Transfer feast

The football season is resuming in Russia. Leading clubs spend even more on players than before the war, although the invested funds will not come out in isolation

On February 28, a spring, decisive stage of the Russian Premier League starts. The main intrigue is whether the permanent champion of recent years can be able to be sponsored by Zenit, to preserve the title in the year of the 100th anniversary of the club. For the sake of this, the Petersburgers, even in the conditions of war, spent the whole season at the level of world football grades.

Key rivals of the blue-white-blue are Krasnodar and Spartak. The latter for the struggle for the championship even beat their transfer record and are preparing to defend two main records of Russian club football, which in case of victory can beat Zenit - championships in a row and their total number. How winter has passed for Russian clubs, which is why expensive transfers were broken and why some Latin American players flatly refused to return to their teams-in the material of Novy-Europe.

Battle of oil and gas

The winter transfer window (closed on February 20) has become for Russian clubs not only the most expensive since the beginning of the war in Ukraine, but also the second in spending over the past ten years. According to the data specializing in the transfers of the German portal Transfermarkt, the RPL teams spent € 82.27 million in total. It was slightly larger in 2022-€ 82.3 million (then the window closed on February 22).

However, it is not worth thinking about the general waste of clubs. More than € 76 million (93% of the total amount) spent the St. Petersburg Zenit (€ 34.2 million, sponsored by Gazprom), Moscow Spartak (€ 30 million - the club record, sponsored by Lukoil) and Dynamo (€ 11.4 million, before the war belonged to VTB), and at once six clubs were generally without purchases.

The most expensive lot of winter was 24-year-old Winger Luis Enrique from the Botafogo club (Brazil), for which Zenit unfastened € 33 million. This is also one of the most expensive purchases in the history of Russian football. In the northern capital on Enrique, they are placed as a new leader of the attack. In 2024, the player, nicknamed Black Panther, was recognized as the best football player of North and South America, according to El País magazine. Like many compatriots, he considers Russia as a bridgehead for the transition to stronger European championships.

In winter, Spartak beat his transfer record in winter. The red and white sold out at € 18.7 million for the sake of the Trinidad striker Liviv Garcia, who in recent years played for the Greek Aek.

The main internal transfer was the transition of the captain of the Russian national team Danil Glebov from Rostov to Dynamo. According to insiders, the Don club will receive a record for the player € 8 million.

In general, the expenses of clubs exceeded the income from transfers by € 16 million (earned € 66 million). These are record numbers for Russian clubs over the past ten years. The TOP sales also led Zenit, which helped out a total of € 36 million for the sale of Claudino, Arthur and Vilzon Isidore. The club from the banks of the Neva in the summer will receive another € 20 million from the "botaphoi" for vendel.

Sanctions still interfere

Almost all the iconic international transfers of winter in the RPL (except for the mentioned Garcia) are connected with South America. Buying players from European championships due to sanctions is still difficult. Because of this, the clubs had several important signatures at once.

“Zenit” and “Spartak” alternately hunted for the midfielder of the Portuguese “mash” Rodrigo Salasar. According to various sources, it was about a transfer for about € 20 million. The St. Petersburg agreed on the transition, the player even arrived at their fee in Abu Dhabi, but in the end, the Braga canceled the deal. According to the football agent Teimuraz Lepsai and the Portuguese edition of Record , it was precisely because of fears about the sanctions that it was allegedly about problems with the transfer of funds.

“I don’t know who, but the“ mash ”was not arranged by one of the owners of the Zenit shares. The Portuguese said they could not accept money. Two nights were negotiations with large European lawyers who tried to draw a scheme in which Zenit would not pay money for him: Salasar would bought himself or a third party for him [paid], ”said the show“ this is football, brother! ”.

After that, information appeared about the transition of the player to Spartak and the arrival of his agent to the Russian capital, however, according to O Jogo, the clubs at the last moment canceled the deal to avoid conflict with the St. Petersburg.

Muscovites in winter broke another important transfer - the transition of the Serbian midfielder Ivan Ilich from the Italian Torino (the media also appeared in the media in € 20 million). According to Sport24, one of the reasons was again problems with the transfer of funds from Russia, as well as the unsatisfactory results of the athlete's medical examinations.

