100 million, Mudrick became the most expensive "miner's star", not necessarily the best miner's product

Shakhtar Donetsk striker Mudlik has risen to prominence in the Champions League this season, with three goals and two assists in six games, and the 22-year-old Ukrainian striker has won over a number of European giants. At present, Chelsea have finalized Mudrick for 100 million euros, and the two sides will sign a seven-year contract, which will also set a record transfer fee for Shakhtar Donetsk to sell a player.

However, the most expensive is not necessarily the best, and there are still several mountains ahead of Mudlik to climb if he is to become the best player sold by the miners – several of the Shakhtar Donetsk stars have enjoyed great success in Europe's top league over the past decade.

"Three Masters of Miners" from Brazil

When it comes to the excellent players sold by Shakhtar Donetsk, it is absolutely impossible to bypass the "Brazilian gang", Fernandinho, Douglas Costa, Willian, Fred and other Brazilian stars are all in the five major European leagues after the miners made a name for themselves.

Since 2004, Shakhtar has embarked on the road of foreign aid dominating the central midfield, local players are responsible for the construction of the backfield, and the foreign aid selected is mostly young people who are still working in the Brazilian league. With the help of scouts' brilliant vision, Miners have recruited many of Brazil's rising stars at low prices, waiting until these South American talents realize their potential before selling them to the top five leagues, so as to ensure the team's results and make a lot of money.

In 2005, Miners spent 7.8 million euros to bring in Fernandinho from Atlético Paranaense; In 2007, William switched from Corinthians to Miners, worth 14 million euros; In 2010, Miners bought Douglas Costa from Gremio for €6 million. These three are the famous "Brazilian Three Masters" in the history of the Shakhtar Donetsk team.

After several years of hard work in the Ukrainian league, the "Brazilian Sanjie", who used the miners as a springboard, rose to fame and went to the top European leagues.

In 2013, Fernandinho joined Manchester City for 40 million euros. Since then, he has played for Blue Moon for 9 years, playing 383 games and helping the team win 5 Premier League titles. It wasn't until last summer that the 37-year-old Brazilian midfielder bid farewell to Manchester City and returned to Atletico Paranaense.

William also left Miners in 2013 to join Anzhi for 35 million euros. After less than a year in the Russian Premier League, Willian moved to Chelsea and went on to create the greatest glory of his career. Willian played for Chelsea for seven years, winning two Premier League titles and one Champions League title for the Blues. In August 2020, Willian left Chelsea for Arsenal, and a year later, he returned to his parent side Corinthians, and this season, Willian returned to the Premier League to join Fulham. It is worth mentioning that in Fulham's 2-1 Premier League match at Chelsea on January 13, Willian bravely defeated the old owner and scored the "Blues" goal.

Douglas Costa was the latest to leave the Shakhtar of the "Brazilian Three", with Bayern spending €30 million on the Brazilian winger in the summer of 2015. After three years at Bayern Munich and winning two Bundesliga titles with the team, Costa moved to Juventus, where he won three more league titles. Last summer, Costa left European football to join Major League League's Los Angeles Galaxy.

Armenia's "ball king"

In addition to liking to buy Brazilian players at low prices, Shakhtar Donetsk is also keen to bring in inexpensive Eastern European players and then sell them at high prices through "reprocessing", such as Mkhitaryan, known as the "Armenian king".

In 2010, Miner bought Mkhitaryan for €5.8 million and sold it to Dortmund three years later for a transfer fee of €27.5 million. Since 2013, Mkhitaryan has never left a top club, playing for Dort, Manchester United, Arsenal, Roma and Inter Milan, winning one Europa League title, one UEFA European League title, one English League Cup and two German Super Cups.

To this day, Shakhtar retain a penchant for rising Eastern European stars, and more than a month ago, Shakhtartar Donetsk signed Georgia international Georgian Gochoreshvili from Saburtalo. Perhaps in a few years, the now 21-year-old court all-rounder will also make it into the big five leagues.

There are many local youth trainees

Shakhtar Donetsk is not only an excellent recruit, but also effective in youth training, and over the years, Shakhtar has sold many players from local youth training.

Ukrainian football legend Timoshchuk (Chinese art name: Lonely Shock) is a Shakhtar youth graduate, in 2007, he was sold by Miners to Zenit, and then helped Zenit win the Europa League and European Super Cup, becoming the most influential star in Eastern Europe for a time. In 2009, Timoszzchuk was poached by Bayern Munich and went on to win two league titles and one Champions League with the Bundesliga hegemon.

In recent years, among the players who have made a name for themselves in the five major leagues as a Miner youth academy, the most accomplished is Zinchenko. Between 2017 and 2022, he helped City win four Premier League titles, four League Cups and one FA Cup. After moving to Arsenal this season, Zinchenko's performance has become more and more outstanding, and he is considered by the media to be the key figure in the "Gunners" to be reborn and lead the Premier League.

Now, with the rise of Mudlik, it means that another Shakhtar youth player is about to land in the five major leagues, and in the current Shakhtar Donetsk squad, there are actually several homegrown youth players who are also expected to follow in Mudrick's footsteps - 21-year-old goalkeeper Trubin is being watched by Juventus; Manchester City have shown keen interest in centre-back Matvienko; Napoli asked the price of young midfielder Sudakov. It seems that Donetsk, known as the "black shop of Eastern Europe", starting with Mudrick, is likely to set off a frenzy of selling players again.

(Sues-ups/Gao Guangyu)