A possible move by Fyodor Chalov to Baltika sounds strange at first. Even a little funny.
A former first-choice CSKA striker, recently of PAOK, a loan in Turkey - and suddenly Kaliningrad. On paper it looks like a transfer from an alternate reality, but the longer you look at the market for Russian forwards, the less you feel like laughing.
Not because Chalov is the ideal option. He isn't. There are plenty of questions about him: form, salary, a failed spell abroad, the general sense of a career stuck somewhere between "still can" and "gone downhill".
It's just that this isn't about Chalov. It's about the market. And there's almost no market.
At some point you stop looking for a good Russian forward and start looking for anyone at all.
And against that backdrop, Chalov is actually not bad.
Baltika needs a Russian forward. Not for show
Baltika's question isn't just about the quality of the attack. It's about how the squad is put together.
If Brayan Gil stays, keeping another foreigner next to him in attack becomes a luxury. The limit quickly turns football sympathies into a spreadsheet. You can remember a player's good spells all you like, understand his usefulness and value his profile. But if he occupies a foreigner's slot where Gil already is, the club has to count them.
And once you've counted, it gets unpleasant. Below are the words of Baltika's sporting director Armen Margaryan.
So a forward with a Russian passport is not a nice bonus for Baltika, nor a wish to fill the position elegantly. It's close to a necessity.
They need someone who doesn't eat into the limit, can play through the middle and doesn't look like a "give him 10 minutes, let him run about" option.
The request seems reasonable enough. Not "find a new Haaland with a Russian passport". Just a Russian forward of RPL level.
And then the Russian market begins. And there it's all very bad.
The RPL is almost empty
The strong options fall away immediately.
Vorobyov, Komlichenko, Sobolev, Tyukavin, Sergeev - that's not Baltika's market. Either too expensive, or the status doesn't match, or the clubs simply won't let players like that go on reasonable terms.
You can honestly write those surnames out, look at the list for a couple of seconds and calmly delete it. No dramatic music required.
Then the search for compromises begins.
Agalarov?
On paper it sounds fine: Russian passport, 7 goals, RPL experience, a clear role. But strip away the first impression and it all gets more modest. Three of the seven goals are penalties. On the pitch this is no longer the story of a guaranteed goalscorer you go in for with serious money.
Plus Makhachkala isn't obliged to let him go cheaply. He matters to them. For Baltika there's a risk of overpaying for a player who won't necessarily provide a leap.
Suleymanov?
Not a saviour either. Four goals isn't the argument after which you drop everything and ring the agent. Yes, he's mobile, a bit of a scrapper, yes, he can be useful without the ball. But if you need a man for goals, he's not the option. The sporting director also said Baltika isn't interested.
Savelyev, Golenkov, Grulyov?
Fine surnames for a scouting list. But not for a fight for the top five.
One is more about rotation. Another is about the physical battle. The third isn't really a pure centre-forward at all. All of them could be useful, but none of them looks like a player about whom you can calmly say: "he fills the position."
And that's the most unpleasant part. You don't even have to go looking for faults. There are simply almost no decent options.
Dig deeper and it doesn't get any more cheerful
You can keep going through surnames. Hoping that somewhere nearby lies a decent Russian forward that everyone simply forgot to look at.
Melkadze?
Formally he fits: Russian passport, RPL experience, can play in attack. But this is not a story about youth, growth and clear upside. He's not young any more, he's unlikely to be cheap on salary or on price, and he's not a pure forward either.
Rakov?
An interesting talent. But the injury and his availability immediately make him more of an option in theory. Baltika needs a forward who's ready for the season.
Ignatenko from Krylia?
Now here you can think. But carefully.
Not as a saviour, but as a lad worth keeping an eye on. Young, Russian, potentially interesting. The question is different: how ready is he right now?
If he's a player for development and depth - yes, worth a look. If you take him as the solution to the main problem - that's already too bold.
Bring Tamerlan Musaev back from CSKA?
For Baltika it sounds logical. For CSKA, not so much.
It seems the Army men are happy with him as a squad player. Yes, people joke about his goal return, and he sometimes gives them reason to. But Musaev's usefulness isn't only in goals: size, physical battle, pressure, work without the ball, a different profile up front.
If a player genuinely helps the club, why give him away?
In the end every new option doesn't widen the market, it just shows how poor it is. One is expensive, the second is injured, the third is raw, the fourth won't be released.
This isn't a choice between good and bad. It's a choice between risk and even greater risk.
Abroad it's the same basement, just through a different door
You could look for Russians abroad. The idea is logical. Maybe someone out there has dropped out of sight, is undervalued, ready to come back, and the market inside Russia is simply asleep.
But no. It doesn't get easier.
Onugha formally fits: Russian passport, size, a centre-forward's position, experience outside Russia.
That's roughly where the optimism ends.
