From our football correspondent
Triumph
Player ratings22 Feb 2027
Successful dribbles: 42. 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.
Squad22 Feb 2027
The words a physio says slowly. 90 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.
The terraces22 Feb 2027
Rodina sell a favourite for $5.1M
The accountants will call it good business and they will be right, which is not the point anybody outside the boardroom is making. German Onugkha was one of the reasons people came, and $5.1M does not replace that by itself.
Market22 Feb 2027
German Onugkha has left for Astana in a $5.1M deal. The accountants are pleased; the supporters are less certain.
Market22 Feb 2027
Chelyabinsk come back empty-handed
The bid was some way short and Rodina did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Match20 Feb 2027
Nobody wants to play Rodina right now
4 wins in a row changes how opponents warm up: quieter, more glances across. Runs end, everybody knows that — but nobody in this dressing room is planning for it.
Squad22 Feb 2027
Danila Yemeljanov arrives at the club he grew up with
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Danila Yemeljanov has, at Rodina, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
Market22 Feb 2027
Rodina get their man
The chase for Danila Yemeljanov ended with $520.0K changing hands and Leningradets out of reasons to say no. The supporters will judge the fee the only way that matters: on Saturdays.
Market22 Feb 2027
Kirill Ushatov has left for Akhmat Grozny in a $930.0K deal. The accountants are pleased; the supporters are less certain.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Squad15 Feb 2027
Defences have started doubling up on German Onugkha
35 goals and a season average of 7.69 will do that. The space he used to find has gone; he keeps scoring anyway, which is the mark of the real thing.
Squad15 Feb 2027
97 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Rodina lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Match13 Feb 2027
Rarely has this fixture seen a display like it: 9‑0 against Volga, and it could have been more.
Squad15 Feb 2027
4 goals in one game. The first was taken well, the second was taken greedily, and by the third the crowd were simply waiting for him to get the ball.
Market15 Feb 2027
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Rodina people have started saying his name in the past tense.
Match13 Feb 2027
Another one collected away from home
9 on the bounce on the road for Rodina. The coaches leave early, arrive at unlovely grounds in the dark, and keep coming home with three points.
Squad15 Feb 2027
The match ball belongs to Sebastián Arce, whose 3 goals turned a difficult afternoon into a procession.
Market15 Feb 2027
“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.
Market15 Feb 2027
The interest is real enough to have reached print. Rodina have said nothing, which in a transfer window is its own kind of answer.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Player ratings8 Feb 2027
Successful dribbles: 57. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Squad8 Feb 2027
104 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Rodina lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Market8 Feb 2027
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Chernomorets waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Rodina is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Match6 Feb 2027
Yordy Reyna wins it after the whistle should have gone
93 minutes played. Yordy Reyna found the finish in time that only existed because of earlier delays, and SKA Khabarovsk went from a point to nothing inside one movement.
Market8 Feb 2027
Rodina say no — this time
The offer from Flora for Leo Goglichidze 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.
Market8 Feb 2027
“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 Rodina, and it is not being withdrawn.
Player ratings8 Feb 2027
Yordy Reyna, 33, rolls back the years — 7.91
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 7.91 at 33, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Transfer targets8 Feb 2027
The offer went to Volga this week and it is theirs to answer. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loud the door closes.
Transfer targets8 Feb 2027
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Ufa have kept their man, and Rodina go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad1 Feb 2027
7 goals in one afternoon from one man. The other players were also present, a witness confirmed.
Squad1 Feb 2027
112 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Rodina lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Squad1 Feb 2027
31 goals and a season average of 7.64. Form like that gets noticed well beyond this town.
Match30 Jan 2027
No mercy from Rodina
Chernomorets will want this one forgotten quickly: 7‑3, every duel lost, and a long ride home. Rodina were ruthless in the way good sides are ruthless.
Market1 Feb 2027
“I listened, I thought about it, and I am staying. That is the whole story.” The clubs had agreed a fee. Soltmurad Bakaev had not agreed to go, which turned out to be the part that mattered.
Match1 Feb 2027
69 points and nobody above them. The word is not being said around the ground yet, and it is being thought in every seat.
Market1 Feb 2027
The bid was some way short and Rodina did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Match30 Jan 2027
Rodina keep winning on the road
8 away wins in a row. Travelling support is the truest kind, and this season it is being repaid in the only currency that counts.
