Astana II

Astana II won promotion the hard way in 2018, topping the Second League of Kazakhstan under the name Astana-Zhas and stepping up into the First League — the only silverware the club has to show, and the reason it exists at all still shows in how it operates.

The team plays as a feeder side for FC Astana, built to move players through rather than to accumulate its own history. It was set up in 2016 as Astana-Zhas, took the name Astana-M in 2020, and now competes as the reserve outfit of the capital's main club. Nurali Zhaksylyk, Sanzhar Anuarov, Batyrkhan Mustafin, Maksat Abrayev and Timur Tokenov all came through its ranks before moving up to the first team — a list that matters more to this club than any table position, since progression is the actual measure of its work.

Home games are played at Astana Arena, a 30,000-seat stadium the reserves share with the senior side rather than a ground of their own. The colours are yellow and blue, taken directly from FC Astana rather than chosen independently.

There is no fixed rival on the fixture list. A match against Kairat-Zhastar was once billed locally as a derby, but nothing about the sides' history supports treating it as a fixed enmity rather than a one-off framing.

One title, one promotion, in 2018.