Marked for Alfa Baldé
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match25 Aug 2027
A 2‑0 win over Novi Pazar, and the draw for the next round can be watched with some interest for once.
Market30 Aug 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 The request is on a desk at Radnicki 1923, and it is not being withdrawn.
The dugout30 Aug 2027
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Radnicki 1923 may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Player ratings30 Aug 2027
Two goals and a mark of 8.04 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Player ratings30 Aug 2027
Alfa Baldé runs at them all day
Successful dribbles: 26. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
The dugout30 Aug 2027
news_b_frozen_out_of_the_side
Match28 Aug 2027
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.
Boardroom30 Aug 2027
The rules permit it and it stings anyway. Gustavo Figueiredo has agreed terms with Radnik Surdulica for the summer, and until then he pulls on this shirt as a player who has already chosen his next one.
Squad30 Aug 2027
David Buchta 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.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad31 May 2027
Milan Mitrović breaks a bone — 106 days out
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 106 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Squad31 May 2027
Uroš Sremčević is the young player of the season
Not a month, not a run of form — a whole season of being the best 21-year-old anybody in this division could put on a pitch. This is the honour that gets mentioned for the rest of his career.
Squad31 May 2027
There are footballers who have a good season and footballers a season is remembered for, and the second kind get their names read out in a hall in the summer. Radnicki 1923 will be quietly delighted and privately nervous.
Squad31 May 2027
Mehmed Ćosić 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.
The dugout31 May 2027
The manager makes an example of Milan Mitrović
“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.
Market31 May 2027
Semir Alić returns from a loan that gave him nothing
3 appearances and 0 goals is not a season, it is a year somebody has lost. Whether that is his fault, the borrowing club's or the people who arranged it is the argument the next few weeks will have.
Market31 May 2027
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Radnicki 1923 know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
The dugout31 May 2027
Alfa Baldé has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Radnicki 1923 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.
The dugout31 May 2027
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 Mateja Premović has written the date down.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad3 May 2027
Mehmed Ćosić 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.
Squad3 May 2027
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Alfa Baldé and Radnicki 1923 agree another 4 years.
Loan watch3 May 2027
“I watch every Radnicki 1923 game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at TSC runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
The dugout3 May 2027
Evandro 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 Radnicki 1923, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Market3 May 2027
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Radnicki 1923 know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
The dugout3 May 2027
When it matters, Alfa Baldé plays
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.
Squad3 May 2027
He used to be one of the options. He is now one of the men the options are picked around, and the change happened quietly enough that only the dressing room noticed on the day.
The dugout3 May 2027
The manager makes Luka Tasić a promise
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Radnicki 1923. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
Squad3 May 2027
“I will know when it is time. I am not there yet.” Marko Stanojević is 39, with 5 appearances behind him, and Radnicki 1923 will have to plan for whichever answer comes.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad5 Apr 2027
David Buchta 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 Apr 2027
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Nikola Miličić was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout5 Apr 2027
The manager makes an example of Mehmed Ćosić
“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 watch5 Apr 2027
“I did not go to TSC to sit and watch. I want to come back to Radnicki 1923 and fight for my place.” 3 appearances in 9 matches say the rest.
Squad5 Apr 2027
The demotion a club never announces and a dressing room always notices. Marko Stanojević is further from the side than he was, and the reason will not be given until he asks.
Market5 Apr 2027
Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Milan Vidakov’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.
The dugout5 Apr 2027
Alfa Baldé has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Radnicki 1923 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.
Squad5 Apr 2027
Not a new contract, not a new number: a new place in the manager’s thinking, which is the only promotion in football that actually matters. Hasan Hilu has moved up it.
The dugout5 Apr 2027
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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad8 Mar 2027
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Slobodan Simović commits to Radnicki 1923 for another 2 years.
Squad8 Mar 2027
David Buchta 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.
Market8 Mar 2027
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Stefan Radonjic is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Boardroom8 Mar 2027
The board have answered with money instead of encouragement, which is the only answer a manager ever wants. Spending it well is now entirely his problem.
Loan watch8 Mar 2027
“I did not go to Cukaricki to sit and watch. I want to come back to Radnicki 1923 and fight for my place.” 2 appearances in 6 matches say the rest.
Squad8 Mar 2027
Words at Radnicki 1923 training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ben Lomax 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.
Squad8 Mar 2027
“I respect the manager and I am not going to sit here and pretend I am happy.” It is the most common sentence in football and it has never once been the end of a story.
The dugout8 Mar 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Milan Mitrović, and the manager let it.
The dugout8 Mar 2027
Evandro 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 Radnicki 1923, and both men came out saying it was fine.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match6 Feb 2027
Rarely has this fixture seen a display like it: 4‑1 against IMT, and it could have been more.
The dugout8 Feb 2027
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Radnicki 1923 may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Squad8 Feb 2027
The match ball belongs to Milan Vidakov, whose 3 goals turned a difficult afternoon into a procession.
Transfer targets8 Feb 2027
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Radnicki 1923 have done the hard part with Cerro Porteno, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Player ratings8 Feb 2027
Ninety minutes of Milan Vidakov at his very best
Marked 9.65. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Radnicki 1923.
Transfer targets8 Feb 2027
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Flamengo have kept their man, and Radnicki 1923 go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
The terraces8 Feb 2027
The crowd has taken to Alfa Baldé
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.
The dugout8 Feb 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Bojica Nikčević, and the manager let it.
Player ratings8 Feb 2027
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.39, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Player ratings28 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 34. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad28 Sep 2026
David Buchta 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.
The dugout28 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.
Match26 Sep 2026
Napredak left with the points after a 0‑1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
The dugout28 Sep 2026
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 0‑1, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
Looking ahead28 Sep 2026
A test against the best for Radnicki 1923
The team at the top of the table next, and the honest measure of where this side actually is. Anybody can beat the club below them; the question is what happens against Crvena Zvezda.
Player ratings28 Sep 2026
Shots: 10. Goals: none. The chances were there and they were good ones, and they went into the stand, the goalkeeper's arms and the side netting in roughly that order.
The dugout28 Sep 2026
Ninety specific minutes wanted a different sort of player, and the manager picked one. He is not out of form and he is not in the side, and both are true.
Looking ahead28 Sep 2026
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Crvena Zvezda in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Match19 Aug 2026
A 3‑1 win over Napredak, a place in the next round, and the quiet arithmetic every supporter does on the walk home: how many more until a final?
Match19 Aug 2026
The board had gone up, the arguing had started, and then the ball was in the net in the 90th minute. Napredak will replay every second of the added time for a week.
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
Alfa Baldé, 21, steals the show — 8.13
Marked 8.13 at 21, in a side that makes no allowances for age. He did not need any, and he looked the least nervous man on the pitch.
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
Mehmed Ćosić goes up and wins it — 7.73
A defender on the scoresheet, which happens rarely enough that everybody in the ground remembers who took the corner. 1 for him, and a mark of 7.73 for the rest of it.
Transfer targets24 Aug 2026
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Flamengo keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 23. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad24 Aug 2026
David Buchta 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 terraces24 Aug 2026
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 21-year-old it feels ownership of. Alfa Baldé 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.
The dugout24 Aug 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Slobodan Simović, and the manager let it.