When Yuri Sjomin started his coaching at Lokomotiv Moscow, the world was a different one. Moscow was the capital of the Soviet Union, Mikhail Gorbachev only one year the strong man in the Kremlin, Russian troops fought a hopeless, dirty war in Afghanistan. It was the year 1986, the world has turned completely since then. But: Yuri Sjomin is as former coach of Lok Moscow.

The 71-year-old has done many other things in between, he was Russian coach, Dynamo Kiev coach, he has trained in Azerbaijan, but Lok Moscow has not let him go. Since 2016 he is back at the club where he was already a player in the seventies. He has made Lok Moscow the champion, the team is back for the first time in 14 years in the Champions League and waiting at the draw in the evening (18 clock, live ticker SPIEGEL ONLINE) on his three group opponents.

If today the lots are drawn for the premier class, pot one looks like the presumed favorites teams: Real Madrid, Atletico Madrid, FC Barcelona, ​​Bayern Munich, Manchester City, Paris Saint-Germain, Juventus Turin - and just Lokomotiv Moscow with Coach Sjomin. The Uefa has packed the champions of the six strongest leagues according to their calculation system in the first group pot, and since the Russian league belongs as the sixth, locomotive Moscow slips into the ranks of European top clubs.

Former Schalke is the sports director

Thanks to the club this his coach-veteran, but also a German. Sporting director Erik Stoffelshaus, who used to care for youngsters at Schalke 04 and then made his football experience in Canada, has been in Moscow since 2016 and has played his old Gelsenkirchen connections. First he signed the former Schalke striker Jefferson Farfán, who had meanwhile landed in Abu Dhabi and kicked his footballing retirement. The 32-year-old Peruvian was "not the hottest stock", as Stoffelshaus calls it, even without a large transfer fee. Farfán shot Lok with ten goals to the championship.

imago / ZUMA Press

Coach Sjomin (left) and Farfán

Anyone who has had success with this principle will try again: Stoffelshaus has now also brought Schalke's former leader Benedikt Höwedes to Moscow, more locomotive than the world champion of 2014 is hard to imagine. Höwedes is already 30, at Juventus in Turin it did not work for him after leaving Gelsenkirchen for various reasons. Now he's in Juventus in the same draw pot.

It's a pretty colorful squad that Sjomin and Stoffelshaus put together. In front of Farfán stormed the Portuguese Eder, who has earned through his winning goal in the European Championship finals 2016 eternal fame. Rear defended the Croat Vedran Corluka, after 103 internationals and with the runner-up title in the luggage now resigned from the national team. Corluka is 32, Eder 31, midfielder Igor Denisov 33, you can not necessarily accuse Lok Moscow of youth mania.

With this troupe of experienced men, Lok Moscow is embarking on the Champions League adventure, with CSKA there is a second Moscow club in the competition. CSKA has the much more prominent name, but the number one sporting world champion Russia this year was Lok. However, the start of the new season of the Premier League has been rather sobering: after five games, they are in fifth place with two wins, two draws and one defeat. Front runner Zenit Saint Petersburg has already posted seven points with his so far immaculate record.

photo gallery


10 pictures

Photo gallery: steam on the locomotive

Coach Sjomin will not be able to do that great. After taking office in 1986, he sat 19 years on the locomotive coaching bench. He has seen his team win the championship, playing in the Champions League with him against FC Barcelona and Real Madrid, celebrating five cup wins with Lok, twice in the semi-finals of the European Cup Winners' Cup Finally, once. He was even president of the club for a year. Except for Greenkeeper Sjomin in the club has more or less everything done, he knows every stone on the club grounds.

When asked in Europe, who the Champions League clubs want as a group opponent, fell repeatedly: Lok Moscow. Better than Barcelona, ​​Real or FC Bayern zugelost zugelost. In terms of quality, Lok Moscow is certainly not in the first pot. But you should not take the Höwedes', Farfáns and Sjomins too easily. The old gentlemen have plans for something else.