and
Dynamo Stalino. The first game was against
Dynamo Odesa as part of the
1936 Cup of the Ukrainian SSR (at that time known as Ukrainian spring challenge) and took place on 12 May 1936 at Balitsky Stadium in
Horlivka (the first home stadium). The team that played as Stakhonovets Horlivka lost 3–2 after scoring the first goal by Mykhailo Pashchenko, the second goal belonged to Boris Terentiev. Its first league game in
Group V took place on 24 May 1936 against
Dynamo Kazan was even more disappointing, which miners lost 4–1. Stakhonovets that had on its roster 15 players left for
Kazan by train on 20 May. which they lost at home to
Traktor Stalingrad. During the war many players went to frontlines and perished among which are Ivan Ustinov, Ivan Putyatov, Volodymyr Shkurov, Ivan Horobets, Mykhailo Vasin and others. From the pre-war squad in 1945 there were left only three players Georgiy Bikezin, Mykola Kuznetsov, and Petro Yurchenko. In the 1960s, Shakhtar, under
Oleg Oshenkov's coaching, were three-time
USSR Cup finalists, winning it twice in 1961 and 1962. Among the players playing for the club then where defenders
Viacheslav Aliabiev and
Vladimir Salkov. The club was nicknamed "The Cup Team" due to Shakhtar's success in vying for the trophy every year. The Miners' more notable achievements, however, occurred later from the mid-1970s to the early 1980s. , considered by many fans the greatest player in the history of Shakhtar. In 1979, the team finished second in the league campaign and its captain—
striker Vitaliy Starukhin—became the top scorer in the
USSR Championship with 26 goals scored, also being named
Soviet Footballer of the Year. The club was only two points away from the first place, despite having important players leaving the club before the season, and other important players receiving injuries. Shakhtar twice, in 1980 and 1983, brought home the crystal USSR Cup to Donetsk and in 1983, it won the
USSR Super Cup over then-domestic league champions
Dnipro Dnipropetrovsk. Shakhtar reached the
1983–84 European Cup Winners' Cup quarter-final, and strikers
Viktor Hrachov and
Serhiy N. Morozov became joint top scorers of the tournament. In 1987, Shakhtar received the fewest yellow and red cards in the championship, for which the club was awarded the "Soviet Top League Fair Play Award" by
Man and Law magazine. Between 1982 and 1988, Shakhtar received the "Together With The Club" award five times, an award given for good organization of home games and behaviour of the home fans. During the
Perestroika period, the Shakhtar team of masters separated from the Shakhtar Donetsk sports society into a professional club. It was part of the so-called
khozraschet period or a "self-management", which was part of many Soviet organizations at that time. Other departments of the Shakhtar Donetsk sports society formed their own clubs independent from their parent organization.
First decade in independent Ukraine – the beginning of the Akhmetov era In the newly independent Ukraine, Shakhtar, along with Dynamo Kyiv, became perennial first place competitors. A bombing-assassination took place at the team's stadium, killing club president
Akhat Bragin in October 1995. In 1996,
Rinat Akhmetov took over as president and invested heavily in the club. Despite Shakhtar not being a strong contender for the championship at the time, finishing second many times with a large point gap from the first-place position, they won the
Ukrainian Cup three times, in
1995 (under the management of former player
Vladimir Salkov),
1997 and
2001. In the
1997–98 UEFA Cup Winners' Cup, Shakhtar were eliminated after a 5–2 aggregate loss to
Vicenza, losing the first and second legs. Important players at the time were defenders
Serhiy Popov and
Mykhaylo Starostyak, goalkeeper
Dmytro Shutkov, striker
Oleh Matvyeyev (who was top scorer of the Premier League in the 1996–97 season), and
midfielders
Hennadiy Orbu,
Valeriy Kryventsov and
Ihor Petrov. Most of the players playing for the team of the time came through the team's youth ranks. Towards the end of the decade, the team finally started to look like a team able to become champion. In 1999, a Shakhtar football academy was opened and now hosts football training for roughly 3,000 youth. In 2000,
Andriy Vorobey was named Ukrainian Footballer of the Year by
Komanda, the first Shakhtar player in independent Ukraine to do so, and became the top scorer in the
2000–01 Vyshcha Liha. That year, Shakhtar competed in the
UEFA Champions League for the first time, drawn in a group with Lazio, Arsenal and Sparta Prague. They finished third in the group, qualifying for the
UEFA Cup after a 3–0 home win against Arsenal.
