19-year-old Alexey Batrakov is the top scorer of the RPL. He is spending his first full season at Lokomotiv.

The midfielder is already being compared to Luka Modric

On November 10, the first round of the Russian Football Premier League (RPL) ended. Based on the results of the first 15 matches of the season, the Lokomotiv club remains in the top three, only three points behind the leading Krasnodar. The team is the same amount ahead of its closest pursuer, Dynamo Moscow. But Lokomotiv has another reason for joy - the club’s graduate Alexei Batrakov confidently leads the list of top scorers. At one point, he was even the best in all of Europe in terms of goals and assists, ahead of Robert Lewandowski and Harry Kane. “Meduza” talks about the midfielder of the “railway workers”, who has already made his debut in the Russian national team.

In the summer of 2024, the Lokomotiv football club parted ways with several players for various reasons. One of the team leaders, midfielder Maxim Glushenkov, was bought by Zenit. Another important player for the club, Anton Miranchuk, decided to try his hand at Europe and moved to the Swiss Sion. Midfielder Rifat Zhemaletdinov moved to CSKA as a free agent.

Lokomotiv also did not renew the contract with the best scorer in the history of the Russian championships, Artem Dzyuba. The striker could not find a team for several months and only in September he joined Akron from Tolyatti. Recently, Dzyuba gave a long interview in which he expressed dissatisfaction with the behavior of Lokomotiv head coach Mikhail Galaktionov. The striker called him a “coward,” adding that he would not shake his hand because he did not thank him for the year and a half spent in the team.

In total, almost two dozen players left Lokomotiv before the start of the 2024/2025 season. At the same time, there were not many new players who joined the team. Some fans even had concerns that Lokomotiv would not be able to compete for championship medals in the new season.

However, according to the results of the first round, the “railway workers” occupy third place in the RPL, only two points behind Zenit and three behind Krasnodar. The team cannot boast of a reliable defense, but in terms of goals scored it is confidently in the top four. And this is largely the merit of the club’s 19-year-old graduate Alexei Batrakov, for whom this season was his first full season as part of Lokomotiv.

Batrakov was born on June 9, 2005 in Orekhovo-Zuevo. He entered the Lokomotiv academy at the age of six. The talented child was noticed when he played for a local futsal team with children two to three years older than him. “Lesha surprised me with his decision-making that was not at all childish. This is something innate, no coach can teach this,” recalled the player’s first mentor at Lokomotiv, Andrei Nagibin.

According to his physical characteristics, Alexey Batrakov was much inferior to his peers, so initially the academy assigned him to the 2006 squad, where younger guys played. But quite quickly the coaches changed their decision - it was obvious that the young football player was quite capable of playing with children of his age due to good technique and gaming intelligence.

“True, many experts really said: yes, at the children’s level the guy is still capable, but there is nothing to do in the RPL with such physical data,” said former director of the Lokomotiv academy Vladimir Kuzmichev in an interview with Sport-Express. “But I always knew that Batrakov would play leading roles in the Premier League. There is technique, a bright mind, and character. Lesha was the smallest by a huge margin, but at the same time he always wore the captain’s armband.”

In the summer of 2023, when the football player turned 18, he began to be involved in training with the main team. On March 31, 2024, Alexey Batrakov made his debut for Lokomotiv, coming on as a substitute in the game against Krasnodar. In total, in the 2023/2024 season, the midfielder played five matches, and in all but the first he appeared in the starting lineup.

During this time, Batrakov also managed to score his first goal in the RPL - on May 12, 2024, he opened the scoring in the game against Orenburg. This meeting ended in a victory for Lokomotiv with a score of 2:0. The assist to the midfielder was given by Maxim Glushenkov, who by that time had gained excellent form and became the best assistant in the championship at the end of the season.

Alexey Batrakov started the new season as a promising player, but quickly became one of the team leaders. In the first round, he took part in 14 matches - he only missed the meeting with Rubin in the 14th round of the championship due to too many yellow cards . In all games, he was in the starting lineup from the first minutes and in most cases spent the entire 90 minutes on the field.

Now the midfielder with 10 goals leads the list of top scorers in the RPL. The closest pursuers, John Cordoba from Krasnodar and Manfred Ugalde from Spartak, scored eight each. Batrakov's former partner at Lokomotiv Maxim Glushenkov is in fourth place with seven goals. He started the season brightly, but due to injuries he missed many matches and has not yet been able to return to optimal form. The last time he scored in the championship was at the beginning of August in a match against Dynamo.

One of the reasons why Batrakov scores so many and confidently is the player’s good psychological state, says Andrei Nagibin. “I will note his mental preparation, which I am now telling everyone about. He is 170 centimeters tall, has never had high speed, but is so strong mentally,” said the former midfielder’s coach. — Since childhood, he was bright and persistent. He transferred this to the RPL and now calmly scores a penalty in the last minutes when the score is tied.”

But Batrakov not only scores a lot - in the first round of the championship he also gave six assists. According to this indicator, the Lokomotiv midfielder is second only to the Brazilian Wendel from Zenit, who assisted eight times. Moreover, at some point, Batrakov was even the best in all of Europe in terms of total goals and assists - leaving behind such world stars as Robert Lewandowski and Harry Kane.

Former Lokomotiv footballer Sergei Gurenko believes that Batrakov’s impressive statistics are not the main thing. “I wouldn’t talk about his scoring qualities, because his other qualities are much more developed. He plays the game well and reminds me of Luka Modric in his style of play, in all his inclinations. Alexey can grow into a very big football player,” Gurenko said in one of the comments.

It’s interesting that Alexey Batrakov called Modric one of his favorite football players. “I really liked Andres Iniesta, his style of play. Also Luka Modric - he is already well over 30, and due to his intelligence he shows amazing football,” said the player.

Nevertheless, it was Batrakov’s performance in the RPL that attracted the attention of the coaching staff of the Russian national team. At the beginning of September, the midfielder was called up to a friendly match with Vietnam, but he never took to the field. But he took part in the recent defeat of Brunei. Batrakov came on as a substitute in the 77th minute, and already in the 79th he scored a goal in his debut match for the national team.

After this meeting, the midfielder even received praise from Valery Karpin . “I really like Lesha so far. Not even from the point of view of what kind of footballer he is, but from the point of view of attitude, understanding and implementation of all instructions,” noted the head coach of the Russian national team. — He is very attentive and concentrated. Does everything you ask. It’s clear that he’s a boy with a good head.”

Alexey Batrakov himself is still very reserved about his results in the championship. The midfielder does not agree with the opinion that he is “tearing up” the Russian Premier League. “The trust of the coaching staff and teammates helps. They are always next to me. Probably because of this, something is working out,” the footballer assessed his performance in the first round.

"Jellyfish"