The Sochi Sentinel
Market10 Aug 2026
Not going: Zakhar Fedorov stays at Sochi
“I know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” Slavia Mozyr had the fee agreed and the shirt ready; they did not have the player, and now they will not.
Market10 Aug 2026
Krasnodar 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.
Transfer targets10 Aug 2026
Mateo Herrera is a medical away from Sochi
The deal with Cortulua is done in every sense but the one that puts him on the pitch. Nothing goes wrong at this stage, except on the occasions when it does.
Transfer targets10 Aug 2026
No thanks: Leonardo Valencia rejects the move
Sochi had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Cortulua, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
Squad10 Aug 2026
Alexandr Soldatenkov signs on for more
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Alexandr Soldatenkov and Sochi agree another 3 years.
Transfer targets10 Aug 2026
Sochi rebuffed over Fernando Costanza
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Krylya Sovetov have kept their man, and Sochi go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad10 Aug 2026
Sergey Volkov 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 Sochi this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match8 Aug 2026
Pavel Meleshin sends Sochi past Dinamo Makhachkala
It finished 2‑1, and it was Pavel Meleshin’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Sochi.
The terraces10 Aug 2026
The crowd has taken to Pavel Meleshin
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.
In brief
- Player ratings Anton Zinkovskiy beats them one at a time
- Market Sochi promote Ivan Zabolotsky from within
- Market One of our own: Ruslan Kalinovsky joins the Sochi first team