StevenBCFC

n the newly independent Ukraine, FC Shakhtar along with Dynamo Kyiv became perennial first place competitors. In part to the generosity of Ukrainian businessman Rinat Akhmetov who has run FC Shakhtar since 1996, the club has steadily improved its play and infrastructure, as promised by the club president himself (who has vowed to bring European glory to FC Shakhtar and its fans).

In 1999, an FC Shakhtar Football academy was opened and nowadays hosts football training for roughly 3000 children. The same year, a Sports Training Complex "Kirsha", considered to be one of the best in Europe,was opened for the senior squad's use.

FC Shakhtar has been playing most of its games at the recently renovated RSK Olimpiyskiy stadium. The team has started construction on a new stadium, Shakhtar Stadium which will have a capacity of 50,000 and will be a UEFA five star venue.

FC Shakhtar's old home, the central Shakhtar Stadium which was built in 1936, and was reconstructed four times, is currently being used by FC Metalurg Donetsk. The stadium received some major renovations, including the installation of bench seats in 2000, when FC Shakhtar made it to the Champions League Group Stage.

1 GK Bohdan Shust
3 DF Tomáš Hübschman
4 MF Igor Duljaj
5 DF Oleksandr Kucher
7 MF Fernandinho
8 FW Nery Castillo
10 MF Zvonimir Vukić
11 DF Ilsinho
12 GK Dmytro Shutkov
13 DF Vyacheslav Shevchuk
14 MF Yevhen Bredun
15 MF Volodymyr Pryyomov
17 FW Luiz Adriano
18 DF Mariusz Lewandowski
19 MF Oleksiy Gai
20 FW Oleksiy Byelik
21 FW Oleksandr Gladky
22 MF Willian
25 FW Brandão
26 DF Răzvan Raţ
27 DF Dmytro Chigrinsky
28 MF Oleksiy Polyansky
30 GK Andriy Pyatov
33 MF Darijo Srna
35 GK Yuri Virt
37 MF Serhiy Tkachenko
55 DF Volodymyr Yezerskiy
99 FW Cristiano Lucarelli

(Important Players in Bold)

To my suprise i was handed a very generous £40million transfer budget. So if anyone else is playing as Shakhtar, what's the club like and what was your experience like?

I'll keep you informed with signings and stuff.

WezD

Hello im thinkin of being shaktar but i dnt really know the team have u got any tips on how to get to know the team and maybe tell me some weak players... :thup:

Dong21

I recently started a career with Shakhtar and was immensley pleased with the 40 million I recived (increased to £56m through budjet adjustment). I have bought many players some of the best being: VDV, Breno, Vlaar, De Jong, Kewell, Alfonso Alves, Vagner Love, Dado Prso and Gyan. I also offloaded some rubbish. After a sucessful pre-season i was really excited, but, on the first day of the season i had a big shock. I discovered that in the Ukrainian High League you where only allowed to play 7 foreigners! This annoyed me as only 1 Ukrainian got into my strongest startingXI (the gk - and i was planning on replacing him in the transfer market I am currently in). Still, looking foward to a player-restriction-free Champions League campaign

I am intrested to know how everyone is getting on in their Shakhtar Donetsk careers. Does anybody have any advice on any Ukrainian players good enough to get into my high qaulity sqaud (must be someone who a bid will be accaepted and would come)

Thank-You

parky27

Your only allowed 4 foreigners not 7.

I countered this by signing some Ukrainian international and picked up Andriy Rusol the CB for 5M who is absolutely fantastic - very highly recommend him and the MC called Nazarenko i think it was hes very creative and loves to score.

I did get bored very quickly however due to my lack of knowledge of the Ukrainian domestic game and only really took an interest in the Champions League - quit my save 3 months in.

real_betis

You can have as many foreigners as you want but only 7 in the starting 11 on match day. However, like you said, Nazarenko and Rusol are quality and Nazarenko can't half power in those free-kicks.

sc3m3k

Im playing with Shakhtar as well... I installed the patch and noticed that a few Ukrainien players were improved, so Im not sure how you only find the gk suitable for the first 11. I play with Olexiy Gai, Olexandr Kucher, Dmytro Chygrynskyi (really classy central defender and only 20 yrs old, already capping for Ukraine) and Olexandr Gladkyi.

I decided to bring back Anatoliy Tymoshchuk from Zenit - probably the best defensive midfielder of the Ukraine. I brought in Matias Cahais from Boca for about 400K - grows up to be one of the best defenders in the game... I remember when I brought him in for my Zenit Petersburg team for 2.5 mil - cause he went to Valladolid initially and that was his clause , eventually sold him to Milan for 25 mil. I brough in Rafael Van Der Vart as well because you cant overlook him when he's available . I raided my former team again because I was familiar with the players - got Alejandro Dominguez for 7.5 mil - amazing attacking mid/striker - His freekicks are better than Van Der Varts and all his stats are quite good... I also brough in a young Russian talent - Alexey Ionov for dirt cheap - he's only 18 but becomes a really good player around the age of 20, I remember top teams in Europe were gunning for him but I managed to hang on to him...

If its possible you should try to get Cristian Zapata (the DC from Udinese) he is interested in joining, however you gotta do it quick as top teams will jump for him, he can also cost quite a bit !

That would be all for now, still havent finished the 1st season

Dong21

Thanks for the response. That was my first post i must add I will look into Rustol but i have signed three cb's already which is frustrating. I must add it is definatly a maximun of 7 fireigners as i just played a match in the league.

sc3m3k

oh another class guy available is Fernando Belluschi from River ! He will join except you gotta offer him quite a lot of money - highly unlikely to join though unless the top teams dont go after him - he's a player they always go after like Barzagli, who is always snatched at the beginning of the game for example

parky27

Definately look into Rusol mate, he is brilliant!

The domestic situation is really frustrating, although its possible to build a really strong team even with the restrictions in place.

I just wish the domestic league/cup was a little more challenging, would help if i knew anything about the Ukraine also, (which i dont!)

sc3m3k

The bad thing is the situation with the reserve teams Dynamo-2 and Dynamo-3 and Shakhtar-2 have not been resolved, these teams seem to be two seperate teams ! If I want a guy from Shakhtar-2 I have to pay money for him. Another thing that ****es me off is there is nothing about the all new Shakhtar venue which will be a 5 star 50,000 seater stadium. Construction is well underway so why has it been overlooked ? Will the stadium be put into the game once construction is completed ? In my other team Zenit - they are moving into the GasProm arena in 2009 - the building of that stadium is not going as quickly as the Shakhtar one if Im not mistaken but the new stadium for Shakhtar is nowhere to be found.... I guess I could go on about other venues such as the ones in Poland which havent been addressed but I wont since this is a Shakhtar thread