Marked for Caio Lopes
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market13 Sep 2027
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Player ratings13 Sep 2027
Successful dribbles: 28. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad13 Sep 2027
Tempers go at Beroe
Juan Pablo Salomoni 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.
Squad13 Sep 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Samuel Kalu, and the manager let it.
Match11 Sep 2027
Beaten 0‑1, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Loan watch13 Sep 2027
“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 Beroe, and 0 appearances in 13 say he has earned the hearing.
Squad13 Sep 2027
“I did not come here to warm up in front of people.” He is out of contract eventually, he is old enough to count the weeks, and Beroe will have to give him a reason to stay or an exit.
Player ratings13 Sep 2027
The one thing Emir Kuhinja could not do
Shots: 9, enough of them from close enough that a striker in form scores two. He is not a striker in form.
Squad13 Sep 2027
Gabriel Noga knocks on the manager's door
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Beroe, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad30 Aug 2027
Samuel Kalu in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Beroe this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match28 Aug 2027
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Preslav Borukov. 1‑0 against Botev Vratsa, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Player ratings30 Aug 2027
Marked 8.37 — 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.
Player ratings30 Aug 2027
A defender's afternoon for Caio Lopes
Defensive actions: 19. He was first to everything and second to nothing, and the goalkeeper had an easy day because of it.
Squad30 Aug 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Francisco Varela, and the manager let it.
Player ratings30 Aug 2027
Successful dribbles: 14. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
The terraces30 Aug 2027
Every touch is being weighed now, in print and everywhere else. Some players grow into that and some are quietly ruined by it, and nobody knows which in advance.
Squad30 Aug 2027
The first one is the one every signing is asked about until it arrives. It has arrived, and he can stop being asked.
Market30 Aug 2027
Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Juan Carlos Pineda’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Player ratings23 Aug 2027
Headers, blocks, tackles, interceptions — 39 of them, and not one goal behind him. The sort of performance that never makes a highlight reel and wins football matches.
Squad23 Aug 2027
Arthur decides it from twelve yards
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.
Match18 Aug 2027
Cup progress for Beroe
A 0‑0 win over Arda, a place in the next round, and the quiet arithmetic every supporter does on the walk home: how many more until a final?
Player ratings23 Aug 2027
Defensive actions: 24, and a clean sheet at the end of it. A centre-half's best afternoons look like nothing happening, which is precisely the point.
Squad23 Aug 2027
Tempers go at Beroe
Samuel Kalu 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.
Player ratings23 Aug 2027
Headers, blocks, tackles, interceptions — 21 of them, and not one goal behind him. The sort of performance that never makes a highlight reel and wins football matches.
Player ratings23 Aug 2027
Headers, blocks, tackles, interceptions — 20 of them, and not one goal behind him. The sort of performance that never makes a highlight reel and wins football matches.
Match21 Aug 2027
It finished 1‑0, and it was Ismael Ferrer’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Beroe.
Squad23 Aug 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Diego González Torres, and the manager let it.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market12 Jul 2027
“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 Beroe, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad12 Jul 2027
Tempers go at Beroe
Samuel Kalu 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.
Squad12 Jul 2027
The manager makes an example of Augusto Dabo
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad21 Dec 2026
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Beroe this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match19 Dec 2026
Three points for Beroe, 2‑0 the final word against Arda in a contest settled by the finer margins.
Player ratings21 Dec 2026
Defensive actions: 20, and a clean sheet at the end of it. A centre-half's best afternoons look like nothing happening, which is precisely the point.
Player ratings21 Dec 2026
Marked 8.59 — 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.
Player ratings21 Dec 2026
Defensive actions: 19, and a clean sheet at the end of it. A centre-half's best afternoons look like nothing happening, which is precisely the point.
Squad21 Dec 2026
“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.
Player ratings21 Dec 2026
Successful dribbles: 14. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad21 Dec 2026
Caio Lopes asks for a word with the manager
“I would rather say it to his face than read about it.” The meeting was requested by the player, which tells you most of what you need to know.
Squad21 Dec 2026
Asked to play a role that is not his, or taken off before the hour once too often — Juan Carlos Pineda has let it be known that he does not like the way Beroe are using him. Managers hear this long before the press does.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market2 Nov 2026
Rafael Barros hands in a written request
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Beroe can pretend not to have heard.
Player ratings2 Nov 2026
Successful dribbles: 25. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad2 Nov 2026
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Beroe this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Boardroom2 Nov 2026
Wages eat 210% of everything Beroe earn
There is a figure at which a wage bill stops being ambitious and becomes the reason nothing else is possible, and this club has reached it. Nothing is left over for a transfer, a stand or a rainy afternoon.
Match31 Oct 2026
Beaten 0‑1, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Squad2 Nov 2026
The manager makes an example of Caio Lopes
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Player ratings5 Oct 2026
Defensive actions: 23, and a clean sheet at the end of it. A centre-half's best afternoons look like nothing happening, which is precisely the point.
Player ratings5 Oct 2026
Successful dribbles: 22. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Tempers go at Beroe
Juan Pablo Salomoni 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.
Squad5 Oct 2026
“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 Beroe know it.
Boardroom5 Oct 2026
352% of the income goes out in wages at Beroe
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.
Match3 Oct 2026
Montana made Beroe work for it, but the scoreboard read 1‑0 at the end and the table does not ask how.