Early years Lokomotiv was founded as
Kazanka (Moskovsko-Kazanskaya Zh.D) in 1922. In 1924, the club brought together the strongest football players of several lines of the Moscow railway system as KOR ("Club of the
October Revolution"). In 1931, the club was again renamed to
Kazanka (Moskovskaya-Kazanskaya Zh.D) and in 1936, it was eventually renamed to as it is known today,
Lokomotiv (the name means "
Locomotive"). During the
Communist rule, Lokomotiv Moscow club was a part of the
Lokomotiv Voluntary Sports Society and was owned by the Soviet Ministry of Transportation through the
Russian Railways.
Soviet era When the
Lokomotiv Voluntary Sports Society was created in 1936, its football team featured the best players of
Kazanka, and a number of strong Soviet footballers of that time such as Valentin Granatkin, Nikolay llyin, Alexey Sokolov, Pyotr Terenkov, Mikhail Zhukov, llya Gvozdkov and Ivan Andreev. Lokomotiv debuted in the first-ever
Soviet football club championship with a game against
Dynamo Leningrad on 22 May 1936. In the first two seasonal championships (spring and autumn), Lokomotiv finished fifth and fourth respectively. The first Lokomotiv success arrived shortly as in 1936, the railwaymen rose up to the occasion to beat
Dynamo Tbilisi 2–0 in the
Soviet Cup Final, thus winning the first
Soviet Cup. The following years were rather successful as Lokomotiv were consistent in the national championships. However, performances after
World War II suffered and in a five-year span, Lokomotiv were relegated to the
Soviet First League twice. In 1951, Lokomotiv came second and eventually won the promotion to the
Soviet Top League. This kicked off the second Lokomotiv's resurgence and until the beginning of the 1960s, Lokomotiv competed for the USSR's top trophies. In 1957, Lokomotiv won the
cup for the second time, and two years later, Lokomotiv won the silver medals of the Soviet League. Second place was the highest position ever obtained by Lokomotiv during the Soviet era. Another important trademark for Lokomotiv was the authorization of playing friendly matches against foreign opposition. Typically, up to the late 1950s, international sports contacts with Soviet teams were extremely rare. However, since in 1955, Lokomotiv became a quasi-"football ambassador" for the Soviet Union abroad, participating in friendly matches in various parts of the world, including Europe, Asia, Africa and even North America. This policy of openness ushered in a great era for Lokomotiv, with the squad including some of the finest Soviet footballers of the era, such as
Vladimir Maslachenko,
Valentin Bubukin,
Victor Voroshilov,
Zaur Kaloyev, and
Yuri Kovalyov. When Lokomotiv's strongest players abandoned the club, however, Lokomotiv fell again from grace and a swing between the first and second divisions followed, instability lasting until the end of the 1980s.
Post-Soviet era In the beginning of the 1990s, Lokomotiv was considered the "weakest link" amongst the top Moscow clubs. It lacked both results on the pitch and fans' support in the stands. In 2002, a new stadium—
Lokomotiv Stadium—resembling a traditional, compact English one was built. In 2002, a "golden match" was needed to decide who will be the champion, as Lokomotiv Moscow and CSKA Moscow both finished with the same number of points after Gameweek 30. The game was played at
Dynamo Stadium in front of a sold-out crowd. Lokomotiv took an early lead thanks a low drive from captain
Dmitry Loskov, and eventually the goal turned out to be enough for Lokomotiv to claim the first title in the club's history. Two years later, Lokomotiv again won the
Russian Premier League, edging city rivals CSKA by a single point; Lokomotiv defeated
Shinnik Yaroslavl 0–2 in
Yaroslavl, a week after CSKA fell to city rivals Dynamo at home. In 2005, long-time head coach Yuri Semin left the team to coach the
Russian national team, where he was replaced at Lokomotiv by
Vladimir Eshtrekov. During the same year, although leading the league for most of the year, Lokomotiv stumbled in the last games of the campaign, allowing CSKA overtake them and claim the title, with Lokomotiv ultimately falling to third. Estrekhov was later sacked and replaced by
Slavoljub Muslin, the first foreign manager in the club's history. After a poor start to the new season, Lokomotiv recovered and finished third, but despite the respectable performance, Muslin was sacked;
Anatoly Byshovets took the helm as his replacement, with Yury Semin returning to serve as team president. This brought little success to Lokomotiv, who finished the season in seventh, with the only bright spot being the victory of the
Russian Cup. These poor performances prompted the board of directors to sack both coach
Anatoly Byshovets and President Semin.