Player ratings1 Feb 2027
Age has not caught Yordy Reyna yet — 9.21
At 33 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 9.21 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad25 Jan 2027
120 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Rodina lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Player ratings25 Jan 2027
Successful dribbles: 34. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Market25 Jan 2027
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and ND Gorica waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Rodina is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Market25 Jan 2027
“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.
Market25 Jan 2027
“I know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” Rudar Velenje had the fee agreed and the shirt ready; they did not have the player, and now they will not.
Market25 Jan 2027
Rodina say no — this time
The offer from Sapovnela for Magomedkhabib Abdusalamov 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.
Squad25 Jan 2027
Words exchanged at Rodina
Brian Mansilla 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.
Boardroom25 Jan 2027
Wages swallow 169% of the Rodina income
Every club pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time it has been tried.
The dugout25 Jan 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Sebastián Arce, and the manager let it.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Squad18 Jan 2027
127 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Rodina lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Market18 Jan 2027
“I listened, I thought about it, and I am staying. That is the whole story.” The clubs had agreed a fee. German Onugkha had not agreed to go, which turned out to be the part that mattered.
Match16 Jan 2027
Rodina are at home on the road
7 straight away victories. Sides that win away are usually sides that can defend and can counter, and the table has begun to reflect what those journeys have earned.
Player ratings18 Jan 2027
Iker Pozo runs at them all day
Successful dribbles: 25. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Match16 Jan 2027
Rodina make it 3 in a row
Momentum is a hard thing to buy and an easy thing to lose, and right now Rodina have 3 straight wins of it.
Squad18 Jan 2027
A falling-out at Rodina
Brian Mansilla and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad18 Jan 2027
11 goals and a season average of 7.38. Form like that gets noticed well beyond this town.
Market18 Jan 2027
The interest is real enough to have reached print. Rodina have said nothing, which in a transfer window is its own kind of answer.
Match16 Jan 2027
It finished 2‑1, and it was Artem Maximenko’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Rodina.
In brief
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Player ratings
Ninety minutes of Brian Mansilla at his very best
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Squad
A row about effort at Rodina
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Player ratings
Artem Maximenko was on a different afternoon to everybody else
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Squad11 Jan 2027
The words a physio says slowly. 134 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.
Match6 Jan 2027
Rodina through in the cup
A 1‑0 win over Spartak Moscow, and the draw for the next round can be watched with some interest for once.
Squad11 Jan 2027
24 goals and a season average of 7.62. Form like that gets noticed well beyond this town.
Player ratings11 Jan 2027
Successful dribbles: 33. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Market11 Jan 2027
The interest is real enough to have reached print. Rodina have said nothing, which in a transfer window is its own kind of answer.
Match9 Jan 2027
Another one collected away from home
6 on the bounce on the road for Rodina. The coaches leave early, arrive at unlovely grounds in the dark, and keep coming home with three points.
Market11 Jan 2027
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Squad11 Jan 2027
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Rodina this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match9 Jan 2027
It finished 1‑0, and it was Soltmurad Bakaev’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Rodina.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Player ratings4 Jan 2027
Successful dribbles: 41. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad4 Jan 2027
141 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Rodina lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Match4 Jan 2027
The view from the top for Rodina
59 points, and the rest of the division looking up. Every side that finishes first spends the season pretending it is not thinking about it, and this one has started pretending.
Squad4 Jan 2027
There are footballers who have a good season and footballers a season is remembered for, and the second kind get their names read out in a hall in the summer. Rodina will be quietly delighted and privately nervous.
Market4 Jan 2027
Rodina say no — this time
The offer from Bekescsaba for Artur Garibyan 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.
The dugout4 Jan 2027
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Rodina may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Match2 Jan 2027
Every run ends on an afternoon somebody had marked down as routine. This one went 8 matches, which is long enough that a town had stopped counting, and short enough that it will remember exactly who stopped it.
Squad4 Jan 2027
Words exchanged at Rodina
Yordy Reyna 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.
Loan watch4 Jan 2027
“I did not go to Astra to sit and watch. I want to come back to Rodina and fight for my place.” 5 appearances in 18 matches say the rest.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Player ratings28 Dec 2026
Successful dribbles: 36. 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.
Match26 Dec 2026
Rodina make it 8 in a row
Momentum is a hard thing to buy and an easy thing to lose, and right now Rodina have 8 straight wins of it.
Player ratings28 Dec 2026
At 33 every good afternoon gets called a throwback, and this one was: 8.10, and nobody on the pitch better.
