Marked for Efe Doğan
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match22 Dec 2027
The small margins put Sivasspor out
Out, 1‑1 to Antalyaspor, and the long argument about which of the small moments decided it. The league is all there is now, and everybody knows it.
Match25 Dec 2027
No end in sight to Sivasspor's wait for a win
8 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Sivasspor has to find a result from somewhere.
Squad27 Dec 2027
Efe Doğan is the hero from the spot
A shoot-out is remembered by its ending, and this one ends with Efe Doğan: 1 kept out, and a set of supporters who will describe every one of them for the next twenty years.
Player ratings27 Dec 2027
Yılmaz Cin, 19, plays like he has been here for years — 7.66
A mark of 7.66 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 19-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
Player ratings27 Dec 2027
Successful dribbles: 19. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Match25 Dec 2027
Kayserispor left with the points after a 0‑1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Match27 Dec 2027
Sivasspor at the halfway mark
Half the programme played, position 15, 12 on the board. Doubling it is the sum every supporter has done and the only one nobody at the club will do out loud.
Player ratings27 Dec 2027
The kick that got away from Berat Özdemir
Twelve yards, a goalkeeper guessing, and it still did not go in. He will take the next one, and every soul in the ground will hold their breath.
The dugout27 Dec 2027
The manager’s verdict
“That is on me. I pick the team and I picked wrong.” Managers say that when they mean it and when they need to be seen to, and after 0‑1 Semih Tasci left the room before anybody could ask which.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad22 Nov 2027
7 saves: Mirko Kos was the team
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 7 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
Player ratings22 Nov 2027
Nobody could get near Aly Mallé
Successful dribbles: 21. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad22 Nov 2027
The formation has left Sergio Rodelas behind
Every shape has positions in it and this one does not have his. Sivasspor will either change the shape, change his job, or change his club, and he is waiting to hear which.
The dugout22 Nov 2027
The view from the dugout
“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 1‑2 defeat, delivered by Semih Tasci to a room that had heard them before.
Squad22 Nov 2027
Yılmaz Cin 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 dugout22 Nov 2027
Arda Ünyay is still being punished for one mistake
Nobody will confirm it and the team sheets confirm it every week. One error has bought him a spell as second choice that is already longer than the error deserved.
The dugout22 Nov 2027
The plan did not have a place for Charis Charisis
Nobody at Sivasspor is suggesting he is out of form. The manager simply wanted somebody with a different set of qualities for ninety specific minutes, and there is nothing a player can train to fix that.
The dugout22 Nov 2027
Uğur Çiftçi gets picked when it counts
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Uğur Çiftçi is on it.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market12 Jul 2027
Rizespor say no — this time
The offer from Alanyaspor for Altin Zeqiri 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.
Transfer targets12 Jul 2027
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.
Market12 Jul 2027
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Rizespor can pretend not to have heard.
Squad12 Jul 2027
Ali Sowe 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.
Market12 Jul 2027
Efe Doğan has left for Sivasspor in a $640.0K deal. The accountants are pleased; the supporters are less certain.
Squad12 Jul 2027
A row about effort at Rizespor
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Qazim Laci was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad12 Jul 2027
52 days, the scan says, and scans are kinder than reality. The fixtures in that window have just become somebody else’s job.
The dugout12 Jul 2027
Zafer Görgen asks for a word with the manager
“I would rather say it to his face than read about it.” The meeting was requested by the player, which tells you most of what you need to know.
The dugout12 Jul 2027
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Erdem Canpolat is on it.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market12 Jul 2027
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Sivasspor can pretend not to have heard.
Transfer targets12 Jul 2027
Sivasspor had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Konyaspor, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
Market12 Jul 2027
Emre Gökay has left for Alanyaspor in a $2.1M deal. The accountants are pleased; the supporters are less certain.
Market12 Jul 2027
Rhaldney has his eye on Europe
It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether Sivasspor can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
Market12 Jul 2027
The fee is $640.0K, the contract is signed, and the argument about whether he is worth it can begin. Rizespor drove a hard bargain; time will say who won it.
Squad12 Jul 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 Sivasspor this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad12 Jul 2027
A row about effort at Sivasspor
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Rhaldney was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Transfer targets12 Jul 2027
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Basaksehir have kept their man, and Sivasspor go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad12 Jul 2027
“I have given this everything, but my family is not here and neither am I, not really.” A footballer can be coached out of bad form. Nobody has ever been coached out of this, and Sivasspor know it.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market28 Jun 2027
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Market28 Jun 2027
“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.
Transfer targets28 Jun 2027
Rizespor asked and Pendikspor said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Market28 Jun 2027
Business is business: Benhur Keser goes
Goztepe paid $1.2M and Rizespor took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
Market28 Jun 2027
The fee is $340.0K, the contract is signed, and the argument about whether he is worth it can begin. Genclerbirligi drove a hard bargain; time will say who won it.
Squad28 Jun 2027
A row about effort at Rizespor
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Qazim Laci was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad28 Jun 2027
Words exchanged at Rizespor
Taylan Antalyalı 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.
Loan watch28 Jun 2027
Zafer Görgen’s loan is measured in nothing happening
12 clean sheets from 33 appearances at Gaziantep. That is the whole of a goalkeeper’s job done properly, and it is being done a long way from the club that owns him.
