The deal with Iliria Fushë-Krujë is done in every sense but the one that puts him on the pitch. Nothing goes wrong at this stage, except on the occasions when it does.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
The phone has started ringing about Pereowei Magbisa again, and this time the name on the line is Korabi Peshkopi. Flamurtari are listening politely and promising nothing.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Flamurtari is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Jacques Mbé was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
The offer went to AF Elbasani this week and it is theirs to answer. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loud the door closes.
Flamurtari have made the call to Burreli. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
Nobody at Flamurtari will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Flamurtari know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Flamurtari they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Cristian Núñez and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Igor Aleksovski trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Position 5 on 25 points, and the places that carry a European ticket are close enough to count. Seasons like this are decided by two results in April, and the club knows which two.
In brief
MarketThe clock does Stivian Janku’s negotiating for him
SquadJacques Mbé is the talk of the training ground
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Flamurtari have lost him in all but the paperwork.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Flamurtari they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
The offer went to AF Elbasani this week and it is theirs to answer. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loud the door closes.
None of them will be seen by anybody outside the training ground for three years, most of them will never play a senior match, and one of them might change the club. That is the whole proposition, and it is why academies exist.
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say William Baeten is on it.
Nothing is announced when this happens and everybody knows. He is a bigger part of the plan at Flamurtari than he was a month ago, and the training ground worked that out before the team sheet said so.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Hetem Lushaj trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
“I listened, I thought about it, and I am staying. That is the whole story.” The clubs had agreed a fee. Pereowei Magbisa had not agreed to go, which turned out to be the part that mattered.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Flamurtari this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
In brief
The dugoutHetem Lushaj asks for a word with the manager
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Flamurtari have lost him in all but the paperwork.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Flamurtari they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
The name of Christ Evo Ememe has come up in conversations Flamurtari were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
“Some mornings you wake up and you are still a long way from everything you know.” It is not the football and it never was; Flamurtari are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Jacques Mbé was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Flamurtari asked and AF Elbasani said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Todor Todoroski is on it.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Flamurtari know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
In brief
The dugoutErigels Toli knocks on the manager's door
There are footballers who have a good season and footballers a season is remembered for, and the second kind get their names read out in a hall in the summer. Flamurtari will be quietly delighted and privately nervous.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Flamurtari this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The one award on the pitch nobody else can win. 12 games in a season in which nobody scored past him, and a career that will be measured against this one.
Everybody saw it before anybody said it. At 36 the numbers say 3 points down on what he was, and the question for Flamurtari is how to handle a man they owe a great deal.
Nobody at Flamurtari will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Todor Todoroski signs something — a contract at Flamurtari or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
In brief
The dugoutOni Patushi knocks on the manager’s door
Jacques Mbé and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Cristian Núñez is on it.
He trains hard, says the right things and goes home to an empty flat. Nobody at Flamurtari has done anything wrong, which is exactly what makes it so difficult to fix.
In brief
The dugoutHetem Lushaj knocks on the manager's door
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Flamurtari can pretend not to have heard.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Flamurtari this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Nobody at Flamurtari will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
He trains hard, says the right things and goes home to an empty flat. Nobody at Flamurtari has done anything wrong, which is exactly what makes it so difficult to fix.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Flamurtari they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Nobody at Flamurtari will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Flamurtari know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
A year in and the city has not opened up, the language has not come, and lunch is eaten alone more often than anybody at Flamurtari would admit. It shows on Saturdays.
“I respect the manager and I am not going to sit here and pretend I am happy.” It is the most common sentence in football and it has never once been the end of a story.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Flamurtari, and both men came out saying it was fine.
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Flamurtari, and it is not being withdrawn.
1 kept out from twelve yards, and a stadium that will describe each of them for twenty years. A goalkeeper needs one night like this in a career, and this was it.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Flamurtari have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Eric Veiga was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
A goalkeeper's career is counted in the games nobody scored in, and Igor Aleksovski now has 22 of them across 225 appearances. Nothing about that number was luck.
Nobody at Flamurtari will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 18 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Flamurtari they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Jacques Mbé was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Todor Todoroski is on it.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Flamurtari, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Flamurtari will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Jacques Mbé and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Cristian Núñez is on it.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Flamurtari, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Flamurtari will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Nobody at Flamurtari will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
Not a new contract, not a new number: a new place in the manager’s thinking, which is the only promotion in football that actually matters. Stivian Janku has moved up it.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Todor Todoroski signs something — a contract at Flamurtari or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 53 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Jacques Mbé and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
25 points from position 5. The title is somebody else’s business and the drop is somebody else’s problem; what is left is the argument about passports.
