Ivan Ordets

Central Defender - Aktobe
9 Oct 2027
Saturday
Process

Marked for Ivan Ordets

62 Edition

The Aktobe Courier

4 Oct 2027
From our football correspondent Steady

Squad

Alexandr Zarutskii signs a new deal

“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Alexandr Zarutskii commits to Aktobe for another 2 years.

Squad

Tempers go at Aktobe

Alexandr Zarutskii 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 dugout

A promise honoured at Aktobe

Something was said to Kirill Bozhenov and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.

The dugout

Temirlan Erlanov 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.

Squad

Aktobe have started building around Alexandr Koksharov

He used to be one of the options. He is now one of the men the options are picked around, and the change happened quietly enough that only the dressing room noticed on the day.

Squad

Thanasis Papadoudis: “I am not a substitute”

“I have done everything asked of me in training and it has not changed a thing on a Saturday.” The most familiar complaint in football, and one Aktobe will have to answer with minutes or with a transfer.

The dugout

Fabián Peñaloza has been promised minutes

A conversation in the manager’s office, and a commitment that came out of it. Promises like that are cheap to make and expensive to break, and Fabián Peñaloza has written the date down.

Market

Maxim Marchenko placed on the list

Aktobe have made Maxim Marchenko available for transfer. A career at this club is over in all but paperwork.

Market

The Ivan Ordets question follows Aktobe around

Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Ivan Ordets’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.

In brief

Back issues
61 Edition

The Aktobe Courier

27 Sep 2027
From our football correspondent Steady

The dugout

Temirlan Erlanov: 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.” Aktobe have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.

Squad

Alexandr Koksharov 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 Aktobe this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.

Squad

Words at Aktobe training over how hard people work

Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Temirlan Erlanov 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.

Squad

Maxim Shomko signs on for more

“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Maxim Shomko and Aktobe agree another 3 years.

The dugout

Pibe gets picked when it counts

Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Pibe is on it.

The dugout

Maxim Shomko 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

60 Edition

The Aktobe Courier

20 Sep 2027
From our football correspondent Steady

Squad

A falling-out at Aktobe

Alexandr Zarutskii and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.

Transfer targets

Artem Litosh stays at Shakhter as time runs out

A deal that was a phone call from completion at lunchtime was dead by midnight. Aktobe will try again when the window opens; Shakhter may not be selling by then.

Squad

Temirlan Erlanov 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

Baktiyor Taykenov signs a new deal

“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Baktiyor Taykenov commits to Aktobe for another 3 years.

The dugout

When it matters, Dmytro Topalov plays

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.

The dugout

Georgii Zhukov has been promised minutes

A conversation in the manager’s office, and a commitment that came out of it. Promises like that are cheap to make and expensive to break, and Georgii Zhukov has written the date down.

In brief

59 Edition

The Aktobe Courier

13 Sep 2027
From our football correspondent Steady

Market

Ivan Ordets turns Shakhter down

“It was not right for me. I am not going to explain why to anybody except the people I owe an explanation to.” A deal agreed between two clubs, and a player who declined to be part of it.

Match

Aktobe are in among the leaders

Position 3 and 41 points on the board. Nobody at the ground will say the word out loud yet, and everybody at the ground is thinking it.

Boardroom

Deadline passes with 19 signed and 4 gone

That is the business done at Aktobe until the window opens again. Whether it was enough will be answered on Saturdays rather than in a column, and the first Saturday is close.

Transfer targets

Artem Litosh due for a Aktobe medical

Everything agreed with Shakhter, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.

Squad

Words exchanged at Aktobe

Alexandr Zarutskii and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.

Transfer targets

Sigma Olomouc tell Aktobe: John Dembe is not for sale

The approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.

Market

One of our own: Gafurzhan Dosmagambetov joins the Aktobe first team

Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Gafurzhan Dosmagambetov is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.

Squad

9 new faces, and Aktobe 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.

Squad

Moustapha Djimet wants out of the dugout

“I did not sign to watch. Nobody does.” The oldest complaint in the game, and Aktobe will have to answer it with minutes or with a move.

