Marked for Kirill Kovalevich
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Boardroom1 Nov 2027
The scrutiny sharpens at Volna Pinsk
Nobody upstairs has said anything, which is the loudest thing they could do. Results buy silence in this game; the account at Volna Pinsk is running low.
Market1 Nov 2027
Only the photograph left for Mikalai Korzun
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Mikalai Korzun will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Volna Pinsk the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad1 Nov 2027
Yaroslav Oreshkevich 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.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market25 Oct 2027
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Volna Pinsk can pretend not to have heard.
Market25 Oct 2027
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Volna Pinsk they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad25 Oct 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 Volna Pinsk this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market27 Sep 2027
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Volna Pinsk is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad27 Sep 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 Volna Pinsk this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad27 Sep 2027
Words at Volna Pinsk training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Maxim Grechikha is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad13 Sep 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 Volna Pinsk this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Boardroom13 Sep 2027
The accounts make uncomfortable reading. Wages first and ambition second is the order of business at Volna Pinsk now.
Squad13 Sep 2027
Words at Volna Pinsk training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Maxim Grechikha is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Boardroom13 Sep 2027
Wages eat 150% of everything Volna Pinsk earn
There is a figure at which a wage bill stops being ambitious and becomes the reason nothing else is possible, and this club has reached it. Nothing is left over for a transfer, a stand or a rainy afternoon.
Squad13 Sep 2027
“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.
Market13 Sep 2027
The window shut and Kirill Kovalevich is still in the building
Volna Pinsk spent a month trying to move him and nobody rang back. He trains with a squad that has told him where he stands, and both sides start counting down to the next one.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Player ratings30 Aug 2027
Successful dribbles: 30. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Market30 Aug 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.
Market30 Aug 2027
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Squad30 Aug 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 Volna Pinsk this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad30 Aug 2027
Words at Volna Pinsk training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Stefano Condino is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Match28 Aug 2027
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Artem Vlasov. 1‑0 against Lida, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market23 Aug 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.
Market23 Aug 2027
The offer from Irtysh for Maxim Grechikha was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
Match21 Aug 2027
4 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
Squad23 Aug 2027
Yaroslav Oreshkevich 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.
Squad23 Aug 2027
Maxim Grechikha 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.
Squad23 Aug 2027
“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.
Squad23 Aug 2027
Every debut is a small story about the future: Sergei Malevich, 17 years old, off the academy pitches and into the first team. The parents in the stand will keep the programme.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Player ratings16 Aug 2027
Successful dribbles: 39. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Boardroom16 Aug 2027
The accounts make uncomfortable reading. Wages first and ambition second is the order of business at Volna Pinsk now.
Match14 Aug 2027
The goals have deserted Volna Pinsk
3 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Volna Pinsk can tell you which week it ends in.
Squad16 Aug 2027
Words at Volna Pinsk training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Maxim Grechikha is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Squad16 Aug 2027
Dmitriy Nizhnik 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.
Boardroom16 Aug 2027
131% of the income goes out in wages at Volna Pinsk
Every club in football pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time somebody has tried it.
Player ratings16 Aug 2027
A mark of 7.02, and nobody in the ground would argue with it. He was involved in everything that mattered and most of what did not.
Squad16 Aug 2027
Vitaliy Kibuk dropped after a run of poor form
The one version of being left out a player cannot argue with, and the one he takes worst. Somebody else has been better and the team sheet says so, in public, every week until it changes.
Squad16 Aug 2027
The manager makes an example of Nikolay Sobolev
“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.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Player ratings26 Jul 2027
Two goals and a mark of 8.95 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Squad26 Jul 2027
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 19 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Squad26 Jul 2027
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 6 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Squad26 Jul 2027
Vitaliy Kibuk 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.
Squad26 Jul 2027
Maxim Grechikha 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.
The terraces26 Jul 2027
At 22 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
Match24 Jul 2027
A 2‑0 win over Niva, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Market26 Jul 2027
Everyone has stopped pretending: Niva will make the call about Mikalai Korzun this week. Volna Pinsk have a number in mind, and the number is not shy.