Rinat Bilyaletdinov was subsequently named caretaker coach. This lasted until 6 December 2006, when Lokomotiv brought in
Rashid Rakhimov from
Amkar Perm on a three-year contract. Again, however, this resulted to be yet another poor decision from the board, as Lokomotiv only finished seventh in
2008, also beginning the
2009 season poorly. Unsurprisingly, on 28 April 2009, Lokomotiv fired Rakhimov; long-serving player
Vladimir Maminov was installed as a
caretaker manager. A month later, Semin was brought back to the club to take charge. After a really poor start, Lokomotiv recovered and finished the season on a high, claiming fourth place in the process. In 2010 shortly after the signing of former Lokomotiv player
Peter Odemwingie to
West Bromwich Albion, photographs showed Lokomotiv Moscow fans celebrating the sale of Odemwingie through the use of
racist banners targeted at the player. One banner included the image of a banana and read "Thanks West Brom". Before the 2011–12 league season, Semin left the club and was replaced by former
Spartak Nalchuk manager
Yuri Krasnozhan. On 4 June 2011, rumours spread that Lokomotiv chairman
Olga Smorodskaya suspected Krasnozhan of
throwing away the 27 May, 1–2 home league defeat to
Anzhi Makhachkala, deciding to sack him on the grounds of the suspicion. The
Russian Football Union subsequently refused to investigate the case. Assistant manager Maminov again took over as caretaker for three weeks until a replacement was found in the form of
José Couceiro, who had himself just finished a caretaking stint as manager of
Sporting Clube de Portugal. Couceiro, however, lasted just one year in the role, as the club opted not to renew his contract at the end of the
2011–12 season. After
Croatia national team head coach
Slaven Bilić announced he would step down after his nation's participation at
Euro 2012, Loko acted quickly to sign him to a three-year contract. However, Bilić's first season at the helm brought another disappointment, as Loko finished ninth, its lowest-ever finish in the post-Soviet era of Russian domestic football. Just prior to the
2013–14 season, Bilić was sacked and replaced with new head coach
Leonid Kuchuk. Eventually, however, Lokomotiv ran out of steam and after only managing to win a single points from the last three matches of the season, Lokomotiv had to settle for the third place.
Recent history In the following season, Kuchuk failed to build up on the improved performances of the previous season and with Lokomotiv languished at the ninth place, Kuchuk was given the sack prematurely.
Miodrag Božović was called to steady the ship but despite the early promise, a disastrous run of one win in a stretch of nine matches resulted in Božović being sacked with three league matches to go and with
Igor Cherevchenko re-appointed as caretaker manager for the second time during the season. Despite the poor league performance, wherein Lokomotiv placed in the 7th place again, Lokomotiv did end the season on a positive tone as Cherevchenko managed to rally his troops and win the
Russian Cup with a 3–1 win over
Kuban Krasnodar. This success, which brought the first piece of silverware to Lokomotiv in 8 years, was enough to convince
Olga Smorodskaya to appoint Cherevchenko on a permanent basis. Lokomotiv's performances under Cherechenko did improve in the beginning but it was a false promise once again as in the end Lokomotiv faltered and did not manage to qualify for European football. Notwithstanding this, Cherevchenko was confirmed for the
2016–17 season. After months of speculation, and with only two games in the new season, the board pulled the plug on Smorodskaya's disastrous tenure and relieved Smorodskaya hand Cherechenko from their positions. Ilya Herkus was brought in for Smorodskaya and with the goal of resolving the previous board's fractious relationship with the fans and bring them back to the stadium, Lokomotiv appointed
Yury Semin as their manager for the fourth time. In also came crowd favourite
Dmitri Loskov, who was assigned to assist Semin with his duties. Despite the good feelings brought by the change in management, Lokomotiv's performances seldom improved and a tumultuous season ended up in Lokomotiv placing in a disappointing eighth position. In what was the only highlight of the season, Lokomotiv managed to snatch the Russian Cup for a joint record seventh time by crushing
Ural Yekaterinburg's dreams of their first ever piece of silverware with a two-nil victory. Despite the average league performance, Semin was confirmed for the
next season. Herkus' decision to retain Semin resulted to be a shrewd decision as Semin managed to do the unthinkable and rallied Lokomotiv to win the Russian Premier League for only the third time in their history. In Europe, Lokomotiv also performed admirably, as they managed to advance to
Round of 16 for the first time in their history and got eliminated by
Atlético Madrid, who eventually went on to win the Cup. After the
2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, the
European Club Association suspended the team. ==Performances in Europe==