In brief

58 Edition

The Aktobe Courier

6 Sep 2027
From our football correspondent Steady

Match

Aktobe bow out of the cup

Astana go through and Aktobe 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 dugout

Timur Rudosel'skii keeps the receipts

“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Aktobe may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.

Squad

Tempers go at Aktobe

Alexandr Zarutskii 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.

Squad

Daniel Sosah is in the form of his life

A season average of 7.38 with 12 goals behind it. Opponents have started planning around him, which is the sincerest compliment football pays.

Transfer targets

Door shut on Artem Litosh

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

Player ratings

Pibe runs at them all day

Successful dribbles: 20. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.

The dugout

Moustapha Djimet 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.

Squad

A late step up for Thanasis Papadoudis

At 24 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.

Market

The Ivan Ordets conversation is coming

Everyone has stopped pretending: Shakhter will make the call about Ivan Ordets this week. Aktobe have a number in mind, and the number is not shy.

In brief

57 Edition

The Aktobe Courier

30 Aug 2027
From our football correspondent Steady

Transfer targets

Uroš Sremčević will not be coming to Aktobe

Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Crvena Zvezda is saying, and nobody at Aktobe is enjoying the guessing.

Squad

Tempers go at Aktobe

Giorgi Zaria 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 targets

PAOK tell Aktobe: Anestis Mythou is not for sale

The approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.

Transfer targets

Aktobe try to borrow Alexandr Koksharov

Krasnodar have been asked whether they would lend him. Loans are agreed quickly or not at all, and this one will be one or the other by the weekend.

The dugout

A door opens for Ivan Ordets

He asked about his future and was given an answer with minutes in it. The manager has now made a promise in a building where promises are remembered, and the clock on it has started.

The dugout

Vitalii Laturnus knocks on the manager’s door

“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Vitalii Laturnus trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.

In brief

54 Edition

The Aktobe Courier

9 Aug 2027
From our football correspondent Steady

Squad

Words at Aktobe training over how hard people work

Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Daniel Sosah 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.

Transfer targets

Aktobe rebuffed over Daniil Kondrakov

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

Squad

Pibe signs on for more

“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Pibe and Aktobe agree another 3 years.

Squad

A falling-out at Aktobe

Denis Dmitriev and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.

The dugout

The manager makes an example of Temirlan Erlanov

“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.

Squad

Aktobe are still strangers to each other

5 new signings in one window. Every one may be an upgrade and the side can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild the verdicts never mention.

The dugout

Ivan Ordets knocks on the manager's door

“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Aktobe, and both men came out saying it was fine.

The dugout

Arman Keńesov gets picked when it counts

Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Arman Keńesov is on it.

Market

The Daniel Sosah talk will not go away

Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Aktobe know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.

In brief

49 Edition

The Aktobe Courier

5 Jul 2027
From our football correspondent Crisis

Market

Ivan Ordets 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 Aktobe, and it is not being withdrawn.

The dugout

Timur Islamkhan: 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.” Aktobe have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.

Match

4 matches without a win for Aktobe

The run now stands at 4, and the questions being asked around Aktobe are no longer polite ones.

Transfer targets

Aktobe make their move for Timur Rudosel'skii

$170.0K on the table at Shakhter. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.

Squad

Tempers go at Aktobe

Giorgi Zaria 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 targets

Zenit tell Aktobe: Kirill Kosarev is not for sale

The approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.

Match

Ordabasy take the points off Aktobe

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

Squad

A row about effort at Aktobe

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

Squad

Daniel Sosah named player of the month

The award goes to Daniel Sosah, and nobody around here is inclined to argue with the choice.

In brief

  • Boardroom $744.3K on the table at Aktobe
  • The dugout The manager’s verdict
  • Transfer targets Aktobe try to borrow Nüraly Älip
45 Edition

The Aktobe Courier

7 Jun 2027
From our football correspondent Upbeat

Squad

The knee: Ädilkhan Taňzharyqov out for 17 days

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

Match

Aktobe up to position 3

27 points on the board and a place in the leading group. Nobody at the ground is saying the word out loud yet.

