Marked for Foma Andreev
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match1 Sep 2027
Akzhaiyk bow out of the cup
Astana go through and Akzhaiyk go home, 0‑1 the scoreline that did it. The dressing room will call the league the priority now, because that is what dressing rooms say.
The terraces6 Sep 2027
The ground has had enough
“We travel everywhere and we get this.” 9 of the 28 senior players heard it walking off, and the ones who did not hear it were not playing.
Market6 Sep 2027
Akzhaiyk say no — this time
The offer from Atyrau for Timur Dosmagambetov 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.
Squad6 Sep 2027
Ivan Kuzmichev 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.
Squad6 Sep 2027
Erbol Logvinenko is a better footballer than he was
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 20 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
Market6 Sep 2027
“They were honest with me, and I would rather know.” Foma Andreev has been informed he is not in the manager's thinking at Akzhaiyk.
Squad6 Sep 2027
The manager makes an example of Ivan Kuzmichev
“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 ratings6 Sep 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.
Boardroom6 Sep 2027
$1.1M on the table at Akzhaiyk
The board have answered with money instead of encouragement, which is the only answer a manager ever wants. Spending it well is now entirely his problem.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market30 Aug 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 Akzhaiyk can pretend not to have heard.
Squad30 Aug 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.
Market30 Aug 2027
The interest is real enough to have reached print. Akzhaiyk have said nothing, which in a transfer window is its own kind of answer.
Squad30 Aug 2027
Aibol Shomko in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Akzhaiyk this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Loan watch30 Aug 2027
“I did not go to Aktobe to sit and watch. I want to come back to Akzhaiyk and fight for my place.” 3 appearances in 29 matches say the rest.
Squad30 Aug 2027
Samat Logvinenko 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
Squad2 Aug 2027
Nurali Suyumbayev damages knee ligaments — 105 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 105 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Squad2 Aug 2027
A fracture rules Abzal Akhmetov out for 26 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Akzhaiyk will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Market2 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.
Market2 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.
Player ratings2 Aug 2027
Successful dribbles: 21. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad2 Aug 2027
Or Hasin in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Akzhaiyk this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad2 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.
Boardroom2 Aug 2027
Akzhaiyk release $1.1M 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.
Loan watch2 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 Akzhaiyk, and 3 appearances in 25 say he has earned the hearing.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad5 Jul 2027
A fracture rules Abzal Akhmetov out for 56 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Akzhaiyk will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Market5 Jul 2027
Akzhaiyk say no — this time
The offer from Irtysh for Foma Andreev 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.
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 Akzhaiyk, and it is not being withdrawn.
Match3 Jul 2027
Astana left with the points after a 1‑2 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Loan watch5 Jul 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 Akzhaiyk, and 2 appearances in 21 say he has earned the hearing.
Squad5 Jul 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Bourama Boiré, and the manager let it.
Squad5 Jul 2027
The young player of the month award goes to a 21-year-old at Akzhaiyk who has looked like the finished article for four weekends running. The next four are the ones that decide whether he is.
Squad5 Jul 2027
Askhat Nurgaliev 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.
Boardroom5 Jul 2027
Akzhaiyk sign 6 boys into the academy
None of them will be seen by anybody outside the training ground for three years, most of them will never play a senior match, and one of them might change the club. That is the whole proposition, and it is why academies exist.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad28 Jun 2027
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 64 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Match26 Jun 2027
Cup progress for Akzhaiyk
A 0‑1 win over Kairat, a place in the next round, and the quiet arithmetic every supporter does on the walk home: how many more until a final?
Market28 Jun 2027
Akzhaiyk say no — this time
The offer from Zhetysu for Bourama Boiré 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.
Squad28 Jun 2027
A shoot-out is remembered by its ending, and this one ends with Askhat Abiken: 1 kept out, and a set of supporters who will describe every one of them for the next twenty years.
Player ratings28 Jun 2027
Successful dribbles: 25. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad28 Jun 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Mohammed Ensebaev, and the manager let it.
Squad28 Jun 2027
Timur Islamkhan 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.
Player ratings28 Jun 2027
Defensive actions: 16, and a clean sheet at the end of it. A centre-half's best afternoons look like nothing happening, which is precisely the point.
Player ratings28 Jun 2027
Marked 5.44, and generously at that. Nothing came off, and by the end the crowd had stopped expecting it to.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad14 Jun 2027
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 78 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Match12 Jun 2027
Akzhaiyk cannot stop winning
4 wins on the spin now, and the question has changed from whether the run ends to who ends it. Confidence like this cannot be bought; it has to be earned exactly this way.
Match12 Jun 2027
It finished 2‑1, and it was Erbol Baizhanov’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Akzhaiyk.
Squad14 Jun 2027
Or Hasin 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 terraces14 Jun 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.
Squad14 Jun 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Foma Andreev, and the manager let it.
Match12 Jun 2027
Tobol blown away early
There is a particular helplessness in conceding 2 times before the twentieth minute. Tobol tried to reorganise, Akzhaiyk did not allow it, and the result was written long before it was confirmed.
Squad14 Jun 2027
At 25 the improving is meant to be over. It is not: 3 points better than the mark taken at the start of the year, which is the sort of thing that happens to players who take the boring parts of the job seriously.
Player ratings14 Jun 2027
A performance of 8.17 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad7 Jun 2027
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 85 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Player ratings7 Jun 2027
Mohammed Ensebaev, 21, plays like he has been here for years — 8.36
A mark of 8.36 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 21-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
Squad7 Jun 2027
Azat Suyumbayev: 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.” Akzhaiyk have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Player ratings7 Jun 2027
A first appearance Erbol Vorogovskiy will want to forget — 5.77
Everybody's debut is one of two stories and this was the other one. 5.77, and the only consolation available is that nobody's career has ever been decided by ninety minutes in a shirt he had just been given.
