From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market4 Oct 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.
Match2 Oct 2027
2-3 to Torpedo Miass, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Boardroom4 Oct 2027
164% of the income goes out in wages at Kaluga
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.
Squad4 Oct 2027
The medical room confirms 31 days on the sidelines for Bogdan Boldyrev, and a plan built around him now has to be rebuilt.
Squad4 Oct 2027
Daud Daliev gets it from the manager
“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.
Squad4 Oct 2027
An error at the back is a moment; an error in goal is a goal. Roman Volochay knows it, the crowd knew it instantly, and there was nobody behind him to make it anything else.
Loan watch4 Oct 2027
“I am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at Kaluga, and 2 appearances in 13 say he has earned the hearing.
Squad4 Oct 2027
The first one is the one every signing is asked about until it arrives. It has arrived, and he can stop being asked.
Market4 Oct 2027
The list is a quiet document with a loud meaning. Artem Kuzmin may talk to anybody who asks, and everybody at the club understands what that means.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match27 Sep 2027
Kaluga are in among the leaders
Position 2 and 15 points on the board. Nobody at the ground will say the word out loud yet, and everybody at the ground is thinking it.
Match25 Sep 2027
Rodina 2 left with the points after a 0-1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Squad27 Sep 2027
The manager makes an example of Evgeny Lukinykh
“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.
Squad27 Sep 2027
Daud Daliev has company in his position
The competition arrived without a word said to him about it. Daud Daliev keeps the shirt for now, at Kaluga's convenience rather than his own.
Squad27 Sep 2027
Artem Kuzmin 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.
Market27 Sep 2027
The best deals are the ones the accountants never notice. Dmitry Rakhmanov arrives at Kaluga with his wages the only cost and something to prove the only clause.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Boardroom16 Aug 2027
Kaluga counting the cost
The accounts make uncomfortable reading. Wages first and ambition second is the order of business at Kaluga now.
Match14 Aug 2027
A 2-1 win over Torpedo Miass, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Squad16 Aug 2027
Artem Kuzmin gets it from the manager
“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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market9 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.
Match7 Aug 2027
Rodina 2 left with the points after a 1-2 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Squad9 Aug 2027
The medical room confirms 34 days on the sidelines for Prokhor Kovalev, and a plan built around him now has to be rebuilt.
Boardroom9 Aug 2027
102% of the income goes out in wages at Kaluga
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.
Market9 Aug 2027
Kaluga and Ivan Nikin are talking past each other
“There is a gap, and pretending there is not helps nobody.” Neither side has moved, and the calendar is working for exactly one of them.
Loan watch9 Aug 2027
“I am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at Kaluga, and 0 appearances in 5 say he has earned the hearing.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market5 Jul 2027
The name of Kirill Balashov has come up in conversations Kaluga were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Squad5 Jul 2027
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Kirill Balashov commits to Kaluga for another 4 years.
Squad5 Jul 2027
The captaincy has been taken off Rinat Shakerov. Kaluga will call it a decision about the team; a dressing room reads it as a verdict on a man.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Boardroom7 Jun 2027
Silverware for Kaluga
They will talk about this season in this town for a long time. The trophy comes home with the squad, and the route is already agreed.
Boardroom7 Jun 2027
Kaluga are going up
Promotion, confirmed and mathematical, and a town that will not sleep much tonight. Whatever else this season had in it, it ends a division higher than it began.
Squad7 Jun 2027
Ilja Sokolov 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.
Squad7 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.
Squad7 Jun 2027
22 years old, every age group at this club behind him, and a borrowed player of much the same standard in front of him every Saturday. The parents in the stand have noticed, and so has every kid below him.
Squad7 Jun 2027
The captaincy goes to Rinat Shakerov. It is not a job that wins matches, but a dressing room always notices who is given it.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad31 May 2027
Ilja Sokolov knocks on the manager's door
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Kaluga, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Squad31 May 2027
The message was aimed at the stands as much as the dressing room: Ilja Grischenko plays, and the argument is closed until the manager decides otherwise.
Squad31 May 2027
A welcome sight on the training pitch: Khalid Abduljawad has come through recovery and is pushing for a place again.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad3 May 2027
The message was aimed at the stands as much as the dressing room: Ilja Grischenko plays, and the argument is closed until the manager decides otherwise.
Squad3 May 2027
A welcome sight on the training pitch: Alexey Polev has come through recovery and is pushing for a place again.
Loan watch3 May 2027
6 appearances in 36 fixtures. A loan is supposed to be football, and this one has turned into a change of address.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Match22 Mar 2027
Kaluga up to position 1
19 points on the board and a place in the leading group. Nobody at the ground is saying the word out loud yet.
Market22 Mar 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.
Boardroom22 Mar 2027
197% of the income goes out in wages at Kaluga
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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Boardroom1 Mar 2027
The numbers do not look good at Kaluga
Wages have outrun income and the accountants have started attending meetings they used to send apologies to. Ambition comes second in a season like this.
