Marked for Robert Kramaric
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad25 Sep 2028
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 25 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Market25 Sep 2028
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Dinamo Kirov is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Match23 Sep 2028
Whatever happens, Dinamo Kirov 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.
Squad25 Sep 2028
Artem Beskibalny and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Looking ahead25 Sep 2028
Top-of-the-table clash for Dinamo Kirov
Dinamo Moscow 2 next, and the two sides the division is watching meet each other. Whoever wins will be told nothing is decided in the same breath as being congratulated.
Squad25 Sep 2028
Robert Kramaric 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.
Squad25 Sep 2028
He is not being dropped. There is simply nowhere in the formation Dinamo Kirov are playing to put a man who does what he does, which is a harder thing to be told than any team sheet.
Market25 Sep 2028
He is 16, and the scouting reports agree on the only line that matters: the ceiling. Signings like this are lottery tickets written by professionals.
Match23 Sep 2028
It needed Bilal Bilalov to find the net to bring anything home at all: 1‑1 against Volgar, and half the dressing room will call it a point won.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Player ratings17 Jul 2028
Successful dribbles: 31. 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.
Market17 Jul 2028
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Legion can pretend not to have heard.
The dugout17 Jul 2028
“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.
Match15 Jul 2028
Still nobody has beaten Legion
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.
Transfer targets17 Jul 2028
Everything agreed with Angusht, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
Squad17 Jul 2028
A falling-out at Legion
Haruna Abubakar and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad17 Jul 2028
Robert Toma 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. Robert Toma has, at Legion, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
Boardroom17 Jul 2028
Graduation day at Legion
1 boys move up, and somewhere in the building the people who coached them at twelve are quietly having the best morning of their working year. Nothing about this shows up in a result and it is why the academy exists.
Transfer targets17 Jul 2028
The approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match24 Apr 2028
The view from the top for Legion
50 points, and the rest of the division looking up. Every side that finishes first spends the season pretending it is not thinking about it, and this one has started pretending.
Squad24 Apr 2028
A falling-out at Legion
Haruna Abubakar and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad24 Apr 2028
Artem Mironov 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 dugout24 Apr 2028
Anzor Tokaev has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Legion 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 dugout24 Apr 2028
Nika Ananidze knocks on the manager’s door
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Nika Ananidze trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Market24 Apr 2028
The name of Edoardo Cavaliere keeps appearing in other people's back pages. Legion say nothing, which says plenty.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad24 Jan 2028
A falling-out at Legion
Agustín Esposto and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
The dugout24 Jan 2028
“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.
Squad24 Jan 2028
A row about effort at Legion
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Artem Mironov was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Boardroom24 Jan 2028
Wages eat 102% of everything Legion 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.
The dugout24 Jan 2028
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
Market24 Jan 2028
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Daniil Melnikov signs something — a contract at Legion or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match15 Nov 2027
Legion are in among the leaders
Position 2 and 31 points on the board. Nobody at the ground will say the word out loud yet, and everybody at the ground is thinking it.
The dugout15 Nov 2027
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Legion have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Squad15 Nov 2027
“Some mornings you wake up and you are still a long way from everything you know.” It is not the football and it never was; Legion are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Loan watch15 Nov 2027
“I watch every Legion game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Chertanovo runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
Squad15 Nov 2027
Agustín Esposto 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.
Market15 Nov 2027
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Robert Kramaric has his answer from Legion; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
The dugout15 Nov 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.
The dugout15 Nov 2027
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Legion told Artem Yermakov something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
The dugout15 Nov 2027
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Squad20 Sep 2027
5 goals in one afternoon from one man. The other players were also present, a witness confirmed.
Match18 Sep 2027
5‑0, and the margin flattered nobody — it could have carried another goal or two without complaint. Afternoons like this are why people keep coming.
Squad20 Sep 2027
24 goals and a season average of 7.62. Form like that gets noticed well beyond this town.
Player ratings20 Sep 2027
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 10.00 at 33, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Market20 Sep 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 Legion can pretend not to have heard.
Match18 Sep 2027
Nobody wants to play Legion right now
5 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.
Match18 Sep 2027
The run at home goes on for Legion
12 matches unbeaten here. Every visiting manager is asked about it in the week before, which is precisely why it keeps going.
The dugout20 Sep 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.
Market20 Sep 2027
As if he never left: Islam Vagabov returns
Some transfers need a press campaign. This one needed a shirt with the old number on it. Islam Vagabov is a Legion player again, and the town has its story of the summer.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Squad23 Aug 2027
4 goals in one game. The first was taken well, the second was taken greedily, and by the third the crowd were simply waiting for him to get the ball.
Match18 Aug 2027
Legion march on in the cup
Chertanovo are out and Legion go through, 6‑0 the final word. The bracket opens up a little, and everyone allows themselves a look at it.
Player ratings23 Aug 2027
No sign of nerves from Edoardo Cavaliere at 21 — 10.00
The hardest thing about being 21 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Edoardo Cavaliere did not need any: 10.00, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Player ratings23 Aug 2027
A brace, and Robert Kramaric takes the afternoon — 9.12
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Robert Kramaric provided it, and the 9.12 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Player ratings23 Aug 2027
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Sindre Mauritz-Hansen provided it, and the 8.75 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Match21 Aug 2027
The run at home goes on for Legion
10 matches unbeaten here. Every visiting manager is asked about it in the week before, which is precisely why it keeps going.
Squad23 Aug 2027
A season average of 7.29 with 14 goals behind it. Opponents have started planning around him, which is the sincerest compliment football pays.
