They had already fled their home in eastern Ukraine for Kyiv when their shiny new stadium was battered by shelling in the first weeks of a Russian-backed insurgency in 2014.
Now the players of Ukraine's perennial football champions Shakhtar Donetsk are training in Turkey because of the all-out invasion by Russia of their former Soviet state.
Team and national squad captain Andriy Pyatov -- an imposing 37-year-old goalkeeper who has played at some of Europe's most famous grounds over his illustrious career -- is tired of life in exile.
"It is very difficult to keep losing your home," he said during a break in the team's Istanbul training session for a series of friendly matches organised to raise money for children orphaned by the war.
"We have to run from one place to another because of a tyrant, a dictator," he said in reference to Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Shakhtar's wanderings have captured the imagination of fans across Ukraine and much of the football world.
The club first moved their training base to the Ukrainian capital -- home to archrivals Dynamo Kyiv.
They ultimately ended up playing most of their matches in the western city of Lviv.
The Ukrainian cultural capital has strong nationalist traditions and a closer historical link to neighbouring Poland than the far more distant Moscow.
Shakhtar's original home in Donetsk became the stronghold of a new Kremlin-backed leadership in Ukraine's largely Russian-speaking east.
This contrast made the overwhelming support the players received in Lviv that much more poignant. Success on the pitch also helped.
Pyatov has been involved in 10 of Shakhtar's 13 Ukrainian league championship titles.
They were leading the league again when play was suspended when the Russian assault began on February 24.
Shakhtar's most recent home in the northeastern city of Kharkiv bore some of the deadliest fighting of the war.
Shakhtar arrived in Istanbul on April 6 to prepare for a tour of friendly matches that began last week in Athens against the Greek giants Olympiakos.
The team also played Lechia Gdansk in Poland on Thursday and will face Istanbul side Fenerbahce as well as Croatia's Hajduk Split by early May.
Team coach Roberto De Zerbi has returned from Italy to prepare his men for the tour
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