Where did the main “mafia” of Russian football disappear?

RIA Novosti reporter describes the mysterious disappearance of Rustam Saymanov from Rubin.

While following the drama about Artem Dzyuba’s future club, getting used to the new name of season-first season top scorer Vladimir Sychevy (now he is Pisarsky), and wondering why Pavel Mamaev and Fedor Smolov need them, the best winter break from the academy in the UAE interesting football news came from Kazan “Ruby”. The one who flew out of the Premier League after last year’s failure and was completely out of the field of knowledge following the departure of Leonid Slutsky.

There is another reconstruction. His victim was Director General Rustam Saimanov, who left quietly. So mysterious is that “Rubin” first posted and then quickly deleted a thank you message from the club’s official website, limiting himself to deleting the official’s profile from the “Instructions” section.

I thought it was some kind of new multi-action, but the Kazan club goes on without him. Even at the beginning of summer, Saymanov wisely spoke about the inevitable revival of Rubin, relegated to the first division, defended Slutsky, and now there is neither one nor the second in Kazan. There is no explanation as to why either of them left the club without saying goodbye to their followers and worried. Somehow unclear.

This word fits very well with everything we know about Saymanov. He took part in Rubin in 2006 and took important steps to ensure that the sport of Kazan is not only associated with Kazan’s Ak Bars and UNICS basketball. His masterful bargaining with the best players in the Russian league such as Sergei Semak, Sergei Rebrov and Savo Milosevic is legendary, and his removal of Gekdeniz Karadeniz from Turkey could be a bargaining chip.

Saimanov’s team not only leaked money to the players, but also gave an opportunity or a second life to those who were little known or needed another chance. Rubin’s results did not last long. In the spring of 2008, Kazan achieved an impressive streak, leading the standings after the third round, and did not miss the lead until the end of the championship.

However, Rubin could not celebrate the first gold with the team of Saimanov. A few months ago, he was arrested on suspicion of orchestrating a series of contract killings. The club couldn’t believe what had happened. According to investigators, Saymanov led the Sevastopol gang for many years, which was involved in numerous murders. He was found guilty in August 2010 and sentenced to 8.5 years in a penal colony.

It has been said that Saimanov, if not free, affected the life of the club, but the longer he was in jail, the worse Rubin played. Even the magic of Kurban Berdyev did not help – “Rubin”, after two championships in a row and fascinating matches against Inter and Barcelona, ​​flew first from the top three, then from the top 5, and then slipped into the middle. villagers

There were high expectations for Saimanov’s return to Kazan football, who was paroled in 2015. He talked about previous successes in Ruby for him and unofficial help to Rostov, who managed to make some noise in the European competition. And when he and Berdyev reunited, I thought Rubin was about to shine, but that didn’t happen.

On the one hand, the Kazan club got out of the financial vacuum into which it was dragged by unwise financial policies and became privatized in the mid-2010s. But the coaching leapfrog did not go away even with Berdyev, the results and the team’s play left much to be desired.

The fourth place of “Rubin” in the Slutsk administration is more luck and individual merits of individual players. The next season proved that. Kazan quickly flew out of the European competitions, seemed insignificant at the beginning of the championship, and in the spring they completely disbanded and left the RPL. Saimanov’s team can boast that they have found a lot of talented players on the market, including Khvicha Kvaratskhelia, but what’s the point if all they get is a wooden medal and a trip to Poland for the Europa League qualifying round? match.

The chief tax officer of Tatarstan, Marat Safiullin, took charge of the revival of Rubin, and it is not yet known what Saimanov will do. Maybe he will take a break from football. What if we see another campaign for the title from his duo with Kurban Berdyev. The Russian Premier League will only benefit if they find a common language and unite in Sochi.