Krugovoy explained the reasons for leaving Zenit

Danil Krugovoy's decision to move to CSKA became one of the most important events of the beginning of the year in domestic football.

Few could imagine that the Muscovites would come to an agreement with one of the Zenit leaders, but it happened.

In response, the St. Petersburg team transferred the defender to the second team.

And soon he himself addressed the fans on social networks and explained the reasons for the step he had taken.

According to the athlete, negotiations on extending the contract lasted a year and a half, and he received a very lucrative offer from his current club.

“I don’t want to speculate and I’ll tell you how it is - it’s not a matter of personal conditions.

The offer that came from Zenit suited me completely.

These are the best conditions and I am grateful to the club for this offer.

But I chose to play football,” Krugovoi wrote.

He also thanked the blue-white-blue fans, management and coaching staff.

The army team also does not hide their satisfaction with the deal.

The general director of the team, Roman Babaev, even called Danil one of the strongest players in his position in the country.

The functionary admitted that there was a desire to acquire the Russian in the winter, but it was not possible to do so.

“We traditionally take into account not only the strength of the player, but also the financial and rational sides of the transaction.

In this case, both this component came together - Danil will be in the status of a free agent from the summer - and his desire to have more practice and a change of scenery.

Danil, by the way, is friends with many of our guys,” Sport-Express quotes Babaev.

In addition to the defender, Zenit risks losing another leader - Mateo Cassierra.

The media claim that the Saudi club Al-Shabab intends to make an offer for the best scorer of the current RPL season in the near future.

Sevikyan moved to Ferencvarosi for €1.2 million

Last week another significant transfer took place.

Edgar Sevikyan officially moved from Nizhny Novgorod to Ferencvaros and signed a four-year agreement with the Budapest team.

The domestic team reported that the Hungarian club had activated the buyout option.

And the general director of Pari NN, David Melik-Guseinov, revealed the specific amount of the transfer - €1.2 million plus 7% from further resale.

According to media reports, former Monaco vice-president Vadim Vasiliev and head of the FNL Nail Izmailov took part in the deal.

“Izmailov asked Vasiliev, who worked at Monaco, to arrange for Sevikyan in Europe and showed him the buyout option.

The agency fee for moving to Ferencvaros amounted to €300-500 thousand,” a source told Match TV.

The Nizhny Novgorod team, on the one hand, suffered a serious loss, because the midfielder scored seven goals in the first part of the season and was one of the brightest performers in the attack line.

On the other hand, they managed to make money on it and attracted attention in Europe.

Moreover, it is not a fact that the Armenian, who was eager to try himself in the Old World, would not have lost motivation if he had not been released.

Safonov extended the agreement with Krasnodar

Following the purchase of Kevin Castagno, Krasnodar, a contender for gold medals, took an equally important step - it extended the contract with Matvey Safonov for five years at once - until January 31, 2029.

Moreover, the current agreement expired in almost two years, but the parties have already agreed.

“For me, Krasnodar is everything, because I have come a long way: from school to entering the field with the captain’s armband.

I'm glad that it doesn't end, but only continues.

You can't say it's starting.

But I think the journey is now in full swing.

I’m looking forward to what comes next,” the club’s official website quotes the goalkeeper.

His intention to remain in his native team despite rumors of interest from Zenit cannot but please fans of the southerners, because a native of Stavropol is the leader and unconditional number one of the team.

If in the previous national championship he made mistakes and even lost his place in the team, then this year he regularly helps out his partners.

Thanks in part to his saves, Vladimir Ivich’s team are claiming the title.

In total, he has already played 163 matches for Krasnodar in all competitions.

The RPL leader will become even stronger if he agrees on the transfer of Osman Bukari.

According to the press, the club intends to strengthen its ranks with a Red Star foreign player, capable of playing both at the forefront of the attack and on the right wing.

The Ghanaian showed his worth not only in the Serbian championship, but also in the group stage of the Champions League, where he scored twice and provided the same number of assists.

The Belgrade camp has already emphasized that they are ready to let go of the forward, who was also interested in Spartak in the fall, for no less than €10 million.

Attempts to strengthen the offensive line are especially relevant against the backdrop of rumors that several Premier League teams intend to rent John Cordoba.

We are talking about Crystal Palace, Nottingham Forest and Everton.

But, according to British media, they may have difficulty finalizing a deal with the Russian squad.

Spartak spoke about the future of Jikia and Abaskal

Meanwhile, Spartak is in no hurry to renew the agreement with its captain Georgiy Dzhikiya, which expires in the summer.

This is understandable, since the defender lost his place in the starting lineup after the arrival of Srdjan Babic and Alexis Duarte.

Muscovites general director Oleg Malyshev said that the player’s contract has an extension option, called him one of his favorite players, but complained about the changed status.

“We, together with Guillermo Abascal, Tomas Amaral and Georgiy, must discuss the current situation and understand which solution will be the best for everyone,” RBC quotes the functionary.

In this interview, he made a number of other interesting statements.

For example, he considered it necessary to have a “plan B” for the coaching staff based on unsatisfactory performance.