Loan watch28 Dec 2026
20 appearances away from home and 19 goals to show for them. Every one of them makes next summer's conversation a little more expensive.
Squad28 Dec 2026
Tempers go at Rodina
Sergey Volkov 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.
Match26 Dec 2026
Rodina keep winning on the road
4 away wins in a row. Travelling support is the truest kind, and this season it is being repaid in the only currency that counts.
Match26 Dec 2026
It finished 2‑1, and it was Iker Pozo’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Rodina.
Boardroom28 Dec 2026
358% of the income goes out in wages at Rodina
Every club in football pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time somebody has tried it.
Squad28 Dec 2026
A row about effort at Rodina
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Rodrigo Becão was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
In brief
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Player ratings
Iker Pozo was on a different afternoon to everybody else
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The dugout
The manager’s verdict
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The dugout
The manager makes an example of Kirill Ushatov
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Match19 Dec 2026
Nobody wants to play Rodina right now
7 wins in a row changes how opponents warm up: quieter, more glances across. Runs end, everybody knows that — but nobody in this dressing room is planning for it.
Player ratings21 Dec 2026
Two goals and a mark of 8.43 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Match19 Dec 2026
The run at home goes on for Rodina
13 matches unbeaten here. Every visiting manager is asked about it in the week before, which is precisely why it keeps going.
Player ratings21 Dec 2026
Age has not caught Yordy Reyna yet — 7.87
At 33 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 7.87 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Loan watch21 Dec 2026
19 appearances away from home and 17 goals to show for them. Every one of them makes next summer's conversation a little more expensive.
Match19 Dec 2026
It finished 3‑1, and it was Soltmurad Bakaev’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Rodina.
Player ratings21 Dec 2026
Nobody could get near Iker Pozo
Successful dribbles: 20. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad21 Dec 2026
Defences have started doubling up on Brian Mansilla
10 goals and a season average of 7.35 will do that. The space he used to find has gone; he keeps scoring anyway, which is the mark of the real thing.
Squad21 Dec 2026
Words exchanged at Rodina
Artem Sokol 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.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Squad14 Dec 2026
A season average of 7.69 with 24 goals behind it. Opponents have started planning around him, which is the sincerest compliment football pays.
Player ratings14 Dec 2026
Successful dribbles: 32. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Match12 Dec 2026
Rodina make it 6 in a row
Momentum is a hard thing to buy and an easy thing to lose, and right now Rodina have 6 straight wins of it.
Match12 Dec 2026
A 2‑1 win over Neftekhimik, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Match12 Dec 2026
Rodina are at home on the road
3 straight away victories. Sides that win away are usually sides that can defend and can counter, and the table has begun to reflect what those journeys have earned.
Market14 Dec 2026
One of our own: Oleg Guskov joins the Rodina first team
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Oleg Guskov is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Market14 Dec 2026
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Miroslav Chekhov 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.
Squad14 Dec 2026
Rodrigo Becão 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.
Player ratings14 Dec 2026
Marked 8.20 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Match5 Dec 2026
4‑1, and German Onugkha took the headlines on an afternoon when everything Rodina tried came off. Days like this are retold all winter.
Squad7 Dec 2026
Defences have started doubling up on German Onugkha
23 goals and a season average of 7.67 will do that. The space he used to find has gone; he keeps scoring anyway, which is the mark of the real thing.
Match7 Dec 2026
50 points and nobody above them. The word is not being said around the ground yet, and it is being thought in every seat.
Squad7 Dec 2026
The match ball belongs to German Onugkha, whose 3 goals turned a difficult afternoon into a procession.
Match5 Dec 2026
Rodina make it 5 in a row
Momentum is a hard thing to buy and an easy thing to lose, and right now Rodina have 5 straight wins of it.
Player ratings7 Dec 2026
Yordy Reyna, 33, rolls back the years — 8.62
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.62 at 33, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Match5 Dec 2026
Rodina make home a hard place to visit
12 without defeat on their own grass. The pitch has not changed; the crowd has — louder earlier, and quicker to sense when the opposition would rather be somewhere else.
Squad7 Dec 2026
Tempers go at Rodina
Brian Mansilla 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.
Player ratings7 Dec 2026
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 9.97, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Squad30 Nov 2026
4 goals in one afternoon from one man. The other players were also present, a witness confirmed.