Squad23 Aug 2027
A falling-out at Legion
Haruna Abubakar and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Match31 Jul 2027
No mercy from Legion
Pobeda will want this one forgotten quickly: 6‑1, every duel lost, and a long ride home. Legion were ruthless in the way good sides are ruthless.
Squad2 Aug 2027
4 goals in one afternoon from one man. The other players were also present, a witness confirmed.
Player ratings2 Aug 2027
At 33 every good afternoon gets called a throwback, and this one was: 9.94, and nobody on the pitch better.
Market2 Aug 2027
Only the photograph left for Nura Dan Megi
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Nura Dan Megi will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Legion the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Boardroom2 Aug 2027
An order from above at Legion: somebody has to go
Balance sheets do not care about form or about who the manager was planning to build around. The board have decided a sale is required, and the only question left is which name ends up carrying it.
Transfer targets2 Aug 2027
Everything agreed with Kuban, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
Squad2 Aug 2027
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Obaid Mohamed Salem and Legion agree another 2 years.
Match31 Jul 2027
7 goals in one match, Sindre Mauritz-Hansen on the scoresheet, and a scoreline that will look like a misprint. Neutrals could not have asked more of Legion and Pobeda.
Transfer targets2 Aug 2027
Legion asked and Volgar said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad12 Apr 2027
A knee injury of the worst kind for Artem Mironov
59 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Legion lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Match12 Apr 2027
Legion are in among the leaders
Position 2 and 59 points on the board. Nobody at the ground will say the word out loud yet, and everybody at the ground is thinking it.
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 Legion this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad12 Apr 2027
Words at Legion training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Vladimir Malyshev 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 dugout12 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.
The dugout12 Apr 2027
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
The dugout22 Feb 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.
Transfer targets22 Feb 2027
The clubs have shaken hands with Rubin; the player has not yet. Personal terms are next, and personal terms are where more deals die than anybody prints.
Squad22 Feb 2027
Tempers go at Legion
Daniil Melnikov 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.
Boardroom22 Feb 2027
Wages eat 116% of everything Legion 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.
Transfer targets22 Feb 2027
A loan enquiry to Avangard: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.
Transfer targets22 Feb 2027
Legion have made the call to KAMAZ. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
Transfer targets22 Feb 2027
Krasnodar have been asked whether they would lend him. Loans are agreed quickly or not at all, and this one will be one or the other by the weekend.
Squad22 Feb 2027
“I did not sign to watch. Nobody does.” The oldest complaint in the game, and Legion will have to answer it with minutes or with a move.
The dugout22 Feb 2027
Edoardo Cavaliere has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Legion 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
Upbeat
Match18 Jan 2027
Legion up to position 2
53 points on the board and a place in the leading group. Nobody at the ground is saying the word out loud yet.
Player ratings18 Jan 2027
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 8.87, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
Match16 Jan 2027
Nobody wants to play Legion right now
4 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.
Squad18 Jan 2027
A falling-out at Legion
Sindre Mauritz-Hansen and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad18 Jan 2027
“Some mornings you wake up and you are still a long way from everything you know.” It is not the football and it never was; Legion are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
The terraces18 Jan 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.
Match16 Jan 2027
Three points for Legion, 2‑0 the final word against Rubin Yalta in a contest settled by the finer margins.
The dugout18 Jan 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.
The dugout18 Jan 2027
A promise honoured at Legion
Something was said to Emin Sarıgül and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad28 Dec 2026
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Legion will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Player ratings28 Dec 2026
Two goals and a mark of 8.62 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Player ratings28 Dec 2026
Successful dribbles: 28. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Player ratings28 Dec 2026
No sign of nerves from Jess Degenaers at 21 — 8.10
The hardest thing about being 21 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Jess Degenaers did not need any: 8.10, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Match26 Dec 2026
6 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about Legion and Nart in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
Match26 Dec 2026
It finished 4‑2, and it was Haruna Abubakar’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Legion.
Match26 Dec 2026
Still nobody has beaten Legion
The unbeaten run reaches 6. Some of them were wins and some were escapes, but a side that refuses to lose is a side other dressing rooms talk about.
The terraces28 Dec 2026
He is 21 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.
Boardroom28 Dec 2026
123% of the income goes out in wages at Legion
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
Squad14 Dec 2026
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Legion will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Market14 Dec 2026
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Alexandr Shevtsov has been at this club since he was a boy and is now, formally, one of the first-team squad — which for a local readership beats any signing of any size.
The dugout14 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.
Squad14 Dec 2026
A row about effort at Legion
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Kirill Gurov was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad14 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 Legion this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The dugout14 Dec 2026
A promise honoured at Legion
Something was said to Kirill Gurov and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
The dugout14 Dec 2026
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
The dugout14 Dec 2026
The view from the dugout
“We did not lose. Some weeks that is all you get, and I would rather have the point than not.” Innokentiy Sychev chose the glass-half-full version of 0‑0; the supporters left with the other one.
Market14 Dec 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.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad7 Dec 2026
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 47 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Player ratings7 Dec 2026
Two goals and a mark of 9.08 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Squad7 Dec 2026
At 20, Edoardo Cavaliere is already the best thing here
An average of 7.04 in a first team he is several years too young for. Legion have something, and by now the whole division has noticed.
Squad7 Dec 2026
Words exchanged at Legion
Edoardo Cavaliere 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.
The terraces7 Dec 2026
He is 23 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.
Match5 Dec 2026
It finished 2‑0, and it was Edoardo Cavaliere’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Legion.
Player ratings7 Dec 2026
Successful dribbles: 17. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
The dugout7 Dec 2026
The manager makes an example of Anton Yeremin
“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 Dec 2026
He is not being dropped. There is simply nowhere in the formation Legion are playing to put a man who does what he does, which is a harder thing to be told than any team sheet.