Shakhtar Donetsk has been known for many years as an incubator of Brazilian talents. The Ukrainian club buys young Brazilians for a song, then grows them for several years, and then sells them to the leading clubs in Europe for much more impressive amounts. One striking example is Luis Adriano. Of course, this is not Douglas Costa, for example, for whom Bayern laid out 35 million euros, but he also went through the “mining” stage before moving to one of the leading European championships. What clubs did Luis Adriano manage to play in? And where is he performing now?
Carier start
The Brazilian footballer Luis Adriano was born on April 12, 1987, he did not plan to become a professional footballer and for a long time performed only at the amateur level, until in 2004 he was noticed by scouts of the Internacional. The 17-year-old guy agreed to join the club’s youth team, and a year later he was offered a professional contract. In the 2006 season, he made his debut for the Brazilian club in the first team, having played a total of 15 matches and scored two goals in them. At the end of the year, many European clubs turned their attention to young talent, and Luis Adriano spent in “Internacional” only half of the next season, appearing on the field in nine games and scoring one goal. In the summer of 2007, he ended up in Shakhtar Donetsk, who paid three million euros for him.
Going to Shakhtar
Unlike most Brazilians passing through Shakhtar and leaving it after two or three years, Adriano stayed for a longer period. For eight seasons, the Brazilian was one of the key players in the Ukrainian club, having won six Ukrainian Championships, four Ukrainian Cups, five Ukrainian Super Cups, and most importantly, the 2009 European League. Yes, first, Luis Adriano, a football player without special training at a young age, could not settle in the new club. In the first two seasons, he scored only 14 goals. But over time, Adrian got used to what was happening around him, began to feel as comfortable as possible, and immediately began to score an impressive number of goals. For eight years, he appeared on the field in 266 matches, scoring 128 goals. The best for him was the 13/14 season, in which the Brazilian scored 25 goals in 39 matches, with twenty of them in the Ukrainian Championship, becoming the top scorer of the season. But in 2015, the striker’s stay in the Ukrainian club came to an end, while the Milan crisis, he saw in Adriano hope for salvation and acquired it for eight million euros. Of course, this is not the 35 million that were paid for Douglas Costa in the same year, however, the age of the player was not the same as Costa. Indeed, at the time of moving to Italy, Luis was already 28 years old.
The game for Milan
After such a long period at Shakhtar, Luis Adriano finally changed his club registration. “Milan” even in the crisis remained a very respected club, so it was a great honor for the Brazilian to be there. However, at the same time, the Italian club signed another striker, Carlos Baccu, who was definitely better in class than Adriano. Therefore, the Brazilian was in the shadow of another football player, for the season he spent only 29 matches, scoring only six goals. In the summer of 2016, Milan was going to sell Adriano as unnecessary, since M'Baye Nyang also opened, and the multi-million dollar deal with the Chinese club was almost completed, but in the end, something went wrong, and Adriano remained. This season, he spent only three matches, without scoring a single goal.
Team appearances
Adriano played only four matches for the Brazilian national team - all friendly in the 14/15 season. Louis could not score a single goal and since March 2015 has not been called up to the national team.