It seems that the era of Leonid Fedun (almost 20 years old!) in Spartak is coming to an end. Information about tectonic changes under the management of the “red-whites” began to be actively exaggerated in the media at the end of July, and finally indirectly confirmed by the general director of the club Evgeny Melezhikov. Now it’s time to remember those episodes in which Fedun will go down in history not only for Spartak, but for all Russian football.

In the late 2000s, he served as the current helmsman of Rostov and general manager of the Russian national team Spartak. However, when Danish Mikael Laudrup did not work in the Moscow club, Karpin played the role of a firefighter well. Valery Georgievich soon received the necessary licenses and became the head coach of the Red and Whites, twice leading the team to the silver medals of the Russian championship. In the spring of 2014, the paths of the specialist and Spartak finally parted, and apparently this separation greatly upset the owner of the club. Otherwise, how to explain such a quote?

That moment regularly appears in the memories of not only fans but also the actors of that story. So, in 2018, Karpin, already in the role of head coach of Rostov, beat Spartak in the championship of Russia with a score of 1: 0, and after the match he joked about criticizing the owner of the capital club: “I remember. sentence about the“ crashed pilot ”every day, and I do not sleep.Well, what kind of nonsense are you asking?

The dominance in Russia, the magnificent performances in the Champions League, the golden generation of Spartak and the smoking Oleg Romantsev – all these nostalgic memories of Spartak fans are associated with the good old Luzhniki. But an ambitious club has to have its own comfortable stadium, the construction of which has been talked about since the late 90s. And only with the arrival of Fedun, things got out of hand: the solemn ceremony of laying the first stone took place in June 2007, active construction began in 2010, and in 2014 the stadium with a capacity of 42 thousand spectators was already home to the red. -white matches. The arena of the capital club has become a real football gem, hosting the 2017 Confederations Cup and 2018 World Cup matches.

One of the most high-profile stories of 2015 in Russian football was the story of Spartak breaking up with his student Artem Dzyuba. During his first-team performance, the textured forward could not become an indispensable figure, so he was regularly sent on loan. It is worth admitting that Artem has proven his worth in these “links” and once again returning from Rostov, the striker is waiting for a better contract. It didn’t work.

Fedun then talked about various options for deals that were not accepted by Artem, and in 2015 the actress Zenit St. Petersburg as a free agent. The owner of Spartak was expected to take a hard walk on the student: “We spent a lot of money raising Dziuba, and this is a man who would kill all his relatives for even a penny.”

Years passed, Dziuba truly became a star in the city on the Neva, collecting all the national trophies and personal awards. And Fedun did it so that the ax with the football player was buried. “He apologized for this statement through his partners,” Dziuba said in an interview with the portal in 2020. I accepted these apologies, he said it on feelings. Later he realized that this was not true. championship.com.

In August 2016, Spartak found itself at a crossroads again: the team embarrassingly lost to the Greek AEK in the Europa League qualifiers, which led to the resignation of Dmitry Alenichev from the position of head coach of the team. Almost simultaneously with this, Kurban Berdyev left Rostov, which the media and insiders immediately associated the figure with the Fedun club. It is not known for sure what went wrong, but the almost agreed-upon contract of the famous coach was canceled. Rumors about an insulting SMS from the owner of Spartak to Berdyev spread to the public, and the coach’s reaction to this situation had to wait several years.

Many fans, remembering the sensational story with Berdyev, may ask a rhetorical question: maybe everything was for the best? After the failure of negotiations with the former coach of Rubin and Rostov, the leadership of Spartak entrusted the main team to Massimo Carrera, the assistant of Alenichev, little known to the general public. To everyone’s surprise, this decision was a 100% hit – Spartak, under the leadership of an impressive young Italian, came together beautifully, put up a disciplined defense, made incredible comebacks and most importantly found stability in the game. The result is the first title of the champion of Russia in 16 years.

In 2019, Fedun decided to make an internal revolution in Russian football. According to the plans of the head of Spartak, by 2023, the controlling stake in the club should be transferred to a non-profit organization, whose members will be supporters of the red-whites. They will then choose the president of the club themselves.

Then there were reports that the plan was alleged, but already in 2021 Fedun bitterly stated that there was no one ready to give Spartak 4-5 billion rubles a year. The pandemic and another crisis have thwarted the revolution.

During Fedun’s reign, a conspiracy theory against “red-whites” became part of football folklore. He was born by the “red-white” fans and supported by the club leaders, and his main assumption is that the referee was biased against “Spartak”. The culmination of the hysteria was the beginning of the 2019/20 season, after the draw with Sochi (2: 2) Fedun announced his intention to remove the team from the championship, and also called for the suspension of referee Vasily Kazartsev. and Alexei Yeskov for life.

But the intention remained such, the ethics committee of the Russian Football Union (RFU) fined Leonid Arnoldovich 200 thousand rubles, and the “red-whites” continued to play, finishing that season in seventh place. Loud words still pop up about a judicial conspiracy against Spartak, but he no longer came to threats to eliminate the team.

Despite the extreme personnel turnover in the upper echelons of Spartak’s power, Fedun’s decision to invite Shamil Gazizov, the general manager of Ufa, to the club seemed very appropriate and wise. The talented manager created a model of buying, developing and selling beautiful players, which, with an active injection of funds in the Bashkir club, could turn the Red-Whites into an analogue of the leading European clubs.

In fact, all went well: a dubious transfer campaign led to a split at the top and the hasty dismissal of Gazizov, followed by a protracted lawsuit. Also, according to Spartak tradition, legal proceedings, like all scandals, are accompanied by mutual sarcastic jokes and “leaks” of documents of varying degrees of importance. It is not yet clear when Gazizov’s lawsuit against Spartak will finally end.

Spartak is undoubtedly the club that attracts the most attention not only from football but also from the public. At different periods, Oleg Romantsev, Andrey Chervichenko, Valery Karpin and Fedun took the role of the main speaker of the “red-whites”, but Zarema Salikhova easily surpassed them all.

Leonid Arnoldovich’s friend entered the media space in the fall of 2020 and since then has not missed a more or less significant episode related not only to the life of Spartak, but also to the fate of all domestic football. And the Telegram channel has become a real media bombshell, revealing the complex relationships within the Spartak administration. Now Zarema has become more restrained, but bright headlines and explanatory quotes still appear regularly.

Spartak’s second team was revived in 2013, its mission was to run the closest reserve in terms of playing in the lower leagues. At various times, Zelimkhan Bakaev, Denis Davydov, Daniil Denisov, Nikolai Rasskazov, Alexander Selikhov, Mikhail Ignatov, Nail Umyarov, Vladimir Obukhov, Georgy Melkadze and others gained valuable experience playing against “men”. But in the new harsh economic realities, it turned out to be unprofitable to maintain Spartak-2, and in May of this year it was announced that it was liquidated.

Despite the validity of the decision, Fedun found himself under the yoke of criticism from fans who sincerely fell in love with the project. But we must reasonably consider the situation – it is unlikely that the closure of the second team was just a whim of the main shareholder, who was tired of another toy. It’s time to live within your means.