Marked for Gašper Vodeb
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match18 Nov 2026
Cup ties wait for somebody to seize them, and Petar Cerin obliged against NK Krsko. 2‑0 on the night, and the name in the next round’s hat is NK Maribor.
Player ratings23 Nov 2026
A debut Petar Cerin will not forget — 7.14
There is exactly one of these per career and it does not usually go like this. 1 on the scoresheet, 7.14 beside the name, and a crowd that had never seen him before chanting it by the end.
Match23 Nov 2026
28 points on the board and a place in the leading group. Nobody at the ground is saying the word out loud yet.
Player ratings23 Nov 2026
A defender's afternoon for James Furlong
Defensive actions: 23. He was first to everything and second to nothing, and the goalkeeper had an easy day because of it.
Squad23 Nov 2026
Ažbe Jug 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 Nov 2026
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 9.08, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
The terraces23 Nov 2026
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Gašper Vodeb 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.
Squad23 Nov 2026
The manager makes an example of Tio Cipot
“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.
Match18 Nov 2026
8 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad24 Aug 2026
A one-man rearguard from Žiga Frelih
There were 6 saves in it, and at least three that had no business being saves at all. The ten outfield players owe him a drink and they know it.
The terraces24 Aug 2026
NK Celje sell a favourite for $890.0K
The accountants will call it good business and they will be right, which is not the point anybody outside the boardroom is making. Gašper Vodeb was one of the reasons people came, and $890.0K does not replace that by itself.
Market24 Aug 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.
Market24 Aug 2026
Business is business: Gašper Vodeb goes
NK Maribor paid $890.0K and NK Celje took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Leonardo Koutris 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 ratings24 Aug 2026
22 defensive actions and a clean sheet at the end of them. A defender's afternoon can only be told by what did not happen, which is why nobody makes a highlights package out of one and every manager in the division would take it.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Damjan Vuklišević 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.
Squad24 Aug 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Rudi Požeg Vancaš, and the manager let it.
Match22 Aug 2026
Point won or two lost for NK Celje?
Ninety minutes, no goals, and the argument started before the car park emptied: a point gained, or two thrown away against Olimpija Ljubljana? Both sides of it will still be going on Thursday.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market24 Aug 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.
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
Age has not caught Hilal Soudani yet — 7.98
At 38 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 7.98 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Market24 Aug 2026
The paperwork is done: Gašper Vodeb joins from NK Celje in a deal worth $890.0K. Now comes the harder part.
Squad24 Aug 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 NK Maribor this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Words at NK Maribor training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Dario Vizinger 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.
Match22 Aug 2026
Three points for NK Maribor, 2‑0 the final word against NK Krka in a contest settled by the finer margins.
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
17 defensive actions and a clean sheet at the end of them. A defender's afternoon can only be told by what did not happen, which is why nobody makes a highlights package out of one and every manager in the division would take it.
Squad24 Aug 2026
There is a level at which a footballer stops being tested and starts being contained, and he reached it some time ago. NK Maribor know it, and so does everybody who watches him.
Market24 Aug 2026
Both sides expect a conversation in the coming days. NK Maribor will name a price, and everything after that is arithmetic.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Squad17 Aug 2026
40 days, the scan says, and scans are kinder than reality. The fixtures in that window have just become somebody else’s job.
Match15 Aug 2026
NK Celje cannot stop winning
3 wins on the spin now, and the question has changed from whether the run ends to who ends it. Confidence like this cannot be bought; it has to be earned exactly this way.
Squad17 Aug 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 NK Celje this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Market17 Aug 2026
The interest is real enough to have reached print. NK Celje have said nothing, which in a transfer window is its own kind of answer.
Match15 Aug 2026
It finished 1‑0, and it was Armandas Kučys’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to NK Celje.
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
A performance of 8.23 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Nobody will confirm this and nothing else explains the last month of selections. A costly error buys a player a period of being second choice that is always longer than the error was.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Gašper Vodeb 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.
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
A mark of 4.89 tells the story without any need for embellishment. He will want the tape of this one quietly lost.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Player ratings10 Aug 2026
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 8.13, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
Player ratings10 Aug 2026
At 34 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.56 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Market10 Aug 2026
NK Krsko come back empty-handed
The bid was some way short and NK Celje did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Squad10 Aug 2026
“The easiest signature of my career.” Svit Sešlar and NK Celje agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad10 Aug 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 NK Celje this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match8 Aug 2026
Three points for NK Celje, 3‑1 the final word against NK Zavrc in a contest settled by the finer margins.
Market10 Aug 2026
Add another name to the list: NK Krka have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Yaya Dukuly. The answer from NK Celje has not changed — yet.
Market10 Aug 2026
No place for Mario Kvesić in the plan
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Mario Kvesić has his answer from NK Celje; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
Squad10 Aug 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Ivan Ćalušić, and the manager let it.