The Champions League has always been European football’s Holy Grail, a quest every player dreams of undertaking, but it has never felt more of a global adventure than 2025/26. Â
With four new teams taking part, the competition has been pushed farther and wider than ever before. In Bodø/Glimt, for example, we have our first team from the Arctic Circle, while David Luiz and Pafos take us as far south as Cyprus, almost 4,000km away. Â
But it’s Kazakhstan’s champions Kairat, in the heart of Central Asia just a stone’s throw from China (granted, it would have to be some effort), who have really made away days in the Champions League feel like something of an odyssey – ironic for a team 1,500 miles from the nearest sea. Â
Home to over two million people, Almaty sits beneath the hulking Trans-Ili Alatau mountains and stands out almost like a metropolitan oasis in a dense, verdant desert. It’s the sort of place you see pictures of and think, “God, that’d be a great place to play football”. Â
But in reaching the Champions League, Kairat have boldly gone where only one Kazakh team has gone before, and for current star Ofri Arad there’s one secret weapon that his side can rely on throughout this great adventure. Â
“I think what makes this team special is the heart. We have big hearts. Everyone here plays with great passion and discipline. We’re like a family. We help each other with everything,” says midfielder Arad, who is in his third season with Kairat. Â
“I don’t think we’re the most talented team in the Champions League, but we have the biggest heart. We didn’t come to the Champions League to just make up the numbers. We also want to do amazing things on this great stage.”
The Champions League has never been further east than Almaty, a fact underlined by Kairat’s mammoth trip to Lisbon to face Sporting, which finished in a 4-1 defeat. The flight alone takes almost 12 hours – “They’re only flights. It’s fun,” jokes Arad – while home games pose brand new challenges to visitors. Â
Journey times aside, the 800m elevation above sea level is another hurdle for visitors, as are the climate swings (temperatures of 30 degrees in summer and -8 in the winter), while the 22,000 home fans will doubtless vastly outnumber any away fan bold enough to venture across the continental lines. Beautiful though it may be, Almaty is not an easy place to go. Â
The Champions League has always been European football’s Holy Grail, a quest every player dreams of undertaking, but it has never felt more of a global adventure than 2025/26. Â
With four new teams taking part, the competition has been pushed farther and wider than ever before. In Bodø/Glimt, for example, we have our first team from the Arctic Circle, while David Luiz and Pafos take us as far south as Cyprus, almost 4,000km away. Â
But it’s Kazakhstan’s champions Kairat, in the heart of Central Asia just a stone’s throw from China (granted, it would have to be some effort), who have really made away days in the Champions League feel like something of an odyssey – ironic for a team 1,500 miles from the nearest sea. Â
Home to over two million people, Almaty sits beneath the hulking Trans-Ili Alatau mountains and stands out almost like a metropolitan oasis in a dense, verdant desert. It’s the sort of place you see pictures of and think, “God, that’d be a great place to play football”. Â
But in reaching the Champions League, Kairat have boldly gone where only one Kazakh team has gone before, and for current star Ofri Arad there’s one secret weapon that his side can rely on throughout this great adventure. Â
“I think what makes this team special is the heart. We have big hearts. Everyone here plays with great passion and discipline. We’re like a family. We help each other with everything,” says midfielder Arad, who is in his third season with Kairat. Â
“I don’t think we’re the most talented team in the Champions League, but we have the biggest heart. We didn’t come to the Champions League to just make up the numbers. We also want to do amazing things on this great stage.”
