FC Lokomotiv Moscow

FC Lokomotiv Moscow

FC Lokomotiv Moscow (Russian: Футбольный клуб "Локомотив" Москва, romanized: Futbol'nyy klub "Lokomotiv" Moskva, IPA: [fʊdˈbolʲnɨj ˈklup ləkəmɐˈtʲif mɐˈskva]) is a Russian professional football club based in Moscow. Lokomotiv have won the Russian Premier League on three occasions; the Soviet Cup twice; and the Russian Cup a record nine times. After the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, the European Club Association suspended all Russian teams from participation in international competition.

History

Early years

Lokomotiv was founded as Kazanka (Moskovsko-Kazanskaya Zh.D) in 1922. In 1924, the club brought together the strongest football players of several lines of the Moscow railway system as KOR ("Club of the October Revolution"). In 1931, the club was again renamed to Kazanka (Moskovskaya-Kazanskaya Zh.D) and in 1936, it was eventually renamed to as it is known today, Lokomotiv (the name means "Locomotive"). During the Communist rule, Lokomotiv Moscow club was a part of the Lokomotiv Voluntary Sports Society and was owned by the Soviet Ministry of Transportation through the Russian Railways.

Soviet era

When the Lokomotiv Voluntary Sports Society was created in 1936, its football team featured the best players of Kazanka, and a number of strong Soviet footballers of that time such as Valentin Granatkin, Nikolay llyin, Alexey Sokolov, Pyotr Terenkov, Mikhail Zhukov, llya Gvozdkov and Ivan Andreev. Lokomotiv debuted in the first-ever Soviet football club championship with a game against Dynamo Leningrad on 22 May 1936. In the first two seasonal championships (spring and autumn), Lokomotiv finished fifth and fourth respectively. The first Lokomotiv success arrived shortly as in 1936, the railwaymen rose up to the occasion to beat Dynamo Tbilisi 2–0 in the Soviet Cup Final, thus winning the first Soviet Cup.

The following years were rather successful as Lokomotiv were consistent in the national championships. However, performances after World War II suffered and in a five-year span, Lokomotiv were relegated to the Soviet First League twice. In 1951, Lokomotiv came second and eventually won the promotion to the Soviet Top League. This kicked off the second Lokomotiv's resurgence and until the beginning of the 1960s, Lokomotiv competed for the USSR's top trophies. In 1957, Lokomotiv won the cup for the second time, and two years later, Lokomotiv won the silver medals of the Soviet League. Second place was the highest position ever obtained by Lokomotiv during the Soviet era.

Another important trademark for Lokomotiv was the authorization of playing friendly matches against foreign opposition. Typically, up to the late 1950s, international sports contacts with Soviet teams were extremely rare. However, since in 1955, Lokomotiv became a quasi-"football ambassador" for the Soviet Union abroad, participating in friendly matches in various parts of the world, including Europe, Asia, Africa and even North America. This policy of openness ushered in a great era for Lokomotiv, with the squad including some of the finest Soviet footballers of the era, such as Vladimir Maslachenko, Valentin Bubukin, Victor Voroshilov, Zaur Kaloyev, and Yuri Kovalyov. When Lokomotiv's strongest players abandoned the club, however, Lokomotiv fell again from grace and a swing between the first and second divisions followed, instability lasting until the end of the 1980s.

Post-Soviet era

In the beginning of the 1990s, Lokomotiv was considered the "weakest link" amongst the top Moscow clubs. It lacked both results on the pitch and fans' support in the stands. In 2002, a new stadium—Lokomotiv Stadium—resembling a traditional, compact English one was built.

In 2002, a "golden match" was needed to decide who will be the champion, as Lokomotiv Moscow and CSKA Moscow both finished with the same number of points after Gameweek 30. The game was played at Dynamo Stadium in front of a sold-out crowd. Lokomotiv took an early lead thanks a low drive from captain Dmitry Loskov, and eventually the goal turned out to be enough for Lokomotiv to claim the first title in the club's history.

Two years later, Lokomotiv again won the Russian Premier League, edging city rivals CSKA by a single point; Lokomotiv defeated Shinnik Yaroslavl 0–2 in Yaroslavl, a week after CSKA fell to city rivals Dynamo at home.

