Maksim Saveljev

Saveljev needed almost a year at Orenburg before he scored in the Russian Premier League. The goal came in February 2026, the only one of the match, and it beat Akron Tolyatti 1-0.

His route to that point ran through a long series of academies. He was at Sokol Saratov until 2015, then spent a season each at Dynamo Moscow and Rubin Kazan before joining Chertanovo in 2017. He was handed a debut for the reserve side, Chertanovo-2, in July 2018 — one goal in 13 matches — and it took another two years before he appeared for the main squad in the FNL, in August 2020. Chertanovo is where the numbers first accumulated: 71 appearances and 19 goals through to the end of the 2022/23 season. He won the Youth Football League title there and was a Russian under-17 champion, and after one 5-1 win over Yenisei he was named the best player on the pitch.

He signed for that same Yenisei in July 2023, arriving as a free agent on a deal running to June 2026. Two seasons brought 54 appearances and nine goals in all competitions — five in 33 FNL matches, then four in 20 in the First League. Orenburg cut the contract short in February 2025, paying a reported fee of around €260,000.

Four goals in 41 appearances for Orenburg is a modest return, three of them in the league and one in the cup. One of them, the winner against Pari NN, earned him the best-player award for the 23rd round of the 2025/26 season. His international record stops at youth level: five caps and a goal for the under-15s, ten caps and three goals for the under-16s.