The Champions League has never been further east than Almaty, a fact underlined by Kairat’s mammoth trip to Lisbon to face Sporting, which finished in a 4-1 defeat. The flight alone takes almost 12 hours – “They’re only flights. It’s fun,” jokes Arad – while home games pose brand new challenges to visitors. Â
Journey times aside, the 800m elevation above sea level is another hurdle for visitors, as are the climate swings (temperatures of 30 degrees in summer and -8 in the winter), while the 22,000 home fans will doubtless vastly outnumber any away fan bold enough to venture across the continental lines. Beautiful though it may be, Almaty is not an easy place to go. Â
All this goes some way to explaining Kairat’s flawless home record in qualifying. Naturally, they were then drawn against the most successful club in European football history. Â
“As the match approached, the energy in Kazakhstan was incredible. You could feel it in the air. You could say the country was on fire! It was a cosmic experience that I’m unable to explain in words,” explains Arad of Kairat’s 5-0 defeat by Real Madrid on Matchday 2, still their sole home defeat of the competition to date. Â
“I think maybe in a hundred years, a team like that won’t visit again. For us, it was an unforgettable moment to face the best players in the world, to experience how it actually feels to play at that level.
“We lost 5-0, but until the 70th minute, it was pretty even. We didn’t hide; we tried to play our game. The fans loved it, the country was proud. These kinds of matches unite people and gives hope to the next generation and the willingness to be future Kairat players and to bring the next Real Madrid team to Kazakhstan.
“There’s nothing more emotional than playing in a Champions League match at home, in front of your own fans. When the anthem starts and you see the stands full – it’s something you can’t forget. The fans here are amazing. They push us, they give us energy. The atmosphere is unbelievable.
“Against Real Madrid, if the stadium could have held 200,000 or 300,000 people, it would easily have been full – that’s how much demand there was. Everyone wanted to be there, everyone wanted to experience it.”
The fact the Champions League anthem can echo through a city deep in the heart of Asia, closer in fact to Beijing than Istanbul, exemplifies this new frontier, a new chapter in the competition’s history.
Five games in and just the one point under their belts though, it is now up to Kairat to decide whether this adventure is set for its biggest twist yet. Having come close to massive upsets against both Inter Milan and Copenhagen they have shown guts, but time is begging to run out ahead of two crucial back-to-back home games. Â
“At first, I think most players here didn’t really believe we could do it, but I did – I had that belief. If you had asked me a few months ago, I’d have said that it’s very tough, but I was there before and knew it was possible.
Â
“Now the whole world believes.”
The Champions League has always been European football’s Holy Grail, a quest every player dreams of undertaking, but it has never felt more of a global adventure than 2025/26. Â
With four new teams taking part, the competition has been pushed farther and wider than ever before. In Bodø/Glimt, for example, we have our first team from the Arctic Circle, while David Luiz and Pafos take us as far south as Cyprus, almost 4,000km away. Â
But it’s Kazakhstan’s champions Kairat, in the heart of Central Asia just a stone’s throw from China (granted, it would have to be some effort), who have really made away days in the Champions League feel like something of an odyssey – ironic for a team 1,500 miles from the nearest sea. Â
Home to over two million people, Almaty sits beneath the hulking Trans-Ili Alatau mountains and stands out almost like a metropolitan oasis in a dense, verdant desert. It’s the sort of place you see pictures of and think, “God, that’d be a great place to play football”. Â
But in reaching the Champions League, Kairat have boldly gone where only one Kazakh team has gone before, and for current star Ofri Arad there’s one secret weapon that his side can rely on throughout this great adventure. Â
“I think what makes this team special is the heart. We have big hearts. Everyone here plays with great passion and discipline. We’re like a family. We help each other with everything,” says midfielder Arad, who is in his third season with Kairat. Â
“I don’t think we’re the most talented team in the Champions League, but we have the biggest heart. We didn’t come to the Champions League to just make up the numbers. We also want to do amazing things on this great stage.”
