Anzhi Makhachkala

Anzhi Makhachkala, known simply as FC Anji, is a Russian semi-professional football club based in the Dagestani capital of Makhachkala, and it was founded in 1991 by former Dinamo Makhachkala player Aleksandr Markarov with the head of Dagnefteprodukt, Magomed-Sultan Magomedov. The club's name Anzhi means pearl in the local Kumyk language and is a former name of Makhachkala. Anzhi won the First Division in 1999 and reached the Russian Cup final in 2001, losing to Lokomotiv Moscow on penalties, and the club finished third in the 2012–13 Russian Premier League season, its best league result. After being bought by Suleyman Kerimov in January 2011 and making high-profile signings, the club lost most of its key players in budget cuts and was relegated in 2014, and it later lost its professional status in 2022.

Sources: Wikipedia (en, ru) (CC BY-SA 4.0) · Written 12 Nov 2026 by claude-haiku-5-5