A Million-Dollar Gamble: How Rubin Sacked Rakhimov and Appointed Artiga

Parted with Rakhimov unilaterally

Rubin has officially dismissed Rashid Rakhimov from the post of head coach. Back in mid-December, the club's board of trustees recognised the team's results and performance in the first half of the season as unsatisfactory. At the same time, the coach still had a contract for another six months.

As Realnoe Vremya found out, after the meeting of the board of trustees, Rakhimov was given to understand that there was no talk of his dismissal. The coach waited a couple of days and left the country for a vacation towards the end of December. Despite the rumours, Rashid Mamatkulovich stayed in touch and did not hide from the news. On the first working day of the new year, the coach came to Kazan, and the parties calmly agreed on his resignation. At the same time, the decision to dismiss Rakhimov was made by the club unilaterally.

There was information that the head coach of the Kazan team was twisting the bosses' arms, demanding exorbitant conditions for compensation. In fact, no extraordinary demands, such as a percentage of the resale of the team's leaders, were made. Everything went according to the terms заранее прописанным in Rakhimov's contract with Rubin. The parties shook hands, and on the evening of Monday, the coach calmly packed his things at the Kopylova base and said goodbye to the employees.

If it had been different, the official parting with Rakhimov would not have been so elegant. On the morning of the day of his dismissal, the coach was received by the head of Tatarstan, Rustam Minnikhanov, and was awarded the medal «For Valiant Labour». The club also released a post with thanks from Rubin president Marat Safiullin.

A million for the decision

Frank Artiga has been appointed the new head coach of Rubin. The Spanish specialist has signed a contract with the Kazan team until the summer of 2027. The coach will start working with the main team at the winter training camp in Turkey, which will begin on January 15 in Belek. The Spaniard has been tasked with making Rubin's game more spectacular. In addition, Marat Safiullin emphasised the importance of working with the academy graduates.

«Frank Artiga is a high-quality specialist who already has experience working in Russia. His teams play bright and spectacular football that attracts spectators and fans. FC Rubin associates high hopes with the new coach that our team will show football that will attract even more fans to the home stadium. Frank has worked at the Barcelona academy for a long time with children's and youth teams, has nurtured many stars of world football, such as Lamine Yamal, Dani Olmo, Marc Cucurella, Adama Traore and other talents. We hope that this experience will help the new coach at Rubin to discover new names among the graduates of our academy. I wish the new coach good luck and success in coping with the big tasks that lie ahead of him», — said Safiullin.

The appointment was also commented on by Artiga himself:

«Rubin is a big club with the highest goals. I know this club, the republic and the city of Kazan well. I visited here 12 years ago when I coached the youth team of Barcelona at the Gilmullin Memorial Tournament. It's incredible to return here as head coach after all this time. And it's a serious challenge. I am grateful for this opportunity and I am glad to lead a team with such a rich history and traditions, to work in this large republic», — the club's press service quotes him as saying.

He greeted Rubin fans: «I will make every effort to make the team please you. Everyone understands the expectations of the club and the tasks that lie before us». And he thanked the head of Tatarstan, Rustam Minnikhanov, and the club president, Marat Safiullin, for the invitation.

According to insider Ivan Karpov, the club will pay the coach 36 million rubles for the early termination of the contract with Rashid Rakhimov. The club also spent about 65 million rubles on Artiga's transfer — the Spaniard had a current contract with Angolan Petro Atlético. Journalists from Angola reported on the compensation for the coach. Thus, the change of coach in winter cost Rubin more than 1 million euros.

Rakhimov exceeded the plan

Rakhimov took over Rubin in the spring of 2023, replacing Yuri Utkulbaev as head coach. Under his leadership, the Kazan team won the First League and advanced to the Premier League from the first place, from which they had been relegated in 2022 with Leonid Slutsky. After returning to the elite division, Rubin managed to establish itself as a mid-table team in the championship. For three incomplete seasons in the RPL, Rakhimov's team never fell into the relegation zone and showed stable results.

In the spring of 2023, the option of appointing him looked, if not a mistake, then at least a dubious decision. A year ago, the coach failed miserably in Ufa, where he managed to spoil relations with some players and worsen the team's position in the RPL.

When Rakhimov was appointed, two other candidates were considered — Igor Shalimov and Andrey Talaev. The final decision on the coach was explained by the fact that Rashid Mamatkulovich puts a more cohesive football in front of his teams. The contract was signed for one and a half seasons. In the first year, the coach was required to get out of the First League and maintain a place in the RPL, in the second — to become a mid-table team in the championship.

Rakhimov managed to exceed the plan. With him, Rubin triumphantly won the First League and immediately established itself among the mid-table teams in the Premier League, taking eighth place. The contract was eventually extended, but only at the end of the season, for two years. Then the team finished seventh, which made some people talk about bigger goals — getting into the top 5 and the semi-finals of the national Cup. At the same time, the coach continued to suffer from the strange work of the club in the transfer market. New players came to the club either at the deadline or not the ones the coaching staff required.

The current season started well for Rubin: the team was among the leaders, showed nice play, which made fans come to the Ak Bars Arena трибуны again. However, then there were injuries, delays in strengthening the squad, and the results went down. Rakhimov was forced to try to quickly fit Daler Kuzyaev into the game, struggled with Jacques Sive (who was afraid of ruining his hairstyle) and tried to improve the aim of Mirлинд Daku.

As a result, the year ended unsuccessfully for Rubin. Since September, the team has won only three matches in the RPL and was eliminated from the Russian Cup in the first quarter-final of the Regional Path. At the same time, the last three matches ended in three defeats, in which the Kazan team did not score a single goal. However, Rubin still finished the first half of the season in seventh place. And there are big doubts that without Rakhimov the team will be able to stay in the middle of the table.

The gamble

The main reason for changing the head coach in the off-season is that the winter break lasts much longer than the summer one. In the summer, the new head coach would have had to get to know the team urgently and build up playing connections already at the start of the season.

At the same time, it was important for the Rubin management to get a coach who puts on beautiful football. They chose between two candidates — Srdjan Blagojevic and Frank Artiga. They stopped at the latter. Firstly, the Serb is suing his former club, Partizan. Secondly, the Spaniard is already familiar with Russian football. Artiga previously unsuccessfully tried to get Rodina out of the First League, and then left the sinking Khimki with a scandal.

The Spanish specialist is valued because he worked at the Barcelona academy for 11 years. During this time, he managed to nurture a whole host of significant players in world football — Gavi, Pedri, Ansu Fati — the list goes on and on. Rubin is counting on close cooperation between Artiga and the Kazan academy, where the club is methodically investing money both in terms of infrastructure and in terms of playing aspects. It is expected that already in the spring the main team will focus on the appearance of its own graduates in RPL matches.

However, Artiga's appointment remains a gamble. Rubin does not have a large points reserve over the teams from the стыки zone. There is a possibility that after the first matches in the spring the team will find itself in the lower part of the standings. Beautiful football and young players on the roster usually do not solve the tasks of salvation.

Artiga is officially the third foreign coach in the history of the Kazan club. In 1998, Yugoslav Miodrag Radanovic was head coach for a while, and in the 2016/17 season the team was led by Spaniard Javier Gracia. Neither of them achieved fame in Kazan, at least in terms of results. What will Artiga be remembered for?