Player ratings26 Jul 2027
Successful dribbles: 6. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad12 Jul 2027
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 33 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Market12 Jul 2027
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Volna Pinsk, and it is not being withdrawn.
Boardroom12 Jul 2027
The rules permit it and it stings anyway. Shota Arai has agreed terms with Torpedo-BelAZ for the summer, and until then he pulls on this shirt as a player who has already chosen his next one.
Market12 Jul 2027
Only the photograph left for Shota Arai
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Shota Arai will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Volna Pinsk the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad12 Jul 2027
Vitaliy Kibuk 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.
Squad12 Jul 2027
Maxim Grechikha 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.
Squad12 Jul 2027
“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.
Match10 Jul 2027
Baranovichi left with the points after a 0‑1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Player ratings12 Jul 2027
Successful dribbles: 14. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market5 Jul 2027
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Volna Pinsk, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad5 Jul 2027
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 40 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Player ratings5 Jul 2027
Successful dribbles: 27. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad5 Jul 2027
“The easiest signature of my career.” Maxim Grechikha and Volna Pinsk agree another 2 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad5 Jul 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 Volna Pinsk this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad5 Jul 2027
Words at Volna Pinsk training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Maxim Grechikha is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Player ratings21 Jun 2027
Maxim Grechikha, 34, rolls back the years — 8.04
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.04 at 34, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Boardroom21 Jun 2027
There is no worse way to lose a footballer. Matvey Kudryavtsev has pre-agreed a move away, which means every appearance between now and June is made by a man the club can no longer sell, and somebody upstairs will be asked why the contract was allowed to get here.
Player ratings21 Jun 2027
Successful dribbles: 23. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad21 Jun 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 Volna Pinsk this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match19 Jun 2027
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Daniil Tkachik. 3‑1 against Lokomotiv Gomel, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Squad21 Jun 2027
Words at Volna Pinsk training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Maxim Grechikha is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
The terraces21 Jun 2027
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 22-year-old it feels ownership of. Kirill Kovalevich has it now, and everything he does for the rest of his time here will be measured against the goodwill he was handed for free.
Boardroom21 Jun 2027
139% of the income goes out in wages at Volna Pinsk
Every club in football pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time somebody has tried it.
Player ratings21 Jun 2027
Ninety minutes of Daniil Tkachik at his very best
Marked 8.23. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Volna Pinsk.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Player ratings14 Jun 2027
Successful dribbles: 29. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Market14 Jun 2027
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Volna Pinsk, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad14 Jun 2027
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Volna Pinsk may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Squad14 Jun 2027
Vitaliy Kibuk 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.
Squad14 Jun 2027
Maxim Grechikha 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.
Match12 Jun 2027
8 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
Match12 Jun 2027
Ostrovets made Volna Pinsk work for it, but the scoreboard read 1‑0 at the end and the table does not ask how.
Player ratings14 Jun 2027
Ninety minutes of Dmitriy Matyash at his very best
Marked 8.05. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Volna Pinsk.
Squad14 Jun 2027
“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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad7 Jun 2027
A knee injury of the worst kind for Alexey Stroychuk
16 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Volna Pinsk lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Market7 Jun 2027
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Volna Pinsk can pretend not to have heard.
Squad7 Jun 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 Volna Pinsk this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad7 Jun 2027
Words at Volna Pinsk training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Stefano Condino is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Squad7 Jun 2027
“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.
Match5 Jun 2027
Uni-X Labs left with the points after a 0‑1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad24 May 2027
A knee injury of the worst kind for Alexey Stroychuk
30 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Volna Pinsk lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Player ratings24 May 2027
Successful dribbles: 22. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad24 May 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 Volna Pinsk this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad24 May 2027
Words at Volna Pinsk training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Maxim Grechikha is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Boardroom24 May 2027
135% of the income goes out in wages at Volna Pinsk
Every club in football pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time somebody has tried it.