A conversation in the manager’s office, and a commitment that came out of it. Promises like that are cheap to make and expensive to break, and Hetem Lushaj has written the date down.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Flamurtari, and both men came out saying it was fine.
The words a physio says slowly. 22 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Flamurtari will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
The deal with Iliria Fushë-Krujë is done in every sense but the one that puts him on the pitch. Nothing goes wrong at this stage, except on the occasions when it does.
Boardroom7 Feb 2028
Flamurtari close the window on a squad of their own making
2 in and 3 out, and no more changes for months. The manager has what he has, the supporters have their opinion of it, and the table will have the last word.
The fee was agreed and the flight was looked at — and then the phone stopped ringing. Teuta Durrës moved on, Ariol Kaloshi reports back to Flamurtari, and everybody pretends Monday is just Monday.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Flamurtari this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
$240.0K was the most the club would pay and Vora were asking for more. Deals like this are revived in the last week of a window roughly half the time, and everybody involved knows it.
29 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Flamurtari lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Flamurtari will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Cup ties wait for somebody to seize them, and Christ Evo Ememe obliged against Vora. 3‑0 on the night, and the name in the next round’s hat is Flamurtari.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and AF Elbasani waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Flamurtari is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Flamurtari is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Jacques Mbé was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
He is 22 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.
8.28. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
In brief
Player ratingsOni Patushi was on a different afternoon to everybody else
Player ratingsNinety minutes of William Baeten at his very best
17 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Flamurtari lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Flamurtari will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
The last league game has been played and the table has stopped moving: 25 points. The summer begins on Monday, and so does the argument about what it all meant.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Flamurtari have lost him in all but the paperwork.
The offer from Vora for Christ Evo Ememe was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Alex Peralta will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Flamurtari the goodbyes have quietly begun.
The words a physio says slowly. 31 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Flamurtari will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Flamurtari can pretend not to have heard.
An individual honour is a strange thing in a team game, and the best of them are never argued with. He has had the sort of year that ends with his name being read out, and Flamurtari have had the benefit of it.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Flamurtari this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The name of Ariol Kaloshi has come up in conversations Flamurtari were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
The words a physio says slowly. 45 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 116 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Alex Peralta will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Flamurtari the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Todor Todoroski was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Marked 8.40 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Hetem Lushaj, and the manager let it.
Squad20 Dec 2027
Hamza Ramani falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
52 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Flamurtari lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Flamurtari will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Flamurtari is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Flamurtari can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Jacques Mbé was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Igor Aleksovski, and the manager let it.
The dugout13 Dec 2027
The manager has not finished forgetting Cristian Núñez's mistake
Publicly it is behind everybody. It is not behind the man who picks the team, and the only place that shows is a team sheet. He will get another chance; he will get it in a match that matters less.
The words a physio says slowly. 59 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Flamurtari this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad6 Dec 2027
Hamza Ramani falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Jacques Mbé is on it.
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Ermal Pjeshka after the 0‑0 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Partizani Tirana in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
80 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Flamurtari lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Flamurtari is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Jacques Mbé was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
Squad15 Nov 2027
Words at Flamurtari training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Hamza Ramani is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Pereowei Magbisa is on it.
Burreli next, and one man in the Flamurtari dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
A year in and the language has not come, the city has not opened up, and he eats alone more often than anybody at Flamurtari would like to admit. It is showing on Saturdays.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Redi Kasa signs something — a contract at Flamurtari or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
In brief
The dugoutHamza Ramani knocks on the manager's door
87 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Flamurtari lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
4 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
“I have given this everything, but my family is not here and neither am I, not really.” A footballer can be coached out of bad form. Nobody has ever been coached out of this, and Flamurtari know it.
The chances are being made and something is happening between the making and the finishing. 3 matches now, and the anxiety in the ground arrives a little earlier every week.
Eric Veiga was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
200 games in the shirt. Nobody sets out to build a record like that; it happens to a certain kind of player at a certain kind of club, and this town knows what it has.
Half the programme played, position 3, 16 on the board. Doubling it is the sum every supporter has done and the only one nobody at the club will do out loud.