Match28 Nov 2026
Rarely has this fixture seen a display like it: 5‑0 against Chelyabinsk, and it could have been more.
Squad30 Nov 2026
20 goals and a season average of 7.59. Form like that gets noticed well beyond this town.
Player ratings30 Nov 2026
Age has not caught Yordy Reyna yet — 8.36
At 33 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.36 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Match28 Nov 2026
Rodina cannot stop winning
4 wins on the spin now, and the question has changed from whether the run ends to who ends it. Confidence like this cannot be bought; it has to be earned exactly this way.
Squad30 Nov 2026
Words exchanged at Rodina
Brian Mansilla 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.
Player ratings30 Nov 2026
German Onugkha was on a different afternoon to everybody else
10.00. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
Boardroom30 Nov 2026
370% of the income goes out in wages at Rodina
Every club in football pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time somebody has tried it.
Player ratings30 Nov 2026
Marked 8.47 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Match18 Nov 2026
Cup progress for Rodina
A 2‑0 win over Nizhniy Novgorod, a place in the next round, and the quiet arithmetic every supporter does on the walk home: how many more until a final?
Player ratings23 Nov 2026
Two goals and a mark of 8.89 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Match21 Nov 2026
Rodina make home a hard place to visit
11 without defeat on their own grass. The pitch has not changed; the crowd has — louder earlier, and quicker to sense when the opposition would rather be somewhere else.
Match21 Nov 2026
Nobody wants to play Rodina right now
3 wins in a row changes how opponents warm up: quieter, more glances across. Runs end, everybody knows that — but nobody in this dressing room is planning for it.
Squad23 Nov 2026
A falling-out at Rodina
Brian Mansilla and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Match21 Nov 2026
It finished 1‑0, and it was Brian Mansilla’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Rodina.
Squad23 Nov 2026
A row about effort at Rodina
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Rodrigo Becão was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Player ratings23 Nov 2026
Brian Mansilla was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.31. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
Squad23 Nov 2026
8 goals and a season average of 7.26. Form like that gets noticed well beyond this town.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Squad16 Nov 2026
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Rodina this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match14 Nov 2026
The run at home goes on for Rodina
10 matches unbeaten here. Every visiting manager is asked about it in the week before, which is precisely why it keeps going.
The terraces16 Nov 2026
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.
Match14 Nov 2026
It finished 1‑0, and it was Brian Mansilla’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Rodina.
Squad16 Nov 2026
200 games in these colours. Service of that kind gets rarer every season, and the crowd knows it.
Squad16 Nov 2026
Rodrigo Becão 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.
Player ratings16 Nov 2026
Successful dribbles: 18. 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.
Player ratings16 Nov 2026
A mark of 7.97, and nobody in the ground would argue with it. He was involved in everything that mattered and most of what did not.
The dugout16 Nov 2026
“That is what I want every week. Not the result, the way they went about it.” The manager, after 1‑0, already talking about the next one.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match9 Nov 2026
The view from the top for Rodina
38 points, and the rest of the division looking up. Every side that finishes first spends the season pretending it is not thinking about it, and this one has started pretending.
Squad9 Nov 2026
Words exchanged at Rodina
Sergey Volkov 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.
Match7 Nov 2026
Rodina come up short against Ural
Ural left with the points after a 2‑3 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Match7 Nov 2026
After 6 games, Rodina finally taste it again
The first defeat in 6 matches. The manager will say it had to come; the dressing room will say it did not have to come against Ural; the supporters will say both, in that order, all week.
Loan watch9 Nov 2026
14 appearances at Dinamo Vologda and the goals keep coming. Rodina are watching this more closely than the borrowing club would like.
Market9 Nov 2026
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Yuri Ignatov 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.
The dugout9 Nov 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Mitja Križan, and the manager let it.
Squad9 Nov 2026
A row about effort at Rodina
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Kirill Ushatov was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout9 Nov 2026
The manager’s verdict
“That is on me. I pick the team and I picked wrong.” Managers say that when they mean it and when they need to be seen to, and after 2‑3 Maksim Savrasov left the room before anybody could ask which.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Player ratings2 Nov 2026
A brace, and German Onugkha takes the afternoon — 9.03
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. German Onugkha provided it, and the 9.03 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Match31 Oct 2026
Rodina make it 6 in a row
Momentum is a hard thing to buy and an easy thing to lose, and right now Rodina have 6 straight wins of it.
