Shamar Nicholson (Spartak)

Spartak is the most active of all Russian clubs so far.

The winter transfer window in the RPL has not yet opened, and the club has already introduced three newcomers.

The main acquisition was the Jamaican striker Shamar Nicholson.

For the textured striker (192 cm in height), the red and white, according to the Transfermarkt portal, did not spare € 9 million, which Charleroi received.

The footballer moved to Europe in 2017 and initially defended the colors of Slovenian Domzale, and two years later he moved to Belgium.

In the last season, he managed to dramatically increase his own performance.

If last season, Nicholson scored nine goals in 33 matches, then this year - 13 in 18. With this indicator, he takes third place in the tournament scorers race.

Also on account of Shamar seven assists.

The transition to Spartak for the Jamaican is a new step in his career and an opportunity to go to one of the leading championships of the continent in the future. And for Muscovites, the transfer looks promising. The Jamaican is in his prime (24 years old) and is still able to progress. Only the large number of attackers in the team raises questions. Now the new head coach Paolo Vanoli can count on five at once: Nicholson, Alexander Sobolev, Esequiel Ponce, Jordan Larsson and Georgy Melkadze. The Jamaican, in addition, duplicates Sobolev in texture.

"Spartak" did not stop with the acquisition of the forward.

Daniil Khlusevich from Arsenal is called upon to close the problematic right flank of the defense.

And the competition to Alexander Selikhov and Alexander Maksimenko in the goalkeeper line will be Ilya Svinov from "Fakel".

In this case, the reds and whites also relied on young performers who can grow.

In this regard, the possible transitions of the 21-year-old midfielder of Krylia Sovetov Danil Prutsev and the defender of the national youth team of the country Leon Klassen will look logical.

But Alexander Lomovitsky, who has no place in the base, on the contrary, can replenish Rubin's roster.

Eric Bootheim (Krasnodar)

Krasnodar also decided to strengthen the attack first.

To help John Cordoba and Vladimir Ilyin, Eric Bootheim was acquired at Bodø-Glimt.

According to Transfermarkt, the southerners paid € 5 million for the footballer.The media insist on a larger amount - € 8-10 million.

One way or another, the domestic club won the fight for one of the most talented young Norwegian footballers.

In 2021, the 21-year-old striker became the national champion and scored 15 goals in 30 meetings in the national championship.

Moreover, he scored four times in the group stage of the League of Conferences, and the home match with Roma became his finest hour.

Bootheim scored a double, assisted partners three times and helped the hosts win a sensational crushing victory - 6: 1.

How highly Eric is rated at home is evidenced by the words of his former mentor Mikal Aserud, according to whom the scorer under 16 was quoted above Erling Holand and, according to his data, resembles Robert Lewandowski.

The forward of Borussia Dortmund himself congratulated his compatriot on the transfer and asked Krasnodar to take care of his comrade.

Well, southerners continue to rely on performers from Northern Europe.

And this vector fully justifies itself.

The Swedes Markus Berg, Christoffer Olsson, Victor Klasson and Andreas Granqvist have brought invaluable benefits to the team.

Now Bootheim will try to follow their path.

Magnus Knudsen (Rostov)

The roster was strengthened by a young Norwegian and "Rostov".

Recently, the club has also gladly invited promising Scandinavians.

At the moment, the team's colors are defended by the Swedes Armin Gigovich and Pontus Almqvist.

Now they will be accompanied by 20-year-old midfielder Magnus Knudsen.

At home, he played for "Lillestrom", of which he is.

At first, the young athlete did not receive enough playing practice and even had to go on loan to Ullezaker / Kisa, who plays in the country's second-strongest division.

In the summer, Knudsen returned and soon made his way to the starting lineup.

The footballer's strong qualities were also noticed in the Norwegian U-20 team.

In the fall, he played three matches with it, and in a new role - on the right flank.

To summarize, Rostov acquired a promising multi-tasking footballer for little money.

The presence of two Swedes in the team should help him to adapt.

Mark Mampassi (Lokomotiv)

After the change of management, Lokomotiv announced its desire to strengthen itself exclusively by young players, on the sale of which it will be possible to earn money in the future.

In this regard, the acquisition of 18-year-old defender Mark Mampassi fits perfectly into the concept.

Despite the foreign name and surname, he is a citizen of Ukraine and was born in Donetsk.

The athlete's father is Congolese, and his mother is Ukrainian.

At the age of 11, the talented boy ended up at the Shakhtar Academy.

True, they failed to prove themselves in the Pitmen's main team.

Mamapassi never made his debut for her.

But as part of Mariupol, he managed to play 21 games in the Premier League.

At first glance, the amount of € 3 million for a very young center-back looks too big.

However, it can be explained, among other things, by a possible change of citizenship.

According to media reports, this should happen in December.

In this case, he will be able to play for the Russian national team.

While the footballer plays for the youth national team of Ukraine U-19.

With her, he made his way to the elite round of the European Championship, which will be held in March.

According to Mampassi, he intends to continue to defend the colors of the team.

Pavel Mamaev (Khimki)

If we talk about Russian footballers, the most notable was the signing of a contract with Khimki by Pavel Mamaev.

After serving a prison term, the champion of the country joined the roster of "Rostov".

However, he did not bring any benefit to the new team.

The main reason for the failure was injury.

For example, just because of an Achilles injury, the midfielder missed five months.

As a result, he has only 26 matches for the southerners in all tournaments and four goals.

It is logical that they did not renew the expired agreement with the 33-year-old footballer.

But Mamaev did not remain a free agent for long.

Khimki, fighting for the survival, decided to strengthen their roster with an experienced performer.

The Moscow Region club has historically been famous for its love of aged footballers.

Just take the example of Denis Glushakov, who is experiencing a second youth in the team of Igor Cherevchenko and has already scored seven goals in the current RPL season.

Together with him, Pavel is able to form a powerful duet in the support zone, if he does not experience health problems.

Moreover, Khimki did not hide their interest in Alexander Kokorin.

A member of the club's supervisory board, Roman Teryushkov, said that the striker was on the "targeting list", although he emphasized that there was no question of any specifics.

Nevertheless, the striker is probably not averse to returning to his homeland, since he has no playing practice at Fiorentina.

Yuri Zhirkov (Nizhny Novgorod)

It will be very interesting to follow the future of Yuri Zhirkov.

The bronze medalist of the European Championship in the fall announced his desire to continue his career.

At the moment, the newcomer of the RPL "Nizhny Novgorod" has shown a substantive interest in the 38-year-old defender.

According to media reports, head coach Alexander Kerzhakov is personally interested in signing a long-term partner in the Russian national team.

On Wednesday, the club confirmed that they had made an offer to the veteran, and he allegedly took a break for reflection.

Despite his advanced age, a footballer of this level is able to help the team maintain a residence permit in the Premier League.

Questions are only raised by his high injury rate and a long pause in his career.

The last time Yuri entered the field was in June at Euro 2020.

We are ready to sign a contract with Zhirkov and Khimki, because, according to Teryushkov, the defender was included in the same targeting list.

However, in this case, the probability is much lower.

“There are a lot of footballers there.

But our desires for all the players from this list have not yet been put on paper.

Now this is nothing more than our thoughts, "- said a member of the club's supervisory board in an interview with Sport24.