Krasnodar Owner Sergei Galitsky wants to turn his club into a football powerhouse. GETTY IMAGES
If Russian Premier League side Krasnodar Owner Sergei Galitsky "gets his way," the club will "soon" be competing in the Champions League, according to Max Seddon of the FINANCIAL TIMES. After "pocketing" $2.45B this year from selling most of his stake in Magnit, a low-cost supermarket chain he founded 20 years ago, Galitsky is "devoting himself to turning Krasnodar into a football powerhouse." Instead of "splashing out" on expensive foreign signings or buying a club in England, Galitsky "dreams of winning trophies with a side made up entirely of local players." Galitsky started Krasnodar "from scratch" in '08 and has since spent $90M on state-of-the-art facilities at the club's training ground, where 320 youth-team prospects live full-time and a further 11,000 children from across the region play on 27 pitches. If he succeeds, it would be a "huge boost" for Russian football. The national team is "widely regarded" as the "worst the country has fielded since the USSR collapsed." In April, Galitsky replaced the club's experienced coach with Krasnodar native Murad Musayev, the 34-year-old youth-team manager. Galitsky said, "I don't want any [Thomas] Tuchels or any other foreigners. Murad's from Krasnodar, and that's very important -- we've lost our national identity" (FT, 5/31).
