The football club from the capital of Tatarstan shone brightest on the football map of Russia in the late 2000s and early 2010s, and the origin of its name was hidden for more than fifty years.

The official date of birth of the club from Kazan is considered to be April 20, 1958, but almost two decades before that moment there was a team of the Leninsky district in the city, which was founded in 1936 by employees of the Kazan Aviation Plant No. 22 named after S.P. Gorbunov.

Since 1948, the future FC Rubin participated in the Povolzhskaya zone of the RSFSR championship, and for nine seasons the team never dropped below the third line of the standings, although it never became the first.

Only in 1958, the Kazan club got into the analogue of the second league of the RSFSR championship, finally starting to play at a professional level. At that time, the team's name was Iskra, and in 10 years the club managed to change four names at once.
Since 1960, in parallel with Rubin, the Kazan club also played at the Central Stadium, which already had a capacity of 30,000 fans. The first match here also ended with a defeat by Iskra - 4: 1 beat Metallurg from Kamensk-Uralsky. For 2021, the Central Stadium is listed as a reserve arena for Rubin.

Ak Bars Arena for 45 thousand spectators was opened in 2013, and Rubin played his first game on it only a year later. Then Kazan hosted Moscow Lokomotiv and drew 1:Kazan found themselves in the most prestigious club tournament in the 2009/10 season after winning the RPL. Rubin got into the hardest group F with Inter, Barcelona and Dynamo Kiev, but until the last round, Berdyev's team fought for the Champions League playoffs.Тhe first victory at the new home stadium came a round later - the champions of Russia CSKA sensationally lost to Kazan with a score of 1:2.

In the first year after entering the RPL, Rubin won a set of bronze medals. In just 11 years, under the leadership of Berdyev in the Russian Premier League, Kazan has climbed the championship podium four times.

If we talk about the Soviet era, then the personage of Ivan Zolotukhin stands out here, with whom Rubin set records in the Second League of the USSR, and in modern times there is only one candidate. With Kurban Berdyev, Kazan won two sets of gold and bronze medals of the RPL and the Russian Cup, and also made a lot of noise in European competitions, drinking a lot of blood, in particular, from the Spanish teams.

Gekdeniz Karadeniz played exactly 300 matches for the Kazan club, in which he managed to shoot 52 goals scored. Alejandro Dominguez played for Rubin three times fewer meetings - only 107, but scored 43 goals. In third place is Alexander Bukharov with 37 goals in 110 games.

Bookmakers offering those games Premier League - Russia live:

* Terms and conditions apply. More information on the website