FC Astana

FC Astana

Full name	Football Club Astana Астана Футбол Клубы
Founded	2009
Ground	Astana Arena Astana, Kazakhstan (Capacity: 30,000)
Chairman	Mels Kataev
Manager	Holger Fach
League	Kazakhstan Premier League
2010	4th
Home colours Away colours

FC Astana (Kazakh: Астана Футбол Клубы) is a Kazakh football club based at the Astana Arena.

History

The club formed as the result of a merger between FC Alma-Ata and Megasport in the beginning of 2009. Later they moved to newly build Astana Arena. The club has benefited from a high salary role which has enabled them to attract players of status to the club. Tikhonov and Titov first of all came from the Russian Premier League.^[1][2][3] Several more followed such as Patrick Ovie and Baffour Gyan. Maxim Shatskikh later arrived from Dynamo Kiev in the Ukrainian High League which is again a very high profile capture for the club. The majority of their other players have arrived from other clubs in the Kazakh League, mostly on free transfers from the clubs which were absorbed to make the club and several which last year went into bankruptcy.^[4]

Although FC Astana won the Kazakhstan Cup in 2010, they were ineligible for a UEFA license since they had not yet existed for at least three years. So they were not able to qualify for the 2011–12 UEFA Europa League.

Name History

• 2009 : Founded as Lokomotiv Astana
• 2011 : Renamed Astana^[5]

Achievements

• Kazakhstan Cup: 1
  • 2010

League results

Current squad

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

No. Position Player 1 GK Nenad Erić 2 DF Damir Dautov (limit) 4 DF Maksim Zhalmagambetov 8 MF Andrei Karpovich 5 DF Pyrali Aliyev 6 DF Kairat Nurdauletov 7 FW Anatolie Doroş 9 MF Nurbol Zhumaskaliyev 10 FW Igor Bugaev 11 FW Dragan Bogavac 12 DF Zaurbek Pliev (limit)

No. Position Player 15 MF Bobi Božinovski 17 FW Tanat Nuserbaev 18 MF Maxim Azovskiy 19 DF Mark Gurman 20 MF Dmitri Shomko (limit) 22 MF Marat Shakhmetov 27 DF Mikhail Rozhkov 33 GK Vyacheslav Kotlyar 40 FW Denis Prokopenko (limit) 55 GK Aleksei Belkin MF Roman Pakholyuk

Reserve team

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

No. Position Player 21 FW Yerzhan Mukhamedin 23 MF Serik Zainalov 25 FW Aisultan Nazarbayev 28 MF Nurgazy Nurzhigit 30 DF Radmir Muksinov 31 MF Azat Smagulov 34 FW Timur Bakhriden 35 DF Zhanat Zakirov 43 DF Anuar Tokenov 44 DF Pavel Khalezov 45 MF Maksim Shaubert

No. Position Player 48 MF Zhumazhan Musabekov 49 FW Dzhaba Dzhamarishvili 57 DF Yerbol Musabayev 66 MF Alisher Tazhibaiuly 69 DF Ivan Navrotski 77 GK Aleksandr Konochkin 78 GK Rimas Martinkus 88 MF Rinat Khairullin 91 MF Arsen Inkarbekov 95 GK Aleksandr Sidorov 99 GK Beibitzhan Mamraimov

Notable players

Baffour Gyan Talgat Adyrbekov Igor Avdeev Aleksei Bulucevsky Andrei Karpovich Timur Khalmuratov Zakhar Korobov Zhambyl Kukeyev

Roman Nesterenko Sergey Ostapenko Maksim Samchenko Ruslan Sakhalbaev Murat Suyumagambetov Bobi Bozinovski Vlade Lazarevski Eduard Valutsa

Roman Gerus Denis Petrov Mikhail Rozhkov Evgeniy Naboychenko Arslan Satubaldin Madiyar Muminov Aleksandr Shatskikh Maksim Shatskikh

References

1. ^ Karpovich joins Titov and Tikhonov
2. ^ Lokomotiv signed Titov and Tikhonov Sport.gazeta.kz 15 Feb, 2009
3. ^ Lokomotive signed 10 players Sports.kz 6 Feb, 2009
4. ^ "Локомотив" (Астана)
5. ^ "ФК «Локомотив» переименован в ФК «Астана»" (in Russian). official website. Football Federation of Kazakhstan. http://kff.kz/rus/news/611. Retrieved 8 June 2011. 

External links

• Official website