Opening
A disclaimer first: this article was not paid for by Baltika, by FC Kaliningrad, or even by my son, who simply wants his training sessions closer to home. The author is beholden to nobody except his love of Kaliningrad football. Any overlap of interests is coincidental; all the dreams are sincere.
For many years Kaliningrad has had a private football school, FC Kaliningrad: its own brand, timetable and 14 branches, from Selma and Chkalovsk to Aksakov and Kosmodemyansky, plus a site in Zelenogradsk. Most of them live in the gyms of ordinary city schools, so it is literally "football at the school across the road" in every district. There are more serious facilities too: the AVTOTOR Arena indoor pitch built to FIFA standards and the Olympic reserve college sports centre. The school has run since 2015, takes children from the age of three and calls itself one of the region's largest youth football projects.
