Shakhtar: more than a dozen Brazilians for Inter clash

At San Siro, Inter will also come up against a project built around Brazilian talent. Italian sports daily La Gazzetta dello Sport focuses its introduction to Shakhtar on their more than a dozen players from Brazil: a contingent that links Arda Turan’s side to Mircea Lucescu’s long tenure and continues to shape their transfer dealings.

According to the newspaper’s account, that connection has remained a guiding principle even through the relocations forced by conflict, from Donetsk to Kyiv and Lviv. The continuity concerns both their playing identity and their approach to refreshing the squad: the Brazilian thread runs through different generations, from Brandão to Isaque, the two names highlighted by La Gazzetta to tell this story.

The roots help explain the significance of this approach. In an account published in 2016, UEFA recalls that Brandão became the club’s first Brazilian in 2002, and that the connection grew stronger with Lucescu’s arrival in 2004. In 2009, Jadson then scored the decisive goal against Werder Bremen in the UEFA Cup final. It is a tradition that now accompanies Shakhtar on their trip to face Inter.