Russian outfit CSKA Moscow have completed the signing of youngster Kristijan Bistrovic from Slaven Belupo. The transfer wouldn’t perhaps otherwise make news in the football world, but it is interesting for one reason- the 19 year old Bistrovic is the FIRST player CSKA have bought since early 2015, effectively making it a three year gap between two permanent transfers. Their signings during this period have effectively been loans, free transfers and academy prospects, and given that CSKA competed in the group stages of the Champions League this season, that’s a pretty impressive stat for a CL team. We’re unsure if that’s a record in the modern CL era, but a mind boggling stat all the same.
The player mentioned above that CSKA signed in 2015, Carlos Strandberg, no longer plies his trade for them though.
CSKA have had some really long serving players- when they played Liverpool in the Super Cup back in 2005, they had Akinfeev in goal and Ignashevich and Berezutski in defence, and a decade later (in 2017), the trio were still in the starting XI when they took on Manchester United in the Champions League