“Whatever the circumstances, Spartak cannot occupy fifth place in the first half of the championship.

Therefore, from the point of view of the emotional assessment in the club, the board of directors, our fans are dissatisfied with this state of affairs... If this issue leads to the question of Guillermo’s fate, then at the moment he continues to work,” Malyshev noted.

He also admitted that the club does not have a fixed limit on transfers.

Now all that remains is to wait for the first winter purchases of red and white.

Miranchuk aroused interest in Turkey

Another iconic Russian football player Anton Miranchuk also remains in limbo.

As with Dzhikia, his contract with Lokomotiv expires in the summer.

And there is no news about negotiations with management.

But in Turkey, since the beginning of the year, they have been writing about Besikkas’s interest in him.

Allegedly, the railway workers offered the midfielder to cut his salary in half - from €2.4 million to €1.2 million. He refused and, for his part, demanded that the Istanbul residents raise their salary to €3 million. They considered the amount too high.

But the athlete’s agent Vadim Shpinev called all this untrue.

“Yes, a lot of businessmen and intermediaries are interested in this topic.

We don’t know any Turkish journalists, we didn’t give any consent to the transfer,” the Championship quotes the footballer’s representative.

But, as we know, there is no smoke without fire, and a little later, Besiktas general director Samet Aybaba confirmed that the athlete is within the club’s sphere of interest.

The red-greens have so far limited themselves to extending the agreement until June 2028 with right back Maxim Nenakhov.

Another capital giant CSKA, having agreed with Krugov, according to Portuguese journalists, does not abandon attempts to strengthen the already powerful center of defense.

It is noted that the army team made an offer to the local Famalican to lease Riccelli with an option to buy for €5 million.

The tall, powerful Brazilian has been playing for the current team since 2019 and during this time has become its leader and captain.

It is important that he himself is interested in traveling to Russia.

It is no coincidence that a little earlier it was also reported that Dynamo and Zenit were interested in him.

Allegedly, in recent meetings the player deliberately did not take the field in order to resolve the issue with his future and not get injured.

However, the Latino's agent Alexis Malalvolta emphasized that it was too early to talk about reaching an agreement.

The army team also has a Russian with an agreement expiring in the summer.

We are talking about Konstantin Kuchaev.

Against this background, news appeared about the midfielder’s desire to try himself in another team.

The options were “Baltika”, but the athlete did not want to go to Kalingrad.

And his representative Alexander Klyuev assured that the client intends to stay and win a place in the team.

Kuchaev himself complained that he knew nothing about negotiations with management on the extension of the contract.

Chistyakov took a salary cut for the sake of renting in Sochi

Of the RPL clubs, Sochi is the most active in the transfer market.

The bottom outsider, following another change of coach and the invitation of Roberto Moreno, added five newcomers to the squad.

Of course, Dmitry Chistyakov’s loan from Zenit attracts more attention than others.

The central defender, who had almost no practice in St. Petersburg, emphasized that he agreed to the transfer solely for the opportunity to constantly appear on the field.

“We haven’t had much time in recent months, and injuries began to appear.

At some point, an offer came from Sochi, and I answered positively, because I want to play and help the team stay in the Premier League,” the footballer explained.

Moreover, according to insider Ivan Karpov, he even agreed to lower his salary.

At the same time, according to the terms of the deal, the southerners do not have the right to buy out the Russian, and at the end of the season he will return to his home club.

Strengthened the team and other lines.

For example, two central midfielders came - Hovhannes Harutyunyan and Aleksandar Yukic.

The former is a two-time champion of Armenia and has played nine matches for the national team.

The second, by the age of 23, had played almost 100 matches in the Austrian Bundesliga for Austria Vienna.

They took Saul Guarirapa into the attack.

The 21-year-old Venezuelan showed his worth in his native championship and was even called up to the youth team.

Meanwhile, two eminent domestic forwards, Ivan Ignatiev and Georgy Melkadze, left the team.

The first one hit the opponents’ goal only twice in six months and never became the main goal even in the outsider’s camp.

The Spartak graduate did not distinguish himself even once.

Another squad fighting for survival, “Baltika”, which in the winter strengthened itself with three football players, is not far behind the southerners.

Striker Vitaly Lisakovich is on loan from Rubin until the end of the season.

He did not have practice in his team due to a conflict with head coach Rashid Rakhimov.

We can only hope that Sergei Ignashevich will be able to find a common language with the talented, but problematic from the point of view of character, Belarusian.

And in CSKA, which had become his hometown, the specialist looked at young Yaroslav Arbuzov.

The winger made his debut for the army team in the summer and played a total of four games for them, scoring one goal.

Fans remember him for his non-standard technique.

But the capital’s club unexpectedly agreed to sell the student to the Kaliningraders, with whom he signed an agreement for 4.5 years.

Finally, the outsider's defense was strengthened by Kevin Andrade.

The Colombian spent most of his career in “America”, where he even made his mark in the group stage of the Copa Libertadores, the South American equivalent of the Champions League.