Shakhtar Donetsk have lost once in the Ukrainian Premier League this season: a 4-1 defeat to LNZ Cherkasy in a nominal home game played in Lviv. Even then there were mitigating circumstances — the team spent much of the previous night in a bomb shelter.
Such is the lot of a club that tries to be a symbol of hope and endurance for supporters in the Donbass amid war. Arda Turan, the former Barcelona midfielder, has taken on one of European football’s toughest jobs.
“In life, I have never been a person who hides behind excuses but there have been situations we could not foresee,” Turan tells Sky Sports. Shakhtar had just returned from a long away trip to Aberdeen when the bombs fell the night before the next game. “We went down to the shelter. It might seem strange but we were not afraid, just worried for our loved ones. We had no sleep that night. We never really know the circumstances in which we will play the game.”
Inspiration came after the defeat. “I was sad because it was a critical game for us. And this boy, Roman, a big Shakhtar supporter, who had 35 surgeries because of his injuries when his house was bombed, came to visit us inside the dressing room.”
Turan recalls Roman saying: “Mister, don’t be sad. There are good days and bad days in life. You have to keep going.” It was, Turan says, a life lesson from an eight-year-old who has been operated on 35 times. “Yes, football is important. And we have to respect the job and give it 100 per cent for the people who follow us. But, on the other hand, it is entertainment, it is not as real as life. We have to understand the difference. It was Roman who gave me that life lesson.”
At 38, Turan is regarded as one of Europe’s brightest young coaches, having guided Eyupspor to promotion and a top-six finish in Turkey. He had options, so why Shakhtar? “You need to get out of your comfort zone to be successful,” he says. “Yes, this is a big challenge with very young players. But it is the chance to develop a team, to learn and compete at the same time. I want this responsibility. I believe I can learn a lot here.”
Six months in charge have produced challenges few clubs face. Unable to play in their own city, Shakhtar live a life largely on the road. “At a regular club, you can go back to your house a few hours after a trip. Here, it is not like that. Sometimes it takes more than a day and you can only start working again after 48 hours.” That disruption is hard when the team is effectively playing every game away in Europe.
Their European home qualifiers were in Slovenia, then Poland for Conference League group games, while domestic fixtures are in Lviv. Turan tries to turn logistical difficulties and adversity into motivation. “When you are in the middle of a war and people are making such a big sacrifice, you should definitely touch on these things. Why are they here playing football? Why leave their families in the middle of a war? It has to make sense.”
He adds that the staff aim to keep the mood positive: “We have made it into a positive and tried to have a lot of fun too and try to be cheerful all the time. We have a lot of young Brazilian players who are trying to adapt and manage that psychological side but there are times when it is exhausting.”
Youth is both a strength and a constraint. “We have a lot of teenagers who need more rest than the experienced players so we are often forced to change the team. Unfortunately, you just cannot play the same team three days later with the amount of travel that we have. It is like inviting an injury.”
Shakhtar remain a traditionally successful club — 15-time Ukrainian champions since 2000 — but this squad is different. After finishing third last season, they lost key players, including Kevin and Heorhii Sudakov, and others are injured. Turan says the club strategy focuses on young talent rather than buying finished players.
“We lost some players but the squad is now full of young footballers who are open to improvement. That was the club strategy. I agreed to it and I respect. Rather than buying players who are complete, we want to go with players who have great potential. Isaque is 18, Kaua [Elias] is 19, Lucas Ferreira is 19, [Luca] Meirelles is 18. Sometimes they will play badly because they are only young but we are not taking away their right to make mistakes. And, when you win, the happiness of that feels completely different.”
Kaua scored in Shakhtar’s latest European win, a fixture that came between victories over Dynamo Kyiv and a 7-1 win at SK Poltava. “The young players are a source of pride. They are turning me into a braver coach,” Turan says.
Tactics must also adapt to unusual circumstances. “Sometimes we cannot push. This is a team that played with 40,000 or 50,000 fans and is now playing in front of 2,000 spectators. Motivation is a challenge.” Turan coaches in English and Spanish and switches to Turkish for sensitive matters. When his thoughts return to Roman, the responsibility is clear: “I really want to win the title for him. It is like a dream now for me to do it.”