Former CSKA Moscow and current Belarus national team head coach Viktor Goncharenko has shared his thoughts on Fabio Celestini’s tenure at the club, stating that the Swiss manager struggled to connect with the team’s veteran players.
“Like any coach, I want specialists to work longer. Nowadays many work for just a year or even six months, which is unpleasant. Regarding Celestini’s work at CSKA, it wasn’t one misstep — there were several. In autumn, the team won everyone over, and everyone expected a continuation. That didn’t happen. Everyone sees this situation differently. CSKA knows how to analyze — Roman Yurievich Babayev, Maxim Stanislavovich Oreshkin, and Evgeny Lennorovich Giner will find steps to make CSKA a leading force next season,” Goncharenko was quoted as saying by Championat.
“It seemed to me that Celestini didn’t find a common language with CSKA’s veterans. Akinfeev, Moises — this conflict could have been resolved without reaching the point where a key defender stopped playing. The departure of Alexei Berezutsky, who gave so much to CSKA… These are three people with whom it was worth finding common ground. It’s one thing when you bet on young players and older footballers don’t play as often, but that wasn’t the situation. These people have done a lot for CSKA — you need to find common language with them. Foreign specialists came into the coaching staff. If there had been more Russians who could help with communication with the team and knew the conditions better, it would have been better. That also turned out to be a wrong move,” the current Belarus head coach added.
On May 4, it became known that Celestini had terminated his contract with CSKA by mutual agreement. Fabio Celestini took over CSKA in the summer of 2025, replacing Marco Nikolic. The 50-year-old Swiss specialist signed a two-year contract with an option to extend for another season.
Under Celestini’s leadership, CSKA played 40 matches in all competitions, winning 21, losing 13, and drawing six. After the winter break, the army team secured only two victories in ten Russian Premier League matches.