Manager Kurban Berdyev had his prayers answered as Rubin Kazan have clinched the Rosgosstrakh Championship of Russia by defeating Saturn Moscow Oblast today 2-1. Mr. Berdyev, always to be seen with prayer beads in his hands during a match, has pulled off the impossible as he led his Tatarstan based club from mid-table last year and overwhelmed high profile clubs of Russia using a gritty tough club laced with Footballers of a stunning curriculum vitae.
While only a few in mention the leadership of a pair of Russian capped stars, Sergei Semak and Roman Sharonov, Dynamo Kyiv legend Serhiy Rebrov, Rubin veteran MacBeth and Bosnia and Herzegovina international Savo Milošević, pushed this club through the toughest of times and while the league expected them to falter, their resolve was rock-solid and the twilight of their careers will be marked with this crowning achievement. The early season addition of Turkish international and a fixture for Trabzonspor the last decade, Gökdeniz Karadeniz was instrumental to their success as well as career season for Sergei Ryzhikov and the emergence of young-gun Aleksandr Bukharov.
With Rubin needing a victory to clinch the title Saturn Moscow battened down the hatches and stood their ground in a air-tight defensive position. With fourteen minutes to go, Roman Adamov opened the scoring for Rubin but Saturn didn't back down and six minutes later Pyotr Nemov, a product of Dinamo Moscow's development system, leveled the match. However in a stunning perfunctory note to his career, thirty-five year-old Savo Milošević was the hero once again scoring with only a minute remaining to give Rubin Kazan the 2-1 lead and the victory.Congratulations to Rubin Kazan and Kurban Berdyev on this stunning accomplishment.
