Sochi has twice stood at the start of a new chapter for Mikhail Ryadno. In August 2023 the defender scored his first CSKA goal against them. In March 2026 — his first for Baltika.
Two years and seven months lie between those goals. A loan, a return for pre-season, another loan and a move to Kaliningrad. A beautiful first goal opens a career, but it does not explain how to stay in one. For Ryadno, the hardest part began after it.
A short back story
In 2019 a boy who had left Dynamo for personal reasons arrived at the CSKA academy. Thirteen years old, thin, in boots that looked too big for him — and a month's trial to decide whether he was worth taking.
Talking to Denis Romantsov, youth coach Dmitry Igdisamov recalled that the decision was taken by a whole council of coaches and scouts. What convinced them was not how Misha handled the ball, but what he did once it was lost: he went to ground and crawled to block the cross.
After that everything moved quickly. On 14 July 2023 — his first professional contract. The next day — a substitute appearance in the 82nd minute of the Russian Super Cup against Zenit and the status of the youngest player in the history of the competition. On 13 August — a long-range goal against Sochi, 3:1.
Ryadno credits the manner of his debut to Vladimir Fedotov:
"And they didn't give me my first appearance in some ordinary match, but in the Super Cup. After that they let me play in the RPL and the Russian Cup. I think he gave my career a big push."
There was a push. A settled place did not follow straight away.
The turn: a loan
In the winter of 2025, after the autumn half of the season at Rodina, the 19-year-old Ryadno returned to CSKA's pre-season camp. Not to serve time — to stay:
"Of course I was counting on it and prepared extra before that camp. But in my position there are now two very strong players who are more experienced than me. So the decision was taken to go on loan for playing time."
The two players — Moisés and Krugovoy. He prepared extra, separately, in advance — for a continuation that never came. And he explained why himself, without resentment: "In football there is always competition, and you have to be ready for it."
One detail that stops this being either an exile or a carefree "school of life": the loan was a joint decision after an invitation from Rodina, and Nikolić backed it.
And the link with CSKA stayed literal:
"I come to the stadium for CSKA's home matches and support the team. Marko said I could be with the team in the dressing room at matches, and if I need anything I can always turn to them."
A loan player in the First League who kept his place in the dressing room of an RPL club. Not in a box, not in the stand — in the dressing room.
At Rodina he played 27 matches and was named the club's player of the season for the first half of the campaign. He described the difference between the leagues in workmanlike terms: "more fighting, more duels, fairly high speeds in terms of pressing and pressure", but "interesting moments with the ball are rarer here".
In this period Ryadno was called up regularly to the Russia under-21 side. In friendlies against foreign opponents he played in Brazil, Uruguay, Vietnam, China, Uzbekistan, Saudi Arabia and elsewhere.
One academy, different speeds
While Ryadno was collecting minutes in the First League, Matvey Kislyak and Kirill Glebov were establishing themselves in the CSKA first team. All three from the same year group.
Of Kislyak, Ryadno said: "the main progress of the season. No question. He was given a chance and he took it superbly." And he added: "Kislyak and Glebov are in the starting line-up now on absolute merit."
Ryadno made his first-team debut earlier than most — at 17, in a match for a trophy, with an RPL goal a month later. But the early debut did not secure him a place. Two experienced players stood in his position, and that is the only explanation he gives himself.
Baltika. Why he needed it
On 16 February 2026, after a trial at the second winter camp in Belek, Ryadno joined Baltika. The contract runs to 31 December 2029. CSKA kept no priority buy-back right, only a percentage of a future sale.
Sporting director Armen Margaryan explained the choice like this: on trial Ryadno "showed himself well", "looked pretty good next to the other lads", proved sociable, "plus he is young, promising, left-footed, a position in fairly high demand". Before that the club had looked at almost every available full-back on the market — down to players from the Kazakhstan under-21 side and a Belarusian.
Talalaev rated him highly, but set out the limits at once: "Misha Ryadno is one of the best lots there were on the market", while "obviously he is no replacement for Saus... for now they are different sizes".
And to the direct question of whether Ryadno had more chance of playing at Baltika than at CSKA, he answered without qualification:
"Absolutely."
The coach explained the logic through competition: at CSKA the players cost more, the fight for a place is at a higher level, and that puts responsibility on the staff and on the players themselves. In Kaliningrad the price of a young player's mistake is lower — so the chance is more real.
Ryadno himself put the task like this:
"If I come to a club, my aims are maximal. Not just to stay, but to prove myself and fight for the line-up. There is competition everywhere, but I am ready for it. Here everything depends on you. At Baltika the competition is healthy. You are given a chance; if you show more in training, you play."
Then — a debut against Zenit on 27 February, a first goal for the club against Sochi (4:0) on 21 March. In pre-season he stood in for the injured Civic and, in the observers' notes, drew attention with his runs to the far post.
Where he actually plays
A clarification without which the rest makes no sense: "left-back" is the wording of the transfer card, not of the game.
According to Rustat, Ryadno's time breaks down like this: 61% left-back, 35% left wing-back, 4% right wing-back. But in the match-by-match breakdown of 2026/27 almost every line says LWB — left wing-back. In other words, in Talalaev's system with three centre-backs he is not the wide man in a four but a flank player responsible for the whole touchline — in defence and in progression.
