Marked for Frédéric Efuele
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad25 Jan 2027
29 days out for Marian Shved after a fracture
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Kolos will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Market25 Jan 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 The request is on a desk at Kolos, and it is not being withdrawn.
Player ratings25 Jan 2027
Artem Husol, 21, plays like he has been here for years — 7.89
A mark of 7.89 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.
Boardroom25 Jan 2027
Nothing happens for months and then he simply arrives, at no cost, having signed a pre-contract while still turning out for somebody else. It is the least dramatic way to sign a footballer and frequently the shrewdest.
Match23 Jan 2027
Kolos come up short against Zorya
Zorya left with the points after a 1‑2 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
The dugout25 Jan 2027
“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 dugout25 Jan 2027
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Vladyslav Kryvtsov after 1‑2, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
Squad25 Jan 2027
Words exchanged at Kolos
Frédéric Efuele 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 dugout25 Jan 2027
Somebody else has been better, the manager has said so with a team sheet, and there is no argument to be had. He will get the shirt back the only way it can be got back.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad18 Jan 2027
Marian Shved breaks a bone — 37 days out
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 37 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Boardroom18 Jan 2027
The rules permit it and it stings anyway. Serhii Kiblytskyi has agreed terms with Obolon for the summer, and until then he pulls on this shirt as a player who has already chosen his next one.
Squad18 Jan 2027
Marian Shved 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 Kolos this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The dugout18 Jan 2027
The manager makes an example of Mykyta Burda
“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.
The dugout18 Jan 2027
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Vladyslav Kryvtsov after the 0‑0 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
The dugout18 Jan 2027
Somebody else is better right now than Vladyslav Shapoval
The team sheet says it in public every week until it changes. The only version of being dropped a footballer cannot argue with, and the one he takes hardest.
Squad18 Jan 2027
One booking too many, and a game watched from the stand. Kolos lose him for the most avoidable reason in the sport.
Squad18 Jan 2027
Every shape has positions in it and this one does not have his. Kolos will either change the shape, change his job, or change his club, and he is waiting to hear which.
The dugout18 Jan 2027
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Kolos told Denys Ndukve something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad11 Jan 2027
44 days out for Marian Shved after a fracture
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Kolos will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Player ratings11 Jan 2027
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 9.06, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
Squad11 Jan 2027
A falling-out at Kolos
Marian Shved and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad11 Jan 2027
Frédéric Efuele gets the move he always wanted
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Frédéric Efuele has just signed for Kolos, and for once the answer mattered.
Player ratings11 Jan 2027
Successful dribbles: 20. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Match9 Jan 2027
Rukh made Kolos work for it, but the scoreboard read 2‑1 at the end and the table does not ask how.
The terraces11 Jan 2027
He is 21 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.
The dugout11 Jan 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Bohdan Liedniev, and the manager let it.
Squad11 Jan 2027
“The easiest signature of my career.” Frédéric Efuele and Kolos agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.