FC Rostov () is a Russian

professional football Professional football may refer to: *Professionalism in association football *Professional gridiron football *National Football League *Canadian Football League *Australian Football League The Australian Football League (AFL) is the pre-emine ...

club based in

Rostov-on-Don Rostov-on-Don is a port city and the administrative centre of Rostov Oblast and the Southern Federal District of Russia. It lies in the southeastern part of the East European Plain on the Don River, from the Sea of Azov, directly north of t ...

. The club competes in the

Russian Premier League The Russian Premier League (RPL; , ''Rossiyskaya premyer-liga''; РПЛ), also written as Russian Premier Liga, is a professional association football league in Russia and the highest level of the Russian football league system. It was establis ...

, playing their home matches at the

Rostov Arena Rostov Arena () is an association football stadium in Rostov-on-Don, Russia. It was one of the venues for the 2018 FIFA World Cup. It also hosts FC Rostov of the Russian Premier League, replacing Olimp – 2. It has a capacity of 45,000 spectato ...

History

Soviet era (1930-1991)

The club was established on 10 May 1930, and was initially named Selmashstroy (Сельмашстрой). They were renamed Selmash in 1936 and Traktor in 1941. In 1950, the club joined the South Zone of the Azov-Don group of the

Russian SFSR The Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic (Russian SFSR or RSFSR), previously known as the Russian Socialist Federative Soviet Republic and the Russian Soviet Republic, and unofficially as Soviet Russia,Declaration of Rights of the labo ...

Championship. The following season they were placed in Group B of the championship. After finishing first in their group, they played in Group A in 1952. A third-place finish meant the club were promoted to the Class B for the 1953 season, during which they were renamed again, becoming Torpedo. In 1958, they were renamed Rostselmash. In

1964 Events January * January 1 – The Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland is dissolved. * January 5 – In the first meeting between leaders of the Roman Catholic and Orthodox churches since the fifteenth century, Pope Paul VI and Patria ...

the club won their Division of Class B. In the Russian-zone play-offs they finished second in the first round and top in the second after defeating

Terek Grozny Republican Football Club Akhmat (; ), commonly known as Akhmat Grozny, and formerly as Terek Grozny from 1958 to 2017, is a Russian professional football club based in Grozny that plays in the Russian Premier League. History The club was foun ...

2–0 in the deciding match, earning promotion to the

Soviet First League The Soviet First League in football () was the second highest division of Soviet football,Evgeni Kazakov. The Soviet First Football League (Первая лига СССР по футболу)''. History of Soviet football championships. Volume 1 ...

. The following season they finished bottom of the division, but were not relegated as the number of teams in the division was increased. By the early 1970s the club was back in the Russian leagues. In

1975 It was also declared the ''International Women's Year'' by the United Nations and the European Architectural Heritage Year by the Council of Europe. Events January * January 1 – Watergate scandal (United States): John N. Mitchell, H. R. ...

they returned to Class B (now known as the Soviet Second League). Following several near misses, the club won their zone of the Second League in

1985 The year 1985 was designated as the International Youth Year by the United Nations. Events January * January 1 ** The Internet's Domain Name System is created. ** Greenland withdraws from the European Economic Community as a result of a n ...

. They went on to win a play-off tournament, earning promotion back to the First League.

Modern era (1991 - present)

1991 It was the final year of the Cold War, which had begun in 1947. During the year, the Soviet Union Dissolution of the Soviet Union, collapsed, leaving Post-soviet states, fifteen sovereign republics and the Commonwealth of Independent State ...

the club finished fourth in what was the final season of Soviet football following the USSR's disintegration. This was enough to earn them a place in the new

Russian Top League The Russian Premier League (RPL; , ''Rossiyskaya premyer-liga''; РПЛ), also written as Russian Premier Liga, is a professional association football league in Russia and the highest level of the Russian football league system. It was establis ...