Squad28 Jun 2027
Too much change too quickly at Rizespor
7 signings in three months. Every one of them may be an upgrade and the team can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild that never appears in the transfer-window verdicts.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market21 Jun 2027
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Transfer targets21 Jun 2027
The clubs have shaken hands with Genclerbirligi; the player has not yet. Personal terms are next, and personal terms are where more deals die than anybody prints.
Market21 Jun 2027
The paperwork is done: Göktuğ Bakırbaş joins from Sivasspor in a deal worth $610.0K. Now comes the harder part.
Squad21 Jun 2027
A move Oğuzcan Çalışkan would have made for nothing
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Oğuzcan Çalışkan is living that version at Rizespor, and it tends to show in the first month.
Squad21 Jun 2027
Husniddin Aliqulov 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 targets21 Jun 2027
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.
Squad21 Jun 2027
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Efe Doğan is 22, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Market21 Jun 2027
The name of Dal Varešanović has come up in conversations Rizespor were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
In brief
-
Squad
A row about effort at Rizespor
-
The dugout
The manager makes an example of Mithat Pala
-
The dugout
Altin Zeqiri is still being punished for one mistake
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market31 May 2027
Efe Doğan puts it in writing
“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 Rizespor, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad31 May 2027
A falling-out at Rizespor
Ali Sowe and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad31 May 2027
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Adedire Mebude commits to Rizespor for another 4 years.
Squad31 May 2027
Words at Rizespor training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Qazim Laci 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.
Market31 May 2027
26 games and 0 goals away from here, and a man the manager did not have last summer. The loan did what loans are supposed to do and almost never do.
Loan watch31 May 2027
12 clean sheets on loan for Zafer Görgen
33 appearances at Gaziantep and the goals have stopped going in. Rizespor lent out a goalkeeper and are watching somebody else’s season get better every week.
The dugout31 May 2027
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.
The dugout31 May 2027
Altin Zeqiri knocks on the manager’s door
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Altin Zeqiri trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
The dugout31 May 2027
The manager makes Attila Mocsi a promise
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Rizespor. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
The dugout10 May 2027
Mustafa Şengül: 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.” Rizespor have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Squad10 May 2027
A falling-out at Rizespor
Husniddin Aliqulov and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad10 May 2027
Qazim Laci 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.
The dugout10 May 2027
Erdem Canpolat asks for a word with the manager
“I would rather say it to his face than read about it.” The meeting was requested by the player, which tells you most of what you need to know.
The dugout10 May 2027
Attila Mocsi gets picked when it counts
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Attila Mocsi is on it.
The dugout10 May 2027
No hiding place for Efe Doğan
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Efe Doğan, and the manager let it.
Market10 May 2027
The Qazim Laci talk will not go away
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Rizespor know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Loan watch10 May 2027
“I am playing every week here and I feel like a footballer again.” 14 appearances and 1 goals on loan, and a decision waiting in the summer.
Loan watch10 May 2027
24 starts now, an average of 6.80, and the team sheet at Igdir FK has stopped being a question. Exactly what everybody signed up for.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market11 Jan 2027
$9.1M is a serious amount of money and it does not play centre-forward. Everybody in the dressing room knows who used to be looked at when it went wrong.
Market11 Jan 2027
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Serikspor waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Rizespor is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Market11 Jan 2027
“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.
The terraces11 Jan 2027
Supporters turn on the $9.1M sale of Yahia Fofana
He is going to Brentford, the club has $9.1M it did not have on Friday, and the phone-ins have already decided how they feel about that. Selling well and selling somebody they loved are not the same skill.
The dugout11 Jan 2027
Furkan Orak: 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.” Rizespor have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Player ratings11 Jan 2027
Up for the corner, and Mithat Pala delivers — 7.33
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Mithat Pala scored, was marked 7.33, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
Squad11 Jan 2027
Qazim Laci 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 Jan 2027
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Efe Doğan is 22, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Squad11 Jan 2027
Words at Rizespor training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Valentin Mihăilă 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
Uneasy
Market16 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 Rizespor, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad16 Nov 2026
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Rizespor can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Squad16 Nov 2026
Words at Rizespor training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Husniddin Aliqulov 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.
Squad16 Nov 2026
Ali Sowe in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Rizespor this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The dugout16 Nov 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Giannis Papanikolaou, and the manager let it.
Market16 Nov 2026
Efe Doğan told to find a new club
“They were honest with me, and I would rather know.” Efe Doğan has been informed he is not in the manager's thinking at Rizespor.
The dugout16 Nov 2026
When it matters, Mithat Pala 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.
The dugout16 Nov 2026
Loide Augusto asks for a word with the manager
“I would rather say it to his face than read about it.” The meeting was requested by the player, which tells you most of what you need to know.
Market16 Nov 2026
The name of Yahia Fofana keeps appearing in other people's back pages. Rizespor say nothing, which says plenty.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad5 Oct 2026
A fracture rules Ibrahim Olawoyin out for 59 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Rizespor will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
The dugout5 Oct 2026
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Rizespor may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Efe Doğan is 22, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Squad5 Oct 2026
“The easiest signature of my career.” Mbaye Diagne and Rizespor agree another 1 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Words exchanged at Rizespor
Taha Şahin 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.
Match3 Oct 2026
0‑1 to Samsunspor, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Boardroom5 Oct 2026
111% of the income goes out in wages at Rizespor
Every club in football pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time somebody has tried it.
Player ratings5 Oct 2026
Successful dribbles: 16. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
The dugout5 Oct 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.