Squad2 Nov 2026
Defences have started doubling up on German Onugkha
16 goals and a season average of 7.52 will do that. The space he used to find has gone; he keeps scoring anyway, which is the mark of the real thing.
Match31 Oct 2026
Nobody wins at Rodina
9 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
Boardroom2 Nov 2026
Wages swallow 370% of the Rodina income
Every club pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time it has been tried.
Match31 Oct 2026
A 2‑0 win over Torpedo Moscow, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Looking ahead2 Nov 2026
Top-of-the-table clash for Rodina
Ural next, and the two sides the division is watching meet each other. Whoever wins will be told nothing is decided in the same breath as being congratulated.
Squad2 Nov 2026
A row about effort at Rodina
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Rodrigo Becão was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad2 Nov 2026
Words exchanged at Rodina
Astemir Gordyushenko 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.
In brief
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Squad
German Onugkha named player of the month
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The dugout
The view from the dugout
-
The dugout
The manager makes an example of Kirill Ushatov
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Player ratings26 Oct 2026
Successful dribbles: 30. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Match24 Oct 2026
Rodina make it 5 in a row
Momentum is a hard thing to buy and an easy thing to lose, and right now Rodina have 5 straight wins of it.
The dugout26 Oct 2026
“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.
Squad26 Oct 2026
14 goals and a season average of 7.45. Form like that gets noticed well beyond this town.
Squad26 Oct 2026
Words exchanged at Rodina
Artem Sokol 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.
Match24 Oct 2026
It finished 2‑1, and it was Sebastián Arce’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Rodina.
Squad26 Oct 2026
Words at Rodina training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Rodrigo Becão 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 ratings26 Oct 2026
Marked 8.19 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
Player ratings26 Oct 2026
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.
In brief
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Squad
8 new faces, and Rodina are still learning each other
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Market
Astemir Gordyushenko told to find a new club
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The dugout
The view from the dugout
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Player ratings19 Oct 2026
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 9.11, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
Match17 Oct 2026
Rodina make it 4 in a row
Momentum is a hard thing to buy and an easy thing to lose, and right now Rodina have 4 straight wins of it.
The dugout19 Oct 2026
“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.
Squad19 Oct 2026
A season average of 7.42 with 13 goals behind it. Opponents have started planning around him, which is the sincerest compliment football pays.
Squad19 Oct 2026
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Rodina this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Player ratings19 Oct 2026
German Onugkha was on a different afternoon to everybody else
9.28. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
Match17 Oct 2026
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Brian Mansilla. 3‑1 against Volga, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Match17 Oct 2026
The run at home goes on for Rodina
8 matches unbeaten here. Every visiting manager is asked about it in the week before, which is precisely why it keeps going.
The dugout19 Oct 2026
“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.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Player ratings12 Oct 2026
A brace, and German Onugkha takes the afternoon — 9.21
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. German Onugkha provided it, and the 9.21 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Match12 Oct 2026
Nobody above Rodina
First, on 29 points. The table is a fact and a fact is allowed to be enjoyed, which is as far as anybody at the club is prepared to go in public.
Match10 Oct 2026
Nobody wants to play Rodina right now
3 wins in a row changes how opponents warm up: quieter, more glances across. Runs end, everybody knows that — but nobody in this dressing room is planning for it.
Squad12 Oct 2026
Tempers go at Rodina
Brian Mansilla 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.
Squad12 Oct 2026
12 goals and a season average of 7.34. Form like that gets noticed well beyond this town.
Player ratings12 Oct 2026
Successful dribbles: 20. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Match10 Oct 2026
Three points for Rodina, 2‑1 the final word against SKA Khabarovsk in a contest settled by the finer margins.
Market12 Oct 2026
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Nikolay Zorin 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.
Squad12 Oct 2026
Rodrigo Becão 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.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Squad5 Oct 2026
4 goals in one afternoon from one man. The other players were also present, a witness confirmed.
Match30 Sep 2026
Rodina march on in the cup
Volna are out and Rodina go through, 6‑1 the final word. The bracket opens up a little, and everyone allows themselves a look at it.
Match3 Oct 2026
Rarely has this fixture seen a display like it: 5‑0 against Chernomorets, and it could have been more.
Player ratings5 Oct 2026
Two goals and a mark of 9.49 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Squad5 Oct 2026
3 goals in one game. The first was taken well, the second was taken greedily, and by the third the crowd were simply waiting for him to get the ball.
