Marked for Gleb Protasenya
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market5 Jul 2027
BATE say no — this time
The offer from Orsha for Yan Shumskiy 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.
Squad5 Jul 2027
Gleb Protasenya: 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.” BATE have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Player ratings5 Jul 2027
Successful dribbles: 25. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad5 Jul 2027
Tempers go at BATE
Josepmir Ballón 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.
Squad5 Jul 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Jonas Lössl, and the manager let it.
Match3 Jul 2027
A bad afternoon for BATE against Naftan
0‑1 to Naftan, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Boardroom5 Jul 2027
Nobody left the BATE dressing room in a hurry
The door stayed shut a long time after the final whistle. What was said in there is between them; whether it worked is between them and Saturday.
Squad5 Jul 2027
The award is a small thing with a heavy meaning: for four weeks nobody in this division did his job better. BATE have the trophy on a shelf and the player in the side.
Boardroom5 Jul 2027
BATE release $1.5M for the manager
The board have put money on the table rather than an encouraging word. What happens to it now is somebody else's problem, and somebody else's job.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad12 Apr 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 BATE this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match10 Apr 2027
Whatever happens, BATE do not lose
6 games unbeaten now. Some were earned and some were survived, but a habit is forming — and habits are the hardest thing in football to play against.
Player ratings12 Apr 2027
Defensive actions: 21, and a clean sheet at the end of it. A centre-half's best afternoons look like nothing happening, which is precisely the point.
Match10 Apr 2027
Three points for BATE, 1‑0 the final word against Vitebsk in a contest settled by the finer margins.
Player ratings12 Apr 2027
Marked 8.51 — 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.
Squad12 Apr 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.
Player ratings12 Apr 2027
Headers, blocks, tackles, interceptions — 17 of them, and not one goal behind him. The sort of performance that never makes a highlight reel and wins football matches.
Player ratings12 Apr 2027
Headers, blocks, tackles, interceptions — 16 of them, and not one goal behind him. The sort of performance that never makes a highlight reel and wins football matches.
Squad12 Apr 2027
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at BATE, and both men came out saying it was fine.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad21 Dec 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 BATE this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad21 Dec 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Jean Charles Yao, and the manager let it.
Market21 Dec 2026
The clock does Ilya Raschenya’s negotiating for him
1 months left, and both sides know what that means: every week without a signature, the fee BATE could ask drops and the wages Ilya Raschenya can ask rise.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market17 Aug 2026
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around BATE they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Market17 Aug 2026
BATE say no — this time
The offer from Niva for Maxim Telesh 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.
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 23. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Tempers go at BATE
Vladislav Yatskevich 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.
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
Defensive actions: 22, and a clean sheet at the end of it. A centre-half's best afternoons look like nothing happening, which is precisely the point.
Market17 Aug 2026
The phone has started ringing about Yan Shumskiy again, and this time the name on the line is Niva. BATE are listening politely and promising nothing.
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.26, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
Some games turn on a moment; this one turned on a man. 7.60 on the card, and the BATE support went home talking about one name.
Squad17 Aug 2026
This league is too small for Egor Filipenko
He is doing things on a Saturday afternoon that nobody around him can answer, which is flattering for about one season and a problem after that. BATE will not keep him by pretending otherwise.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market10 Aug 2026
Only the photograph left for Ilya Raschenya
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Ilya Raschenya will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around BATE the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Player ratings10 Aug 2026
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.
Squad10 Aug 2026
Tempers go at BATE
Vladislav Yatskevich 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
“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.
Squad10 Aug 2026
Jonas Lössl has outgrown this division
There is a level at which a footballer stops being tested and starts being contained, and he reached it some time ago. BATE know it, and so does everybody who watches him.
Squad10 Aug 2026
“The easiest signature of my career.” Gleb Protasenya and BATE agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Market10 Aug 2026
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at BATE, another week without a signature from Ilya Raschenya.
Market10 Aug 2026
Both sides expect a conversation in the coming days. BATE will name a price, and everything after that is arithmetic.
Market10 Aug 2026
“They were honest with me, and I would rather know.” Arseniy Skopets has been informed he is not in the manager's thinking at BATE.