. Following an eighth-place finish in their first season, the

1993 season The General Assembly of the United Nations designated 1993 as: * International Year for the World's Indigenous People The year 1993 in the Kwajalein Atoll in the Marshall Islands had only 364 days, since its calendar advanced 24 hours to th ...

saw the club struggle, eventually finishing second bottom, resulting in relegation to the First League. The club made an immediate return to the Top League after finishing second in the 1994 First League season. In 2003, they adopted their current name and reached the Russian Cup final for the first time, losing 1–0 to

Spartak Moscow Spartak Moscow may refer to the following teams based or formerly based in Moscow, Russia: * FC Spartak Moscow, an association football club * HC Spartak Moscow, a professional ice hockey team * Spartak GM Moscow, a semi-professional rugby club * ...

. In

2007 2007 was designated as the International Heliophysical Year and the International Polar Year. Events January * January 1 **Bulgaria and Romania 2007 enlargement of the European Union, join the European Union, while Slovenia joins the Eur ...

they finished bottom of the (now renamed) Premier Division and were relegated to the First Division. However, they made another return to the top division as First Division champions. Rostov won the

2013–14 Russian Cup The 2013–14 Russian Cup (football), Russian Cup, known as the 2013–14 Pirelli–Russian Football Cup for sponsorship reasons, was the 22nd season of the Russian Association football, football knockout tournament since the dissolution of Soviet ...

, defeating

FC Krasnodar FC Krasnodar is a Russian professional football club based in Krasnodar that plays in the Russian Premier League. They are the league's reigning champions. The club was founded in 2008. In 2009, the club was promoted to the Russian First Divis ...

on penalties 6–5, and earned qualification to the

2014–15 UEFA Europa League The 2014–15 UEFA Europa League was the 44th season of Europe's secondary club association football, football tournament organised by UEFA, and the sixth season since it was renamed from the UEFA Cup to the UEFA Europa League. The 2015 UEFA Eur ...

. However Rostov were excluded from the competition at the end of May 2014, due to breached financial rules, being replaced by

. Later Rostov appealed the decision of the local football federation to lift the club from the tournament in the

Court of Arbitration for Sport The Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS; , TAS) is an international body established in 1984 to settle disputes related to sport through arbitration. Its headquarters are in Lausanne, Switzerland, and its courts are located in New York City, Sy ...

Lausanne Lausanne ( , ; ; ) is the capital and largest List of towns in Switzerland, city of the Swiss French-speaking Cantons of Switzerland, canton of Vaud, in Switzerland. It is a hilly city situated on the shores of Lake Geneva, about halfway bet ...

, the club won the right to play. 2018 FIFA World Cup Group D march Iceland - Croatia 15

On 18 December 2014, the official website of FC Rostov announced the appointment of

Kurban Berdyev Kurban Bekiyevich Berdyev (, ; born 25 August 1952) is a Turkmens, Turkmen-Russian Association football, football Manager (association football), manager, and a former Soviet footballer who is in charge of the Azerbaijani club Turan Tovuz. In 20 ...

as head coach. Under his leadership, the team has maintained a place in the Premier League on aggregate (1–0, 4–1) beating "Tosno" in the play-offs Premier League – First Division. Throughout the second half of 2015, the club had problems with the payment of salaries and bonuses the players, but it has not prevented the club at the end of the first part of the season 2015–16 to hold 2nd place in the championship. In the 2016–17 season, Rostov earned a

UEFA Champions League The UEFA Champions League (UCL) is an annual club association football competition organised by the UEFA, Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) that is contested by List of top-division football clubs in UEFA countries, top-divisio ...

spot in the League Route as runners-up of the Russian Premier League. In the third qualifying round, they were drawn against

Anderlecht Anderlecht (; ) is one of the List of municipalities of the Brussels-Capital Region, 19 municipalities of the Brussels-Capital Region, Belgium. Located in the south-western part of the region, it is bordered by the City of Brussels, Forest, B ...

. After a 2–2 home draw, they beat Anderlecht 2–0 away. In the play-off, Rostov were drawn against Dutch giants

Ajax Ajax may refer to: Greek mythology and tragedy * Ajax the Great, a Greek mythological hero, son of King Telamon and Periboea * Ajax the Lesser, a Greek mythological hero, son of Oileus, the king of Locris * Ajax (play), ''Ajax'' (play), by the an ...