Match3 Oct 2026
11 unbeaten for Rodina
Hard to beat is not the same as winning, but 11 matches without defeat is a foundation Rodina did not have in the autumn.
Player ratings5 Oct 2026
Age has not caught Yordy Reyna yet — 9.29
At 33 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 9.29 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Words exchanged at Rodina
Brian Mansilla 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.
Match30 Sep 2026
7 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about Rodina and Volna in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Player ratings28 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 41. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Match26 Sep 2026
Still nobody has beaten Rodina
The unbeaten run reaches 9. Some of them were wins and some were escapes, but a side that refuses to lose is a side other dressing rooms talk about.
Squad28 Sep 2026
A falling-out at Rodina
Brian Mansilla and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Match26 Sep 2026
After 7 games, Rodina finally taste it again
The first defeat in 7 matches. The manager will say it had to come; the dressing room will say it did not have to come against Ufa; the supporters will say both, in that order, all week.
The dugout28 Sep 2026
Artem Sokol 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.
Loan watch28 Sep 2026
The goals keep arriving from Matvey Burlakov’s exile
11 goals in 9 games at Dinamo Vologda — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Rodina updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Words at Rodina training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Kirill Ushatov 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.
Squad28 Sep 2026
8 new faces, and Rodina 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.
The dugout28 Sep 2026
The view from the dugout
“We did not lose. Some weeks that is all you get, and I would rather have the point than not.” Maksim Savrasov chose the glass-half-full version of 0‑0; the supporters left with the other one.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Match19 Sep 2026
3‑0, and Soltmurad Bakaev took the headlines on an afternoon when everything Rodina tried came off. Days like this are retold all winter.
Match19 Sep 2026
Nobody wants to play Rodina right now
7 wins in a row changes how opponents warm up: quieter, more glances across. Runs end, everybody knows that — but nobody in this dressing room is planning for it.
Market21 Sep 2026
Everything was agreed until it was not, and Astemir Gordyushenko reports back to Rodina with a summer to forget. Neither club is saying who walked away from the table.
Squad21 Sep 2026
A falling-out at Rodina
Sergey Volkov and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
The terraces21 Sep 2026
He is 22 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.
Player ratings21 Sep 2026
A performance of 8.55 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Player ratings21 Sep 2026
Iker Pozo was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.34. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
Squad21 Sep 2026
200 games in this shirt, through managers and relegations and everything else. Service like it is disappearing from the game and the crowd knows what it is watching.
Player ratings21 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 16. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
In brief
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Squad
A row about effort at Rodina
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The dugout
The view from the dugout
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Loan watch
9 goals on loan for Matvey Burlakov
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 9.27, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
Market14 Sep 2026
Everything was agreed until it was not, and Yordy Reyna reports back to Rodina with a summer to forget. Neither club is saying who walked away from the table.
Match12 Sep 2026
Nobody wants to play Rodina right now
6 wins in a row changes how opponents warm up: quieter, more glances across. Runs end, everybody knows that — but nobody in this dressing room is planning for it.
Boardroom14 Sep 2026
Window shuts: 18 in, 15 out at Rodina
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 18 arrived, 15 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Christian Torrisi arrives at the club he grew up with
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Christian Torrisi has, at Rodina, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
The terraces14 Sep 2026
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Magomedkhabib Abdusalamov 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.
Match12 Sep 2026
Rotor made Rodina work for it, but the scoreboard read 2‑0 at the end and the table does not ask how.
Market14 Sep 2026
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Vsevolod Lobanov 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.
Market14 Sep 2026
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Arseny Denisov 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.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Market7 Sep 2026
“I know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” Paradou had the fee agreed and the shirt ready; they did not have the player, and now they will not.
Match5 Sep 2026
Rodina make it 5 in a row
Momentum is a hard thing to buy and an easy thing to lose, and right now Rodina have 5 straight wins of it.
Market7 Sep 2026
Denis Tikhonov has left for Akron in a $650.0K deal. The accountants are pleased; the supporters are less certain.
Market7 Sep 2026
The Yordy Reyna conversation is coming
Everyone has stopped pretending: Mattersburg will make the call about Yordy Reyna this week. Rodina have a number in mind, and the number is not shy.
Squad7 Sep 2026
A falling-out at Rodina
Artem Sokol and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Match5 Sep 2026
Three points for Rodina, 2‑0 the final word against Fakel in a contest settled by the finer margins.