Match5 Jun 2027
Nobody wants to play Akzhaiyk right now
3 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.
Squad7 Jun 2027
Erbol Baizhanov 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.
Match5 Jun 2027
Atyrau made Akzhaiyk work for it, but the scoreboard read 3‑2 at the end and the table does not ask how.
The terraces7 Jun 2027
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Foma Andreev 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.
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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad24 May 2027
A fracture rules Abzal Akhmetov out for 100 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Akzhaiyk will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Player ratings24 May 2027
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 8.17, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
Market24 May 2027
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Akzhaiyk is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad24 May 2027
Erbol Baizhanov 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.
Match22 May 2027
Ordabasy made Akzhaiyk work for it, but the scoreboard read 2‑1 at the end and the table does not ask how.
Squad24 May 2027
No hiding place for Or Hasin
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Or Hasin, and the manager let it.
Loan watch24 May 2027
“I watch every Akzhaiyk game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Okzhetpes runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
Squad24 May 2027
Words at Akzhaiyk training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Timur Islamkhan 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.
Player ratings24 May 2027
Successful dribbles: 15. 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
Player ratings10 May 2027
Successful dribbles: 28. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad10 May 2027
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Foma Andreev and Akzhaiyk agree another 4 years.
Squad10 May 2027
Erbol Baizhanov 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.
Match8 May 2027
1‑2 to Okzhetpes, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Loan watch10 May 2027
“I watch every Akzhaiyk game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Aktobe runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
Squad10 May 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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad5 Apr 2027
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Akzhaiyk will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Match3 Apr 2027
Chastening afternoon for Akzhaiyk
A 2‑5 beating by Zhetysu was the sort of result that empties a stadium long before the final whistle.
Player ratings5 Apr 2027
No sign of nerves from Mohammed Ensebaev at 21 — 8.11
The hardest thing about being 21 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Mohammed Ensebaev did not need any: 8.11, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Market5 Apr 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 Akzhaiyk can pretend not to have heard.
Squad5 Apr 2027
Erbol Baizhanov 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.
Match3 Apr 2027
7 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about Akzhaiyk and Zhetysu in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
Market5 Apr 2027
“They were honest with me, and I would rather know.” Abzal Akhmetov has been informed he is not in the manager's thinking at Akzhaiyk.
Squad5 Apr 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Erbol Baizhanov, and the manager let it.
Boardroom5 Apr 2027
The music was off and the showers ran late. What was said in that dressing room stays there, but Saturday will publish the minutes.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad29 Mar 2027
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Akzhaiyk will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Squad29 Mar 2027
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Akzhaiyk may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Market29 Mar 2027
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Akzhaiyk they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Boardroom29 Mar 2027
There is no worse way to lose a footballer. Talgat Nuserbayev 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.
Match27 Mar 2027
Beaten 1‑2, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Squad29 Mar 2027
15 days, the medical staff say, and medical staff are optimists by profession. The team sheet will look wrong without him.
Squad29 Mar 2027
Words at Akzhaiyk training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Artem Polivanov 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.
Loan watch29 Mar 2027
“I did not go to Okzhetpes to sit and watch. I want to come back to Akzhaiyk and fight for my place.” 0 appearances in 8 matches say the rest.
Player ratings29 Mar 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
Steady
Squad15 Mar 2027
The words a physio says slowly. 15 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Squad15 Mar 2027
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 48 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Squad15 Mar 2027
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Akzhaiyk may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
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.” 9 of the 33 senior players walked off into it; the rest were not playing.
Match13 Mar 2027
Irtysh left with the points after a 1‑2 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Squad15 Mar 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Bourama Boiré, and the manager let it.
Loan watch15 Mar 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 Akzhaiyk, and 0 appearances in 5 say he has earned the hearing.
Player ratings15 Mar 2027
Successful dribbles: 14. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Player ratings15 Mar 2027
Dauren Kuat could not find anything
4.61. 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
Upbeat
Squad8 Mar 2027
The words a physio says slowly. 22 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Squad8 Mar 2027
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 55 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Market8 Mar 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 Akzhaiyk can pretend not to have heard.
Squad8 Mar 2027
“The easiest signature of my career.” Bourama Boiré and Akzhaiyk agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Boardroom8 Mar 2027
Graduation day at Akzhaiyk
7 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.
Squad8 Mar 2027
Or Hasin in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Akzhaiyk this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The terraces8 Mar 2027
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Foma Andreev 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.
Market8 Mar 2027
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Kairat Murtazaev has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.
Market8 Mar 2027
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Erbol Nuserbayev has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Market3 Aug 2026
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Akzhaiyk can pretend not to have heard.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Erbol Baizhanov 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 Aug 2026
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Samat Akhmetov and Akzhaiyk agree another 2 years.
The terraces3 Aug 2026
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.
Player ratings3 Aug 2026
20 defensive actions and a clean sheet at the end of them. A defender's afternoon can only be told by what did not happen, which is why nobody makes a highlights package out of one and every manager in the division would take it.
Match1 Aug 2026
Shakhter made Akzhaiyk work for it, but the scoreboard read 1‑0 at the end and the table does not ask how.
Squad3 Aug 2026
The manager makes an example of Erbol Baizhanov
“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.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Words at Akzhaiyk training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Timur Islamkhan 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.
Player ratings3 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 14. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.