The heat map of the last five matches confirms it: the densest zones are the left flank from his own box to the opposition third, and the patches are brighter in the attacking half.
The difference from a full-back's position is fundamental. A wing-back has to cover more metres vertically and decide for himself when to go forward and when to hold the line. It was exactly that decision the coach had questions about.
What Talalaev said
In February, straight after the transfer, the coach set out his demands publicly and specifically. First the assessment:
"Ryadno is good in terms of football education and his attitude to the process. As for the process's attitude to him, we will have to correct a few things."
And then the main point:
"He is ready to work a lot individually, but so far he is not as focused on team and group interactions. For a defender they are very important. Ryadno does not yet have the ability to cover his team-mates' weaknesses with his own strengths. For now he is a pronounced individualist who does everything to grow into a big player, but those actions are not always the right ones."
Talalaev is not saying that individual work gets in the way — he is saying it is not enough. Ryadno works hard on himself, and the coach acknowledges that directly. But a defender, and a wing-back all the more, needs one more skill: to cover his partners' weaknesses in the line with his own strengths. By the coach's February assessment, Ryadno did not yet have it.
Talalaev spelt the complaint out in two episodes. The first was about his forward runs: after the 30th minute of the first half Ryadno kept bursting forward when the team needed him in the central zone, "not by running about, but by understanding football". The second was the goal conceded to Sadulaev in a friendly: "a childish mistake, turning over the wrong shoulder, slowing down".
Neither complaint is about physique or desire. Both are about reading the game.
Four months later, in June, Margaryan described the result of the first months without embellishment:
"It takes time to adapt to our football. We hoped Misha would pick everything up quickly, but the RPL matches showed there is work to do tactically."
He also used Ryadno as an example of why you cannot rush to conclusions on transfers: after the first matches he "would have put him in the plus column", and then he stopped playing. It is worth remembering the frame of the move itself, too: in the winter the club was not strengthening but regrouping, and Ryadno was signed for the rotation from the start — alongside Anderson and Lacerda.
The key number: Cup and league
In Rustat's sample from February to 16 September 2026 — 17 matches, 880 minutes, one goal and one yellow card. His best index in that sample is 204, against Sochi on 21 March, when he scored in 43 minutes on the pitch.
But the interesting thing is not the total but where exactly he gets full matches. Take the stretch of August and early September. His three longest appearances in that time are Cup ties:
- Zenit, 5 August, Cup group stage, 0:1 — 96 minutes.
- Dynamo Makhachkala, 20 August, Cup — 95 minutes.
- Krylia Sovetov, 2 September, Cup, 0:0 and defeat on penalties — 98 minutes.
And in the RPL over the same stretch — short appearances: 19 minutes against Spartak on 16 August, 31 minutes against Fakel on 12 September.
In this stretch the roles diverged clearly: in the Russian Cup Talalaev trusts Ryadno with full matches, in the league he brings him on for twenty or thirty minutes. The rule does not hold for his whole time at Baltika — in the spring he had long RPL matches too, including 102 minutes against Rostov on 7 March.
One detail from the Cup tie with Krylia. The match ended 0:0, Baltika lost the shoot-out 3:5 — and Ryadno was among those who stepped up and scored. A twenty-year-old rotation player was trusted with a kick in a shoot-out that decided the team's position in the group.
On 16 September, against Zenit in the league, Ryadno came on in the 63rd minute for Mingiyan Beveev at 1:3. Two minutes later Baltika scored their second and got back into the game, although they eventually lost 2:3. In 31 minutes Ryadno made 23 actions, 16 of them successful, won 5 of 8 duels and posted a Rustat index of 177. That appearance continued the pattern of short RPL stints, but it showed something else: he comes on in the league not just for token rotation, but when the team needs to chase the game.
Where he is now
Ryadno commented on his role in the team at the end of March, when he started coming off the bench more often:
"I don't see it as some kind of 'fall'. It's the coach's decision, everything is fine. I work in training, I prove myself. If I get the chance to come on, I have to give 100 per cent and help the team."
The task has not changed. A contract to 2029 buys time, but it does not guarantee a place in the line-up.
And in April, when Talalaev was missing matches after an operation, Ryadno said Baltika lacked Andrei Viktorovich's energy, his support and his prompts. That, too, is part of his new reality: the coach publicly and thoroughly dissects his mistakes, and the player acknowledges how much the team needs his energy.
The finale
His first goal for CSKA — Sochi. His first for Baltika — Sochi too. Between them two and a half years, a loan, a move, regular under-21 call-ups and one task, which he formulates the same way in Moscow and in Kaliningrad.
At CSKA there was no room for him in a position held by two more experienced men. At Baltika room was found — in August and early September, above all in the Cup. Talalaev has said out loud exactly what is missing: not effort, but the ability to play for the line, not only for himself.
He is getting his ninety Cup minutes. The next step is to turn them into a place in the RPL starting line-up.
Today Mikhail Ryadno turns 21. Happy birthday! Let us wish him luck — I am sure it will all come together.
We discuss Ryadno's and Baltika's prospects here — https://t.me/BalticaB