Match5 Sep 2026
Rodina keep winning on the road
3 away wins in a row. Travelling support is the truest kind, and this season it is being repaid in the only currency that counts.
Player ratings7 Sep 2026
A performance of 8.43 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Squad7 Sep 2026
The medical room confirms 14 days on the sidelines for Miroslav Popov, and a plan built around him now has to be rebuilt.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Match29 Aug 2026
Rodina make it 4 in a row
Momentum is a hard thing to buy and an easy thing to lose, and right now Rodina have 4 straight wins of it.
Squad31 Aug 2026
The medical room confirms 39 days on the sidelines for Rodrigo Becão, and a plan built around him now has to be rebuilt.
Squad31 Aug 2026
A falling-out at Rodina
Brian Mansilla and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Match29 Aug 2026
A 2‑0 win over Arsenal Tula, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Market31 Aug 2026
The interest is real enough to have reached print. Rodina have said nothing, which in a transfer window is its own kind of answer.
Player ratings31 Aug 2026
Ninety minutes of Brian Mansilla at his very best
Marked 8.39. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Rodina.
Player ratings31 Aug 2026
Ninety minutes of German Onugkha at his very best
Marked 8.06. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Rodina.
Player ratings31 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 16. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad31 Aug 2026
Artem Sokol 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.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 37. 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.
Market24 Aug 2026
Rodina say no — this time
The offer from Vojvodina for Kerfala Cissoko 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.
Match22 Aug 2026
Rodina make it 3 in a row
Momentum is a hard thing to buy and an easy thing to lose, and right now Rodina have 3 straight wins of it.
Squad24 Aug 2026
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Rodina this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Market24 Aug 2026
Krasnodar paid $590.0K and Rodina took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
Match22 Aug 2026
It finished 1‑0, and it was Sebastián Arce’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Rodina.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Rodrigo Becão 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.
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
A performance of 8.23 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
The dugout24 Aug 2026
“The players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 1‑0, Maksim Savrasov could afford to be generous.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match15 Aug 2026
Rarely has this fixture seen a display like it: 4‑1 against Neftekhimik, and it could have been more.
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 9.25, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
Market17 Aug 2026
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Tempers go at Rodina
Brian Mansilla 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 targets17 Aug 2026
Rodina asked and Borussia Dortmund said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Market17 Aug 2026
Add another name to the list: Krasnodar have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Ivan Timoshenko. The answer from Rodina has not changed — yet.
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
Ninety minutes of Yordy Reyna at his very best
Marked 8.39. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Rodina.
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
Marked 8.35 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Words at Rodina training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Kerfala Cissoko 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.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match8 Aug 2026
Rarely has this fixture seen a display like it: 4‑1 against Spartak Kostroma, and it could have been more.
Squad10 Aug 2026
3 goals in one game. The first was taken well, the second was taken greedily, and by the third the crowd were simply waiting for him to get the ball.
Squad10 Aug 2026
A falling-out at Rodina
Brian Mansilla and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Market10 Aug 2026
Ilja Svinov has left for Sochi in a $230.0K deal. The accountants are pleased; the supporters are less certain.
The terraces10 Aug 2026
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Magomedkhabib Abdusalamov 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.
Market10 Aug 2026
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Daniil Tikhomirov 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.
Market10 Aug 2026
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Prokhor Potapov is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Market10 Aug 2026
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Nazar Shatov 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.
Match8 Aug 2026
Rodina settle it inside twenty minutes
2 goals before the ground had finished arriving. Spartak Kostroma spent the rest of the afternoon playing a match that had already been decided, and everybody in the stadium knew it.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Player ratings3 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 27. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Market3 Aug 2026
Rodina say no — this time
The offer from Beroe for Artur Garibyan 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.
Squad3 Aug 2026
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” German Onugkha and Rodina agree another 3 years.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Words exchanged at Rodina
Brian Mansilla 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.
Squad3 Aug 2026
A row about effort at Rodina
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Sergey Volkov was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Market3 Aug 2026
“There is a gap, and pretending there is not helps nobody.” Neither side has moved, and the calendar is working for exactly one of them.
Market3 Aug 2026
Still no offer on the table, and German Onugkha’s deal keeps shrinking. In boardroom language, silence this long stops being an oversight and starts being an answer.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Too much change too quickly at Rodina
14 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.
Transfer targets3 Aug 2026
A loan enquiry to Arsenal: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.