The Champions League has never been further east than Almaty, a fact underlined by Kairat’s mammoth trip to Lisbon to face Sporting, which finished in a 4-1 defeat. The flight alone takes almost 12 hours – “They’re only flights. It’s fun,” jokes Arad – while home games pose brand new challenges to visitors. Â
Journey times aside, the 800m elevation above sea level is another hurdle for visitors, as are the climate swings (temperatures of 30 degrees in summer and -8 in the winter), while the 22,000 home fans will doubtless vastly outnumber any away fan bold enough to venture across the continental lines. Beautiful though it may be, Almaty is not an easy place to go. Â
The Champions League has always been European football’s Holy Grail, a quest every player dreams of undertaking, but it has never felt more of a global adventure than 2025/26. Â
With four new teams taking part, the competition has been pushed farther and wider than ever before. In Bodø/Glimt, for example, we have our first team from the Arctic Circle, while David Luiz and Pafos take us as far south as Cyprus, almost 4,000km away. Â
But it’s Kazakhstan’s champions Kairat, in the heart of Central Asia just a stone’s throw from China (granted, it would have to be some effort), who have really made away days in the Champions League feel like something of an odyssey – ironic for a team 1,500 miles from the nearest sea. Â
Home to over two million people, Almaty sits beneath the hulking Trans-Ili Alatau mountains and stands out almost like a metropolitan oasis in a dense, verdant desert. It’s the sort of place you see pictures of and think, “God, that’d be a great place to play football”. Â
But in reaching the Champions League, Kairat have boldly gone where only one Kazakh team has gone before, and for current star Ofri Arad there’s one secret weapon that his side can rely on throughout this great adventure. Â
“I think what makes this team special is the heart. We have big hearts. Everyone here plays with great passion and discipline. We’re like a family. We help each other with everything,” says midfielder Arad, who is in his third season with Kairat. Â
“I don’t think we’re the most talented team in the Champions League, but we have the biggest heart. We didn’t come to the Champions League to just make up the numbers. We also want to do amazing things on this great stage.”
The Champions League has never been further east than Almaty, a fact underlined by Kairat’s mammoth trip to Lisbon to face Sporting, which finished in a 4-1 defeat. The flight alone takes almost 12 hours – “They’re only flights. It’s fun,” jokes Arad – while home games pose brand new challenges to visitors. Â
Journey times aside, the 800m elevation above sea level is another hurdle for visitors, as are the climate swings (temperatures of 30 degrees in summer and -8 in the winter), while the 22,000 home fans will doubtless vastly outnumber any away fan bold enough to venture across the continental lines. Beautiful though it may be, Almaty is not an easy place to go. Â
The Champions League has always been European football’s Holy Grail, a quest every player dreams of undertaking, but it has never felt more of a global adventure than 2025/26. Â
With four new teams taking part, the competition has been pushed farther and wider than ever before. In Bodø/Glimt, for example, we have our first team from the Arctic Circle, while David Luiz and Pafos take us as far south as Cyprus, almost 4,000km away. Â
But it’s Kazakhstan’s champions Kairat, in the heart of Central Asia just a stone’s throw from China (granted, it would have to be some effort), who have really made away days in the Champions League feel like something of an odyssey – ironic for a team 1,500 miles from the nearest sea. Â
Home to over two million people, Almaty sits beneath the hulking Trans-Ili Alatau mountains and stands out almost like a metropolitan oasis in a dense, verdant desert. It’s the sort of place you see pictures of and think, “God, that’d be a great place to play football”. Â
But in reaching the Champions League, Kairat have boldly gone where only one Kazakh team has gone before, and for current star Ofri Arad there’s one secret weapon that his side can rely on throughout this great adventure. Â
“I think what makes this team special is the heart. We have big hearts. Everyone here plays with great passion and discipline. We’re like a family. We help each other with everything,” says midfielder Arad, who is in his third season with Kairat. Â
“I don’t think we’re the most talented team in the Champions League, but we have the biggest heart. We didn’t come to the Champions League to just make up the numbers. We also want to do amazing things on this great stage.”