Match22 May 2027
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Dmitriy Matyash. 1‑0 against Molodechno, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Player ratings17 May 2027
Successful dribbles: 27. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad17 May 2027
Kirill Zakharov: that is not what I was promised
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Volna Pinsk have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Squad17 May 2027
Vitaliy Kibuk 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.
Squad17 May 2027
Stefano Condino 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.
Squad17 May 2027
The manager makes an example of Vitaliy Kibuk
“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.
Player ratings17 May 2027
A mark of 7.08, and nobody in the ground would argue with it. He was involved in everything that mattered and most of what did not.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Player ratings3 May 2027
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 8.86, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
Market3 May 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.
Squad3 May 2027
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Volna Pinsk may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Squad3 May 2027
Yaroslav Oreshkevich 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.
Squad3 May 2027
Maxim Grechikha 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.
Match1 May 2027
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Dmitriy Matyash. 2‑1 against Bumprom Gomel, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
The terraces3 May 2027
At 23 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
Squad3 May 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Kirill Kovalevich, and the manager let it.
Player ratings3 May 2027
1 error, one goal, and a night in front of the same three seconds. He will see it tonight, tomorrow and probably in February, and everybody who has played knows exactly which frame he keeps stopping on.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Player ratings22 Mar 2027
Age has not caught Vitaliy Kibuk yet — 8.14
At 38 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.14 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Player ratings22 Mar 2027
Successful dribbles: 25. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad22 Mar 2027
Dmitriy Matyash 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.
Squad22 Mar 2027
Words at Volna Pinsk training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Maxim Grechikha is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
The terraces22 Mar 2027
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 22-year-old it feels ownership of. Alexey Stroychuk has it now, and everything he does for the rest of his time here will be measured against the goodwill he was handed for free.
Match20 Mar 2027
A 2‑0 win over Lokomotiv Gomel, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market30 Nov 2026
Only the photograph left for Vitaliy Kibuk
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Vitaliy Kibuk will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Volna Pinsk the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad30 Nov 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 Volna Pinsk this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad30 Nov 2026
Shota Arai 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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market12 Oct 2026
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Volna Pinsk is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Boardroom12 Oct 2026
The rules permit it and it stings anyway. Kirill Kovalevich has agreed terms with Torpedo-BelAZ for the summer, and until then he pulls on this shirt as a player who has already chosen his next one.
Squad12 Oct 2026
Vitaliy Kibuk 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
Steady
Squad7 Sep 2026
A knee injury of the worst kind for Amir Khairulin
39 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Volna Pinsk lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Market7 Sep 2026
Vitaliy Kibuk has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Volna Pinsk they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Market7 Sep 2026
“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.
Boardroom7 Sep 2026
The rules permit it and it stings anyway. Artem Vlasov has agreed terms with Torpedo-BelAZ for the summer, and until then he pulls on this shirt as a player who has already chosen his next one.
Market7 Sep 2026
Volna Pinsk spend $30.0K to raise the standard
This is not cover and nobody is pretending it is. $30.0K has been paid because Stefano Condino is straightforwardly better than what was already here, and the club has decided to stop waiting.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Words at Volna Pinsk training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Lizwe Nxele is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Match8 Aug 2026
Some goals win a match and some take one off somebody else. Kirill Kovalevich scored in the 87th minute, Lokomotiv Gomel had already begun thinking about the journey home, and Volna Pinsk took the lot.
Market10 Aug 2026
Vitaliy Kibuk has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Volna Pinsk they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Market10 Aug 2026
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Volna Pinsk, and it is not being withdrawn.
Player ratings10 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 25. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Boardroom10 Aug 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.
Squad10 Aug 2026
Yaroslav Oreshkevich 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.
Squad10 Aug 2026
A move Artem Polshakov 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. Artem Polshakov is living that version at Volna Pinsk, and it tends to show in the first month.
Squad10 Aug 2026
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Lizwe Nxele commits to Volna Pinsk for another 2 years.
The terraces10 Aug 2026
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 21-year-old it feels ownership of. Kirill Kovalevich has it now, and everything he does for the rest of his time here will be measured against the goodwill he was handed for free.