Shakhtar Donetsk counts its birthday from 24 May 1936, the day of its first match in a Soviet championship. On 24 May 2027 "the Miners" turn 91. It is a club born in the mines of the Donbas, and for years now it has played far from home.

A team for the miners

Its creation was approved on 3 April 1936 by the All-Union Council of Physical Culture and Sports. Its first name was Stakhanovets, in honour of the coal miner Aleksei Stakhanov and the movement named after him. The core of the squad came from the Dynamo teams of Horlivka and Stalino, as Donetsk was then called.

The debut came on 12 May 1936 in Horlivka, a 3-2 cup defeat to Dynamo Odesa. On 24 May came the first league match, a 4-1 loss away to Dynamo Kazan. The club dates its history from that game.

What "Shakhtar" means

After the war, in the mid-1940s, the team took the name Shakhtar, meaning coal miner. The word is linked to the mine "shaft" and ties the club forever to the coal of the Donbas.

That is also where its nicknames come from. Fans call the team "Hirnyky", the Miners, and also "Kroty", the Moles.

Orange and black

The orange and black colours were adopted in the early 1960s. The club describes them as the traditional colour combination of the region. Sources disagree on the year: the official site says 1960, while Wikipedia gives 1961.

The crest has changed many times. In 1936 it was a blue hexagon with a red "S" and a jackhammer, and in the mid-1960s the miners' crossed hammers appeared. In 2007 the hammers returned in a new crest, now with the name in Ukrainian.

From Soviet cups to Istanbul

The first major trophy came in 1961, with a 3-1 win over Torpedo Moscow in the USSR Cup final. More cups followed in 1962, 1980 and 1983. In 1979 striker Vitaliy Starukhin was named Soviet footballer of the year.

After Ukrainian independence, Shakhtar won its first league title in 2002. The great era, however, came under Romanian coach Mircea Lucescu, who won eight league titles between 2004 and 2016.

On 20 May 2009, at the Şükrü Saracoğlu in Istanbul, Shakhtar beat Werder Bremen 2-1 after extra time to lift the UEFA Cup. The goals came from Luiz Adriano and Jádson. It was the last UEFA Cup before the competition was renamed the Europa League.

The Donbass Arena and exile

A few months later, on 29 August 2009, the Donbass Arena opened, a UEFA five-star stadium. There the Brazilians Fernandinho and Willian shone, while Croatian captain Darijo Srna reached 536 appearances, a club record.

Since 2014, because of the war in the Donbas, the team has not played in Donetsk. It has been hosted in Lviv, Kharkiv and Kyiv, where its offices and training base are now located. Yet the orange and black always recall where it all began.

Celebrate with us

From the mines of the Donbas to the top of Europe, Shakhtar carries the story of a whole region on its shirt. Happy 91st birthday to the Miners!

See our collectible jerseys at sportarena.gr.

Photo: The Donbass Arena in Donetsk – Lisovodsky Vili, Wikimedia Commons, licensed under CC BY 3.0.