It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Naftan this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
5 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.
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.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Egor Ihnatovich 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 academy exists for exactly this morning. Valery Kendysh 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.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Kirill Chalavach 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 academy exists for exactly this morning. Sergei Klimovich 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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Ciprian Nedelcearu. 1‑0 against Torpedo-BelAZ, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Viitorul can pretend not to have heard.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 27 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Nicusor Cicaldau 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.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Naftan can pretend not to have heard.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Naftan this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad15 Feb 2027
Words at Naftan training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Alexandr Alexandrovich 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.
6 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.
Nobody at Naftan 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.
A season-long look at somebody else’s player: Daniil Zorin arrives from Spartak Moscow with something to prove and a return ticket in the drawer. Good loans make everybody richer; this one starts Saturday.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Viitorul will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Squad8 Feb 2027
Daniel Ratiu 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Viitorul this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Jesús Villarroel 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.
Squad18 Jan 2027
Words at Naftan training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Alexandr Alexandrovich 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.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 70 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
“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 Viitorul, and it is not being withdrawn.
The name of Ionut Mitrita has come up in conversations Viitorul were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Viitorul this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Nobody makes a documentary about a hamstring and everybody in the game fears one. Viitorul will be careful with the return date, because the second one is always worse than the first.
In brief
SquadBogdan Burca falls out with a teammate over standards
42 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Naftan lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
“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 Naftan, and it is not being withdrawn.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Naftan this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 20 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
“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 Naftan, and it is not being withdrawn.
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.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Naftan can pretend not to have heard.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Naftan have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
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.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Naftan is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Rodolfo Gamarra 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.
In brief
SquadA muscle injury sidelines Evgeniy Zemko for 14 days
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Naftan can pretend not to have heard.
The rules permit it and it stings anyway. Nikita Piven has agreed terms with Molodechno for the summer, and until then he pulls on this shirt as a player who has already chosen his next one.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Ilya Seleznev will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Naftan the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Zinedin Smajlović 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 paperwork is done long before the player is. Artur Chuyko has agreed terms to come here when his current deal runs out, which means Naftan have spent a summer's transfer budget on a phone call.
22 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Naftan lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Naftan is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
There is no worse way to lose a footballer. Vitaliy Podshiblov 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Naftan this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Slonim will keep picking him until June and will get nothing for him after it. Ivan Furmanov has pre-agreed a move to Naftan, and the only people who lose in that arrangement are the ones who let the contract run down.
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.
10 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Viitorul can pretend not to have heard.
Cosmin Keseru 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.
0‑1 to FCSB, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Words at Viitorul training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Cristian Nedelcearu 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 one version of being left out a player cannot argue with, and the one he takes worst. Somebody else has been better and the team sheet says so, in public, every week until it changes.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Naftan can pretend not to have heard.
Zinedin Smajlović 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 paperwork is done long before the player is. Daniil Chernyavskiy has agreed terms to come here when his current deal runs out, which means Naftan have spent a summer's transfer budget on a phone call.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 22-year-old it feels ownership of. Zinedin Smajlović 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.
He is doing things on a Saturday afternoon that nobody around him can answer, which is flattering for about one season and a problem after that. Naftan will not keep him by pretending otherwise.
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.
“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 Naftan, and it is not being withdrawn.
1 for Andrey Lebedev, marked 7.54, and a centre-half's name in the part of the report he normally only reaches by mistake. He will not be allowed to forget it in the dressing room for a month.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Naftan this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 22-year-old it feels ownership of. Mihhail Orlov 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.
The one version of being left out a player cannot argue with, and the one he takes worst. Somebody else has been better and the team sheet says so, in public, every week until it changes.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Naftan, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Two goals and a mark of 8.50 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Naftan can pretend not to have heard.
Rodolfo Gamarra 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 terraces24 Aug 2026
Naftan spend $550.0K on the signing the town wanted
It is the rarest sequence in football: supporters ask for something, and the club goes and does it. $550.0K for Mihhail Orlov, and for one week nobody is complaining about anything.
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.
2 goals to the good, and then a slow surrender of everything that had been earned. Cosmin Keseru will not be the one blamed for it, but nobody at Viitorul escapes the conversation that follows a collapse like this.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Viitorul can pretend not to have heard.
Cosmin Keseru 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.
Words at Viitorul training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Bogdan Burca 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.