He's already twenty-nine. This isn't a bet on growth or an asset for resale. And in Russia he never convinced anyone he's a reliable RPL-level forward. There were odd spells, there were moments, but the feeling of "yes, he solves the problem" never came.
Another question mark.
Klimov, Umaev and similar options are not reinforcements for the first team. Heard of these players? You're unlikely to hear of them again 😄 You can look at them, invite them to pre-season, discuss them as a third forward. But building the solution to the Russian-striker problem around them is too grim a picture even by the standards of our football.
Kokorin?
Here at least you can have a laugh.
The passport is there, the name is there, the technique must be in there somewhere. But building Baltika's plan around Kokorin in 2026 isn't scouting any more, it's some kind of joke.
The foreign market doesn't look like a way out but like the same basement, just with the entrance on the other side.
The young ones don't save us either
You could say: fine, then we take a young one.
Sounds lovely. Right up until you start going through the surnames.
Mukailov?
Krasnodar is hardly going to release an academy forward with potential just like that. Players like that don't leave just because somebody in the RPL needed a Russian striker.
Voronov?
CSKA won't be handing out young forwards. The Army men don't have a queue of ready-made strikers as it is, to be calmly giving a promising player to rivals.
A loan at most. And even then only with strict conditions on playing time.
Then comes the zone of "who are these lads?". Motorin, Pomalyuk and similar surnames may be of interest to scouts. Maybe there really are lads for development there.
But that's not an answer to the question of a first-choice forward in the RPL.
You can't sell the idea "we've found a striker for the first team" and then produce a player the fans first have to look up on the internet.
There's also our own Kirill Stepanov. He's interesting, cheeky, with character. Players like that are needed.
But he has to be brought along: given games in the Cup, the closing stages, individual matches, gradually eased up to the senior level.
Dumping the problem of an empty market onto Stepanov isn't developing a young player, it's hanging somebody else's task on him.
Young players need to be brought up alongside ready-made forwards.
Okay, the FNL? Worth a look. Then close the tab
The First League looks logical. If the RPL is empty, you have to go down a level. Maybe there's an undervalued Russian forward there just waiting for a chance.
But it isn't especially cheerful there either.
In the FNL you can find forwards with a passport and with goals. You can find solid players for a specific role.
The question is different: which of them is genuinely ready to be the first-choice forward of an RPL team?
It's one thing to score in the best league in the world. It's another to play every week against RPL defenders, where there's less time, less space and more centre-backs who have no burning desire to take part in your beautiful growth story.
The FNL is good for finding depth. A third or fourth forward. A player for pre-season. A "what if he takes off" option.
But if Baltika is looking for a man who has to raise the level of the attack immediately, this isn't a gold mine. More like sand where you occasionally find a coin, but more often a beer cap.
And that brings us back to a single thought: the market is poor at every level.
In the RPL - expensive or unavailable.
Abroad - unclear and risky.
The young ones - raw, or they won't be released.
The FNL - hope for a miracle with minimal guarantees.
Very invigorating, of course. At some point you genuinely want to close the transfer window and take up gardening 🍅
And this is where Chalov comes back in
Things are far from ideal with Chalov too.
At PAOK he didn't become a regular. The Turkish loan flopped. Kayserispor were relegated, and Chalov himself didn't produce the kind of spell after which you want to say: "there he is, our Fedya, he's back."
The salary could be heavy. The form raises questions. The price isn't simple either.
But compared with the rest he has one important advantage: at least he's a footballer you understand.
He has a Russian passport. He has extensive RPL experience. He's at an age where the career can genuinely still be revived. He can play outside the box, not just in it. And there's the knowledge that he has already been the first-choice forward of a serious club, not just a man with a nice line in his profile.
Chalov doesn't promise fifteen goals. Not at all.
But he at least offers a chance of a decent level.
In current conditions that's already almost a luxury.
Sad, but it sounds like the truth.
The optimal route is a loan. Or a purchase only if it's cheap. Paying a lot after a failed spell abroad isn't worth it, and his contract with PAOK only has a year left anyway.
They also need to decide something about a player who hasn't become an important part of the team. Chalov himself needs a club where he'll be not the fifth option but the first-choice forward with a clear role.
And here Baltika can offer not the biggest money, but something simple and honest:
you're needed not for the bench but for the starting eleven.
But does Chalov himself need this?
But there's a second question: does Chalov himself need this?
For Baltika the logic is clear, but for the player it's not the most obvious step after CSKA, PAOK and Turkey. In terms of the name over the door - probably a step down. In terms of role - possibly a step up.
In Kaliningrad he can get what he seems to be missing right now: the status of first-choice forward, trust, a career reboot.
So this isn't only a question of money. It's a question of pride. Does he even need all this, this football business, proving something to someone?
The main conclusion
The market for Russian forwards barely exists right now. There's nobody to choose from! Nightmare, horror, disaster, all is lost! 🤣
