Marked for Ivan Bakhar
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market25 Jan 2027
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Squad25 Jan 2027
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Dinamo Minsk this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad25 Jan 2027
Makar Litskevich arrives at the club he grew up with
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Makar Litskevich has, at Dinamo Minsk, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
Squad25 Jan 2027
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Alexey Ivanov was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Market25 Jan 2027
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Alexey Gavrilovich has his answer from Dinamo Minsk; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
The dugout25 Jan 2027
Fawaz Abdullahi has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Dinamo Minsk will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
The dugout25 Jan 2027
“I would rather say it to his face than read about it.” The meeting was requested by the player, which tells you most of what you need to know.
The dugout25 Jan 2027
He asked about his future and was given an answer with minutes in it. The manager has now made a promise in a building where promises are remembered, and the clock on it has started.
Squad25 Jan 2027
A new face in his position and a shirt he thought he owned suddenly up for discussion. Dinamo Minsk have promised nothing, which is what clubs promise at this stage.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad28 Dec 2026
30 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Dinamo Minsk lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Squad28 Dec 2026
Fawaz Abdullahi falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Squad28 Dec 2026
Roman Begunov was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
The dugout28 Dec 2026
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
The dugout28 Dec 2026
Fawaz Abdullahi has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Dinamo Minsk will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
The dugout28 Dec 2026
Fawaz Abdullahi asks for a word with the manager
“I would rather say it to his face than read about it.” The meeting was requested by the player, which tells you most of what you need to know.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad14 Dec 2026
A knee injury of the worst kind for Ivan Bachauskas
45 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Dinamo Minsk lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Match12 Dec 2026
1‑0 against Slovan Liberec, and a performance that will be described to people who were not there for the rest of the season. Vladimir Obukhov was at the centre of the description.
Player ratings14 Dec 2026
Vladimir Obukhov, 34, rolls back the years — 8.06
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.06 at 34, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Squad14 Dec 2026
Kristian Eriksen and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad14 Dec 2026
A move Vasiliy Vasilenko would have made for nothing
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Vasiliy Vasilenko is living that version at Dinamo Minsk, and it tends to show in the first month.
Match12 Dec 2026
6 matches without a win, and then this, against Slovan Liberec. Relief is a strange noise in a football ground and it was the only noise at the end.
Player ratings14 Dec 2026
Successful dribbles: 20. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
Squad14 Dec 2026
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Alexey Ivanov was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout14 Dec 2026
The team sheet said everything about Moustapha Djimet
Warm-up bib, ninety minutes of watching, and a handshake at the end that fooled nobody. Big matches tell you who a manager trusts; this one told Moustapha Djimet.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Player ratings28 Sep 2026
Vladimir Obukhov, 34, rolls back the years — 7.88
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 7.88 at 34, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Konstantin Savichev and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Player ratings28 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 20. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
The dugout28 Sep 2026
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Maxim Shvetsov was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Player ratings28 Sep 2026
A defender's afternoon for Alexey Ivanov
Defensive actions: 17. He was first to everything and second to nothing, and the goalkeeper had an easy day because of it.
Player ratings28 Sep 2026
17 times he got in the way of something. Centre-halves get written about when they make mistakes and ignored when they do not, so an afternoon like this needs saying out loud: he is the reason the scoreline reads as it does.
The dugout28 Sep 2026
Somebody else has been better, the manager has said so with a team sheet, and there is no argument to be had. He will get the shirt back the only way it can be got back.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 31. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Transfer targets14 Sep 2026
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Andijon keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Match12 Sep 2026
Nobody wants to play Dinamo Minsk right now
6 wins in a row changes how opponents warm up: quieter, more glances across. Runs end, everybody knows that — but nobody in this dressing room is planning for it.
Boardroom14 Sep 2026
Window shuts: 7 in, 1 out at Dinamo Minsk
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 7 arrived, 1 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
Match12 Sep 2026
Three points for Dinamo Minsk, 3‑2 the final word against Vitebsk in a contest settled by the finer margins.
Boardroom14 Sep 2026
The paperwork is done long before the player is. Fedor Lebedev has agreed terms to come here when his current deal runs out, which means Dinamo Minsk have spent a summer's transfer budget on a phone call.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Fawaz Abdullahi was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Transfer targets14 Sep 2026
Dinamo Minsk asked and Dukla Prague said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
Marked 8.71 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Market7 Sep 2026
Ivan Bakhar hands in a written request
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Dinamo Minsk can pretend not to have heard.
Transfer targets7 Sep 2026
The clubs have shaken hands with Nasaf; the player has not yet. Personal terms are next, and personal terms are where more deals die than anybody prints.
Transfer targets7 Sep 2026
The offer went to Andijon this week and it is theirs to answer. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loud the door closes.
Match5 Sep 2026
Momentum is a hard thing to buy and an easy thing to lose, and right now Dinamo Minsk have 5 straight wins of it.
Player ratings7 Sep 2026
At 34 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.06 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Player ratings7 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 25. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Boardroom7 Sep 2026
He will play here until the summer and then walk out of the door for free, having already signed elsewhere. Supporters will manage the first part of that sentence; it is the second they will struggle with.
Squad7 Sep 2026
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Dinamo Minsk this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Boardroom7 Sep 2026
Nothing happens for months and then he simply arrives, at no cost, having signed a pre-contract while still turning out for somebody else. It is the least dramatic way to sign a footballer and frequently the shrewdest.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Match26 Aug 2026
A 2‑1 win over Isloch, a place in the next round, and the quiet arithmetic every supporter does on the walk home: how many more until a final?
Player ratings31 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 31. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Match29 Aug 2026
Some goals win a match and some take one off somebody else. Ivan Bakhar scored in the 89th minute, Torpedo-BelAZ had already begun thinking about the journey home, and Dinamo Minsk took the lot.
Player ratings31 Aug 2026
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 8.43, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
Match29 Aug 2026
Momentum is a hard thing to buy and an easy thing to lose, and right now Dinamo Minsk have 4 straight wins of it.
Match29 Aug 2026
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Ivan Bakhar. 3‑2 against Torpedo-BelAZ, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Boardroom31 Aug 2026
The paperwork is done long before the player is. Vadim Kurlovich has agreed terms to come here when his current deal runs out, which means Dinamo Minsk have spent a summer's transfer budget on a phone call.
Transfer targets31 Aug 2026
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. NK Celje have kept their man, and Dinamo Minsk go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad31 Aug 2026
Fawaz Abdullahi was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Player ratings10 Aug 2026
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 8.05, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
Squad10 Aug 2026
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Konstantin Savichev is living that version at Dinamo Minsk, and it tends to show in the first month.
Transfer targets10 Aug 2026
Dinamo Minsk have gone to Molde with a bid, and the supporters have gone to the internet with an opinion about it. Whether either changes anything is up to the selling club.
Market10 Aug 2026
Slavia Mozyr did not want to sell and the number is why they did. $110.0K for Andrey Solovey, and the expectation that arrives with him is the kind no amount of settling-in period softens.
Transfer targets10 Aug 2026
The offer went to BATE this week and it is theirs to answer. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loud the door closes.
Match8 Aug 2026
It finished 3‑1, and it was Fawaz Abdullahi’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Dinamo Minsk.
Transfer targets10 Aug 2026
Dinamo Minsk asked and Volna Pinsk said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Boardroom10 Aug 2026
Nothing happens for months and then he simply arrives, at no cost, having signed a pre-contract while still turning out for somebody else. It is the least dramatic way to sign a footballer and frequently the shrewdest.
Squad10 Aug 2026
Konstantin Savichev and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.