Volgar FC

Full name	Volgar Football Club
Founded	1960 (1960)
Ground	Central Stadium, Astrakhan
Capacity	21,500
Owner	Astrakhan Oblast
CEO	Andrey Nikitin[1]
Manager	Sergei Pavlov
League	Russian First League
2022–23	12th of 18
Website	Club website
Home colours Away colours

Volgar FC (Russian: Футбольный Клуб "Волгарь") is an association football club based in Astrakhan, Russia. They play in the Russian First League.

History

The club has been known under following names:

• Pishchevik (food industry worker) (1925−1958)
• Trud (labour) (1958–59)
• Volgar (1960–94) (2012–)^[2]
• Volgar-Gazprom (1995–2007), (2010–2012)
• Volgar-Gazprom-2 (2007–10)

Pishchevik played in the Second Group of the Soviet League. Trud (and later Volgar) played in the Class B (1958, 1960–1967), in Class A, Group 2 (1968–1969), in Class A, Group 1 (1970), Soviet First League (1971), Soviet Second League (1972–1990), Soviet Second League B (1991). In 1992 Volgar entered the Russian Second League, played in the Third League in 1994 (finished top and were promoted), returned to the Second League in 1995 and stayed until 1998. In 1998 Volgar-Gazprom were promoted and in 1999 they started playing in the Russian First Division. With the exception of the relegation for the 2004 season, Volgar-Gazprom had been in the First Division until 2006. The club was denied the professional licence and thus relegated to amateur level in 2007. Another club was organized called FC Volgar-Gazprom-2. The new club advanced to the Russian First Division for the 2009 season.

After the 2017–18 season, the club experienced financial difficulties and decided to be voluntarily relegated to the third-tier PFL.^[3]

On 15 May 2020, the 2019–20 PFL season was abandoned due to COVID-19 pandemic in Russia. As Volgar was leading in their PFL zone at the time, they were promoted to the second-tier FNL for the 2020–21 season.^[4]

Current squad

As of 15 January 2024, according to the Russian First League website.

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

No. Pos. Nation Player 5 MF  KGZ Erbol Atabayev 6 DF  RUS Yelisey Krivokhizhin 7 MF  RUS Aleksei Pavlishin 8 MF  RUS Danil Klyonkin 9 FW  RUS Timur Zhamaletdinov 10 MF  RUS Daniil Martovoy (on loan from Sochi) 11 MF  RUS Aleksandr Bolonin 14 MF  RUS Danil Poluboyarinov 15 MF  RUS Kirill Folmer 17 FW  RUS Dmitri Lesnikov 19 FW  RUS Kirill Kosarev 20 MF  RUS Danila Smirnov 22 DF  RUS Ivan Khomukha 23 MF  RUS Kirill Ushatov 28 DF  RUS Yegor Proshkin

No. Pos. Nation Player 29 DF  RUS Aleksandr Mukhin (on loan from Rostov) 31 MF  RUS Denis Tkachuk 42 DF  RUS Damir Shaykhtdinov (on loan from Zenit St. Petersburg) 43 DF  RUS Artur Gilyazetdinov 44 MF  RUS Andrey Anisimov 55 DF  RUS Yevgeni Shlyakov 58 DF  RUS Ilya Zuyev 70 MF  RUS Nikita Malyarov 71 GK  RUS Daniil Odoyevsky (on loan from Zenit St. Petersburg) 77 FW  RUS Denis Pushkaryov (on loan from Lokomotiv Moscow) 86 GK  RUS Nikolay Rybikov 90 DF  RUS Pavel Shakuro 97 FW  RUS Gocha Gogrichiani (on loan from Baltika Kaliningrad) 99 GK  RUS Oleg Smirnov — DF  RUS Sergei Obivalin

Out on loan

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

No. Pos. Nation Player — GK  RUS Vladislav Yampolsky (at Astrakhan until 31 December 2023) — MF  RUS Artur Karpov (at Astrakhan until 30 June 2024)

No. Pos. Nation Player — FW  RUS Mark Polushin (at Astrakhan until 30 June 2024)

Notable past players

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

References

External links

• Official website (in Russian)