At the time of writing, Kairat Almaty may be an unknown football club for the majority of fans, but if you haven’t heard of them before, you are about to hear now.
Ranked 311 in Europe as of Tuesday (Aug 27), Kairat Almaty will be playing in the 2025-26 Champions League season and will be facing the likes of Real Madrid at the Santiago Bernabéu or Liverpool at Anfield or they could host Bayern Munich in their near-24,000 capacity stadium in Almaty, Kazakhstan. These all dreams came true for the Kazakhstan Premier League side on Tuesday when they beat Celtic 3-2 in a Champions League Playoff match.
Kairat Almaty script history
Based in Almaty, the former capital of Kazakhstan, Kairat have enjoyed a huge success in recent history. Founded in 1954 as Lokomotiv Alma-Ata, they became Urozhay in 1955 and Kairat in 1956. Kairat was the leading Kazakh club during the Soviet period and the only representative of the Kazakh Soviet Socialist Republic in the Soviet Top League. Since the club’s existence dates back to Soviet Union days, it is a widely celebrated club in the nation.
Kairat Almaty won Soviet First League titles twice, in 1976 and 1983 and were a household name before the Soviet Union was divided into different countries. Being based in the country’s then-capital, Kairat had a huge fan base and developed a rivalry with Astana FC. One of the reasons for the strong rivalry is the shift of capital when Astana was made Kazakhstan’s capital in 1997. In modern history, Kairat won four league titles, eight Kazakhstan Cups and two Kazakhstan Super Cups.
Kairat’s path to the Champions League league phase
Having won the most recent Kazakhstan Premier League title, Kairat qualified for the 2025-26 UEFA Champions League first round. Kairat defeated Olimpija Ljubljana 3-1 on aggregate in the first qualifier round. Kairat won the second round against Kuopion Palloseura 3-2 on aggregate and reached the final round after defeating Slovan Bratislava on penalties.
However, the club’s greatest achievement came on Tuesday when they qualified for the Champions League league phase for the first time in their history, defeating Celtic in the playoffs 3-2 on penalties after both legs ended goalless.
While British clubs would have made history with not less than eight participants in the Champions League, Kairat deserve every piece of the cake for their historic achievement.