. In the first leg in

Amsterdam Amsterdam ( , ; ; ) is the capital of the Netherlands, capital and Municipalities of the Netherlands, largest city of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. It has a population of 933,680 in June 2024 within the city proper, 1,457,018 in the City Re ...

Netherlands , Terminology of the Low Countries, informally Holland, is a country in Northwestern Europe, with Caribbean Netherlands, overseas territories in the Caribbean. It is the largest of the four constituent countries of the Kingdom of the Nether ...

, they held on to a 1–1 draw, which gave them an away goal advantage. In the return leg, Rostov earned a 4–1 surprise win over Ajax and qualified for the

group stages, a stunning performance as was their first qualification into the group stages of a European tournament. Rostov were drawn in Group D, against

Bayern Munich Fußball-Club Bayern München e. V. (FCB, ), commonly known as Bayern Munich (), FC Bayern () or simply Bayern, is a German professional sports club based in Munich, Bavaria. They are most known for their men's professional football team, ...

Atlético Madrid Club Atlético de Madrid, S.A.D. (; meaning "Athletic Club of Madrid"), commonly referred to as Atlético Madrid or simply Atlético, is a Spanish professional football club based in Madrid that plays in La Liga. The club play their home game ...

and

PSV Eindhoven Philips Sport Vereniging (; ), abbreviated as PSV and internationally known as PSV Eindhoven (), is a Dutch sports club from Eindhoven, Netherlands. It is best known for its professional association football, football department, which has pla ...

, gaining their first Champions League victory on 23 November 2016, defeating

3–2 at

Olimp-2 Olimp-2 (, Olympus-2) is a football (soccer), football stadium in Rostov-on-Don, Russia. From 1930 to 2018 it was the home ground of FC Rostov, and in 1958–1970 it was also the home ground of FC SKA Rostov-on-Don, SKA Rostov-on-Don. The stadiu ...

. On 9 June 2017, Rostov announced

Leonid Kuchuk Leonid Stanislavovich Kuchuk (; born 27 August 1959) is a Belarusian football manager and former professional player. Managerial career On 15 September 2014, Kuchuk was suspended as head coach of Lokomotiv Moscow, whilst the board agreed the t ...

as their new manager on a one-year contract with the option of an additional year. Kuchuk resigned and was replaced by

Valeri Karpin Valery Georgiyevich Karpin (; born 2 February 1969) is a Russian football manager and former player who manages the Russian national team and Russian Premier League club Dynamo Moscow. As a player, he was a midfielder and spent most of his car ...

during the winter break in December 2017. On 19 June 2020, Rostov were due to play their first match of the restarted

season, which had been suspended due to the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...

, against

PFC Sochi Football Club Sochi (), is a Russian professional football club based in Sochi. The club is playing its home matches at the 47,000-capacity Fisht Stadium. History FC Sochi was founded on 4 July 2018 after the relocation of FC Dynamo Saint Pete ...

. Rostov were in fourth place, just a few points of

qualification. A few days before the match, six players in Rostov's first-team squad tested positive for the coronavirus, putting the entire first-team squad into a 14-day quarantine period. This forced the club to select their Under-18 squad to play the match, making it the youngest starting 11 and the youngest matchday squad in Russian Premier League history. Rostov would go on to lose 10–1, but the youngsters were highly praised for their performance with 17-year-old goalkeeper Denis Popov named man-of-the-match after saving a penalty and making 15 saves, a Russian Premier League record, and 17-year-old Roman Romanov scoring his first senior goal on his debut in the first minute of the match. On 26 October 2021, Rostov announced Turkmenistani coach Vitaly Kafanov as their new manager. In 2022, the

European Club Association The European Club Association (ECA) is an organization that is officially recognised by both UEFA and FIFA as the sole, independent body for football clubs within Europe. History Formed on the merge of the G-14 group with the European Club Fo ...

suspended Rostov, citing the

Russian invasion of Ukraine On 24 February 2022, , starting the largest and deadliest war in Europe since World War II, in a major escalation of the Russo-Ukrainian War, conflict between the two countries which began in 2014. The fighting has caused hundreds of thou ...