It is funny that another transfer from the "unfriendly" part of the EU to Russia turned to the Togliatti Akron, which conducts the first season in the RPL. The defender of the Ionuts of the week from the Palermo club in the Italian series in (the second largest division in the football league system) moved there. The transfer amount was not disclosed, but, according to Transfermarkt, we are talking about symbolic € 130 thousand for the present.

"Zenit" goes behind records

In conditions of removal from European cups and the actual depreciation of medals and the TOP-5 zone of the RPL, in recent years, it is traditionally reduced only to the struggle for gold medals. After 18 rounds (the season consists of 30) “Krasnodar” and “Zenit” scored the same number of points (39), but the southerners are leading from additional indicators. At the distance of one victory, Spartak comes from them (37). Experts believe that it is between this three in the spring that the struggle for the championship will unfold.

If Zenit and Spartak were hyperactive in the market, then belonging to the former owner of Magnit, Sergei Galitsky, Krasnodar unexpectedly without transfers, while retaining the leaders of the team - Eduard Spertsyan and John Cordobu.

In the club, the absence of newcomers was not commented on, Zenit coach Sergei Semak noted that the opponent, "perhaps there is no need to strengthen."

“There are pros and cons here. “Krasnodar” in a fairly played composition was prepared throughout this time. Maybe the depth of the composition in certain positions is not enough. But, in fact, this is a team that has already shown that it could fight for the championship. What she is doing, ”he said.

Speaking of Spartak, he added that "the team intensified very decently."

Zenit Semak is the hegemon of RPL in recent years. Last season, the club repeated two main records of Spartak at once: he won the sixth championship in a row (all under the leadership of Semak) and the tenth in recent Russian history and now strive to beat them. Moreover, this year blue-white-blue celebrates the 100th anniversary. For the sake of this purpose, the leadership does not spare money.

Since the beginning of the season, € 77.2 million has been spent on the transition of 11 players. This is even more than that of such grands as Real Madrid, Barcelona, ​​Liverpool, Inter, Bayer, notes athletes.

"Derby of two capitals"

In parallel with successes on the Zenit field, several years actively promotes the narrative that it is the most popular club in the country, although it is Muscovites who have been worn by the unofficial title of “people's” since the time of the USSR, and the Spartak fan clubs are in dozens of Russian cities. The confrontation between the two clubs is called the Derby of the two capitals, and the fans of the teams in 2000-2010 regularly arranged mass fights.

A few days ago, the chairman of the Zenit board, Alexander Medvedev, called Petersburg the “capital of Russian football” and dodged a direct answer to the question whether the club’s goal should be overtaken by Spartak in the number of titles.

“The main goal of“ Zenith ”is to overtake“ Spartak ”by titles? The goal is to win, and let the statistics count, ”Medvedev said.

A year ago, Medvedev was already in a scandal because of Muscovites. Then Zenit published a video in which he greeted Claudino with the words: “Ready? Spartak? " - And he beat a fist with an open palm, denoting an indecent gesture. After criticism, the Petersburgs deleted the video, and the functionary stated that the question was that Claudinho had to do with Spartak, replied: “To score two, to give one. What did you think? Everyone understands by virtue of their damage. ”

The famous sports commentator Konstantin Genich believes that the red and white want to “shift“ Zenit ”from the RPL throne, and the football coach Valery Nepomnya calls Muscovites a“ red rag ”for Zenit in the year of the century.

In Spartak, championship ambitions do not hide. The Serbian head coach of Acts Stankovich before the restart of the season said that he had come to Russia for the championship.

“We do not want to spoil the holiday to someone. We are “Spartak”. We want to make our own holiday, ”he said.

Midfielder Markinos Costa called Zenit the most dangerous competitor: “They are constant champions, they have a strong composition and many Brazilians. This is not under construction, but an already formed team. ” “Everyone wants to beat Spartak or snatch a point - such a mood from the general director to the cleaning lady. This is evidence that Spartak is a folk team, ”said his teammate Daniil Denisov.

"Expat the damn mother from RPL"

In addition to problems with transfers, in recent years, questions have become a headache of clubs with existing players. Several players at once (all from Latin America) did not appear in their teams after winter leave.

