Profile · 13 min read
How Andrei Mendel waited six years in the second division — and became Baltika's captain
Six years in the second tier — then the armband.
Topic
History
Archives, long careers and childhood football: texts about what came before today's Baltika.
Profile · 12 min read
300 matches before the Premier League. How Ilya Petrov was led around the RPL for ten years
300 games and ten years going round in circles.
Profile · 16 min read
Stefan Kovac, the most mysterious footballer of today's Baltika
Not a single RPL start in a year.
Story · 12 min read
Offor was asked to find a new club. He answered with an RPL record
On 24 July 2026 Chinonso Offor scored against CSKA after 35 seconds — the fastest first goal of a season in…
Story · 6 min read
34 countries, almost 150 foreigners and not a single Argentine. Baltika's history through its imports
Baltika always bought the part of the world it could reach: first Ukraine and Belarus, then a few FNL…
Investigation · 18 min read
When Baltika was Spartak. A big archive investigation
A badge, forgotten newspaper files, a youth title under the Spartak sports society and the club's own…
Profile · 7 min read
Ilya Kirsh: the boy from one edge of Russia who chose the long road to the other
How a Zenit academy graduate from Nakhodka, with every Russian youth team and five loans behind him, ended up…
Essay · 2 min read
Not the main ones, but ours. What 6 July 2026 meant for local football writers
The first Winline RPL Heroes media evening in Moscow, and the first award category the league has ever given…
Essay · 8 min read
The football of our childhood: two bricks, a plantain leaf and crocodile sneakers
Yard football as we remember it from childhood.
Profile · 13 min read
The captain who went through everything
The big story of Aleksandr Filin — from a second-hand shop in Simferopol to Baltika's armband.
Profile · 5 min read
The first Kalmyk in the national team. How Beveev crawled his way there
His first coach said he had no talent.
Interactive · 6 min read
Eight years ago Modric, Iniesta and Courtois played here. Now Trinidad and Tobago are coming. An interactive guide
In 2018 the Island hosted Modric, Iniesta, Courtois and a future World Cup top four.
Essay · 7 min read
Dad, they shout so loudly here. Baltika through the eyes of a six-year-old
I started supporting Baltika in 1994.
Essay · 9 min read
I never finished the Panini USA 94 album as a kid. Now I am collecting World Cup 2026
In 1994 a ten-year-old in Kaliningrad had a door made entirely of football stickers.
Analysis · 5 min read
Grozny Groundhog Day: how Baltika turned a tactical masterpiece into a serving of Baltic melancholy
Baltika laid a perfect tactical table in Grozny and dropped it on its own boots at the last moment.
Profile · 7 min read
While others were called the future, Petrov simply reached the national team
Nobody called him a new genius.