First league triumph , shaking hands with captain
Anatoliy Tymoshchuk, 2002
Ukrainian Footballer of the Year. The club won its first Ukrainian Premier League title in the
2001–02 season under coach
Nevio Scala, winning by a single point over Dynamo Kyiv. They were also victorious in the
2001–02 Ukrainian Cup, defeating Dynamo 3–2 after extra time in the
final. Among the key players at the club at the time were captain
defensive midfielder Anatoliy Tymoshchuk, striker Andriy Vorobey, midfielder
Hennadiy Zubov and defender
Mykhaylo Starostyak. At the end of the season, Tymoshchuk, who emerged as the club's leader on the field, was named Ukrainian Footballer of the Year by
Komanda and
Ukrainskiy Football. took over Shakhtar in 2004 and has led them to becoming the dominant force in the league. After multiple managerial changes, in 2004 the Romanian
Mircea Lucescu was invited to build a team in Shakhtar. After ten days at the club, he won the
2003–04 Ukrainian Cup and after three months, for the first time in club history, the club made it to the
UEFA Champions League group stage, which won him the 2004
Romania Coach of the Year title. The large amount of Brazilians arriving at the club earned Shakhtar the nickname "the most Brazilian club in Europe". They won their second Premier League title in the
2004–05 season, but lost to Dynamo Kyiv in the inaugural
Ukrainian Super Cup tournament in 2004. They finished as runners up in the
2004–05 Ukrainian Cup, losing to Dynamo in a penalty shoot-out the
final. They retained the Premier League crown in the
2005–06 season and managed to avenge the defeat to Dynamo in the previous Super Cup by defeating them on penalties to win their first-ever Super Cup title. At the end of the season, Anatoliy Tymoshchuk was named Ukrainian Footballer of the Year for by
Ukrainian Football for the second time, becoming the first Shakhtar player to be named so more than once. Brazilian striker
Brandão became the league's joint top scorer. Shakhtar appeared in all three editions of the
Channel One Cup, winning the 2007 edition and finishing runners-up in 2008. Having missed out on the league title in
2006–07, Shakhtar regained the title in
2007–08, also being victorious in the
Ukrainian Cup after defeating Dynamo Kyiv 2–0 in the final. Shakhtar's attendance levels at league matches have continually risen over the years to a point where they averaged 36,983 spectators over the
2011–12 Premier League season.
UEFA Cup triumph and domination in Ukraine , one of the greatest players in the history of the team In 2009, they became only the second Ukrainian team to win a European competition (and the first since independence), and the first to win the
UEFA Cup after defeating
Werder Bremen in the final, with goals from Brazilians
Luiz Adriano and
Jádson. The victory earned the player
Mariusz Lewandowski the 2009
Polish Footballer of the Year award. This also made them the last UEFA Cup winners before the tournament was rebranded as the
UEFA Europa League. Before the start of the 2009–10 season, Shakhtar won the friendly
Uhrencup tournament. Shakhtar won the Premier League title in the
2009–10 season, goalkeeper
Andriy Pyatov was named Ukraine Premier League MVP by
Komanda, and Manager Mircea Lucescu was named Romania Coach of the Year for the second time. The
2010–11 season was a very successful one for Shakhtar. They reached the quarter-finals of the Champions League, their then-best-ever performance in the competition. Captain
Darijo Srna was chosen to be part of the Champions League Team of the Season as voted by fans. They also won a domestic treble with victory in the Premier League,
Ukrainian Cup and the Super Cup. The successful season did not go unnoticed by the experts, and in 2011, the
IFFHS gave Shakhtar a special award for making the biggest progress of the decade among football clubs. They went on to win the
Premier League and
Ukrainian Cup in the
2011–12 season. Shakhtar player
Yevhen Seleznyov topped the goal scoring charts in the league, with 14 goals, midfielder
Henrikh Mkhitaryan was named
Armenian Footballer of the Year, and manager Mircea Lucescu was named 2012 Romania Coach of the Year, receiving the award for the third time. The main players at that time were captain Darijo Srna, defender
Yaroslav Rakitskyi, Armenian midfielder Henrikh Mkhitaryan (who was named Armenian Footballer of the Year twice while playing for Shakhtar) and Brazilian midfielders
Fernandinho and
Willian. was named the 2012
CIS Footballer of the Year and set the Ukrainian Premier League record for goals scored in one season (25). In the
2012–13 season Shakhtar won the
Premier League,
Cup and
Super Cup. Henrikh Mkhitaryan became the top scorer of the league, setting a Ukrainian championship record of 25 goals. He was also named the Ukraine Premier League MVP by
Komanda, Armenian Footballer of the Year and the
CIS Footballer of the Year for 2012.