If after the start of the war the players enjoyed the permission of FIFA unilaterally suspend contracts (now this rule does not apply to those who signed contracts after March 7, 2022), now they use the precedent of Lassana Diarra case. In 2023, the football player challenged the rules of transfers that obliged players to pay compensation to clubs after termination of contracts.

So, the Chilean Viktor Mendes in January refused to return from vacation to the location of the Samara “Wings of the Soviets” (the Volzhans rented it from CSKA). As a result, the Moscow club had to sell a football player in the Chilean Kolo-Colo.

After a unilateral breakdown of the contract, the Akhmat Midfielder Camilo Reyers, who did not return to the Grozny club after a vacation, passed to the Brazilian club of the Gremio Club. Akhmat general general Akhmed Aydamirov said that the club turned to FIFA and UEFA due to this situation, since the player broke the contract “for no apparent reason”.

Uruguayan Rodrigo Saravii from Rostov has not yet returned to the location of the team, despite the current contract. In December, the media wrote that the player wants to return to the Argentinean “Khimnasia”, for which he spoke from 2023 to 2024.

One of the leaders of the Dynamo, Brazilian Bitello, also refused to come to the team of teams, demanding an increase in salaries or sales at Botapogo. After the failure of the negotiations, the player was forced to return to avoid large fines and is now preparing to resume the season in Russia.

Hordi Thompson, who has a scandalous reputation by the Chilean Midfielder of Orenburg, was accused of attempted murder due to an attack on his wife. According to insiders who flew to Thompson's vacation in February, they removed from an airplane to Russia, since he is forbidden to leave Chile due to a statement to the police from another girl. The football player has not yet reached the Russian Federation.

After a series of incidents with “defectors”, Russian coaches and ex-football players began to demand tougher to the legionnaires. Former CSKA football player Vladimir Ponomarev called for all foreign football players “to the damn mother from the RPL”. The ex-player of the Russian national team Igor Semshov said that in Russia, legionnaires were "dismissed and kissed in one place."

The head coach of the Russian national team left the RPL club. This saw a hint of returning to international tournaments

If scandals with players and transfers were discussed all winter, then the theme of the coaches was in the background all the time. Only on February 25, it was unexpectedly announced for everyone that FC Rostov was leaving the head coach of the Russian national team Valery Karpin.

The club said that he wants to focus on working in the national team. Karpin has long complained about fatigue due to logistics problems (the airport in Rostov-on-Don was closed due to the war, and the team was forced to get to exit matches by train), and his family has been living in Estonia for some time (Karpin was born in Narva, he has double citizenship), the connection with which is difficult due to closed borders.

Russia cannot participate in official matches because of the ban from FIFA and UEFA, introduced on February 28, 2022. Because of this, the national team is not currently in selection for the championships of Europe and the world, does not participate in the League of Nations. The team of Valery Karpina holds only comradely meetings. In 17 games, for three years, the team lost only once and thanks to this it improved positions in the FIFA ranking compared to March 2022 by two points, occupying 34th place.

In the care of Karpin, experts and fans saw a hint of a possible return to the national team to international competitions in connection with the beginnings of peace negotiations. Sports commentator Dmitry Guberniev believes that since Karpin intends to focus on working in the national team, then he and the RFU "know something more than us."

“So, this is an indirect sign that we will return in the near future. <...> Therefore, we will monitor the development of events, but, it seems to me, this is another sign that we will return. And if large sides in high fields will now agree on peaceful agreements, then we will return within a week, ”he said.

A similar opinion was expressed by the famous football agent Timur Gurtskaya.

However, in the State Duma they stopped a wave of positive and called not to rush with estimates. Deputy Dmitry Svishchev said that "in the near future we will not see our team on European arenas, and even more so on world arenas."

The nearest match of the Russian national team will be held on March 25 and will again be friendly. On this day, Karpin’s wards will play at the Moscow Dynamo stadium with Zazbia, which takes 87th place in the FIFA ranking (from 211 countries). Two more meetings are scheduled for June 6 and 10, with Nigeria and Belarus, respectively.