In 2005, long-time head coach Yuri Semin left the team to coach the Russian national team, where he was replaced at Lokomotiv by Vladimir Eshtrekov. During the same year, although leading the league for most of the year, Lokomotiv stumbled in the last games of the campaign, allowing CSKA overtake them and claim the title, with Lokomotiv ultimately falling to third. Estrekhov was later sacked and replaced by Slavoljub Muslin, the first foreign manager in the club's history. After a poor start to the new season, Lokomotiv recovered and finished third, but despite the respectable performance, Muslin was sacked; Anatoly Byshovets took the helm as his replacement, with Yury Semin returning to serve as team president. This brought little success to Lokomotiv, who finished the season in seventh, with the only bright spot being the victory of the Russian Cup. These poor performances prompted the board of directors to sack both coach Anatoly Byshovets and President Semin. Rinat Bilyaletdinov was subsequently named caretaker coach. This lasted until 6 December 2006, when Lokomotiv brought in Rashid Rakhimov from Amkar Perm on a three-year contract. Again, however, this resulted to be yet another poor decision from the board, as Lokomotiv only finished seventh in (/wiki/RussianPremierLeague2008), also beginning the 2009 season poorly. Unsurprisingly, on 28 April 2009, Lokomotiv fired Rakhimov; long-serving player Vladimir Maminov was installed as a caretaker manager. A month later, Semin was brought back to the club to take charge. After a really poor start, Lokomotiv recovered and finished the season on a high, claiming fourth place in the process.

In 2010 shortly after the signing of former Lokomotiv player Peter Odemwingie to West Bromwich Albion, photographs showed Lokomotiv Moscow fans celebrating the sale of Odemwingie through the use of racist banners targeted at the player. One banner included the image of a banana and read "Thanks West Brom". Before West Brom's game against Tottenham Hotspur in September 2010, it was announced that West Brom fans would unfurl a banner to counter the racist one, the banner read 'Thanks Lokomotiv' and is accompanied by a picture of Odemwingie celebrating his win on his debut against Sunderland.

Before the 2011–12 league season, Semin left the club and was replaced by former Spartak Nalchuk manager Yuri Krasnozhan. On 4 June 2011, rumours spread that Lokomotiv chairman Olga Smorodskaya suspected Krasnozhan of throwing away the 27 May, 1–2 home league defeat to Anzhi Makhachkala, deciding to sack him on the grounds of the suspicion. Lokomotiv was fifth in the table at the time, just one point away from first-placed CSKA. On 6 July, after a Lokomotiv Committee of Directors meeting, Krasnozhan's contract was officially terminated on the basis of "negligence in his job." The Russian Football Union subsequently refused to investigate the case. Assistant manager Maminov again took over as caretaker for three weeks until a replacement was found in the form of José Couceiro, who had himself just finished a caretaking stint as manager of Sporting Clube de Portugal.

Couceiro, however, lasted just one year in the role, as the club opted not to renew his contract at the end of the 2011–12 season. After Croatia national team head coach Slaven Bilić announced he would step down after his nation's participation at Euro 2012, Loko acted quickly to sign him to a three-year contract. However, Bilić's first season at the helm brought another disappointment, as Loko finished ninth, its lowest-ever finish in the post-Soviet era of Russian domestic football. Just prior to the 2013–14 season, Bilić was sacked and replaced with new head coach Leonid Kuchuk. Eventually, however, Lokomotiv ran out of steam and after only managing to win a single points from the last three matches of the season, Lokomotiv had to settle for the third place.

Recent history

In the following season, Kuchuk failed to build up on the improved performances of the previous season and with Lokomotiv languished at the ninth place, Kuchuk was given the sack prematurely. Miodrag Božović was called to steady the ship but despite the early promise, a disastrous run of one win in a stretch of nine matches resulted in Božović being sacked with three league matches to go and with Igor Cherevchenko re-appointed as caretaker manager for the second time during the season. Despite the poor league performance, wherein Lokomotiv placed in the 7th place again, Lokomotiv did end the season on a positive tone as Cherevchenko managed to rally his troops and win the Russian Cup with a 3–1 win over Kuban Krasnodar. This success, which brought the first piece of silverware to Lokomotiv in 8 years, was enough to convince Olga Smorodskaya to appoint Cherevchenko on a permanent basis. Lokomotiv's performances under Cherechenko did improve in the beginning but it was a false promise once again as in the end Lokomotiv faltered and did not manage to qualify for European football. Notwithstanding this, Cherevchenko was confirmed for the 2016–17 season.

