Euroscene: In October 1996, seven years before Roman Abramovich bought over Premiership club Chelsea, another Eastern European tycoon was laying the foundations for a rather more orthodox climb up the greasy pole of football fame and fortune.
The man in question is 37-year-old steel and property magnate Rinat Akhmetov, owner of Ukraine club Shaktar, the side that Scottish champions Celtic face in a Champions League tie in Donetsk tomorrow night. Seven years ago, Akhmetov splashed out one million dollars for a majority shareholding in the club.
Given that Ukraine football has traditionally been dominated by Dinamo Kiev, Akhmetov's belief that he could build his club into a winning force not only in the Ukraine but also in Europe seemed just a little optimistic. Yet, year by year, Shaktar Donetsk (the name means Donetsk Miners) have closed the gap between themselves and famous rivals at home and abroad.
Currently topping the not-exactly-overcompetitive Ukraine league with nine wins from nine games played, Shaktar served an indication of their intentions for the season when beating Kiev 2-0 on the opening day. Their first priority is to win back a Ukraine title last won in the 2001-2002 season.
On the Champions League front, things have not gone quite so swimmingly. After qualifying for the Group Phase with a 6-3 aggregate win over Club Brugge, Shaktar (and Celtic, by the way) had the misfortune to find themselves in a group along with two of Europe's biggest and currently most in-form clubs, AC Milan and Barcelona.
A 1-0 home defeat by Milan and a 3-0 drubbing by Barca at the Camp Nou in their two outings so far looks like par for the course but does not entirely do justice to a Shaktar side that managed well for long periods against Milan, before going down to a late goal from Clarence Seedorf.
Tomorrow night against Celtic, they have the chance to prove that their wealthy patron is right when he asserts that one day his side will challenge the likes of AC Milan, Real Madrid et al on the European front:
"In 1997, when I said that we would win the Ukraine title, media people and fans just laughed at me because they felt that no club could get near to Dinamo Kiev. Yet we won the title in 2002. People don't laugh at my lofty ambitions for the club anymore."
Akhmetov has put his money where his mouth is, too, putting together a squad that contains three Brazilians, five Romanians, three Serbs, two Croats, two Czechs, two Russians, one Pole and one Nigerian (Julius Aghahowa), not to mention six Ukrainians. This summer, he spent €14 million on Brescia's talented Brazilian midfielder Matuzalem whilst he further strengthened the squad with two Czechs, goalkeeper Jan Lastuvka and defender Tomas Hubschman and two Romanians, Cosmin Barcauan and Ciprian Marica.
The last mentioned, 19-year-old Marica, by the way, was this week described as "better than Wayne Rooney" by Shaktar's ever-optimistic coach, Romanian Mircea Lucescu, formerly coach to the Romanian national team as well as to Inter in Italy, Besiktas and Galatasaray in Turkey.
Millionaire Akhmetov, the son of a miner who is now worth €2 billion according to "Forbes" magazine, has provided more than just good players and an experienced coach. Thanks to him, the club now works off an annual budget of €40 million whilst Shaktar train at a state-of-the-art complex in Baza Kyrska, half an hour from Donetsk, a complex that features nine pitches, two swimming pools and a five star club house for the players.
Furthermore, work will shortly start on a new, 35-40,000 capacity Shaktar stadium, due to be ready for 2006.
"We may not get to the top in Europe immediately but we will work hard to get there. We want to be like Greece at this summer's European Championships, be a big surprise and share the same sense of joy. That's the sort of thing that makes life worth living," says Akhmetov.
If the club's ambitions are anything to go by, then Celtic could be in a for a difficult time tomorrow.
