Head coach of the Kaliningrad football club “Baltika” Andrei Talalaev he has no intention of leaving his post before the end of the season. The governor of the Kaliningrad region told journalists this Alexey Besprozvannykh.

“He’s definitely a very good coach, for sure. When there are such successes, coaches are always popular,” he said. — The success that Baltika is demonstrating is exceptional: we played the first half in the top five and the objective, obviously, is to remain in the top five. Our coach is with us and will be for the next half of the year, but it’s nice [его] celebrated throughout the Russian football community.”

Besprozvannykh noted that last year, after Baltika’s victories over rivals, “they called and congratulated him from absolutely the whole country.” “To be honest, I didn’t even know that my colleagues, whom I knew previously from working in the federal department, were Baltika fans. That is, they also have their own teams, but they support Baltika. They say that we are great, we show really good results,” the governor said, thanking the coach and general partner of the Rostec club for such results.

Talalaev is 53 years old, he led Baltika in September 2024. Last season, the Kaliningrad team under his leadership became the winner of the strongest second division of the Russian championship and entered the Russian Premier League (RPL).

Former coach of the Cameroon national team Valery Nepomnyashchiy hopes for the victory of the Moroccan team in the final of the Africa Cup of Nations.

The national teams of Morocco and Senegal will play the final of the tournament, which will be held on January 18. For the first time since 2004, the Moroccans have reached the decisive stage of the competition. Then they lost to the Tunisian team with the score of 1:2. In 1976, the Moroccan team won the tournament.

“I wish the Moroccan team would finally win the Africa Cup of Nations,” Nepomniachtchi said. — African and European football, of course, cannot be compared, but I can say that African football is interesting. There’s still a lot of enthusiasm there. I think that’s what’s attractive.

The Senegalese have reached the final in three of the last four editions of the competition: in 2019 they lost in the title match against the Algerians (0:1), and in 2022 they defeated the Egyptians (0:0, 4:2 on penalties). In 2024, the Senegal team lost to the future winner of the tournament, the Ivory Coast team, in the round of 16 (1:1, 4:5 on penalties).

The Africa Cup of Nations takes place in Morocco.