101 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Flamurtari lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Flamurtari is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Jacques Mbé and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
The fixture the rest of the division is looking forward to more than either of the sides in it. Both know a win changes the season and a defeat does not end it, which is what makes it hard to play.
“They were honest with me, and I would rather know.” Alex Peralta has been informed he is not in the manager's thinking at Flamurtari.
Squad25 Oct 2027
Words at Flamurtari training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Hamza Ramani is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
108 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Flamurtari lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Flamurtari have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Flamurtari they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Cristian Núñez was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Successful dribbles: 18. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Squad18 Oct 2027
Words at Flamurtari training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Alex Peralta is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
In brief
Player ratingsNinety minutes of Jacques Mbé at his very best
115 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Flamurtari lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Flamurtari can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
“I am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at Flamurtari, and 0 appearances in 14 say he has earned the hearing.
Squad11 Oct 2027
Words at Flamurtari training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Alex Peralta is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Erigels Toli was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Redi Kasa’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Flamurtari needing him to play as if none of it matters.
129 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Flamurtari lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Flamurtari they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Jacques Mbé and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Momčilo Rašo was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Flamurtari people have started saying his name in the past tense.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Flamurtari this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Egnatia Rrogozhinë wanted more than $70.0K and the board would not go there. Walked away, for now, which in a transfer window means until somebody blinks.
“I watch every Flamurtari game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Skënderbeu Korçë runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Flamurtari, and it is not being withdrawn.
Boardroom6 Sep 2027
Deadline passes with 3 signed and 4 gone
That is the business done at Flamurtari until the window opens again. Whether it was enough will be answered on Saturdays rather than in a column, and the first Saturday is close.
The offer from Vllaznia Shkodër for Ariol Kaloshi was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
$70.0K on the table at Egnatia Rrogozhinë. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
Add another name to the list: AF Elbasani have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Hamza Ramani. The answer from Flamurtari has not changed — yet.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Pogradeci waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Flamurtari is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. João Urbáez will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Flamurtari the goodbyes have quietly begun.
“Some mornings you wake up and you are still a long way from everything you know.” It is not the football and it never was; Flamurtari are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Bjori Doku commits to Flamurtari for another 3 years.
Squad9 Aug 2027
Words at Flamurtari training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Alex Peralta is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
“I watch every Flamurtari game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Skënderbeu Korçë runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Jacques Mbé is on it.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Pogradeci waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Flamurtari is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Jacques Mbé was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
The name of Eslit Sala has come up in conversations Flamurtari were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Squad26 Jul 2027
Words at Flamurtari training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Dimitris Chantakias is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Pereowei Magbisa trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
The shrug has gone, the language is coming, and he now argues in training like somebody who expects to be here next year. Half a signing's value is this and none of it appears on a fee.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Flamurtari this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Flamurtari have gone to Teuta Durrës with a bid, and the supporters have gone to the internet with an opinion about it. Whether either changes anything is up to the selling club.
Flamurtari offered $36.0K; Teuta Durrës said it was not close. The manager will be told the money is still there for the right player, which is what managers are told.
The name of Ariol Kaloshi has come up in conversations Flamurtari were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Dimitris Chantakias was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Pereowei Magbisa is on it.
The offer from Vora for Christ Evo Ememe was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Flamurtari they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Cristian Núñez and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad12 Jul 2027
Words at Flamurtari training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Hamza Ramani is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Flamurtari, and it is not being withdrawn.
The offer from AF Elbasani for Eslit Sala was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
The fee was agreed and the flight was looked at — and then the phone stopped ringing. Skënderbeu Korçë moved on, Fjoraldo Bejdollari reports back to Flamurtari, and everybody pretends Monday is just Monday.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Flamurtari this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Teuta Durrës wanted more than $36.0K and the board would not go there. Walked away, for now, which in a transfer window means until somebody blinks.
Squad21 Jun 2027
Hamza Ramani falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
Position 5, 29 points, and a run-in that decides whether next season has Thursday nights in it. Nobody is calling it a race yet, which is what people say during one.
The offer went to Teuta Durrës this week and it is theirs to answer. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loud the door closes.
Add another name to the list: AF Elbasani have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Eslit Sala. The answer from Flamurtari has not changed — yet.
