"I was that kid who was fulfilling the dream of arriving at Shakhtar, being able to make my debut — and unfortunately, the war began and it didn't come to pass." That's Vinícius Tobias, 22, summarising a career path that would test anyone's resolve. He's now back at Shakhtar, and by the looks of this season, the wait was worth it.
Tobias has contributed two goals and three assists in 32 appearances under Arda Turan this campaign — a step up from the six assists in 26 games he managed in his first proper Shakhtar season last year. The right back, signed from Internacional for €6 million as a 17-year-old who hadn't played a single senior minute, is finally delivering on a transfer that looked bold at the time and looks shrewd now.
Three years at Real Madrid shaped him
When Russia's invasion of Ukraine forced Shakhtar's foreign players to find temporary homes in early 2022, Tobias ended up at Real Madrid Castilla. Not a bad place to land. He spent three seasons there, culminating in a standout 2022-23 campaign under Raúl González where he put up five assists in 41 appearances and helped Castilla reach the promotion playoff final. He also made a first-team appearance — 88 minutes in a Copa del Rey win over Arandina in January 2024.
Real held a €15 million purchase option. They didn't trigger it. Tobias extended with Shakhtar through 2029 and came back to Ukraine to finally start the career he'd signed up for three years earlier.
The context around Shakhtar matters here. This is a club playing home Champions League and Conference League matches in Kraków while their domestic games are staged in Lviv — a 17-hour drive from Donetsk. They finished third in the Ukrainian Premier League last season. This term, they sit joint-top on 51 points with LNZ Cherkasy, with a game in hand. The rebuild is real, and Tobias is part of it.
Konoplia isn't giving up the shirt easily
The one caveat: Tobias hasn't fully displaced Yukhym Konoplia at right back. He's competing, not commanding. His answer when asked about it was diplomatically team-first — "sometimes I'm happy that he plays too, he's happy when I play" — but the competitive reality is that Konoplia remains a factor. Shakhtar have options at the position, which is both a compliment to their squad depth and a challenge Tobias still needs to resolve.
In the Conference League, Shakhtar finished sixth in the league phase and knocked out Lech Poznań. Beat AZ Alkmaar and they meet either Crystal Palace or Fiorentina in the last four. A deep European run — playing meaningful knockout football in front of neutral crowds in Poland — would do Tobias's profile no harm at all, and Shakhtar's odds of progressing look decent against an AZ side that's been inconsistent in European competition this season.
The backstory — favela in São Paulo, leaving home at 12, fainting at training from hunger — is the kind of thing that gets written up as inspiration. But what actually matters now is whether he can win a starting spot at a club that has produced Fred, Fernandinho, and Douglas Costa, among 46 Brazilians who've collectively scored close to 1,000 goals in Ukrainian football. That's the standard. He knows it.
"I've returned to Shakhtar now, and I'm very happy to be back and continue this dream," he said. Two goals, three assists, 32 games into the season — the dream has a pulse.
