Қайрат футбол клубының тарихы мен жетістіктері

Kazakh football club

Football Club Kairat is a professional football club based in Almaty, which plays in the Kazakhstan Premier League, the highest level of Kazakh football. Founded in 1954 as Lokomotiv Alma Ata, they became Urozhay in 1955 and Kairat in 1956. For this, Kairat became nicknamed The Nation's Team, and remains to be widely supported all over the country. All in all, the club spent 24 seasons in the Soviet highest level. They also won Soviet First League titles twice in 1976 and 1983. During this period, Kairat was a part of the Voluntary Sports Societies of the Soviet Union. In modern history, Kairat won three league titles, eight Kazakhstan Cups and two Kazakhstan Super Cups. The club's strongest rivalry is FC Astana, among fans their matches are considered as the Two Capitals Derby.

The club was founded in 1954 as Lokomotiv Alma Ata on the basis of the football club Dinamo Alma Ata. Heretofore, Dinamo was developed by Nikolai Starostin, who is mostly known as "the father of Soviet football" and founder of the Spartak Moscow. His assistant Arkady Khokhman became the first head coach of the club. Lokomotiv joined Zone I of the Class B, the second tier of Soviet football. In their debut season, they finished 4th with 11 wins, 7 draws and 4 defeats. In 1955, they were reformed as Urozhay Sports Society, which united sportsmen of agricultural sphere. In 1955, Urozhay competed in Zone II of the Class B, finishing season in 10th place. On 1 June 1956, the Council of Ministers of the Kazakh SSR signed a decree about merger of the Urozhay Sports Society and Republican Sports Society of Collective Farmers to found new Republican Rural Voluntary Sports Society. Under Zenkin, Kairat spent four consecutive seasons in the Class B, showing average results on final tables.

On 21 December 1959, Soviet sports governing body adopted a resolution on expansion of Soviet Top League teams number from 12 to 22. Ten Soviet republics were able to enter by one team without competition, permission which was aimed to make league status more "All Union". On 13 May 1960, Kairat registered their first Top League victory defeating Dinamo Minsk 2–1 in away match. During the season, tactical scheme of Kairat caused a lot of discussion among football specialists. As a result, team playing style became strictly defensive. In spite of this, weaknesses in the offensive part and a poor goal scoring rate led only to 18th place in their inaugural season in the top level. Kairat stayed at the top level for another three seasons. In 1963, Kairat did their best result in the Soviet Cup, reaching semi final against Shakhtar Stalino. For this accomplishment, all team members were equated the Master of Sport of the USSR rank. After failure season in 1964, they relegated to the Soviet First League. On 25 November 1965, they played the decisive match against Ararat Yerevan for only spot in the Top League. Kairat lost the game 1–2. Next season, Sevidov left the team to head Dynamo Kiev. The 1971 season was highly successful for the club. Under Viktor Korolkov rule, Kairat finished 8th in the Top League, a significant increase compared to previous seasons. On 12 November 1971, Kairat won the European Railworks Cup, defeating Rapid Bucharest 2–1 in the final. This achievement made Kairat the first Soviet team to win a European tournament. The deuce of head coaches managed the team for the next two years. In the 1977 1978 Top League seasons, Kairat finished 8th and 12th respectively. In the 1979 season, Karat headed by the deuce of Segizbayev and Igor Volchok led the club to 13th place in the league. In 1980, Igor Volchok, already as a sole head coach, built up the team dominantly consisted of young players. Among them were Yevstafi Pekhlevanidi,
Vakhid Masudov, Anton Shokh, Sergei Volgin, Sergei Ledovskikh and Kurban Berdyev, who became the key players of the club in the 80s. Kairat finished the 1980 season in 12th place with 10 wins, 11 draws and 13 defeats. For the most wins with a comeback, the team won the For the Will of Victory Prize, awarded by the Soviet Russia newspaper. Towards the end of the season Betsa was replaced by Leonid Ostroushko. However, he did not have time to rectify the situation and they were relegated to the First League. In the final in Kishinev, the club beat Neftchi Baku 4–1, where all four goal scored by Kairat's forward Viktor Karachun. Therefore, the club manager Bakhtiyar Baiseitov also headed the national team. They also reached their first double, winning Fosfor Taraz in the 1992 Kazakhstan Cup Final. Next season, Kairat records deteriorated sharply. The 11th place in the 1993 season led to dismissal of Baiseitov. In the end of the season, Kairat had financial troubles due to financial crisis in the country. The Ministry of Defense of Kazakhstan decided to become a main sponsor and take the team under its wing. However, the half of the team did not agree with the decision to be under military control. As a result of disagreement, Kairat was divided into two teams, Kairat Sports and Health Professional Football Club, shortly Kairat SHPFC, and Kairat CSKA, who took sponsorship of the state military body.

On 15 October 2018, Carlos Alós left Kairat by mutual consent, with Andrei Karpovich being appointed as Caretaker manager. On 25 November 2018, Kairat presented Aleksey Shpilevsky as their new manager. On 7 June 2021, Aleksey Shpilevsky left Kairat to join Erzgebirge Aue. On 24 August 2021, Kurban Berdyev was appointed manager of the Kazakhstan Premier League club FC Kairat. Berdyev left Kairat by mutual consent on 6 June 2022. Kirill Keker was appointed as the clubs permanent Head Coach two days later on 8 June 2022.

In their earlier years, Kairat played their home games at the Spartak Stadium. Building of the club's present ground Almaty Central Stadium started in 1956. The initiator of the building was the then leader of the Kazakh SSR Leonid Brezhnev. Being smaller than Luzhniki, the stadium later was nicknamed as the Small Luzhniki. In 1997, the stadium was renovated. As a result of old wood benches being replaced by individual plastic chairs, the capacity was reduced to 23,804 seats. During the Soviet period, the Central stadium was a state property. After independence of Kazakhstan, the stadium was owned by the City Council of Almaty. In 2015, the stadium was transferred to the ownership of Kairat for exchange of 30% of shares of the club.

For recent transfers, see 2021 FC Kairat season.