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It is no secret that Leicester City has been one of the biggest surprises on the European football scene this season, and perhaps even in the past decade. The English side is however not the only side currently fighting way above their weight class. FC Rostov from southern Russia are currently in the middle of a similar miracle.

For people outside Russia, Rostov are best known for being the club where former Arsenal and Tottenham midfielder David Bentley experienced the low of his career during a six-month loan in 2012. In fact, for a long time FC Rostov wasn’t even the biggest club in Rostov. During the Soviet era SKA-Rostov was the powerhouse in the city, finishing second in the top league in 1966 and winning the Soviet Cup in 1981.

However, under the control of former Rubin Kazan head coach Kurban Berdyev, Rostov are now against all odds in the middle of creating the biggest surprise in Russian football since Alania Vladikavkaz’s championship in 1995.

After winning just seven league games last season, the Yellow-Blues had to play two play-off matches against FNL side Tosno to avoid relegation. This was the result of a decline that started soon after Rostov secured the club’s first and only trophy with the 2014 Russian Cup final. Just a few games into the new season, head coach Miodrag Bozovic left the club to take over Lokomotiv Moscow, and his successor Igor Gamula turned out to be a walking scandal. From being relatively anonymous on the global stage, Rostov suddenly created headlines all over the world when Ukrainian born Gamula made a series of controversial comments. At one point, Gamula made a highly inappropriate joke about Ebola, while he also stated that the club ’had enough black players’, something for which he was punished with a five game suspension.

After the last game in the autumn season, Gamula was sent back to youth football, while Berdyev started the difficult job to rebuild and save Rostov. At that point, Rostov were dead last in the league with just 11 points after 17 games and a goal difference on minus 22.

Berdyev quickly managed to stabilize the defence, and during the spring season, shades of the successful team we have seen this season could be found.

However, in order to truly understanding Rostov’s success one needs to switch attention 1,200 kilometers north to the city of Kazan as well as go back in time.

Kurban Berdyev was appointed head coach at Rubin Kazan in 2001, and during his 12 years in the club, the Tatars moved from the second tier to the top of European football beating the mighty FC Barcelona 2-1 at the Camp Nou in the Champions League as well as winning two Russian championships and the domestic cup.

No less than 17 staff members as well as six players from Berdyev’s time at Rubin are currently working with Rostov – the most famous being ‘the Iranian Messi’ Sardar Azmoun, Ecuadorian national team player Christian Noboa and Spanish defender Cesar Navas.

The heavy influence of Rubin was clear when fans of the Tatars applauded Rostov after they defeated Rubin in Kazan in August last year. To make things worse for the hosts, two of Rostov’s three goals were even scored by former Rubin top scorer Aleksandr Bukharov.

Rostov have however also faced their share of problems this season. In September, the club had to send a squad consisting of youth players to a cup game against Tosno as the first team players were reportedly boycotting the game due to missing salary payments. The financial situation at the club has been problematic for a while now, and Rostov have often been banned from registering new players due to the amount of unpaid bills. Part of the problem is that the regional government of Rostov Oblast has cut the club’s budget, which meant the Yellow-Blues have had to turn to local oligarch Ivan Savvidis to cover the holes in the budget. Other than being the patron of Rostov, Savvidis is best known for being owner of Greek side PAOK from his other hometown Thessaloniki. In an interview with the news agency TASS, Savvidis revealed that he has invested more than 600 million rubles or €7.9 million in the club over the past six months.

Despite several negative stories about the club’s financial problems, Rostov’s players haven’t looked back since the infamous cup game in September. During the winter the squad was improved by the signing of Russian international Aleksandr Erokhin from Ural, who was one of the best players in the Russian Premier League during the first half of the season. Erokhin’s contract with Ural would have expired after this season, and with his good performances, he was expected to either move to one of the Moscow clubs or begin an adventure at a foreign club. Yet he chose Rostov, and that signing proves that Berdyev’s side needs to be taken seriously.

Since the second half of the season started at the beginning of March, Rostov have played three games, winning two of them and drawing one. They are yet to concede a goal this year, and two weeks ago, they even managed to defeat CSKA Moscow 2-0 at home.

Just as in the case of Leicester, the foundation of their success is built on being strong defensively and clinical in front of goal.

Rostov obviously can’t compete with the big clubs from the north regarding star names, but Berdyev has managed to create a powerful collective in the squad, which allows each player to perform his best every match. A good example of this is the 36-year-old defender Navas, who is in the middle of his second youth after joining Rostov before this season, and has played a full 90 minutes in 20 out of the 21 games so far this season. Another example is 34-year-old Belarusian winger Timofei Kalachev who has contributed six assists already this season, a number only Hulk, Baye Oumar Niasse and Terek’s Oleg Ivanov have bettered.

In an interview with Reuters Erokhin shared his opinion on why Rostov continued to surprise anyone:

“Maybe there are no star names in our team… But a good blend of youth and experience is giving us good results. We go out to play each match as though it is our last and this is why we are constantly managing to pick up points.”

Even though the Russian version of Leicester are currently further away from the championship than their English counterpart, Rostov have already exceeded all expectations and can now seriously allow themselves to dream of once again playing European football next season. The club’s official goal remains to qualify for Europe, but with Berdyev on the sideline and Savvidis in the clubhouse, nothing seems to be impossible at the moment. As Azmoun said after the victory against CSKA: “If Leicester can do it, so can we.”

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