Timur Ayupov

Timur Ayupov moved to Rotor Volgograd on a free transfer, agreeing a contract that runs to June 2027. He arrives having just come through a spell at Ural Yekaterinburg, where he remained a regular in midfield and found the net in both the league and the Russian Cup.

Ayupov's biggest spell came at Orenburg, where he spent four years and made over 150 appearances across all competitions. He scored more than ten goals in the FNL there and added two more once the club reached the Russian Premier League, a return that puts him among Orenburg's leading scorers in the top flight. That run followed three years in Nizhny Novgorod with Pari NN, which he joined on a free transfer in February 2016, and an earlier stint at Rubin-2 Kazan, where his senior career began.

Across his career, Ayupov has passed 400 professional appearances without adding a league title, a cup or an individual award to his name. In a 2024 interview he addressed his absence from the national team directly, saying that at 31 the door to a call-up had closed for him.

Rotor Volgograd now gets a midfielder who has built his reputation on consistency rather than silverware.