Kuban football clubs completed training camps and strengthened themselves for the final part of the season

FC Krasnodar, PFC Sochi and FC Chernomorets have approached the first official games of 2024. The “Bulls” will fight for gold in the Russian Championship, the “Leopards” and “Sailors” will fight for survival, each in their own league. “MK in Kuban” is about the main sporting events in the Krasnodar region.

Have you strengthened yourself enough?

The Citizens celebrated the club’s sixteenth anniversary last week. The team celebrated the holiday in Abu Dhabi at the second training camp. On the same day, the club announced the acquisition of 29-year-old wing striker Victor Sa. The footballer moved to Krasnodar from the Brazilian Botafogo. The contract with the player was signed until the end of 2025.

João Victor Santos Sa was born on March 27, 1994 in the Brazilian city of Sao Jose dos Campos. He started playing football in the youth team of the local club Primeira Camisa, then continued his studies at Atlético Joseense. In 2015, Sa moved to the Austrian club Kapfenberg, for which he scored thirty goals in 69 matches. Then the player played for two years in the Austrian LASK (29 goals scored) and spent a couple of seasons in the German Wolfsburg. In 2021, the winger went to the UAE for a year – to Al Jazeera, after which he returned to Brazil, where he has until now played for Botafogo.

The expert football community as a whole was skeptical about this acquisition. Allegedly, this is not enough reinforcement for a team aspiring to the championship. According to the Transfermarkt portal, the winger’s transfer value is 1.8 million euros. Overall, Krasnodar’s winter transfer campaign was criticized as weak, especially considering the strengthening of the City’s main rival, Zenit.

Domestic football insiders wrote that the transfer was forced and decided to take at least someone. Sa’s candidacy, as far as is known, was not agreed upon with Vladimir Ivich. The club and coach have not yet commented on this.

The Bulls completed their second training camp in Abu Dhabi with a match against the capital’s Torpedo. In this game the scoring was opened in the 56th minute. Moses distinguished himself. Oleg Kononov’s team got even in the 78th minute of the match, Alexander Ivankov scored a goal. John Cordoba put an end to the match. He scored a goal in the last minute of regulation time – 2:1.

Immediately after the game, the “bulls” returned to Krasnodar. Their first official meeting in 2024 will take place at home on March 2 as part of the nineteenth round of the Russian Championship. The Citizens will host Rubin Kazan.

The media reported that in 2023 Krasnodar’s profit amounted to 4.3 billion rubles. In 2022, the club suffered losses amounting to 4.8 billion rubles. Krasnodar’s revenue increased by 26.7 percent to 4.03 billion rubles. Advertising and sponsors brought in the most money – 2.5 billion rubles. A year earlier, this figure amounted to 2.1 billion rubles. For advertising Lavreno Ltd, a Cypriot company whose general director is Sergei Galitsky, the club received two billion rubles. Ticket sales brought Krasnodar 438.75 million rubles, which is 25.1 percent more than last year’s result. Income from the sale of paraphernalia doubled to 250 million rubles. In addition, the club received 164.5 million rubles as bonuses for participation in the Europa League and Champions League. In 2022, this figure amounted to 129.2 million rubles. Labor costs increased by a quarter to 2.9 billion rubles.

They changed the composition until the last moment

Transfer changes in Sochi took place until the end of the winter transfer window. Last week, the club released goalkeeper Nikita Goylo for the spring part of the season. According to the club’s press service, the decision was made due to the lengthy recovery time for the football player from a previous injury. Thus, the 25-year-old football player will remain at the Sochi location, but will continue to recover according to an individual program developed by the club’s medical department. Earlier, a number of media outlets wrote that this winter Goylo could return early from his loan to Zenit.

The Sochi press service reported that midfielder Amir Batyrev will spend the rest of the current season on loan at Sokol Saratov. Batyrev played thirty matches for Sochi in all tournaments and scored one goal.

Barca bought the rights to 26-year-old defender Marcelo Alves from the Brazilian club Madureira. A contract was signed with him until 2028. Alves has played for Sochi on loan since July 2023. He played seventeen matches as a member of the team.

Hovhannes Harutyunyan returned from Sochi to Pyunik. This was confirmed by the Leopards press service. According to media reports, the central midfielder agreed that he would go with Robert Moreno’s team to the training camp and, if he became a player in the main team, then he would stay. Otherwise, he will return to Yerevan on loan until the end of the season. Pyunik claims gold medals in the Armenian championship. Harutyunyan stayed with Sochi for a month and a half. According to media reports, Leopards paid 160 thousand euros for him.