Squad14 Jun 2027
Words at Flamurtari training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Dimitris Chantakias is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Flamurtari this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Nobody at Flamurtari will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
“I respect the manager and I am not going to sit here and pretend I am happy.” It is the most common sentence in football and it has never once been the end of a story.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Flamurtari they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Flamurtari can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Jacques Mbé and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Dimitris Chantakias was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Nobody at Flamurtari will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
In brief
BoardroomOpen for business: Flamurtari enter the window
An individual honour is a strange thing in a team game, and the best of them are never argued with. He has had the sort of year that ends with his name being read out, and Flamurtari have had the benefit of it.
Jacques Mbé was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
19 appearances and 0 goals away from here, and a player the manager did not have in August. Loans are sent out hoping for exactly this and most of them do not deliver it.
Squad31 May 2027
Words at Flamurtari training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Stivian Janku is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Nobody at Flamurtari will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
Market31 May 2027
Stivian Janku returns from a loan that gave him nothing
4 appearances and 0 goals is not a season, it is a year somebody has lost. Whether that is his fault, the borrowing club's or the people who arranged it is the argument the next few weeks will have.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Flamurtari know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
19 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Flamurtari lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Ariol Kaloshi will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Flamurtari the goodbyes have quietly begun.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Flamurtari this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Hetem Lushaj, and the manager let it.
Squad24 May 2027
Words at Flamurtari training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Dimitris Chantakias is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Pereowei Magbisa is on it.
The words a physio says slowly. 26 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
33 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Flamurtari lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Flamurtari is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Todor Todoroski was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Nobody at Flamurtari will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Lorenc Trashi signs something — a contract at Flamurtari or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Somebody to talk to at the next peg, a few words of the language, and a training ground that has stopped being a foreign country. It never appears in a scouting report and it decides most signings.
40 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Flamurtari lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Jacques Mbé was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Flamurtari can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Dimitris Chantakias was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Nobody at Flamurtari will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
47 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Flamurtari lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Flamurtari they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Flamurtari this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Pereowei Magbisa is on it.
Position 5 on 29 points, and the places that carry a European ticket are close enough to count. Seasons like this are decided by two results in April, and the club knows which two.
He asked about his future and was given an answer with minutes in it. The manager has now made a promise in a building where promises are remembered, and the clock on it has started.
In brief
The dugoutMateo Mertkola asks for a word with the manager
54 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Flamurtari lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Flamurtari this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Nobody at Flamurtari will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Todor Todoroski signs something — a contract at Flamurtari or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
The words a physio says slowly. 61 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Flamurtari they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Jacques Mbé was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Hetem Lushaj, and the manager let it.
Squad12 Apr 2027
Words at Flamurtari training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Dimitris Chantakias is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Alex Peralta is on it.
68 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Flamurtari lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Flamurtari can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Jacques Mbé and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Dimitris Chantakias was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
82 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Flamurtari lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Dimitris Chantakias was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Jacques Mbé is on it.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Todor Todoroski signs something — a contract at Flamurtari or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
89 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Flamurtari lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Flamurtari they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Jacques Mbé was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
“I have given this everything, but my family is not here and neither am I, not really.” A footballer can be coached out of bad form. Nobody has ever been coached out of this, and Flamurtari know it.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Alex Peralta is on it.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Flamurtari. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
In brief
The dugoutErigels Toli knocks on the manager’s door
Loan watchStivian Janku watches his loan from the bench
96 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Flamurtari lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Flamurtari, and it is not being withdrawn.
Jacques Mbé and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
“I have given this everything, but my family is not here and neither am I, not really.” A footballer can be coached out of bad form. Nobody has ever been coached out of this, and Flamurtari know it.
The board have answered with money instead of encouragement, which is the only answer a manager ever wants. Spending it well is now entirely his problem.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
0 appearances, 0 clean sheets, and a goalkeeper no further forward than the day he left. Whether that belongs to him, to the club that borrowed him or to the people who arranged it is the argument Flamurtari will have this month.
103 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Flamurtari lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Flamurtari is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
“Some mornings you wake up and you are still a long way from everything you know.” It is not the football and it never was; Flamurtari are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
0 appearances, 0 clean sheets, and a goalkeeper no further forward than the day he left. Whether that belongs to him, to the club that borrowed him or to the people who arranged it is the argument Flamurtari will have this month.
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Pereowei Magbisa is on it.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Flamurtari know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
“For the first time in years I am picked because somebody wants me in the team.” Pogradeci suits him; the awkward conversation belongs to Flamurtari, and the summer will force it.
