Ivan Klimovich

Goalkeeper - Kuban
21 Nov 2027
Sunday
Process

Marked for Ivan Klimovich

59 Edition

The Kuban Gazette

13 Sep 2027
From our football correspondent Steady

Squad

Artem Varganov gets the move he always wanted

Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Artem Varganov has just signed for Kuban, and for once the answer mattered.

Market

Artem Varganov comes home

The shirt still fits. Artem Varganov is back at Kuban, and half the ground remembers him in these colours already. Some signings need selling to the town; this one sold itself.

Squad

Tempers go at Kuban

Ilja Molteninov 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.

Boardroom

Kuban counting the cost

The accounts make uncomfortable reading. Wages first and ambition second is the order of business at Kuban now.

Squad

Sergey Terekhov 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.

Squad

The manager makes an example of Yelisey Yemeljanov

“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 watch

Dmitriy Blinov wants to come home

“I did not go to Znamya Truda to sit and watch. I want to come back to Kuban and fight for my place.” 1 appearances in 5 matches say the rest.

Market

Spartak Tambov are about to pick up the phone

A conversation is coming this week. Kuban will put a number on him, and from there it stops being football and becomes arithmetic.

Market

The Mikhail Yakovlev story refuses to die

It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Mikhail Yakovlev signs something — a contract at Kuban or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.

In brief

Back issues
58 Edition

The Kuban Gazette

6 Sep 2027
From our football correspondent Upbeat

Player ratings

Nobody could get near Ilja Moseichuk

Successful dribbles: 44. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.

Match

Ahmed Sharaf breaks Avangard hearts

Some goals win a match and some take one off somebody else. Ahmed Sharaf scored in the 89th minute, Avangard had already begun thinking about the journey home, and Kuban took the lot.

Squad

Ilja Molteninov 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 Kuban this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.

Squad

Words at Kuban training over how hard people work

Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Sergey Terekhov 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.

Boardroom

Wages eat 181% of everything Kuban 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 terraces

The crowd has taken to Ahmed Sharaf

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.

Match

Ahmed Sharaf the difference as Kuban beat Avangard

Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Ahmed Sharaf. 1‑0 against Avangard, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.

Squad

John Otieno 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.

Market

Rubin Yalta are about to pick up the phone

A conversation is coming this week. Kuban will put a number on him, and from there it stops being football and becomes arithmetic.

In brief