. Rostov was 2nd in the

2022–23 Russian Premier League The 2022–23 Russian Premier League (known as the Mir Russian Premier League, also written as Mir Russian Premier Liga for sponsorship reasons) was the 31st season of the premier football competition in Russia since the dissolution of the Soviet ...

with 5 games left, but lost 4 out of 5 games and dropped to 4th place at the final table. In the first match of the 2023–24 RPL season with

Fakel Voronezh FC Fakel Voronezh () is a Russian professional football club based in Voronezh. Founded in 1947, the club has played in the Soviet Top League and the Russian Premier League. The club will return to the Russian First League in the 2025–26 season ...

, Rostov scored his thousandth goal in the history of the Russian championships, becoming the sixth team to have such an achievement. In the 2024–25 season, Rostov reached the Russian Cup superfinal, which they lost to CSKA in a penalty shoot-out.

Seasons

Domestic

ImageSize = width:700 height:60 PlotArea = left:10 right:10 bottom:30 top:10 TimeAxis = orientation:horizontal format:yyyy DateFormat = dd/mm/yyyy Period = from:01/01/1991 till:01/07/2022 ScaleMajor = unit:year increment:1 start:1992 Colors = id:bl1 value:rgb(0.5,0.8,0.5) id:bl2 value:rgb(0.9,0.9,0.3) id:rs value:rgb(0.8,0.6,0.6) id:rn value:rgb(0.9,0.1,0.1) PlotData= bar:Position width:15 color:white align:center from:01/07/1991 till:01/07/1992 shift:(0,-4) text:8 from:01/07/1992 till:01/07/1993 shift:(0,-4) text:17 from:01/07/1993 till:01/07/1994 shift:(0,-4) text:2 from:01/07/1994 till:01/07/1995 shift:(0,-4) text:11 from:01/07/1995 till:01/07/1996 shift:(0,-4) text:14 from:01/07/1996 till:01/07/1997 shift:(0,-4) text:13 from:01/07/1997 till:01/07/1998 shift:(0,-4) text:6 from:01/07/1998 till:01/07/1999 shift:(0,-4) text:7 from:01/07/1999 till:01/07/2000 shift:(0,-4) text:12 from:01/07/2000 till:01/07/2001 shift:(0,-4) text:12 from:01/07/2001 till:01/07/2002 shift:(0,-4) text:11 from:01/07/2002 till:01/07/2003 shift:(0,-4) text:11 from:01/07/2003 till:01/07/2004 shift:(0,-4) text:12 from:01/07/2004 till:01/07/2005 shift:(0,-4) text:13 from:01/07/2005 till:01/07/2006 shift:(0,-4) text:12 from:01/07/2006 till:01/07/2007 shift:(0,-4) text:16 from:01/07/2007 till:01/07/2008 shift:(0,-4) text:1 from:01/07/2008 till:01/07/2009 shift:(0,-4) text:14 from:01/07/2009 till:01/07/2010 shift:(0,-4) text: 9 from:01/07/2010 till:01/07/2012 shift:(0,-4) text:13 from:01/07/2012 till:01/07/2013 shift:(0,-4) text:13 from:01/07/2013 till:01/07/2014 shift:(0,-4) text:7 from:01/07/2014 till:01/07/2015 shift:(0,-4) text:14 from:01/07/2015 till:01/07/2016 shift:(0,-4) text:2 from:01/07/2016 till:01/07/2017 shift:(0,-4) text:6 from:01/07/2017 till:01/07/2018 shift:(0,-4) text:11 from:01/07/2018 till:01/07/2019 shift:(0,-4) text:9 from:01/07/2019 till:22/07/2020 shift:(0,-4) text:5 from:22/07/2020 till:01/07/2021 shift:(0,-4) text:9 from:01/07/2021 till:01/07/2022 shift:(0,-4) text:9 from:01/07/1991 till:01/07/1993 color:bl1 shift:(0,13) text: " RPL" from:01/07/1993 till:01/07/1994 color:bl2 shift:(0,13) text: " D1" from:01/07/1994 till:01/07/2007 color:bl1 shift:(0,13) text: " RPL" from:01/07/2007 till:01/07/2008 color:bl2 shift:(0,13) text: " D1" from:01/07/2008 till:01/07/2022 color:bl1 shift:(0,13) text: " RPL"

