The Russian Leicester Continuing to Defy the Odds
The story of Leicester City is well told. The battle with relegation one season, the remarkable rise up the table the next and the most unexpected Premier League win in history. But as Leicester were brandishing themselves on English hearts, there was a parallel story in Russia. Rostov, who had survived in a relegation play-off the season before, were challenging and, at times, leading CSKA Moscow at the top of the Russian Premier League, with just a few games left.
The final chapter of that story did not match that of Leicester’s, as Rostov finished second. But as the 2016/17 season has come around, their dramatic rise has continued unbowed, with the club currently fifth, three points off top and have the best conversion rate (14.3%) in the league, despite facing even more difficult circumstances than in their initial ascent. That Rostov ever finished second or, indeed, were ever challenging is an achievement as ludicrous as Leicester’s.
But to defeat Ajax, one of Europe’s grand old clubs, 5-2 on aggregate in a Champions League play-off is an achievement that ranks among Europe’s most incredible in this or any season. They are now in the Champions League group stages for the first time in their history, despite the feat coming as the club are suffering from a trying set of circumstances.
Rostov are a financial mess, with each of the four stands in the Olimp-2 Stadium owned by a different owner. They were banned from signing players ahead of the 2015/16 season, but were permitted to register Christian Noboa and Boris Rotenberg, the son of Vladimir Putin’s oligarch judo partner, in a murky set of circumstances investigated by Novaya Gazeta.
Rostov amassed a squad of players that were largely deemed either past their best or jobbing journeymen. The one bit of quality that ran through the squad was Kurban Berdyev, the head coach. Berdyev, continually tracksuited and clutching his prayer beads on the touchline, was the man who led Rubin Kazan to two improbable titles and a famous Champions League win over Barcelona at the Camp Nou.
But as the 2016/17 campaign began, with Rostov pushing past Anderlecht in the previous Champions League qualifying round, the club were hit with the news that Kurban Berdyev had resigned. The official reason given was that Berdyev had fallen out with the board over financial issues, but the sacking of Dmitriy Alenichev at Spartak Moscow was taken to be the real motivating factor. Berdyev was then locked in negotiations with Spartak owner Leonid Fedun. Both are notoriously stubborn individuals and talks broke down over a two week period.
Berdyev is a head coach that prefers to run his club in the old English managerial model. He wants total control of budgets, signings, backroom staff and all aspects of the club. At Rubin he even inserted himself on the board. But, despite numerous exclusives and comment pieces across Russian media, the talks broke down, never to be resumed. Berdyev then reportedly met with Lokomotiv Moscow, hoping to come to an arrangement, but none could be found.
While Berdyev was falling out with the assorted owners of Moscow clubs, life went on at Rostov. Dmitri Kirichenko, a former player at the club and assistant head coach, took over as caretaker head coach, as the club awaited the official announcement of Berdyev’s new job. None ever came and, with the club continuing to perform well, it became apparent that Berdyev had never really left.
He was pictured in directors’ box in full club tracksuit during their last Russian Premier League game, a 3-0 win over Tom Tomsk. When asked about this, Kirichenko allowed the plot to thicken somewhat. He revealed that Berdyev continued to hang about the training ground and was involved in match preparation, drawing up the plans for the astounding 4-1 win over Ajax.
It now appears inevitable that Berdyev will continue at Rostov. But nothing in this saga has followed the script that many of us thought it would. That Berdyev remains in place, in full club tracksuit, at Rostov games gives lie to the official resignation and the opening of talks with Spartak.
The club have continued to exceed expectations amid the widespread uncertainty, achieving probably the best result for a Russian side in European competition since Berdyev’s Rubin defeated Barcelona. That the common denominator between those two results now looks set to stay provides a huge incentive for the group stage campaign. Talk in Russia has already turned to the Russian Leicester being drawn against the Leicester, an outcome that would have been unthinkable a year ago.
