Marked for Johán Cortés
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match6 Nov 2027
No end in sight to Tirana's wait for a win
6 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Tirana has to find a result from somewhere.
Player ratings8 Nov 2027
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.
Squad8 Nov 2027
Tempers go at Tirana
Basilio Basilio 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.
Squad8 Nov 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Denis Pjeshka, and the manager let it.
Match6 Nov 2027
Tirana make home a hard place to visit
8 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.
Squad8 Nov 2027
Words at Tirana training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Johán Cortés 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.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad18 Oct 2027
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 27 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Player ratings18 Oct 2027
Successful dribbles: 30. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad18 Oct 2027
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Tirana this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match16 Oct 2027
The goals have deserted Tirana
3 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Tirana can tell you which week it ends in.
Squad18 Oct 2027
The manager makes an example of Freddy Álvarez
“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.
Squad18 Oct 2027
Johán Cortés 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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad11 Oct 2027
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 34 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Market11 Oct 2027
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Tirana is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad11 Oct 2027
Tempers go at Tirana
Visar Bekaj 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.
Squad11 Oct 2027
Anton Krešić 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.
Squad11 Oct 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Anton Krešić, and the manager let it.
Player ratings11 Oct 2027
Successful dribbles: 17. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad27 Sep 2027
A fracture rules Patrik Myslovič out for 49 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Tirana will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Squad27 Sep 2027
“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.
Match27 Sep 2027
Tirana are in among the leaders
Position 3 and 7 points on the board. Nobody at the ground will say the word out loud yet, and everybody at the ground is thinking it.
Market27 Sep 2027
Etienne Tare has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Tirana they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Match25 Sep 2027
8 unbeaten for Tirana
Hard to beat is not the same as winning, but 8 matches without defeat is a foundation Tirana did not have in the autumn.
Squad27 Sep 2027
Tempers go at Tirana
Basilio Basilio 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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market9 Nov 2026
“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 Tirana, and it is not being withdrawn.
Player ratings9 Nov 2026
Successful dribbles: 32. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Match7 Nov 2026
No end in sight to Tirana's wait for a win
5 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Tirana has to find a result from somewhere.
Match7 Nov 2026
4 matches without a goal for Tirana
The chances are being made and something is happening between the making and the finishing. 4 matches now, and the anxiety in the ground arrives a little earlier every week.
Squad9 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 Tirana this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad9 Nov 2026
Words at Tirana training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Anton Krešić 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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad19 Oct 2026
Tempers go at Tirana
Basilio Basilio 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.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Donat Mehmeti is a better footballer than he was
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 20 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Anton Krešić 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.
Squad19 Oct 2026
The manager makes an example of José Acosta
“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.
Loan watch19 Oct 2026
“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 Tirana, and 3 appearances in 9 say he has earned the hearing.
Player ratings19 Oct 2026
The afternoon belonged to Johán Cortés
7.40, and no serious argument from anybody who was there. Tirana had eleven men on the pitch and one of them decided how it went.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market7 Sep 2026
“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.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Tempers go at Tirana
Basilio Basilio 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.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Anton Krešić 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.
Match5 Sep 2026
0‑1 to Egnatia Rrogozhinë, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Johán Cortés gets it from the manager
“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.
Market7 Sep 2026
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Tirana, another week without a signature from Khalid Shakhtiev.