FC Volgar Astrakhan

Volgar FC
	File:Volgar FC logo 2019.png
Full name	Volgar Football Club
Founded	1960; 64 years ago
Ground	Central Stadium,; Astrakhan
Capacity	21,500
Owner	Astrakhan Oblast
CEO	Andrei Sharokhin
Manager	Andranik Babayan
League	Russian First League
2021–22	16th
Website	Club website
Home colours	Away colours

Volgar FC (Russian: Футбольный Клуб "Волгарь") is an association football club based in Astrakhan, Russia. They play in the Russian First League.

History

The club has been known under following names:

Pishchevik (food industry worker) (1925−1958)
Trud (labour) (1958–59)
Volgar (1960–94) (2012–)^[1]
Volgar-Gazprom (1995–2007), (2010–2012)
Volgar-Gazprom-2 (2007–10)

Pishchevik played in the Second Group of the Soviet League. Trud (and later Volgar) played in the Class B (1958, 1960–1967), in Class A, Group 2 (1968–1969), in Class A, Group 1 (1970), Soviet First League (1971), Soviet Second League (1972–1990), Soviet Second League B (1991). In 1992 Volgar entered the Russian Second League, played in the Third League in 1994 (finished top and were promoted), returned to the Second League in 1995 and stayed until 1998. In 1998 Volgar-Gazprom were promoted and in 1999 they started playing in the Russian First Division. With the exception of the relegation for the 2004 season, Volgar-Gazprom had been in the First Division until 2006. The club was denied the professional licence and thus relegated to amateur level in 2007. Another club was organized called FC Volgar-Gazprom-2. The new club advanced to the Russian First Division for the 2009 season.

After the 2017–18 season, the club experienced financial difficulties and decided to be voluntarily relegated to the third-tier PFL.^[2]

On 15 May 2020, the 2019–20 PFL season was abandoned due to COVID-19 pandemic in Russia. As Volgar was leading in their PFL zone at the time, they were promoted to the second-tier FNL for the 2020–21 season.^[3]

Current squad

As of 21 July 2022, according to the Russian First League website.

Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.


No.	Pos.	Nation	Player
1	GK	RUS	Vladislav Yampolsky
2	DF	RUS	Danila Vedernikov (on loan from Rostov)
3	DF	RUS	Nikita Shishchenko
4	DF	RUS	Roman Loktionov
5	MF	BLR	Ilya Raschenya
6	DF	RUS	Nikita Pechyonkin
7	MF	RUS	Aleksei Pavlishin
8	MF	RUS	Denis Talalay
9	FW	RUS	Ilya Stefanovich
10	MF	RUS	Valeri Tsarukyan (on loan from Fakel Voronezh)
11	MF	RUS	Aleksandr Bolonin
13	FW	RUS	Aleksandr Butenko
15	FW	RUS	Mark Polushin
17	FW	RUS	Dmitri Lesnikov


No.	Pos.	Nation	Player
19	FW	RUS	Vladislav Bragin
20	MF	RUS	Danila Smirnov
23	FW	RUS	Denis Timokhin
24	FW	RUS	Gunashgadzhi Kudbudinov
27	FW	RUS	Mikhail Ageyev (on loan from Ural Yekaterinburg)
30	GK	RUS	Dmitri Saganovich
31	MF	RUS	Aleksandr Nosov
34	DF	BLR	Alyaksey Hawrylovich
44	MF	RUS	Artur Gilyazetdinov
55	MF	BLR	Nikita Kaplenko
69	DF	RUS	Danila Kozlov (on loan from Torpedo Moscow)
77	DF	RUS	Yelisey Krivokhizhin
90	FW	RUS	Artyom Delkin
99	GK	RUS	Oleg Smirnov