The Champions League has never been further east than Almaty, a fact underlined by Kairat’s mammoth trip to Lisbon to face Sporting, which finished in a 4-1 defeat. The flight alone takes almost 12 hours – “They’re only flights. It’s fun,” jokes Arad – while home games pose brand new challenges to visitors. Â
Journey times aside, the 800m elevation above sea level is another hurdle for visitors, as are the climate swings (temperatures of 30 degrees in summer and -8 in the winter), while the 22,000 home fans will doubtless vastly outnumber any away fan bold enough to venture across the continental lines. Beautiful though it may be, Almaty is not an easy place to go. Â
All this goes some way to explaining Kairat’s flawless home record in qualifying. Naturally, they were then drawn against the most successful club in European football history. Â
“As the match approached, the energy in Kazakhstan was incredible. You could feel it in the air. You could say the country was on fire! It was a cosmic experience that I’m unable to explain in words,” explains Arad of Kairat’s 5-0 defeat by Real Madrid on Matchday 2, still their sole home defeat of the competition to date. Â
“I think maybe in a hundred years, a team like that won’t visit again. For us, it was an unforgettable moment to face the best players in the world, to experience how it actually feels to play at that level.
“We lost 5-0, but until the 70th minute, it was pretty even. We didn’t hide; we tried to play our game. The fans loved it, the country was proud. These kinds of matches unite people and gives hope to the next generation and the willingness to be future Kairat players and to bring the next Real Madrid team to Kazakhstan.
“There’s nothing more emotional than playing in a Champions League match at home, in front of your own fans. When the anthem starts and you see the stands full – it’s something you can’t forget. The fans here are amazing. They push us, they give us energy. The atmosphere is unbelievable.
“Against Real Madrid, if the stadium could have held 200,000 or 300,000 people, it would easily have been full – that’s how much demand there was. Everyone wanted to be there, everyone wanted to experience it.”
The fact the Champions League anthem can echo through a city deep in the heart of Asia, closer in fact to Beijing than Istanbul, exemplifies this new frontier, a new chapter in the competition’s history.
Five games in and just the one point under their belts though, it is now up to Kairat to decide whether this adventure is set for its biggest twist yet. Having come close to massive upsets against both Inter Milan and Copenhagen they have shown guts, but time is begging to run out ahead of two crucial back-to-back home games. Â
“At first, I think most players here didn’t really believe we could do it, but I did – I had that belief. If you had asked me a few months ago, I’d have said that it’s very tough, but I was there before and knew it was possible.
Â
“Now the whole world believes.”
The Champions League has always been European football’s Holy Grail, a quest every player dreams of undertaking, but it has never felt more of a global adventure than 2025/26. Â
With four new teams taking part, the competition has been pushed farther and wider than ever before. In Bodø/Glimt, for example, we have our first team from the Arctic Circle, while David Luiz and Pafos take us as far south as Cyprus, almost 4,000km away. Â
But it’s Kazakhstan’s champions Kairat, in the heart of Central Asia just a stone’s throw from China (granted, it would have to be some effort), who have really made away days in the Champions League feel like something of an odyssey – ironic for a team 1,500 miles from the nearest sea. Â
Home to over two million people, Almaty sits beneath the hulking Trans-Ili Alatau mountains and stands out almost like a metropolitan oasis in a dense, verdant desert. It’s the sort of place you see pictures of and think, “God, that’d be a great place to play football”. Â
But in reaching the Champions League, Kairat have boldly gone where only one Kazakh team has gone before, and for current star Ofri Arad there’s one secret weapon that his side can rely on throughout this great adventure. Â
“I think what makes this team special is the heart. We have big hearts. Everyone here plays with great passion and discipline. We’re like a family. We help each other with everything,” says midfielder Arad, who is in his third season with Kairat. Â
“I don’t think we’re the most talented team in the Champions League, but we have the biggest heart. We didn’t come to the Champions League to just make up the numbers. We also want to do amazing things on this great stage.”
The Champions League has never been further east than Almaty, a fact underlined by Kairat’s mammoth trip to Lisbon to face Sporting, which finished in a 4-1 defeat. The flight alone takes almost 12 hours – “They’re only flights. It’s fun,” jokes Arad – while home games pose brand new challenges to visitors. Â
Journey times aside, the 800m elevation above sea level is another hurdle for visitors, as are the climate swings (temperatures of 30 degrees in summer and -8 in the winter), while the 22,000 home fans will doubtless vastly outnumber any away fan bold enough to venture across the continental lines. Beautiful though it may be, Almaty is not an easy place to go. Â
