Afonso Leite

Attacking Midfielder (L) - Liepaja
13 Sep 2026
Sunday
Process

Marked for Afonso Leite

6 Edition

The Liepaja Post

7 Sep 2026
From our football correspondent Upbeat

Boardroom

Liepaja close the window on a squad of their own making

12 in and 6 out, and no more changes for months. The manager has what he has, the supporters have their opinion of it, and the table will have the last word.

Market

Only the photograph left for Afonso Leite

Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Afonso Leite will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Liepaja the goodbyes have quietly begun.

Squad

Tempers go at Liepaja

Andriy Korobenko 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.

Transfer targets

Atyrau tell Liepaja: Ian Trufanov is not for sale

The approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.

Squad

Irad Mshindi 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.

Squad

International break empties Liepaja

5 call-ups is a compliment to the squad and a headache for the man running it. He will get them back in a fortnight, tired, in various states of repair.

Squad

Bart Straalman is no longer first choice

The manager has re-ordered his thinking and Bart Straalman has come out of it lower. He will be told it is temporary, and the players who have heard that before will avoid his eye.

Market

Metta/LU are about to pick up the phone

A conversation is coming this week. Liepaja will put a number on him, and from there it stops being football and becomes arithmetic.

The dugout

When it matters, Dodô 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.

In brief

Back issues
4 Edition

The Liepaja Post

24 Aug 2026
From our football correspondent Triumph

Player ratings

Timi Ogunniyi was unplayable

Successful dribbles: 38. 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.

Match

Djibril Guèye sends Liepaja through

Cup ties wait for somebody to seize them, and Djibril Guèye obliged against Ventspils. 1‑0 on the night, and the name in the next round’s hat is Liepaja.

Market

Liepaja say no — this time

The offer from Cotonsport Garoua for Djibril Guèye 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.

Market

Afonso Leite has said yes to Spartaks

The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Liepaja have lost him in all but the paperwork.

Market

Not going: Mory Cissé stays at Liepaja

“I know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” Jelgava had the fee agreed and the shirt ready; they did not have the player, and now they will not.

Market

Afonso Leite asks to leave Liepaja

“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.

Squad

A falling-out at Liepaja

Bart Straalman and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.

Transfer targets

Navbahor tell Liepaja: Matija Krivokapić is not for sale

The approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.

Squad

Vladislavs Sorokins 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.

In brief

3 Edition

The Liepaja Post

17 Aug 2026
From our football correspondent Triumph

Match

Kyvon Leidsman sends Liepaja through

Cup ties wait for somebody to seize them, and Kyvon Leidsman obliged against Metta/LU. 3‑0 on the night, and the name in the next round’s hat is Liepaja.

Player ratings

Amadou Traoré runs at them all day

Successful dribbles: 30. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.

Player ratings

What a way to start for Mory Cissé — 7.20

0 on the scoresheet on his first appearance and a mark of 7.20 beside it. Most debuts are got through; this one was enjoyed, by him and by everybody watching it.

Player ratings

Age has not caught Dodô yet — 7.91

At 38 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 7.91 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.

Squad

Words exchanged at Liepaja

Bart Straalman 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.

Transfer targets

Inter tell Liepaja: Orkhan Sadygov is not for sale

The approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.

The terraces

Liepaja supporters have found a favourite in Amar Haïdara

There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 22-year-old it feels ownership of. Amar Haïdara 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.

Squad

A row about effort at Liepaja

Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Vladislavs Sorokins was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.

Market

Spartaks join the queue for Afonso Leite

Add another name to the list: Spartaks have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Afonso Leite. The answer from Liepaja has not changed — yet.

In brief