Duran should be happy: Cristiano Ronaldo's partner moved to Zenit

There are just over two weeks left before the resumption of the season in Russian football. The clubs are holding winter training camps and simultaneously trying to strengthen their squads for the spring part of the championship. Many people managed it back in January, but even now the transfer campaign continues. Zenit leased Colombian John Duran from Saudi Arabia, who had recently played with Cristiano Ronaldo himself. CSKA is close to officially signing the midfielder of the youth national team of Russia and Krasnodar Danila Kozlov. The Bulls, in turn, should strengthen the attack at the expense of the leader of the Nizhny Novgorod Bet, Juan Boselli.

Duran

A year ago, the 22-year-old striker moved from Aston Villa to Al-Nasr. Duran spent two years at the Birmingham club, scoring 12 goals in 55 games in the English Premier League. The transfer to the Middle East cost €77 million, the most expensive transfer last winter.

Cristiano Ronaldo has been playing for the An-Nasr club since 2023, but Duran played with the great Portuguese for only six months, having played only 13 league matches. The Colombian scored eight goals in them, but due to unsportsmanlike circumstances, he left Saudi Arabia in the summer. According to media reports, the reason was the player's dissatisfaction with the inability to live with his girlfriend, as local laws do not provide for cohabitation before marriage.

Duran went on loan to Fenerbahce in Turkey. And he missed the very first training session, which angered the then head coach of the team, Jose Mourinho. John did not work well with Domenico Tedesco, who replaced the Portuguese. Interestingly, he also clashed with Unai Emery at Aston Villa.

Zenit is now renting Duran from the Saudis for six months. He is called upon to close the gap in attack, where after the departure of Matteo Cassierra and Luciano Gonda, the club could rely only on Alexander Sobolev. Given the Colombian's difficult nature, it is still unclear what will outweigh the coming spring — his propensity for conflict or his motivation to join his national team for the upcoming World Cup.

Duran became Zenit's second powerful foreign acquisition this winter. At the end of January, the Blues signed 23-year-old Brazilian attacking midfielder John John.

—Duran has a huge potential — if it is maximized, the team will become the favorite in the fight for gold," Anatoly Byshovets, former Zenit head coach, shared his opinion with Izvestia. — A lot depends on how the head coach Sergey Semak copes with the difficult character of the newcomer. He has repeatedly demonstrated the ability to find a common language with wayward Latin Americans, but given the short lease period, there will not be much time to debug communication.

Kozlov

At the beginning of the week, the 21-year-old midfielder underwent a medical at CSKA, but returned to Krasnodar on February 10. However, the leadership of the army believes that the transition is likely to take place.

"There are certain issues that require a little more time to coordinate," RB Sport quoted CSKA CEO Roman Babayev as saying. — There are no pitfalls here, so we need to wait a couple more days. Of course, I'm not ready to give an absolute guarantee — there's always a chance that something will go wrong. But nevertheless, I think that everything should be fine.

Last year, Kozlov played for the Russian youth national team. He joined Krasnodar in the summer of 2024, having previously spent a bright half-season in Kaliningrad's Baltika. Danila was the leader of the team. This did not save her from relegation from the RPL, but it helped her reach the final of the Russian Cup, where Zenit, Kozlov's hometown, was almost beaten — the victory was missed only at the end of the meeting (1:2).

Army readiness: CSKA wins the RPL Winter Cup

The red and blue turned out to be higher than Dynamo, Krasnodar and Zenit

He is a native of St. Petersburg, a graduate of a local top club and left it for Baltika at the end of 2023. It seemed that after his departure from the RPL, he would return to the ranks of the blue-white-blues, but Krasnodar intercepted him. Kozlov won the Russian championship last year, but spent most of the season in reserve.

Danila got playing practice in the Russian Cup, where he performed well, but in the championship he was unable to oust Eduard Spertsyan from the squad. In 2024, it seemed that Kozlov was being acquired just in case the Armenian star left for Europe, which had been actively rumored over the past two years.

But Spertsyan is still at Krasnodar. And Kozlov's prospects are vague. Now he is leaving for CSKA, planning to compete with the Bulls, Zenit and Lokomotiv for the gold of the championship in the spring and is already actively strengthening his case: in January, midfielder Dmitry Barinov left Loko, striker Luciano Gonda followed from Zenit in exchange for defender Igor Diveev. In the case of Kozlov's transfer, it turns out that in two months the army took a player from all three competitors.

Boselli

The Uruguayan striker joined Pari Nizhny Novgorod in the summer of 2023 and became one of the most successful transfers in the club's history. Boselli has already scored the most goals for this team in the RPL. To a large extent, thanks to him, Nizhny Novgorod still remain in the Premier League.

In the past two seasons, his performance helped the distressed club avoid direct relegation to the First League and try to stay in the elite following the results of transitional matches — in 2024 it succeeded, last spring it did not, but instead of the sports-based departure, Paris NN received an extension of registration in the RPL due to the bankruptcy of Khimki. If not for Boselli, then, probably, the collapse of the Moscow Region club would not have saved Nizhny Novgorod.

This season, after 18 rounds, the club was in 14th place in the transition zone, although it was lower for most of the autumn. And the 26-year-old striker helped him keep his chances of staying in the RPL. The Uruguayan was in demand with all the constantly changing coaches and managers in recent years.

There have been rumors about top clubs' interest in him since last season. The current contract with Paris NN expired next summer. Therefore, the club chose the perfect moment to make money on Bosseli's transfer. Now he will compete for a place at the base of Krasnodar with the club's main star, Colombian forward John Cordoba. According to the "Sport-Express", 19—year—old midfielder Artem Sidorenko will follow in the opposite direction - from Krasnodar to Paris NN.

The Russian Championship will resume on February 27. After 18 rounds, the reigning champion Krasnodar is first, ahead of Zenit by one point, Loko by three and CSKA by four.