Two-one down at home to Hoffenheim in the first group game of this year’s Champions League, Shakhtar Donetsk were desperately looking for an equaliser. A few chances had already gone begging when their 21-year-old new arrival emerged from the bench. Just a few minutes later, on his debut in European competition, the €6m man received the ball 30 yards from goal, took one touch out of his feet and rifled it into the bottom corner. His name? Maycon. Where had he come from? Well, Brazil, of course. Maycon has not left the Shakhtar starting XI since, making himself the newest in a long line of Brazilians that have excelled in the orange and black shirt of the Ukrainian champions and proving that the long and fruitful relationship between the club and the South American nation remains strong. When they travel to Manchester to play City on Wednesday night, generations of Shakhtar’s yellow and green army both new and old will be on show. For City’s midfield fulcrum Fernandinho, it was his first port of call in Europe, staying there for eight years before making the move to the Premier League. It has also been the starting point on the Old Continent for the likes of Douglas Costa, Elano, Willian, Fred, Alex Teixeira and Bernard, who have all gone on to earn lucrative transfers or moves to big clubs in one of the top European leagues. “The relationship started in 2002, when Shakhtar signed Brandão, a centre-forward who played for almost ten years there”, explains Gustavo Hofman, a journalist and television pundit for ESPN Brasil. Brandão, brought in from São Caetano, went on to become one of the club’s all-time leading goalscorers, but at that point, the signing was not part of any grand plan. That more strategic approach to signing Brazilians as a route to success came only after the arrival of Romanian coach Mircea Lucescu.