Before the summer transfer market closes in the Russian Championship, CSKA is still looking for a new striker. Saul Guarirapa from Sochi is expected to strengthen the attack of the military team. The 21-year-old Venezuelan became one of the main discoveries of the RPL last season, but this year, after the southerners were relegated to the First League, he barely managed to earn an invitation to the best club in our league.
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CSKA almost completely changed its attack in just three months. During the summer window, its top scorers left the Moscow club: Fedor Chalov to PAOK, Anton Zabolotny to Khimki. Sekou Koita came from Red Bull Salzburg and Artem Shumansky from Aris. These two, as well as Russian national team striker Tamerlan Musaev, who has only been with the military team since January 2024, will compete with the Venezuelan newcomer for a place in the starting eleven.
According to Ivan Karpov, CSKA is renting Guarirapa for one season for 400 thousand euros with an obligation to buy him. The termination option specified in the contract will be activated if the forward plays a certain number of matches for the military team. The Moscow club, in conditions of financial constraints, could not afford a full transfer now.
When Guarirapa came to the RPL from the Venezuelan championship in January 2024, no one in Russia knew about this player except for specialized scouts. “Sochi”, by the way, also first rented the forward from “Caracas” for 200 thousand euros and only in the summer, after making sure of the qualifications of the foreign player and the absence of major problems with Saul’s knees, they bought the rights, paying another 900 thousand euros. Apparently, and his partners from Sochi were not impressed by Guarirapa at first.
Saul Guarirapa
Photo: Eric Romanenko/TASS
“When he came, to put it mildly, the guys laughed at him. He was clumsy: he dug in, he crashed, he crashed hard, but he had technical problems. But for some reason it seemed to me – I told someone else – that something could come of this guy. I liked that he was simple. He came, said little, worked in training, and then scored in matches. He was just his compatriot Cordoba. He puts on all the chains, headphones, rings, all the watches he has, all the bags, but he scores zero. Although, when he came, they thought he was a starting player who would score. But he worked calmly, he didn’t show off,” Zenit defender Dmitry Chistyakov, who played on loan at Sochi, said in an interview with the SBG Show YouTube channel.
Guarirapa really started scoring like a machine and almost helped Sochi escape relegation from the RPL. In 10 games for the southerners, the Venezuelan scored eight goals: two against Krasnodar, one each against CSKA, Rostov, Ural, Dynamo Moscow, Paris NN and Rubin. And it was all in the match: Saul did not take the penalty. He scored five goals with his right foot, one with his left foot and two with his head.
On average, Guarirapa spent 97 minutes per goal – a phenomenal figure for the RPL! None of the main strikers of his teams had such a shooting rate. Only Vladimir Pisarsky of Krylya Sovetov had better numbers, who scored three goals in 262 minutes played in the Russian Championship (an average of 87 minutes).
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Some more Guarirapa stats from the second half of last RPL season. On average, the Venezuelan took 3.2 shots on goal per 90 minutes, including 1.8 on target. Saul’s goal-scoring chance conversion rate was a whopping 28.5%.
It is not surprising that after Sochi’s relegation from the RPL, top elite clubs began to look more closely at Guarirapa. There was information that the Venezuelan would be signed by Zenit, who needed a powerful striker. It seems that Saul even passed a medical before a possible transfer to the St. Petersburg club. But the Russian champions eventually opted for other attackers: Luciano Gondu and Alexander Sobolev. Perhaps because at the start of the new season Guarirapa was less impressive.
With such statistics of the Venezuelan in the RPL, it was expected that in the First League he would score even more and set his sights on Ivan Sergeev’s record (40 goals). However, in the first nine rounds of this season in the “best league in the world”, Guarirapa scored only one goal against Novorossiysk Chernomorets. A header after a cross from the left flank and a spectacular jump. Either Saul lacked motivation, realizing that he would definitely leave Sochi in the summer window, or the problem was that Guarirapa’s partners weakened after all the changes in the composition of the southerners, and he himself was studied. One way or another, the Venezuelan’s performance dropped sharply, although in addition to the goal, he gave two assists.
It is interesting that about a month ago Sochi signed Pisarsky, he came to life in the new team and took Guarirapa’s place in the starting eleven. The Venezuelan appeared only as a substitute in the last three rounds of the First League. Pisarsky scored three goals in four matches.
Getting into your team is a big problem. Some forwards are extremely dependent on the teammates around them or the style of play. For example, Musaev scored only two goals in 18 matches for Baltika in the RPL, while at CSKA he scored nine goals in 19 matches.
If Guarirapa, an efficient, efficient and goal-scoring centre-forward, is the same as he was in Sochi in the spring, he will certainly strengthen the army team. Saul could make his debut on September 14 in the eighth round of the RPL. In the match against Zenit.
