Roman Shirokov entered a new stage in his managerial career. After connecting with football in a big way in 2016 at the age of 35, a CSKA graduate and player for Rubin, Zenit and Spartak, he managed to become the president of the All-Russian Footballers Union, work as sports director of Khimki near Moscow and Dynamo Moscow, as well as an adviser to Roman Teryushkov.
Rumors that Shirokov could get into the structure of the Ramensky “aliens” appeared in early March. To be more precise: on the 5th, responding to the journalists’ question about whether there are reasons to talk about the ex-soccer player’s new appointment, Román, in his usual way, said that all this was nothing more than media speculation. And already on March 6, an interview with the new general director of Saturn Shirokov was published on the official website of the club of the Moscow Region.
The contract with Roman was concluded for five years. For Shirokov, “Saturn”, one might say, is a karmic club. It was in Ramenskoye, in 2005, where the midfielder restarted his career and began his upward path. It was here, not without special faith in the player of the then team coach Alexander Tarkhanov, that Shirokov scored his first goal in the RPL in the match against Alania (1: 3).
Now, according to a new interview with Roman, the 41-year-old plans to restart the fate of the club itself which, after 12 seasons in the Premier League, was forced to abandon its lofty ambitions in 2011 by declaring bankruptcy. Since then, Saturno, having an excellent infrastructure at its disposal, has been forced to wander in the second division and in the amateur. At the moment, the ‘blacks’ play in the Second League and will begin the second phase of the 2022/23 season from ninth place in the 3-A subgroup classification:
– One of the main tasks is to recreate the system with the current school of the Olympic reserve. I think that in the very near future we are going to sign an agreement with the school, and in the future it may become part of a single structure. In addition, one of the main tasks is to recruit at the expense of locals – this is how Shirokov described the main goals of him in his new position. – The team does not solve global problems this season. But there is a task to climb the table as high as possible, – added the former footballer.
Let’s hope that Shirokov can really help the legendary club to revive, and Roman himself finally sheds the reputation of “the main fighter with judges using elements of MMA.”