European

;Notes * 3Q: Third qualifying round * 2R: Second round * 3R: Third round * PO: Play-off round * SF: Semi–finals

Honours

Domestic competitions

** ''Runners-up (1):'' 2015–16 * Russian Cup ** Winners (1): 2013–14 *

Russian Super Cup The Russian Super Cup () is a one-match football (soccer), football annual competition. Its official sponsored name is ''OLIMPBET Russian Supercup'' (). The two participating clubs are the Russian Premier League champions and the Rambler Russian ...

** ''Runners-up (1):''

2014 The year 2014 was marked by the surge of the Western African Ebola epidemic, West African Ebola epidemic, which began in 2013, becoming the List of Ebola outbreaks, most widespread outbreak of the Ebola, Ebola virus in human history, resul ...

Russian National Football League The Russian First League (, Pervaya liga), formerly called Russian First Division () and Russian Football National League (FNL) () is the second level of the Russian football league system. The Russian Professional Football League (PFL) used t ...

** Winners (1):

2008 2008 was designated as: *International Year of Languages *International Year of Planet Earth *International Year of the Potato *International Year of Sanitation The Great Recession, a worldwide recession which began in 2007, continued throu ...

Players

, according to the
Russian Premier League's official website
'.

Out on loan

Coaching staff

{, class="wikitable" , - !Position !Staff , - , Manager, , ,

Jonatan Alba Cabello Jonatan is a given name. Notable people with the name include: *Jonatan (footballer) (born 1992), Brazilian football midfielder, full name Jonatan da Silva Lima *Jonatan Berg (born 1985), Swedish football midfielder *Jonatan Berggren (born 2000), ...

, - , Senior Assistant Manager, , , Vitaliy Kafanov , - , First-Team Coach, , ,

Viktor Onopko Viktor Savelyevich Onopko (; born 14 October 1969) is a former Russian Association football, football Defender (association football), defender. He is the assistant manager of both FC Rostov in the Russian Premier League and the Russia national ...

Mikhail Osinov Mikhail Svyatoslavovich Osinov (; born 8 October 1975) is a Russian football coach and a former midfielder. He works as an assistant coach with FC Rostov. Career Born in Arti, Sverdlovsk Oblast, Mikhail Osinov started his professional career a ...

, - , Analyst/coach, , Jonatan Alba Cabello , - , Goalkeeping coach, , ,

Andrey Kondratyuk Andrei Nikolayevich Kondratyuk (; born 20 December 1982) is a Russian professional football coach and a former player. He is the goalkeepers' coach at FC Rostov. Club career He played 7 seasons in the Russian Football National League The Ru ...

, - , Rehabilitation trainer, , Álvaro Sayabera Iñarrea , - , Physiotherapist-rehabilitation specialist, , Raúl Álvarez Canle , - , Physiotherapist-rehabilitation specialist, , Xavier Sanabria Alvaro , - , Physiotherapist, , Alejandro Nunez Lopez , - , Rehabilitation specialist, , Alexei Muzalevsky , - , Chief physician, , Mikhail Vartapetov , - , Doctor, , Denis Vsyansky , - , Massage therapist, , Roman Abakumets , - , Massage therapist, , Mikhail Murashkintsev

References

External links

* {{Russian Premier League Association football clubs established in 1930

Rostov Rostov-on-Don is a port city and the administrative centre of Rostov Oblast and the Southern Federal District of Russia. It lies in the southeastern part of the East European Plain on the Don River, from the Sea of Azov, directly north of t ...

1930 establishments in Russia