Ufa Faces Player Shortage: Reviewing Departures, Arrivals, and Targets

Football Club Ufa is preparing for the spring part of the First League. The team is holding training camps, assessing player conditions, signing contracts with new players, and bidding farewell to those who can no longer contribute. Who left the squad and who has joined — in this UFA1.RU report.

Ufa will conduct its training camps in Turkey. During this time, the coaching staff will continue to search for candidates to fill the gaps in the team — and as acknowledged by the team«s head Omaari Tetradze, there are gaps, and they are quite significant.

«We are looking for players in the positions of central defender, defensive midfielder, and forward. That is, we are aimed at strengthening the team»s central axis. Moreover, we need another quality winger,« Tetradze said.

There are already changes in the coaching staff itself. Arthur Shaybekov, who assisted Tetradze as senior coach, has been replaced by Fedor Shcherbachenko. Incidentally, Shaybekov is the son of the club«s deputy general director. But the 63-year-old »newcomer« clearly has more experience.

He previously worked at Krasnodar«s Kuban, Kaliningrad»s Baltika, Saransk«s Mordovia, Volgograd»s Rotor, Armenian Ulisses, Kazakhstan«s Kaisar, Belarusian Minsk, Grozny»s Akhmat, and Sverdlovsk«s Ural, and also served as a freelance coach-analyst for the Russian national team in preparation for the 2018 World Cup.

In his resume, Akhmat is worth noting, since with Shcherbachenko«s arrival, two players from the Grozny team have also been on trial at Ufa — 21-year-old midfielder Magomed Yakuev and 20-year-old defender Ilyas Gaibov. There is no official decision on them yet; the coaches of the »purples« are only studying the potential of the young players, who did not get much practice in official matches in their home team.

Additionally, Ufa is in talks about the possible return of Vladislav Kamilov to the club. He is also listed at Akhmat, but previously, from 2020 to 2022, he played for Ufa and even secured a place in the starting lineup, but on the wave of success, he decided to try his luck in a higher division.

Another potential transfer is 28-year-old defender Ruslan Baitukov from Torpedo. This season, for his current team, Ruslan has played only 13 matches, but he too could become the player who closes the gap in Ufa«s defense. And the gaps there have become noticeable.

The team from Bashkortostan was left by Alexander Tenyaev back in November 2025, who played for the purples for two years. Also departed from Ufa are Viktor Garayev, Rasul Gystarov, Williams Chimezi, Nikita Matskharashvili, as well as forward Ilya Karpuk. Moreover, the latter spent less than six months in the republic, while Chimezi and Matskharashvili were among the most noticeable players of the club in the current season.

Only two players have been officially acquired to replace those who left. One of them is 26-year-old midfielder Danil Lipovoy from Tula«s Arsenal. The team has high hopes for him.

«A good left foot, good qualities in attack. First and foremost, we expect quality play from him, which is extremely necessary for us now,» said Anzor Sanaya, sports director of FC Ufa, introducing the newcomer.

The transfer of 20-year-old Artyom Ivanov from Sibir has also been confirmed. Also, Omaari Tetradze said that the team is taking youth team player Nikita Yefremov to the camps. However, it cannot be certain that the 18-year-old guy will immediately fit into the squad and bolster the Ufa defensive line.

But the possible transfer of central defender Artyom Mamin from Yekaterinburg, as reported by football expert Sergey Ilyev, fell through, since Ural did not wish to part with him. According to Ilyev, Ufa also faced failure with Alexey Zalesky from Belarus.

«If Ufa does not adapt to the current market realities, it will be difficult to get players stronger than those they let go. Potential newcomers do not consider this route as one of the priorities,» noted Sergey Ilyev.

Head coach of FC Ufa assured that the squad will still be reinforced. Moreover, in a new interview about the progress of the camps, unlike the previous one, he no longer mentioned that the team needs a winger and a forward. Perhaps they have already been found?

«Our top priority is to find a central defender and a defensive midfielder. These are not trial players, but specific candidates with whom we are already negotiating. Time will tell how successfully they will conclude, but reinforcements in the team will definitely come,» stated Omaari Tetradze.

Ufa really needs to strengthen if the club does not want to fall back to a lower division. The team is in the relegation zone, occupying 16th place. However, to reach the safe 17th spot, one or two successful games will suffice. On the other hand, only 8 points separate the «purples» from the very bottom. Follow the club«s news in the football section of UFA1.RU.