Squad1 Mar 2027
Kaluga will explain it as a decision about the team, and it may well be one. A dressing room has never once read it that way.
Squad1 Mar 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.
Squad1 Mar 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 Kaluga, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Market1 Mar 2027
The name of Ivan Matyushenko keeps appearing in other people's back pages. Kaluga say nothing, which says plenty.
Market1 Mar 2027
The window shut and Rinat Shakerov is still in the building
Kaluga 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
Squad15 Feb 2027
The manager makes an example of Ilja Sokolov
“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.
Loan watch15 Feb 2027
“I am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at Kaluga, and 6 appearances in 25 say he has earned the hearing.
Squad15 Feb 2027
Artem Nadolskiy 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
Steady
Squad18 Jan 2027
“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.
Loan watch18 Jan 2027
“I did not go to Kosmos to sit and watch. I want to come back to Kaluga and fight for my place.” 5 appearances in 21 matches say the rest.
Squad18 Jan 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 Kaluga, and both men came out saying it was fine.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Loan watch21 Dec 2026
“I did not go to Kosmos to sit and watch. I want to come back to Kaluga and fight for my place.” 5 appearances in 17 matches say the rest.
Squad21 Dec 2026
“The easiest signature of my career.” Khalid Abduljawad and Kaluga agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad21 Dec 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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad7 Dec 2026
“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.
Market7 Dec 2026
The shirt still fits. Rezo Meskhidze is back at Kaluga, and half the ground remembers him in these colours already. Some signings need selling to the town; this one sold itself.
Squad7 Dec 2026
“The easiest signature of my career.” Rezo Meskhidze and Kaluga agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad7 Dec 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.
Squad7 Dec 2026
It is a strip of cloth and it decides nothing on a Saturday. It still tells the dressing room exactly whose opinion the manager values, which is the whole point of it.
Market7 Dec 2026
The name of Ivan Matyushenko keeps appearing in other people's back pages. Kaluga say nothing, which says plenty.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Loan watch16 Nov 2026
“I am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at Kaluga, and 2 appearances in 9 say he has earned the hearing.
Squad16 Nov 2026
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Kaluga, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Loan watch16 Nov 2026
12 appearances away from home and 0 goals to show for them. Every one of them makes next summer's conversation a little more expensive.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad9 Nov 2026
Ilja Sokolov knocks on the manager's door
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Kaluga, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Market9 Nov 2026
The name of Ivan Matyushenko keeps appearing in other people's back pages. Kaluga say nothing, which says plenty.
Loan watch9 Nov 2026
9 starts and a season average of 6.77. The loan is doing exactly what it was arranged to do.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match10 Oct 2026
Still nobody has beaten Kaluga
The unbeaten run reaches 8. Some of them were wins and some were escapes, but a side that refuses to lose is a side other dressing rooms talk about.
Match10 Oct 2026
Three points for Kaluga, 2-0 the final word against Irtysh in a contest settled by the finer margins.
Squad12 Oct 2026
A player who expected to start watched it instead. The manager will call it a decision for the team; Ivan Matyushenko will call it something else in private.
Squad12 Oct 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.
Squad12 Oct 2026
Igor Sokolov wants a proper job in this side
Shifted about, taken off before the hour, asked to do somebody else's running — Igor Sokolov has had enough of being useful and would like to be picked. Kaluga know, and have known for weeks.
Market12 Oct 2026
The name of Ivan Matyushenko keeps appearing in other people's back pages. Kaluga say nothing, which says plenty.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad10 Aug 2026
111 days, the medical staff say, and medical staff are optimists by profession. The team sheet will look wrong without him.
Market10 Aug 2026
The interest is real enough to have reached print. Kaluga have said nothing, which in a transfer window is its own kind of answer.
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.
Market10 Aug 2026
“There is a gap, and pretending there is not helps nobody.” Neither side has moved, and the calendar is working for exactly one of them.
Market10 Aug 2026
Dinamo Barnaul are about to pick up the phone
A conversation is coming this week. Kaluga will put a number on him, and from there it stops being football and becomes arithmetic.
Match8 Aug 2026
It finished 1-1, and it somehow always looked like it would. One of those afternoons where the table moves less than the tempers.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Squad3 Aug 2026
There were 7 saves in it, and at least three that had no business being saves at all. The ten outfield players owe him a drink and they know it.
Squad3 Aug 2026
“The easiest signature of my career.” Daud Daliev and Kaluga agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Market3 Aug 2026
The interest is real enough to have reached print. Kaluga have said nothing, which in a transfer window is its own kind of answer.
Match1 Aug 2026
A 1-0 win over Dinamo Vladivostok, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Market3 Aug 2026
“There is a gap, and pretending there is not helps nobody.” Neither side has moved, and the calendar is working for exactly one of them.
Market3 Aug 2026
49 months to run and not a word offered. A club that lets the calendar negotiate for it usually ends up losing to the calendar.