Viktor Semak

Attacking Midfielder (R) - Sochi U19
4 Mar 2029
Sunday
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Marked for Viktor Semak

108 Edition

The Sochi Sentinel

21 Aug 2028
From our football correspondent Uneasy

Squad21 Aug 2028

A knee injury of the worst kind for Viktor Semak

21 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Sochi lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.

Market21 Aug 2028

Astana come back empty-handed

The bid was some way short and Sochi did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.

Match19 Aug 2028

The wait goes on for Sochi

6 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.

Market21 Aug 2028

Alexandr Osipov puts it in writing

“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 The request is on a desk at Sochi, and it is not being withdrawn.

Squad21 Aug 2028

Tempers go at Sochi

Pavel Meleshin 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.

Transfer targets21 Aug 2028

Door shut on Daniel Maldini

Sochi asked and Atalanta said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.

The dugout21 Aug 2028

No hiding place for Mikhail Ignatov

“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Mikhail Ignatov, and the manager let it.

Squad21 Aug 2028

7 new faces, and Sochi are still learning each other

A squad rebuilt inside one window pays for it in a currency nobody budgets for. The football is not worse than the sum of the players; it is worse than the sum of the players who have played together before.

Player ratings21 Aug 2028

Vladislav Saus was the difference for Sochi

Marked 7.40. Ask anyone leaving the ground what settled it and you will get one name, which is the only award that has ever really counted.

In brief

Back issues
107 Edition

The Sochi Sentinel

14 Aug 2028
From our football correspondent Uneasy

Squad14 Aug 2028

Viktor Semak damages knee ligaments — 30 days out

The words a physio says slowly. 30 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.

Market14 Aug 2028

Ramiro Di Luciano asks to leave Sochi

“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.

Market14 Aug 2028

Maxim Kainov agrees terms with Yenisey

The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Sochi people have started saying his name in the past tense.

Match12 Aug 2028

5 matches without a win for Sochi

The run now stands at 5, and the questions being asked around Sochi are no longer polite ones.

Transfer targets14 Aug 2028

Henrique Carmo turns down Sochi

The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Zenit keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.

Transfer targets14 Aug 2028

Door shut on Bertrand Fourrier

Sochi asked and Rostov said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.

Match12 Aug 2028

3 matches without a goal for Sochi

The chances are being made and something is happening between the making and the finishing. 3 matches now, and the anxiety in the ground arrives a little earlier every week.

Squad14 Aug 2028

A row about effort at Sochi

Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Roman Yezhov was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.

The dugout14 Aug 2028

The manager makes an example of Zakhar Fedorov

“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.

In brief

106 Edition

The Sochi Sentinel

7 Aug 2028
From our football correspondent Crisis

Squad7 Aug 2028

The knee: Viktor Semak out for 38 days

38 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Sochi lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.

Market7 Aug 2028

Pavel Meleshin says no to CSKA Moscow

“I listened, I thought about it, and I am staying. That is the whole story.” The clubs had agreed a fee. Pavel Meleshin had not agreed to go, which turned out to be the part that mattered.

Market7 Aug 2028

Vyacheslav Litvinov asks to leave Sochi

“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.

Market7 Aug 2028

Sochi say no — this time

The offer from Nizhniy Novgorod for Daan Vekemans 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.

Match5 Aug 2028

No end in sight to Sochi's wait for a win

4 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Sochi has to find a result from somewhere.

Transfer targets7 Aug 2028

Sochi rebuffed over Chinonso Offor

Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Baltika have kept their man, and Sochi go back to a list with one name crossed off it.

Match5 Aug 2028

Krasnodar take the points off Sochi

Beaten 0‑1, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.

Squad7 Aug 2028

Roman Yezhov 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 dugout7 Aug 2028

Vyacheslav Litvinov 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.

In brief