“Kurortniki” completed the third training camp with a friendly match against “Fakel”. It took place in Belek, Turkey. Moreno’s team tied 0:0. The meeting was held behind closed doors.

The day after the game, the team flew to Sochi. The players received several days of rest. They gathered at the club base on February 27, where they continue preparations for the first official game of the year against Baltika. It will take place as part of the nineteenth round of the Russian Championship in Kaliningrad on March 3.

We parted with eleven and acquired seventeen

Novorossiysk Chernomorets has renewed its roster by more than half. The team, which is in last, eighteenth place in the First League, has become the most active in the transfer market in its tournament.

Eleven players left Chernomorets: goalkeepers Matvey Tyurin and Mikhail Filippov, defenders Ruslan Khagur and Alexey Grechkin, midfielders Nikita Klimov, Nikita Ponomarev, Shamil Saaduev and Stanislav Basyrov, forwards Magomed Abakarov, Vladislav Rudenko and Artem Delkin.

Dmitry Korobov, who was injured in the match against Leningradets, was also included. You can count on one of the leaders of Chernomorets only by the summer.

At the same time, the “white-blue” roster was supplemented by an impressive number of newcomers. In total, seventeen football players came to Chernomorets, eight of whom were quite young. According to the regulations of the First League, each team must have a player on the field who was born in 2002 and has the right to play for the Russian national team. At the moment, there are already a dozen of them in Chernomorets.

Novorossiysk announced at least two newcomers in each line. 22-year-old Ivan Budachev, who moved to Chernomorets from the capital’s Dynamo, and 26-year-old Dmitry Rebrov, who moved from Krasnoyarsk Yenisei, are called upon to compete with Daniil Frolkin in goal.

Chernomorets announced five newcomers to the defense. Among them there is a foreign player (the second in the club). Montenegrin Nikola Kumburovich got his 26-year-old partner Anri Chichinadze, with whom he competed in the Uzbek Turon, as his partner. The Georgian central defender has played in European cups and youth teams for his country. Chernomorets rented full-back Artem Voropaev from Moscow Rodina with the option of buying out after the end of the season. From there, 21-year-old Alexander Bezchasnyuk moved to Vadim Garanin’s team. The football player plays on the right flank of defense. Nikita Melnikov moved to Novorossiysk from Arsenal Tula, but for the last six months he has been playing in the Belarusian championship for Slavia from Mozyr. The central defender, twenty-year-old Danil Gaivoronsky, was rented by Chernomorets from Krasnodar.

Seven Novorossiysk players entered the middle line. Oleg Lanin moved to Chernomorets from Yenisey. The defensive midfielder is also a graduate of the Krasnodar academy; the 28-year-old football player is well known to Garanin from working together in the Krasnoyarsk team. Chernomorets acquired Ivan Enin from the capital’s Torpedo. The central midfielder, at the age of thirty, managed to play for Riga and for Široki Brijeg and Zrinjski from Bosnia and Herzegovina. Enin took part in seven European Cup matches and scored one goal.

The Novorossiysk team rented Ivan Zazvonkin from the capital’s Dynamo. The nineteen-year-old midfielder scored a goal against Spartak Moscow in the Russian Cup. The Chernomorets selectors found a student of the regional football school, Alexander Popovich, in the Dolgoprudny Kosmos. The defensive midfielder is twenty-one years old. Semyon Puchkov is the same age as Popovich. Before moving to Chernomorets, he played for Dynamo Stavropol. Two more newcomers are still very young. David Yesimbekov is a Kazakhstan player; a nineteen-year-old attacking midfielder played in his homeland for Zhetysu. The football player is constantly involved in youth and youth teams of his country. Dmitry Yakovlev, who is eighteen years old, was born and raised in Obninsk.

In the attack line, Chernomorets announced Merabi Uridia, who transferred from Rubin Kazan. The club also acquired two young forwards: twenty-year-old Ilya Rodionov, rented from St. Petersburg Zenit with the right to buy at the end of the season, as well as nineteen-year-old Nikita Nikiforov, who played for the capital’s Strogino club before joining the Sailors.

Chernomorets will resume the season on March 3. As part of the twenty-first round of the First League, the Novorossiysk team will go to Moscow, where they will play against one of the tournament leaders – Arsenal Tula.