New Zenit manager Mircea Lucescu brings his Brazilian love affair to Russia
In the last three years alone, Shakhtar Donetsk have sold the likes of Willian, Douglas Costa, Fernandinho and Luiz Adriano to clubs around Europe, with the highly sought-after Alex Teixeira also moving abroad to China. And despite it all, the club still won big.
The Miners still have eight Brazilian-born players on their books, all of whom could be on the way out soon, to more of Europe's biggest clubs. But it all begs the question: how did this relatively small club from the freezing outer recesses of Ukraine become a haven for Brazilian talent?
It takes a manager in love with samba, and Mircea Lucescu is.
The 70-year-old Romanian, who claims to have “always been in love with the Brazil game,” has signed more than 20 Brazilian-born players during his time at Shakhtar, all thanks to an obsession with the land of sunshine and caipirinhas that goes back to 1970. Then playing for Romania, Lucescu had his first taste of samba soccer while preparing for the Mexico World Cup. After showing well for the national team during a pre-tournament tour of Brazil, Lucescu even received a formal loan inquiry from Fluminense, but was prevented from leaving his home country by the communist regime in Romania at the time.
After embarking on his coaching career, Lucescu eventually linked up with Frank Henouda. A former Club Med employee turned opportunist, Henouda had parlayed his casual aquaitances with Paris Saint-Germain players at a Parisienne sports club into a burgeoning business, linking France and Brazil by exporting Brazilian players. Eventually, Henouda began to funnel more Brazilian players into the Turkish Super Lig, leading him to Lucescu who first coached Galatasaray, then moved on to Besiktas.
MANCHESTER, ENGLAND - DECEMBER 10: Shakhtar Donetsk Manager Mircea Lucescu looks on prior to the UEFA Champions League Group A match between Manchester United and Shakhtar Donetsk at Old Trafford on December 10, 2013 in Manchester, England. (Photo by Michael Steele/Getty Images)
When Lucescu joined Shakhtar Donetsk in 2004, the Romanian persuaded Henouda to join him at the Donbass Arena and the club took off from there.
“The club’s strategy was to build on young Brazilian talents between 18 and 20 years old," Henouda told Footballski. "Although Lucescu is from Romania, he is known as the 'Brazilian from Europe.' He speaks five languages including Portuguese, therefore working with Brazilians is very easy for him. He made the decision to build an all-Brazilian team from midfield on in order to avoid mixing nationalities. In this way, he wanted to create immediate cohesion and automatisms.”
Aside from the 15 trophies Lucescu has won at Shakhtar, his real legacy is the Brazilian outpost he created in Ukraine, making the tiny Ukrainian side one of the greatest conveyor belts of talent in modern history. Like Italian club Udinese and Portuguese side FC Porto, Shakhtar became known as one of Europe’s greatest feeder clubs, all the while maintaining domestic and continental success.
Outside of Brazil itself, few other clubs can claim the track record of moving Brazilian players to large European teams that Shakhtar does. Udinese, Porto and Benfica have a long history of importing South Americans to Europe, but Shakhtar’s remote location and the relative lack of prestige in Ukraine make Lucescu’s achievements in luring highly touted prospect to the coal mining region of Donbass all the more spectacular. But things are changing
After 12 years in charge at Shakhtar, Lucescu has joined Zenit St. Petersburg; moving laterally to yet another remote footballing frontier in Eastern Europe. While his departure will certainly be felt strongly by fans of Shakhtar’s orange and black, whether or not Henouda will follow him to Russia is as yet unconfirmed.
For more than a decade now, Brazilians have looked to Shakhtar to get their foot in the European door, and the rest of the continent have looked to the Miners for their next star. But what now? If Lucescu and Henouda don't have their Brazilian outpost, where will the rest of Europe get their samba from?
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