Marked for Sofiane Achour
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad14 Dec 2026
A knee injury of the worst kind for Antonio D'Alena
45 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Cosenza lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Match12 Dec 2026
3‑0, and the margin flattered nobody — it could have carried another goal or two without complaint. Afternoons like this are why people keep coming.
Player ratings14 Dec 2026
No sign of nerves from Mario Perlingieri at 21 — 8.61
The hardest thing about being 21 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Mario Perlingieri did not need any: 8.61, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Squad14 Dec 2026
At 21, Mario Perlingieri is already the best thing here
An average of 7.20 in a first team he is several years too young for. Cosenza have something, and by now the whole division has noticed.
Squad14 Dec 2026
“The easiest signature of my career.” Baldovino Cimino and Cosenza agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad14 Dec 2026
A falling-out at Cosenza
Nicolò Contiliano and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Player ratings14 Dec 2026
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.38, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
The dugout14 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.
The dugout14 Dec 2026
The view from the dugout
“We controlled it. There were spells I did not like and we will look at them, but the group showed me something.” Danilo Canali, on a 3‑0 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad16 Nov 2026
73 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Cosenza lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Player ratings16 Nov 2026
Mario Perlingieri, 21, plays like he has been here for years — 8.14
A mark of 8.14 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 21-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
The dugout16 Nov 2026
Giovanni Le Rose: that is not what I was promised
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Cosenza have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Squad16 Nov 2026
At 21, Mario Perlingieri is already the best thing here
An average of 7.12 in a first team he is several years too young for. Cosenza have something, and by now the whole division has noticed.
Squad16 Nov 2026
Mario Perlingieri 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.
Squad16 Nov 2026
Words at Cosenza training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Paolo Dametto 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.
The dugout16 Nov 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 ratings16 Nov 2026
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.25, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad12 Oct 2026
A knee injury of the worst kind for Antonio D'Alena
114 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Cosenza lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Squad12 Oct 2026
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.
Player ratings12 Oct 2026
Successful dribbles: 23. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Squad12 Oct 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 Cosenza this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match10 Oct 2026
Aldo Florenzi scored, and precious little else went right: 1‑2 to Casertana, and a quiet walk to the dressing room.
The dugout12 Oct 2026
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 1‑2, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
The dugout12 Oct 2026
“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.
Squad12 Oct 2026
Mario Perlingieri is the weekend's best young player
At 20 he is being measured against the rest of the division's kids and coming out in front. The senior version of this award is where the club would like this to lead.
The dugout12 Oct 2026
Sofiane Achour has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Cosenza 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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Player ratings28 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 54. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Squad28 Sep 2026
A knee injury of the worst kind for Antonio D'Alena
128 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Cosenza lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Match23 Sep 2026
Cup progress for Cosenza
A 3‑0 win over Siracusa, a place in the next round, and the quiet arithmetic every supporter does on the walk home: how many more until a final?
Player ratings28 Sep 2026
No sign of nerves from Sofiane Achour at 21 — 8.42
The hardest thing about being 21 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Sofiane Achour did not need any: 8.42, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Player ratings28 Sep 2026
A goal and an assist for Tomi Petrovic — 7.50
Involvement in 2 goals, from a player who spent the ninety minutes doing the thing a manager actually wants: being where the ball was going to end up. 7.50 beside his name.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Words exchanged at Cosenza
Mario Perlingieri 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.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Paolo Dametto 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.
Match26 Sep 2026
A bad afternoon for Cosenza against Cavese
1‑2 to Cavese, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
The terraces28 Sep 2026
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Christos Kourfalidis 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.
In brief
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Player ratings
One of those days for Christos Kourfalidis
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Squad
Cosenza are still strangers to each other
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The dugout
The manager’s verdict
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad21 Sep 2026
Antonio D'Alena damages knee ligaments — 135 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 135 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.
Player ratings21 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 21. 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.
Squad21 Sep 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 Cosenza this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The terraces21 Sep 2026
At 22 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.
Match19 Sep 2026
Sorrento made Cosenza work for it, but the scoreboard read 2‑0 at the end and the table does not ask how.
Player ratings21 Sep 2026
Ninety minutes of Aldo Florenzi at his very best
Marked 8.14. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Cosenza.
The dugout21 Sep 2026
The manager’s verdict
“I am not going to get carried away and I will not let them either. It was a good day. There will be harder ones.” Danilo Canali kept it short after the 2‑0 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
The dugout21 Sep 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.
Squad21 Sep 2026
A Cosenza teenager takes the young player award
Mario Perlingieri is 20, and for one weekend he was the best of everybody his age in the division. Nobody should build a career on it and everybody quietly does.