The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Levski people have started saying his name in the past tense.
Levski offered $6.9M; Zaglebie 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.
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Viacheslav Velev has, at Levski, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
The fee was agreed and the flight was looked at — and then the phone stopped ringing. Vihren moved on, Ognyan Vladimirov reports back to Levski, and everybody pretends Monday is just Monday.
At 19 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.
Squad21 Jun 2027
Words at Levski training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Maicon 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.
Levski asked and Cherno More said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Levski is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
“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.
Squad17 May 2027
Words at Levski training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Armstrong Oko-Flex 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.
Nikola Neychev 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.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Everton Bala signs something — a contract at Levski or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Levski 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 Levski 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.
Nobody at Levski 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.
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 Serginho 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 Levski, and both men came out saying it was fine.
He looks like a man who lives here now rather than one who is working here. It took most of a season, and at Levski the difference is visible from the back of the stand.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Levski is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Maicon 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 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.
Nobody at Levski 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 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 Levski will have to give him a reason to stay or an exit.
18 goals in 26 games at Vihren — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Levski updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Radostin Stoilov is 19, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Armstrong Oko-Flex was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Nikola Neychev 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.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Levski told Nikola Neychev something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
Position 2, 65 points, and the result everyone checks first is now theirs. The word is still not being said around the ground, which is how you know everyone is thinking it.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Levski they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
At 22 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.
Marko Grujić 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.
A window away with the national side, and a shirt at Levski that briefly doubles as an advertisement. A call-up flatters the player and the club that built him in the same breath.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Levski. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
“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 Levski know it.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Armstrong Oko-Flex was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Nobody at the club will say out loud who this signing is for, which is how you know exactly who it is for. Nikita Vershinin has been brought in to take a shirt somebody is still wearing.
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.
26 appearances at Spartak 1918 and the goals have stopped going in. Levski lent out a goalkeeper and are watching somebody else’s season get better every week.
$23.8M is a serious amount of money and it does not play centre-forward. Everybody in the dressing room knows who used to be looked at when it went wrong.
19 without defeat on their own grass. The pitch has not changed; the crowd has — louder earlier, and quicker to sense when the opposition would rather be somewhere else.
5 wins in a row changes how opponents warm up: quieter, more glances across. Runs end, everybody knows that — but nobody in this dressing room is planning for it.
He is going to Viking, the club has $23.8M it did not have on Friday, and the phone-ins have already decided how they feel about that. Selling well and selling somebody they loved are not the same skill.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Kiril Kotev will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Levski the goodbyes have quietly begun.
“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 Levski, and it is not being withdrawn.
Position 2, 52 points, and the result everyone checks first is now theirs. The word is still not being said around the ground, which is how you know everyone is thinking it.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Levski people have started saying his name in the past tense.
“I know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” CSKA Sofia had the fee agreed and the shirt ready; they did not have the player, and now they will not.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 7.98 at 34, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Add another name to the list: CS Constantine have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Christian Makoun. The answer from Levski has not changed — yet.
Maicon 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: 48. 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.
3 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.
16 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
The offer from Ludogorets for Everton Bala 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.
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 Levski have had the benefit of it.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Maicon was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Two sides from the top of the table, one afternoon, and a month of talk decided in ninety minutes. Levski will not use the word title this week and will not stop thinking it.
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 dugout16 Nov 2026
The manager has not finished forgetting David Kusso'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.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Levski know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
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.
The message was aimed at the stands as much as the dressing room: Álex Centelles plays, and the argument is closed until the manager decides otherwise.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Levski can pretend not to have heard.
Position 2, 29 points, and the result everyone checks first is now theirs. The word is still not being said around the ground, which is how you know everyone is thinking it.
The hardest thing about being 20 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Adrian Raychev did not need any: 7.96, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
10 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
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.
There is a particular helplessness in conceding 2 times before the twentieth minute. Sevlievo tried to reorganise, Levski did not allow it, and the result was written long before it was confirmed.