After months of speculation, and with only two games in the new season, the board pulled the plug on Smorodskaya's disastrous tenure and relieved Smorodskaya hand Cherechenko from their positions. Ilya Herkus was brought in for Smorodskaya and with the goal of resolving the previous board's fractious relationship with the fans and bring them back to the stadium, Lokomotiv appointed Yury Semin as their manager for the fourth time. In also came crowd favourite Dmitri Loskov, who was assigned to assist Semin with his duties. Despite the good feelings brought by the change in management, Lokomotiv's performances seldom improved and a tumultuous season ended up in Lokomotiv placing in a disappointing eighth position. In what was the only highlight of the season, Lokomotiv managed to snatch the Russian Cup for a joint record seventh time by crushing Ural Yekaterinburg's dreams of their first ever piece of silverware with a two-nil victory.

Despite the average league performance, Semin was confirmed for the next season. Herkus' decision to retain Semin resulted to be a shrewd decision as Semin managed to do the unthinkable and rallied Lokomotiv to win the Russian Premier League for only the third time in their history. In Europe, Lokomotiv also performed admirably, as they managed to advance to Round of 16 for the first time in their history and got eliminated by Atlético Madrid, who eventually went on to win the Cup.

After the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, the European Club Association suspended the team.

Performances in Europe

FC Lokomotiv Moscow

Lokomotiv reached the Cup Winners' Cup semi-final twice, in 1997–98 and 1998–99. The club also played in the UEFA Champions League for the 2002–03 and 2003–04 seasons, progressing past the group stage in the latter only to fall to eventual finalists AS Monaco in the round of 16. They qualified to the group stages again for the 2019–20 season.

Players

Current squad

Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules; some limited exceptions apply. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.

No.	Pos.	Nation	Player
1	GK	RUS	Anton Mitryushkin
2	DF	ECU	Cristian Ramírez
3	DF	BRA	Lucas Fasson
5	DF	CMR	Gerzino Nyamsi
7	MF	RUS	Zelimkhan Bakayev
8	FW	RUS	Vladislav Sarveli
9	FW	RUS	Sergei Pinyayev
10	FW	RUS	Dmitry Vorobyov
14	MF	RUS	Nikita Saltykov
16	GK	RUS	Daniil Veselov
19	FW	RUS	Aleksandr Rudenko
22	GK	RUS	Ilya Lantratov
23	DF	MEX	César Montes
24	DF	RUS	Maksim Nenakhov
No.	Pos.	Nation	Player
25	MF	RUS	Danil Prutsev (on loan from Spartak Moscow)
27	FW	RUS	Nikolay Komlichenko
32	MF	ARG	Lucas Vera
37	FW	RUS	Dmitry Radikovsky
45	DF	RUS	Aleksandr Silyanov
59	DF	RUS	Yegor Pogostnov
70	MF	ARM	Vadim Harutyunyan
74	DF	RUS	Daniil Chevardin
83	MF	RUS	Aleksey Batrakov
85	DF	RUS	Yevgeny Morozov
90	MF	RUS	Danila Godyayev
93	MF	RUS	Artyom Karpukas
94	MF	RUS	Artyom Timofeyev
99	FW	BLR	Ruslan Myalkovsky

Out on loan

Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules; some limited exceptions apply. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.

No.	Pos.	Nation	Player
—	DF	BLR	Arseniy Ageyev (at Slavia Mozyr until 31 December 2026)
—	DF	UKR	Mark Mampassi (at Turan Tovuz until 30 June 2026)
—	MF	RUS	Arseny Gerdt (at Chayka Peschanokopskoye until 30 June 2026)
No.	Pos.	Nation	Player
—	MF	RUS	Artyom Korneyev (at Sochi until 30 June 2026)
—	FW	BLR	Aleksandr Frantsuzov (at Torpedo-BelAZ Zhodino until 31 December 2026)
—	FW	RUS	Vadim Rakov (at Krylia Sovetov until 30 June 2026)

