Rustam Minnikhanov: ‘Friends from Islamic countries are increasingly willing to come to us’
Rubin won the Eastern Cup for the second time in a row
Young football players of Kazan Rubin (10-11 years old) became the winners of the international tournament Eastern Cup held in the sports and health camp Molodaya Gvardiya. The tournament was established by Rubin and the Ministry of Sports of Tatarstan in 2024, and both times its winner is the Kazan club. Realnoe Vremya tells about the memorable moments of the competition.
More participating countries than last year
The number of participants in the Eastern Cup has not changed, just like last year — 10 teams. But this time the number of countries has increased slightly. The first competition was attended by teams from Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, as well as representatives from other foreign countries — the UAE and Saudi Arabia.
Now the last two countries have been replaced by representatives from Oman (My School) and Pakistan (Mehran Football), as well as Babylon from Tajikistan. By the way, the Pakistani team had the only girl among all the participants in the tournament.
If in the first tournament Rubin players competed in the final with the Kazakh Yelimay from the city of Semey, then now the team from Central Asia in the main match of the tournament was replaced by a representative of the Transcaucasus — Sabah team from Azerbaijan. The professional team from this country was previously headed by Magomed Musayev, who is now leading Krasnodar to the championship. The official website of the professional club actively informed about the Kazan tournament, despite the young age of its participants. In addition, the Azerbaijanis can afford to choose the countries to participate in tournaments, for example, their neighbours from Turkey, but for the second year in a row they come to Kazan, despite the difficulties with logistics. Prizes for second place were presented to the Azerbaijanis by the Minister of Sports of Tatarstan Vladimir Leonov, perhaps remembering that his good friend Irek Zinnurov worked fruitfully in this Transcaucasian republic.
The day before the decisive matches, all the young participants of the tournament attended a friendly match between the veterans of Rubin and a team called Diplomats, which gathered representatives of the OIC (Organization of Islamic Cooperation) countries. Despite the fact that Rubin's veterans were strengthened qualitatively by inviting Alexander Mostovoy and Ruslan Nigmatullin to join their team, and strategically by putting the president of the Kazan club, Marat Safiullin, to the forefront of the attack, the diplomats rejected the proposed idea of diluting their players with professionals. Although the South African Macbeth Sibaya and the Turk Gekdeniz Karadeniz, whom Sibaya called a “Muslim brother” could have fit in perfectly with them. The definition of “Muslim brother” is due to the fact that they both became sponsors of the construction of religious buildings.
Karadeniz built a mosque in Kazan, and Sibaya built a Protestant church in his homeland, South Africa. As a result, Sibaya scored twice against the proud and uncompromising diplomats, and Karadeniz tormented the defenders of this team with his tirelessness.
When they don't let you save the goal, there's a chance to save the worm
When the friendly match started, Macbeth Sibaya opened the scoring, and he did it with his “non-native” left foot. Dmitry Blagov increased the score and almost immediately after that went on the substitute, giving a short comment to our publication: “He scored a goal, so he did his job.” Blagov was recognized as the best in his role in children's football at one of the tournaments. Which is especially important, since this was during the USSR, when Rubin dropped to the second league for a long time.
Soon Andrei Fedorov was also replaced, finding himself surrounded by his fellow countrymen from Tashkent Lokomotiv, who were taking pictures with the 1994 Asian champion. Ruslan Nigmatullin, meanwhile, drew attention to the fact that “there is an extra player on the field”, picking something up in the grass and carrying it out of bounds. It turned out to be an earthworm, which Nigmatullin, in his words, “as an avid fisherman, had to save.”
Before the start of the friendly match, Realnoe Vremya’s correspondent spoke with representatives of the Kazakh club Yelimai, last year's finalist of the Eastern Cup. “Our team is quite young, it was formed only in 2022. But before us, there was Spartak in the city, famous since the times of the Soviet Union, when the city of Semey was called Semipalatinsk. Our pupil Timur Segizbayev is a legendary figure for the Kazakh SSR, he then became the president of the Football Federation of the Republic of Kazakhstan,” said Serzhan Maki. After the collapse of the Union, the team was among the leaders of club football in independent Kazakhstan, ahead of even Almaty's Kairat. Then it was also called Yelimai, winning the national championship three times. Then there was a renaming back to Spartak, under which, unfortunately, in 2016 the team ceased to exist.
How Rubin veterans experienced a family atmosphere
Yelimay sports director Duman Balykbayev told how the club was revived. “Our Semipalatinsk region is the recognized birthplace of Kazakhstani football, and in 2013 we solemnly celebrated the 100th anniversary of the birth of this game. We invited Russian football stars and veterans of your wonderful team.”
