When Danny joined Zenit St Petersburg from Dynamo Moscow for €30m in 2008, he was greeted with widespread scepticism. This was, after all, a Zenit team that, inspired by Andrey Arshavin and Anatoliy Tymoshchuk, had just won the Uefa Cup. Did they really need to spend that much on a player from one of their bitterest rivals? Seven years on, Danny leaves Zenit as a club legend: a draw at FC Ufa nine days ago enough to secure him his third league title with the club.

It didn’t help Danny’s cause that he has on his wrist a small tattoo of the letter D. The typeface is very similar to the D on Dynamo’s badge, which only increased suspicions among Zenit fans, even though Danny maintained it was simply his initial. “Danny, cover your shame,” screamed a banner unveiled by Zenit fans when he made his home debut. Zenit’s president, Alexander Dyukov, paid his critics little heed: “We are not a charity,” he said. “We are a football club whose goal is to win.”

It did not take Danny long to begin to win fans over. His debut for Zenit came in the European Super Cup final against Manchester United in Monaco on 29 August 2008. Before the game, he was walking along the corridor outside the dressing rooms when he bumped into Cristiano Ronaldo, who had been ruled out of the game by injury. Although Danny was born to Portuguese parents in Venezuela, he, like Ronaldo, grew up in Madeira (he celebrated the league title with the flag of Madeira draped across his shoulders). They chatted and Danny came away feeling inspired; it gave him a confidence, he said, that he belonged at that level.

Pavel Pogrebnyak had headed in a corner to put Zenit ahead shortly before half-time but it was what happened in the 59th minute that made the game memorable. Danny gathered the ball just outside the centre circle in the United half, with his back to goal. He turned sharply to his right, taking him out towards the left flank, then accelerated towards goal, wobbling by Rio Ferdinand before firing in his shot at the near post as Edwin van der Sar fell away to his left. Nemanja Vidic did pull one back, but Zenit won 2-1 and Danny was named man of the match: the 4,000 fans who had gathered to watch on a big screen in Caracas were ecstatic. So too was Dyukov. “I guess he’s paid back some of that fee,” he said.

Nobody questions the fee now. For seven years Danny, often operating from a position on the left, has been Zenit’s playmaker, the deft and intelligent creator in a team that is more focused on drive and pace. He’s one of Zenit’s 10 all-time leading goalscorers and last October he joined the select group of players who have scored or assisted 100 goals in the Russian top flight. Had he played in western Europe, he would surely have won more than the 31 caps he has for Portugal.

It says much for how utterly Danny has assimilated that Dynamo fans now despise him. It’s not just on the pitch: Danny speaks Russian and is regularly to be seen supporting the local ice-hockey team. His two sons are both members of Zenit’s academy. As recently as January Danny, now 31, was talking about ending his career at the club – “St Petersburg is my second home,” he said – but plans have changed and it now seems all but certain he will leave when his contract expires in the summer. Besiktas and Trabzonspor have both been linked to moves for him.

The triumph perhaps begins the process of restoring André Villas-Boas’s reputation after his bruising stints with Chelsea and Tottenham, not that the style of Zenit’s success has been universally acclaimed. Boris Chukhlov, who led Zenit to the 1984 Soviet title, has been a major critic. “They are such a strong squad and when faced with such weak opponents they should have wrapped up the Russian title two months ago and should have performed much better in the European competitions,” he said.

“Zenit play boring football. A team full of star names is going out on to the pitch, however, the tactics are too cautious. The side is showing anti-football, which basically boils down to giving the ball as quickly as possible to Hulk or Danny.”

That’s as may be, but in a sense even that’s a tribute to Danny and how valuable he has been this season. Hulk has given them power but it is Danny who is capable of moments of imagination, of doing the unexpected. If he is not replaced, the accusations of boring football will only get louder. Danny, meanwhile, moves on, probably to Turkey, for one final challenge.