Market

Ivan Ordets 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 Aktobe, and it is not being withdrawn.

Squad

Tempers go at Aktobe

Giorgi Zaria 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.

Match

Aktobe see off Irtysh

Three points for Aktobe, 2‑0 the final word against Irtysh in a contest settled by the finer margins.

Player ratings

Erkebūlan Seidakhmet was unplayable

Successful dribbles: 19. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.

Squad

A row about effort at Aktobe

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

Player ratings

Ninety minutes of Daniel Sosah at his very best

Marked 8.13. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Aktobe.

Player ratings

Ninety minutes of Dmytro Topalov at his very best

Marked 8.09. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Aktobe.

In brief

41 Edition

The Aktobe Courier

10 May 2027
From our football correspondent Steady

Squad

Ädilkhan Taňzharyqov damages knee ligaments — 45 days out

The words a physio says slowly. 45 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.

Match

Aktobe up to position 3

20 points on the board and a place in the leading group. Nobody at the ground is saying the word out loud yet.

Match

A bad afternoon for Aktobe against Tobol

0‑2 to Tobol, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.

The dugout

The view from the dugout

“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 0‑2 defeat, delivered by Askhat Akhmetov to a room that had heard them before.

Squad

Yeldos Baizhanov 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 Aktobe this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.

Squad

The division's best last weekend was a Aktobe man

It is a small honour and it is not nothing: somebody watched every match in the division and decided that Artur Shushenachev was the best thing in any of them.

Looking ahead

Temirlan Erlanov faces his old club

Zhetysu next, and one man in the Aktobe dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.

Player ratings

Erkebūlan Seidakhmet beats them one at a time

Successful dribbles: 11. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.

The dugout

Darkhan Berdibek has become a man the manager trusts

Nobody at Aktobe 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.

In brief

39 Edition

The Aktobe Courier

26 Apr 2027
From our football correspondent Upbeat

Squad

A knee injury of the worst kind for Ädilkhan Taňzharyqov

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

Player ratings

Erkebūlan Seidakhmet runs at them all day

Successful dribbles: 27. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.

Squad

A falling-out at Aktobe

Giorgi Zaria and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.

Squad

Words at Aktobe training over how hard people work

Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Artur Shushenachev 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 ratings

One of those days for Artur Shushenachev

There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.01, and no argument anywhere in the ground.

Match

Late, late show earns Aktobe a point

Minute 88, against Akzhaiyk, and a goal that felt like a win to everybody who had stayed. It was a draw. Nobody leaving the ground will describe it as one.

Match

Artur Shushenachev rescues a point for Aktobe

It needed Artur Shushenachev to find the net to bring anything home at all: 1‑1 against Akzhaiyk, and half the dressing room will call it a point won.

The dugout

The manager’s verdict

“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Askhat Akhmetov was not hiding it after 1‑1, and nobody in the Aktobe dressing room was either.

The dugout

Ivan Ordets 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

30 Edition

The Aktobe Courier

22 Feb 2027
From our football correspondent Steady

Squad

Ädilkhan Taňzharyqov damages knee ligaments — 126 days out

The words a physio says slowly. 126 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.

Transfer targets

Artur Sagitov due for a Aktobe medical

Everything agreed with Torpedo Moscow, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.

Squad

A falling-out at Aktobe

Giorgi Zaria and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.

In brief

27 Edition

The Aktobe Courier

1 Feb 2027
From our football correspondent Steady

Squad

Erbol Baizhanov damages knee ligaments — 24 days out

The words a physio says slowly. 24 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.

Market

Astana come back empty-handed

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

Transfer targets

Aktobe rebuffed over Älisher Sulei

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

Squad

Words at Aktobe training over how hard people work

Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Artur Shushenachev 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.

Transfer targets

Aktobe try to borrow Azamat Tuiakbaev

Kairat have been asked whether they would lend him. Loans are agreed quickly or not at all, and this one will be one or the other by the weekend.

Boardroom

Open for business: Aktobe enter the window

The registration window is open and the phone has started. Between now and the deadline this club will be linked with forty players and sign three, which is the usual ratio.

In brief