The famous Oleg Romantsev, the late Georgy Yartsev, Boris Pozdnyakov, Vagiz Khidiyatullin, Dmitry Khlestov, as well as the uncle of former Rubin footballer Viktor Bukievsky — Vladimir Bukievsky. The veteran Rubin team, which established strong ties with the birthplace of Kazakhstani football, is simply the legends of Kazan (Vladimir Artamonov, Ildar Garifullin, Rashid Zainutdinov, Oleg Nechayev, Nail Sadykov) and Rubin football (Sergey Kozko, Ansar Ayupov, Rifat Galiev).
Rubin captain Sergey Kharlamov was delighted with that tournament: “Even before this start, Niyaz Akbarov joked in a conversation with me: “Imagine, now we are flying at Rubin’s expense to an international tournament.” And so it happened... Football club Rubin supported us, equipped us with almost rare T-shirts. I met with Aibatov. I joked: “Rustemych, finally, after 11 years, I received the equipment of my native club!”
Kazan played quite successfully, taking third place. The tournament was organized perfectly, the local Tatar diaspora met the compatriots, who welcomed the athletes as if they were family.
The Tsar and the Prince are sitting on the bench
The three-move combination Alexander Mostovoy — Alexander Bukharov — Marat Safiullin ended with the third goal against the diplomats. Marat Adipovich can be envied in terms of his athletic longevity. In 2013, he was a participant in the media match against the team of the government of the republic — many had heard about the injury that was bothering him. And now it seems like he had no health problems, nor the 12 years that have passed since that Friendship Cup. Safiullin is fine, and only a goalkeeper of Nigmatullin's level can save his shot, which was done in the second half, and so far it's 3:0.
“First of all, I can say that the language of football is the language of friendship, — he commented on the field. — You don't even need to know foreign languages to understand your teammates. This is a game that unites representatives of all countries, all religions.”
Around football, you can create a kind and informal atmosphere of the Eastern Cup. It resembles the relaxed atmosphere at media football and at the same time surpasses it in goodwill and mutual respect. When a blogger from Egypt sent the ball over the goal from a meter, he was consoled by players of both teams, with the exception of the referee.
By the way, the quickly replaced Blagov and the participant of the photo shoot Fedorov were also among the participants of that foreign tour of Rubin in Kazakhstan. But they were not in the center of attention now, but Andrey Knyazev and Alexander Mostovoy. The first one really wanted to score and did not calm down until he had accomplished his goal, after which he went to the bench, starting to chat with Alexander Mostovoy, who had sat down to rest.
Mostovoy at Molodaya Gvardiya
The teams played the second half, each adhering to its chosen tactics. The veterans preferred beauty. Karadeniz crossed and Bukharov hit on the fly, forcing Nigmatullin to parry in a jump. Sergei Ryzhikov, who in this game was both a field player and a playing coach, knocked the ball out of the way in a tackle — in general, he tried almost all the roles that he was deprived of, having spent his entire life in goal. Bukharov decided to play a “dry leaf”, curling the ball from a corner into the far corner of Nigmatullin's goal. “It was even a shame," said the legendary goalkeeper.
Alexander Mostovoy, whose career took place in Spartak and Benfica, as well as the championships of France and Spain, felt absolutely at home in the camp with the patriotic name Molodaya Gvardiya including because his first team of masters had the no less patriotic name Krasnaya Presnya: £Such games always contribute to the development of international relations. A large number of children gather at such meetings, and they generate great interest, which, naturally, leads to the popularization of football. Previously, we often participated in such matches, but now, unfortunately, we rarely go abroad. As for my personal participation, I did not spend much time on the field, because I was injured and I did not want to aggravate the injury. In general, I rarely play football now, more often hockey. By the way, in connection with hockey I came to Kazan last time.”
Duman Balykbayev, Yelimay (Semey): “When we had the process of merging two regions, ours and Ust-Kamenogorsk, into one, this led to a certain decline in many industries, including sports. But our country's president, by his decree, returned Semey to regional significance, now it is called the Abay region. The first Akim of the region was Nurlan Urankhayev, who in the early 1990s was the first president of Yelimay DC, contributing to its success. And in 2022, having become Akim of the Abay district, he immediately revived the football team, in a year we went from the first league to the top. In 2023, a delegation of our region, which included businessmen, cultural figures, representatives of the sports community, already came to Kazan, as they say, on a return visit, after a visit to Semey by a delegation of the Rubin football club. A memorandum of cooperation was signed between us, which includes an internship for young football players in academies. Ours, by the way, took advantage of this opportunity and confidently reached the final in 2024.
At the end of the tournament, Tatarstan Rais Rustam Minnikhanov commented: “This year, the Eastern Cup was held as part of the international forum Russia — Islamic World. It is gratifying that interest in the tournament is growing — our friends from Islamic countries are increasingly willing to come to visit us to show a beautiful game and ball skills in an atmosphere of friendship and harmony, to receive and pass on their knowledge and skills. Despite the fact that the winners and prize-winners of the competitions have been determined, there are no losers in such tournaments. I would like to thank the organizers of the Eastern Cup, Rubin, for holding this sports festival.”
