[6] The club was named "FC Lokomotiv Astana" as the National Railway Company Kazakhstan Temir Zholy became a general sponsor.

Maksim Shatskikh later arrived from Dynamo Kyiv in the Ukrainian Premier League which was again a very high-profile capture for the club.

[14] In July 2013, the club made a debut in Europe playing in the first qualifying round of the UEFA Europa League against Botev Plovdiv.

[17][18] On 22 June 2014, the club announced that former Botev Plovdiv manager Stanimir Stoilov was appointed as new head coach.

[19] In 2014–15 European campaign, Astana played four ties in the UEFA Europa League qualifying stages.

[21] On 1 November 2014, Astana became Kazakhstan Premier League champions for the first time in their history, securing the championship with a 3–0 home win against Kaisar.

[22] On 1 March 2015, Astana won the 2015 Kazakhstan Super Cup, beating Kairat 3–2 in a penalty shoot-out after the match ended with the score 0–0.

On 26 August 2015, the club became the first team from Kazakhstan to reach the group stage of the UEFA Champions League, after beating APOEL 2–1 on aggregate in the play-off round.

[23][24] They were drawn in Group C alongside Benfica, Atlético Madrid and Galatasaray,[25] where they managed to obtain four points in six games after four draws and two losses.

[26] On 8 November 2015, Astana clinched their second Kazakhstan Premier League title beating Aktobe 1–0 at home in the last tour game.

[28] In the 2016 season, Astana was eliminated from UEFA Champions League after two stages, being defeated by Celtic in the third qualifying round 3–2 on aggregate.

However, the club qualified for the UEFA Europa League group stage, beating BATE in the play-off round.

[29] On 8 January 2018, Stoilov signed a new contract with Astana,[30] but left the club on 1 March 2018 to take over the vacant Kazakhstan national football team's manager position.

[33] On 17 August 2018, Hryhorchuk left Astana on compassionate leave with Grigori Babayan again stepping in as Caretaker Manager.

[34] Astana announced on 3 January 2019 that Hryhorchuk would return to lead the team after missing the second half of the 2018 season due to family reasons.

This was accompanied by the words "football club" in Kazakh and Russian languages on the top and bottom of the crest.

The crest consisted an image of the ball in a shanyrak style and two Kazakh national patterns on each side.

Blue was used to accent the home jersey while white was the main colour of the team's away kit.

Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules; some limited exceptions apply.