110 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Flamurtari lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Flamurtari this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Jacques Mbé is on it.
124 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Flamurtari lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Flamurtari have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
“I did not go to Kastrioti Krujë to sit and watch. I want to come back to Flamurtari and fight for my place.” 0 appearances in 26 matches say the rest.
The phone has started ringing about Eslit Sala again, and this time the name on the line is AF Elbasani. Flamurtari are listening politely and promising nothing.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say William Baeten is on it.
2 kept out in the shoot-out, and a stadium that will still be describing them in twenty years. A goalkeeper only needs one of these to be remembered forever.
Successful dribbles: 33. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Flamurtari have lost him in all but the paperwork.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Flamurtari can pretend not to have heard.
The chances are being made and something is happening between the making and the finishing. 3 matches now, and the anxiety in the ground arrives a little earlier every week.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Flamurtari this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Flamurtari have lost him in all but the paperwork.
Jacques Mbé was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Successful dribbles: 18. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad18 Jan 2027
Words at Flamurtari training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Dimitris Chantakias is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
“It is not the end of the world and it is not good enough. Both of those are true.” The manager, after a 0‑0 draw, said the honest thing and then went to say it again inside.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Flamurtari can pretend not to have heard.
The offer from Luftëtari for Eslit Sala was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
Jacques Mbé and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Dimitris Chantakias was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“I am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at Flamurtari, and 0 appearances in 22 say he has earned the hearing.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. William Baeten provided it, and the 8.58 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
“I am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at Flamurtari, and 0 appearances in 17 say he has earned the hearing.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Pereowei Magbisa and Flamurtari agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Conceding is one thing; the response is what tells you about a dressing room. William Baeten had Flamurtari level again within 4 minutes, and Vllaznia Shkodër never got to play with a lead at all.
7 goals and a season average of 7.21. Form like that gets noticed well beyond this town.
Squad7 Dec 2026
Momčilo Rašo falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Cup ties wait for somebody to seize them, and Mateo Mertkola obliged against Kukësi. 6‑0 on the night, and the name in the next round’s hat is Flamurtari.
Two goals and a mark of 9.29 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
The hardest thing about being 20 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Bjori Doku did not need any: 7.78, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Flamurtari can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
6 goals in one match, Mateo Mertkola on the scoresheet, and a scoreline that will look like a misprint. Neutrals could not have asked more of Flamurtari and Kukësi.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Flamurtari this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
At 20 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager makes an example of Jacques Mbé
Jacques Mbé was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Two sides from the top of the table, one afternoon, and a month of talk decided in ninety minutes. Flamurtari will not use the word title this week and will not stop thinking it.
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Ermal Pjeshka after the 0‑0 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Jacques Mbé trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Oni Patushi is on it.
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Egnatia Rrogozhinë in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
13 points, and the rest of the division looking up. Every side that finishes first spends the season pretending it is not thinking about it, and this one has started pretending.
Jacques Mbé and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 19-year-old it feels ownership of. Pereowei Magbisa has it now, and everything he does for the rest of his time here will be measured against the goodwill he was handed for free.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Pereowei Magbisa. 1‑0 against Vora, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Momčilo Rašo was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“The players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 1‑0, Ermal Pjeshka could afford to be generous.
In brief
Player ratingsA defender's afternoon for Jacques Mbé
7 new signings in one window. Every one may be an upgrade and the side can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild the verdicts never mention.
One weekend, judged against everybody else's. William Baeten has come out on top of it, and for most footballers a weekly award is the only silverware a career ever produces.
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Flamurtari has been clear about where Ariol Kaloshi stands, which is more than many ever get.
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Alex Peralta is on it.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Flamurtari know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Two goals and a mark of 8.48 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Flamurtari this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
3 away wins in a row. Travelling support is the truest kind, and this season it is being repaid in the only currency that counts.
Boardroom5 Oct 2026
123% of the income goes out in wages at Flamurtari
Every club in football pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time somebody has tried it.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Momčilo Rašo falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
7.78, 1 on the scoresheet, and the specific comedy of a back-four player celebrating like somebody who does this every week. He does not, and that is exactly why the ground reacted the way it did.
“Some mornings you wake up and you are still a long way from everything you know.” It is not the football and it never was; Flamurtari are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Cristian Núñez was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
A 3‑1 win over Partizani Tirana, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
At 20 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.