Honours

Leagues

• Soviet Top League / Russian Premier League • Winners (3): (/wiki/2002RussianPremierLeague), (/wiki/2004RussianPremierLeague), 2017–18 • Runners-up (7): (/wiki/1959SovietTopLeague), (/wiki/1995RussianTopLeague), (/wiki/1999RussianTopDivision), (/wiki/2000RussianTopDivision), (/wiki/2001RussianTopDivision), 2018–19, 2019–20 • Soviet First League / Russian National Football League • Winners (3): (/wiki/1947VtorayaGruppa), (/wiki/1964SovietClassASecondGroup), (/wiki/1974SovietFirstLeague) • Runners-up (2): (/wiki/1971SovietFirstLeague), (/wiki/1987SovietFirstLeague)

Cups

• Soviet Cup / Russian Cup • Winners (11): (/wiki/1936SovietCupFinal), (/wiki/1957SovietCup), 1995–96, 1996–97, 1999–2000, 2000–01, 2006–07, 2014–15, 2016–17, 2018–19, 2020–21 • Runners-up (2): 1989–90, 1997–98 • Soviet Super Cup / Russian Super Cup • Winners (3): (/wiki/2003RussianSuperCup), (/wiki/2005RussianSuperCup), (/wiki/2019RussianSuperCup) • Runners-up (6): (/wiki/2008RussianSuperCup), (/wiki/2015RussianSuperCup), (/wiki/2017RussianSuperCup), (/wiki/2018RussianSuperCup), (/wiki/2020RussianSuperCup), (/wiki/2021RussianSuperCup)

International competitions

• UEFA Cup Winners' Cup • Semi-finalists (2): 1997–98, 1998–99 • Commonwealth of Independent States Cup • Winners: (/wiki/2005CommonwealthofIndependentStatesCup) • European Railways Cup • Winners (5) (record): 1974, 1976, 1979, 1983, 1987

Stadium

FC Lokomotiv Moscow

Lokomotiv play their home games at RZD Arena. Its total seating capacity is 27,320 seats, all covered. The stadium was opened after reconstruction in 2002.

Ownerships, kit suppliers, and Sponsors

FC Lokomotiv Moscow

Period	Kit manufacturers	Period	Sponsors	Owner
1936—1992	?	—	—	Lokomotiv society
1989	Adidas
1990—1992	Score	Ministry of Railways of the Russian Federation
1993	Patrick	1993	Victor
Adidas	Galleano Transport
1994	Umbro	1994	El Campero
1995—1999	Puma	1995
1995—1996	Samsung
1997—1999	TransRail
2000	Diadora	2000	Russian Railways	Russian Railways
2001	Puma	2001
2002—2004	Nike	2002—2003	Moscow Railways
2004	Russian Railways
2005—2010	Adidas	2005—
2011—2014	Puma
2014—2018	Adidas
2018—2020	Under Armour
2020—2022	Adidas

Notable players

FC Lokomotiv Moscow

Had international caps for their respective countries. Players whose name is listed in bold represented their countries while playing for Lokomotiv.

Club records

FC Lokomotiv Moscow

Top scorers
Player	Goals
Dmitri Loskov	128
Dmitri Sychev	92
Viktor Sokolov	91
Valentin Bubukin	70
Viktor Voroshilov	67
Zaza Janashia	51
Aleksei Kosolapov	51
Yevgeni Kharlachyov	45
Oleg Garin	44
Vladimir Maminov	41
Appearances
Player	Matches
Dmitri Loskov	421
Vladimir Maminov	401
Guilherme Marinato	387
Sergei Ovchinnikov	367
Sergei Gurenko	334
Yuri Drozdov	326
Igor Chugainov	312
Oleg Pashinin	285
Dmitri Sychev	267
Dmitri Sennikov	266

Coaching staff

FC Lokomotiv Moscow

Position	Staff
Head coach	Mikhail Galaktionov
Assistant head coach	Zaur Khapov
Goalkeeper coach	Sascha Marth
Fitness coach	Lucio da Silva Sergey Alexeev
Supply Administration Specialist	Vladimir Korotkov
Head doctor	Ihor Kalyuzhnyi
Doctor	Aleksey Miglo
Head of physiotherapy and Rehabilitation	Martin Hämmerle
Manualtherapist	Andrey Kuznetsov
Physiotherapist	Sergey Semakin Juan Alberto Pinar Sans
Translator	Murat Sasiev Dmytro Kraitor
Masseur	Oleg Novikov Andrey Osmanov
Administrator	Stanislav Mitrokhin Alexander Krumin
Operator	Boris Dzagoev
Team Manager	Eduard Schnorr