Leaders depart, new titles and war in Donbas Prior to the 2013–14 season, many of the club's main players were sold after Shakhtar accepted high bids for them – Henrikh Mkhitaryan, Fernandinho and Willian brought the club over €100 million. Shakhtar spent the following summer trying to integrate new young players into the team, who along with the remaining players were to form the backbone of the renewed Shakhtar. Despite selling its leaders, before the 2013–14 season, Shakhtar set a new record for East Europe for number of season tickets sold. Before the beginning of the 2013–14 season, Shakhtar won two friendly tournaments in
Abu Dhabi, the Match World Cup, and the Super Cup of Champions played against Russian champions
Zenit Saint Petersburg. In the mid-season break, Shakhtar won the
2014 United Supercup (the second edition of the
United Tournament), a tournament between the top-two placed clubs of Ukraine and of Russia, which strengthened Shakhtar's status as the strongest club in Eastern Europe. At the end of the
2013–14 season, Shakhtar won the Ukraine Premier League, while
Luiz Adriano was the league top scorer. Shakhtar also won the 2014 Ukrainian Super Cup, holding the trophy for the sixth time. Manager Mircea Lucescu was named the 2014 Romania Coach of the Year, receiving the award for the fourth time. Due to the war in Donbas, Shakhtar had to temporarily move and play its games in
Arena Lviv, resulting in very low attendance. As an anti-war protest, the players of Shakhtar refused the initiative to wear the "Glory to the Ukrainian Army" shirts. In the
2014–15 UEFA Champions League, Shakhtar finished second in the group stage, therefore qualifying to the next stage. Striker Luiz Adriano equaled both
Lionel Messi's record of five goals in a Champions League match and
Cristiano Ronaldo's record of scoring nine goals in the group stage; as a result,
UEFA named him MVP of the competition's group stage. Shakhtar finished the season second in the
2014–15 Ukrainian Premier League after playing the whole season away from Donbas, with
Alex Teixeira finishing as a joint top scorer in the league. At the end of the season,
Douglas Costa was sold to
Bayern Munich, while Luiz Adriano moved to
Milan. While the club itself moved to a
Ukraine-controlled zone, a few prominent Shakhtar players remained in the
Donetsk People's Republic and supported the unrecognised state. Among them were former defender
Viktor Zvyahintsev, former goalkeeper
Yuriy Dehteryov, former Shakhtar and
Ukraine national football team captain
Ihor Petrov, and the club's first press officer Vyacheslav Sharafutdinov. During the
2015–16 Ukrainian Premier League, on 16 October, Shakhtar beat Dynamo Kyiv 3–0 in Kyiv and set two new records. One record was that for the first time during a
Klasychne derby game in Kyiv a team scored three goals. The other record was that for the first time Shakhtar had more
Klasychne derby victories, 26, than Dynamo. In the middle of the season, Alex Teixeira moved to Chinese club
Jiangsu Suning for a fee of €50 million, breaking both the Asian and Ukrainian transfer record. The club finished the 2015/16 season as runner up and
Marlos was recognised best league player by Komanda. After the 2015–16 season, long-time manager Mircea Lucescu moved on to Zenit Saint Petersburg; he was replaced by the Portuguese
Paulo Fonseca, previously of
Braga. Following the winter break of the
2016–17 season, a season when the club won the league, the cup, and the supercup, the club moved to the
Metalist Stadium in
Kharkiv (241 km to the north of Donetsk). In 2019–20, Shakhtar retained their league title for the fourth time in a row. They also reached the semi-finals of the
2019–20 UEFA Europa League. ==Infrastructure==