CSKA Moscow Transfers 2024: New Signings Confirmed

CSKA Moscow confirmed on Friday that it has registered three new players ahead of the Russian Premier League restart, with Brazilian winger Mateus Fernandes — poached from Sporting CP's reserve setup — topping the list. The club's sporting director briefed reporters at VEB Arena in Khimki on Thursday afternoon, confirming all registrations were submitted to the Russian Football Union before the July 1 deadline. The message was blunt: CSKA intends to challenge Zenit Saint Petersburg for the championship title that has eluded the red-and-blue since 2019.

The timing matters. Russian club football has spent much of the past four years navigating a drastically reduced European calendar following the 2022 UEFA suspension. But whispers out of Nyon suggest a phased reintegration framework could be tabled by UEFA's executive committee before the end of 2026. For a club of CSKA's historical stature — five Russian league titles in six seasons between 2003 and 2014 — that prospect changes the calculus on squad investment entirely. Spending now, the club's logic goes, is spending smart.

Inside the Rebuild: Who Is Coming and What It Costs

Beyond Fernandes, CSKA has secured goalkeeper Dmitry Orekhov from FC Rostov on a four-year contract reportedly worth 180 million rubles annually — a significant outlay by domestic market standards. A third signing, central midfielder Artem Kovalenko, 24, arrives on loan from Lokomotiv Moscow, a deal that required delicate negotiations given the two clubs' historic rivalry. Lokomotiv's training base on Volokolamskoe Shosse and CSKA's own Vatutinki facility, tucked into the birch forests south of the Moscow Ring Road, rarely exchange personnel without political friction inside Russian football's administrative structures.

Pre-season has already drawn attention. CSKA played two friendlies in late June at their Vatutinki complex, drawing 2-2 with a Belarusian Premier League select side and beating FC Ural 3-1. Fernandes scored twice in the Ural match, which was enough to send fan forums on VK buzzing before the weekend. The club's official supporter group, Union of CSKA Fans, announced a pre-season open training session for July 12 at Vatutinki — free entry, with gates opening at 10:00 Moscow time.

Zenit's Shadow and the Title Race Arithmetic

Context demands acknowledging the obvious obstacle. Zenit Saint Petersburg have won the Russian Premier League in each of the last five completed seasons. Their budget, bankrolled by Gazprom, dwarfs every other club in the division. Last season Zenit finished 14 points clear of second-placed Krasnodar, with CSKA — then dealing with a mid-season managerial change — finishing fourth with 54 points from 30 matches.

Spartak Moscow and Lokomotiv will also push hard in 2026-27, and Spartak's own summer business at the Otkritie Bank Stadium on Volokolamskoe Highway has been active, with three confirmed arrivals of their own. But the buzz this week belongs unmistakably to CSKA. Their stadium, VEB Arena — a 30,000-seat facility opened in 2016 in the Khimki suburb — sold out its season-ticket allocation for the lower tiers by June 28, twelve days ahead of schedule. The club confirmed that 11,400 season cards were issued at prices ranging from 18,000 to 95,000 rubles, depending on category.

The Russian Premier League's new season kicks off the weekend of August 1-3. CSKA's first home fixture is scheduled for August 9, opponent to be confirmed by the fixture release on July 10. Fans expecting to buy single-match tickets for that opening home game should move quickly — VEB Arena's general sale opens July 11 on the club's official website and at the ticket office on Leningradskoe Shosse. Given the speed at which season cards sold, walk-up availability on match day looks unlikely. Moscow's other clubs have been put on notice: after several quiet summers, CSKA is spending, recruiting, and making noise again.