Walk of Fame of Shakhtar

In the history of FC Shakhtar, a few names stand out. Those are the club legends. In their honour, the Walk of Fame was unveiled, which has allocated areas for laying personalised stars - a total of 33 bronze plates. The Walk is located on the south side of the Donbass Arena stadium.

The design team of FC Shakhtar developed the style and design of the bronze plates. The final version of the draft design, approved by the board of experts, features a star inscribed in a football outline, and hammers - a symbol of miners' work.

The project is supervised by a reputable board of experts, set up in November 2010. It is composed of veterans, journalists, fans and representatives of the club:

1. Project Manager - Andrei Babeshko.
2. Club representative (General Secretary) - Alexandr Cherkasov.
3. Head of FC Shakhtar Press Office - Ruslan Marmazov.
4. Fan (a representative of Terrikon project) - Andrei Peti.
5. Fan (a representative of Terrikon project) - Vladimir Churilov.
6. Veteran - Mikhail Sokolovskiy.
7. Veteran - Viktor Zvyagintsev.
8. Team historian - Alexei Babeshko.
9. Journalist - Yuriy Yuris.

The main criteria underlying the choice of the name to be memorialised on the Walk of Fame: the results and success of the team at the time when a player or coach performed their duties, the personal achievements, as well as the recognition by the fans. The nominees are to be approved by the board of experts’ members by voting.

Laying the first stars along with the FC Shakhtar Walk of Fame opening ceremony was held on 8 May 2011. On this day, they immortalised the names of the best player of USSR League and the top scorer in 1979 Vitaliy Starukhin, the head coach of Shakhtar Mircea Lucescu, the former team captain who played 485 matches for Shakhtar Mikhail Sokolovskiy and the best goalkeeper of the USSR in the season 1977 Yuriy Degterev.

On August 27 of the same year, they unveiled the fifth star dedicated to the fans of Shakhtar. At the solemn ceremony, the key words were said by the club president Rinat Akhmetov: “If the team has fans – it means that we have a future!”

The next stars on the Walk of Fame of Shakhtar appeared on May 12, 2013. Back then, they memorialised the names of the team coach Oleg Oshenkov, with whom at the helm Shakhtar twice won the USSR Cup, and the Brazilian Jadson, the scorer of the winning goal in the 2009 UEFA Cup final.