Donbas Mariupol

Motor Zaporizhzhia has become the measure Donbas cannot get past. Twice the two sides met in the Ukrainian Cup final, in 2020/21 and again in 2023/24, and both times Motor walked away with the trophy. Donbas has never lifted that cup at all, which makes the rivalry less a contest between equals than an obstacle that keeps reappearing at the worst moment.

The club carries the scars of a forced relocation. It grew out of Spartak Donetsk, played for years as Shakhtar and then as Shakhtar-Akademiya, and won the Ukrainian Championship three times under that name, in 1995/96, 1996/97 and 2001/02. The move away from Donetsk came in 2017, when the conflict in the region pushed the team out and a sponsorship deal with Donbasenergo gave it the name it carries now. Ivan Fuchedzhy has been in charge since the club's founding in 1983 and doubles as head coach of the Ukrainian national team.

Recent seasons have brought steadier results than trophies: a bronze medal in the Superleague in 2017/18 and a run of top-three finishes from 2020 to 2025, built in part around Vitalii Psol's scoring. What has not followed the club east is a settled home. Matches have been staged in Zaporizhzhia, and training has taken place at the Energetik sports complex in Nikolayevka, arrangements that speak to a team still playing, and still winning, a long way from the city whose name it carries.