Now Rubin has 10 players from the Balkans! And the amount paid for them is quite surprising.
Dmitry Zimin February 25, 2024, 08:00 Moscow time Audio version: Your browser does not support the audio element.
Kazan is forming its own regional group, different from St. Petersburg.
The media is so used to talking about the Brazilianization of Zenit that other clubs remain on the sidelines. But it is time to admit an objective fact: many have almost or completely occupied the legionary positions allowed by the regulations and are not especially reflective because of it. Apparently, a high-quality Russian footballer will cost more in all aspects than an equally qualified foreigner.
The results of the transfer window in numbers:
RPL clubs are the sixth most expensive for transfers in Europe. The results of the winter window in figures
An example is “Ruby”. Since the summer of 2023, 10 players from the Balkans have joined the team. Among them are Serbs, Montenegrins, Kosovars and Croats. Yes, now at least two are not available: Nikola Cumic, who was out until the summer due to injury, and the young Marco Chavara; The boy arrived at the club in the summer, had an unsuccessful loan trip to Khabarovsk and his future is still undetermined. But the remaining eight Balkans are available and will play an important role in the spring part of the season.
Important: Rubin lives in the paradigm of “transfer of up to 1.5 million euros”. The club has not paid more for anyone in the last two transfer windows. And for the same Chumich and Drezgich paid 1.5 million euros. At the same time, the second almost did not play in the fall, this was attributed to his age (20 years) and the need to adapt to a new country. Although it was understood that after Serbia it would not be so difficult. But spring comes and everything can change.
This is how sporting director Konstantin Dzyuba described the club’s monetary and transfer strategy last fall in an interview with Business Online. The key idea is to “minimize costs.”
Konstantin Dzyuba
Rubin sports director
“When we returned to the RPL, Rubin had serious financial obligations. We approached each player we were interested in individually and tried to minimize costs during negotiations. Taking into account the current reality, I note that, compared to the leading clubs, our expenses are not comparable. Our competitors make transfers for 6, 8, 10 million euros… We focus on quality players who can be acquired in the most profitable way possible. “We managed to acquire most of the players below their market value and, in some cases, we even negotiated with clubs when they had better offers on their hands.”
Rubin’s transfer strategy is, in general, public. Dzyuba noted that first he, together with Rakhimov and the board, identifies problem positions, then the coach characterizes the desired players and the search begins. The candidates are then agreed upon and negotiations take place. And then – how it will turn out: Naturally, not everyone can come to an agreement.
Why is there so much emphasis on the Balkan market? Everything is obvious here. There is a large selection of economic players who optimistically see the opportunity to move to Russia. First of all we are talking about Serbia. Most of Rubin’s newcomers came from this country. But there were also footballers from the Croatian and Slovenian leagues, although only a few.
Now – to specific names. The summer of 2023 is the same period in which Rubin changed sporting directors during the transfer market and had to resolve problems with the players as quickly as possible. It was then that the Kazan team was remembered for announcing the transfer of three important players on the last day of the window. These were the Serbians Randjelovic, Čumić and Drezgic. Before that, the club managed to sign Daka and Vujacic. As a result, four of these five players became important in Rakhimov’s system in the spring portion of the season.
Lazar Randjelovic and Nikola Čumić in Rubin
Photo: FC Rubin
The main defender of the Montenegrin national team, Vujacic, fits perfectly into the center of defense. He is not surprising: he is the captain of the national team and plays there together with Savic of Atlético. Serbian Randjelovic played well in midfield, allowing the attackers to think less about defense. And from the front creativity were Čumić and Daku. The Albanian national team striker may not have shown amazing figures in terms of goals scored, but he worked very well for the team. Taking into account that Rubin, in principle, is far from being among the leaders in the number of goals, the footballer’s contribution is really great. And most importantly: all of them really strengthened the team for little money. In fact, in the summer, Rubin radically updated their squad after entering the RPL, so they needed players to immediately join the team. Rubin was right with these transfers.
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In winter, the trend continued: Luka Bielovich arrived on loan from Spartak (Subotica). The 22-year-old midfielder has more than 100 games in the Serbian league. At the same time, Rubin managed to hire the guy for six months, after which a final decision will be made. Dardan Shabanhadjay (Austrian striker with Balkan roots) arrived from Slovenia for 1.2 million euros, plus Bogdan Jocic from Serbian Vozdovac. And, considering “Rubin’s” scrupulousness in choosing newcomers, there is a feeling that this time they will not be wrong.
Yes, there are footballers not only from Serbia: Vada, Iwu, the Iranian Taheri and even Rybus, who many know. Yes, yes, the Pole is still in the team and still hopes to play. Yes, of course, he heals countless wounds.
But in the end Rubin almost completely updated his squad for the RPL in two windows for 8.45 million euros (data from Transfermarkt). With a market value of 23.3 million euros, all this helps the Kazan team to stay in the top 8. And if this continues, this work will definitely be highly appreciated.
