Marked for Junior Rincon
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad16 Aug 2027
Daniil Knyazev: 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.” Khimik have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Market16 Aug 2027
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Khimik is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Boardroom16 Aug 2027
There is no worse way to lose a footballer. Mal Januzi 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.
Boardroom16 Aug 2027
Khimik counting the cost
The accounts make uncomfortable reading. Wages first and ambition second is the order of business at Khimik now.
Squad16 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 Khimik this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The terraces16 Aug 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.
Match14 Aug 2027
Volna made Khimik work for it, but the scoreboard read 1‑0 at the end and the table does not ask how.
Squad16 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.
Player ratings16 Aug 2027
Successful dribbles: 16. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market31 May 2027
Renato Osorio 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 Khimik can pretend not to have heard.
Market31 May 2027
Renato Osorio has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Khimik they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad31 May 2027
Tempers go at Khimik
Evgeny Bolotov 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.
Squad31 May 2027
Dmitry Veber 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.
Squad31 May 2027
“I have given this everything, but my family is not here and neither am I, not really.” A footballer can be coached out of bad form. Nobody has ever been coached out of this, and Khimik know it.
Squad31 May 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Alexey Dolya, and the manager let it.
From our football correspondent
Steady
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 Khimik this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad24 May 2027
Words at Khimik training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Dmitry Veber 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.
Squad24 May 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Gevork Sarkisyan, and the manager let it.
Squad24 May 2027
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Junior Rincon and Khimik agree another 1 years.
Boardroom24 May 2027
Khimik counting the cost
The accounts make uncomfortable reading. Wages first and ambition second is the order of business at Khimik now.
Loan watch24 May 2027
21 appearances at Druzhba and the goals keep coming. Khimik are watching this more closely than the borrowing club would like.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market22 Mar 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 Khimik, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad22 Mar 2027
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Khimik may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Squad22 Mar 2027
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Junior Rincon commits to Khimik for another 1 years.
Squad22 Mar 2027
Words at Khimik training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Dmitry Veber 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.
Boardroom22 Mar 2027
Wages eat 126% of everything Khimik 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.
Squad22 Mar 2027
Too much change too quickly at Khimik
7 signings in three months. Every one of them may be an upgrade and the team can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild that never appears in the transfer-window verdicts.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
The terraces15 Mar 2027
The boos come down from three sides
“We pay for this every fortnight. The least we want is somebody who looks like he cares.” 5 of the 25 senior players walked off into it; the rest were not playing.
Squad15 Mar 2027
The manager makes an example of Patricio García
“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.
Match13 Mar 2027
Beaten 0‑1, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Squad15 Mar 2027
Words at Zulia training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Yeferson Soteldo 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.
Squad15 Mar 2027
Tempers go at Zulia
Darwin Rincon 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.
Squad15 Mar 2027
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Junior Castillo trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Player ratings15 Mar 2027
8 shots, and a count that reads like a good afternoon until you check the other column. Strikers survive weeks like this on the understanding that the chances keep arriving; the day they stop is the day it becomes a problem.
Player ratings15 Mar 2027
5.23. Every footballer has these and most of them happen away from a full ground; his did not, and he will be aware of that all week.
Player ratings15 Mar 2027
5.31. Every footballer has these and most of them happen away from a full ground; his did not, and he will be aware of that all week.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market28 Dec 2026
$190.0K — a new record at Zulia
No footballer has ever cost this club more, and the number will be read out every time he misplaces a pass for the next two years.
Market28 Dec 2026
Junior Rincon 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 Zulia can pretend not to have heard.
Squad28 Dec 2026
Tempers go at Zulia
Sergio Gonzalez 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 terraces28 Dec 2026
Zulia spend $190.0K on the signing the town wanted
It is the rarest sequence in football: supporters ask for something, and the club goes and does it. $190.0K for Salomon Martinez, and for one week nobody is complaining about anything.
Squad28 Dec 2026
Yeferson Soteldo 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
“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
Uneasy
Squad7 Dec 2026
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Gabriel Gonzalez commits to Zulia for another 2 years.
Squad7 Dec 2026
Diego Rincon 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.
Squad7 Dec 2026
Tempers go at Zulia
Rafael Osorio 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
Uneasy
Market30 Nov 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 Zulia, and it is not being withdrawn.
Market30 Nov 2026
The general version of this complaint is that a player wants more. The specific version names the thing: he wants to walk out under floodlights against clubs from other countries, and he has stopped pretending otherwise.
Squad30 Nov 2026
Words at Zulia training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Yeferson Savarino 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
Squad19 Oct 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 Zulia this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Gabriel Gonzalez 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.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Junior Rincon has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Zulia 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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market31 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 Zulia, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad31 Aug 2026
Yeferson Savarino 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.
Squad31 Aug 2026
Tempers go at Zulia
Yeferson Soteldo 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.