Marked for Albert Cuculescu
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match24 Nov 2029
10 matches without a win for Tirana
The run now stands at 10, and the questions being asked around Tirana are no longer polite ones.
Squad26 Nov 2029
Visar Bekaj is the hero from the spot
A shoot-out is remembered by its ending, and this one ends with Visar Bekaj: 2 kept out, and a set of supporters who will describe every one of them for the next twenty years.
Match24 Nov 2029
Cup progress for Tirana
A 0‑0 win over Burreli, a place in the next round, and the quiet arithmetic every supporter does on the walk home: how many more until a final?
Match24 Nov 2029
Tirana cannot find the net
9 games without scoring. Strikers stop looking up, midfielders take the extra touch, and every shot that clears the bar is followed by a groan that has been building since the last goal.
Player ratings26 Nov 2029
Successful dribbles: 32. 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.
Squad26 Nov 2029
Words exchanged at Tirana
Freddy Álvarez 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.
Squad26 Nov 2029
Words at Tirana training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Patrik Myslovič 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 dugout26 Nov 2029
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Serxho Prendi, and the manager let it.
Player ratings26 Nov 2029
It was his to settle and he did not settle it. A long walk back to the halfway line, and a considerably longer week.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
Match20 Sep 2029
A European night to remember for Tirana
1‑1 against IFK Goteborg, under lights, against people who do not speak the same language as the crowd. These are the evenings a club measures its decade in, and there are never as many of them as anybody expects.
Market24 Sep 2029
“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.
Squad24 Sep 2029
A falling-out at Tirana
Freddy Álvarez and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad24 Sep 2029
Patrik Myslovič 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 dugout24 Sep 2029
The manager makes an example of Visar Bekaj
“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.
Match23 Sep 2029
Beaten 0‑1, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Match20 Sep 2029
A point taken on 93 minutes is worth exactly one point and considerably more than that to a dressing room. This side does not stop, which is a reputation worth more than the result.
Boardroom24 Sep 2029
Doors closed at Tirana
The music was off and the showers ran late. What was said in that dressing room stays there, but Saturday will publish the minutes.
The dugout24 Sep 2029
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 0‑1 defeat, delivered by Eris Duka to a room that had heard them before.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market17 Sep 2029
Redon Xhixha hands in a written request
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Tirana can pretend not to have heard.
Market17 Sep 2029
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Mathaeus Roberts will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Tirana the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad17 Sep 2029
Basilio Basilio 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.
Squad17 Sep 2029
Tempers go at Tirana
Wasiu Falolu 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.
Match15 Sep 2029
Level with 88 minutes on the clock, after an afternoon Tirana had all but put away. Egnatia Rrogozhinë will call it a point earned; the home dressing room will call it two given away, and both of them are right.
Match15 Sep 2029
A 1‑1 draw with Egnatia Rrogozhinë leaves the dressing room somewhere between relief and regret.
The dugout17 Sep 2029
Basilio Basilio has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Tirana 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.
Market17 Sep 2029
The list is a quiet document with a loud meaning. Ardit Krymi may talk to anybody who asks, and everybody at the club understands what that means.
The dugout17 Sep 2029
Half-satisfied: Eris Duka on the draw
“There are things I liked and things we will be doing on Tuesday until they are right.” 1‑1, and a manager who had already decided what Tuesday looked like.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match24 Jan 2029
Tirana make home a hard place to visit
23 without defeat on their own grass. The pitch has not changed; the crowd has — louder earlier, and quicker to sense when the opposition would rather be somewhere else.
Match24 Jan 2029
Tirana march on in the cup
Burreli are out and Tirana go through, 1‑0 the final word. The bracket opens up a little, and everyone allows themselves a look at it.
Player ratings29 Jan 2029
Successful dribbles: 34. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Market29 Jan 2029
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Tirana people have started saying his name in the past tense.
Market29 Jan 2029
The bid was some way short and Tirana did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Market29 Jan 2029
Leon Misja has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Tirana they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad29 Jan 2029
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Tirana this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad29 Jan 2029
Basilio Basilio 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 terraces29 Jan 2029
He is 22 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.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match30 Dec 2028
The run at home goes on for Tirana
21 matches unbeaten here. Every visiting manager is asked about it in the week before, which is precisely why it keeps going.
Market1 Jan 2029
“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.
Match30 Dec 2028
Whatever happens, Tirana do not lose
12 games unbeaten now. Some were earned and some were survived, but a habit is forming — and habits are the hardest thing in football to play against.
Squad1 Jan 2029
An individual honour is a strange thing in a team game, and the best of them are never argued with. He has had the sort of year that ends with his name being read out, and Tirana have had the benefit of it.
Market1 Jan 2029
Leon Misja has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Tirana they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad1 Jan 2029
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Tirana this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad1 Jan 2029
Words at Tirana training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Redon Xhixha 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.
Looking ahead1 Jan 2029
Two sides from the top of the table, one afternoon, and a month of talk decided in ninety minutes. Tirana will not use the word title this week and will not stop thinking it.
Player ratings1 Jan 2029
Ninety minutes of Redon Xhixha at his very best
Marked 8.04. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Tirana.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad12 Jun 2028
The knee: Raul Băilă out for 124 days
124 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Rapid Bucharest lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Market12 Jun 2028
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Rapid Bucharest have lost him in all but the paperwork.
Market12 Jun 2028
“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.
Boardroom12 Jun 2028
The rules permit it and it stings anyway. Albert Cuculescu has agreed terms with Metalul Buzău for the summer, and until then he pulls on this shirt as a player who has already chosen his next one.
Market12 Jun 2028
The chase for Giovani Ghimfus ended with $510.0K changing hands and Sepsi OSK out of reasons to say no. The supporters will judge the fee the only way that matters: on Saturdays.
Squad12 Jun 2028
Kader Keïta 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 targets12 Jun 2028
The offer went to Petrolul Ploiești this week and it is theirs to answer. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loud the door closes.
Transfer targets12 Jun 2028
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Chindia Târgoviște have kept their man, and Rapid Bucharest go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Transfer targets12 Jun 2028
$110.0K was the most the club would pay and Corvinul Hunedoara were asking for more. Deals like this are revived in the last week of a window roughly half the time, and everybody involved knows it.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad31 Jan 2028
A knee injury of the worst kind for Albert Cuculescu
14 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Rapid Bucharest lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Player ratings31 Jan 2028
Successful dribbles: 34. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Market31 Jan 2028
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Rapid Bucharest have lost him in all but the paperwork.
Market31 Jan 2028
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Rapid Bucharest can pretend not to have heard.
Transfer targets31 Jan 2028
Rapid Bucharest and CFR Cluj have settled on $52.0K. The rest belongs to the player and his agent, and a supporter who has watched one of these before knows not to buy the shirt yet.
Market31 Jan 2028
The paperwork is done: Rareş Gal joins from FC Argeș in a deal worth $440.0K. Now comes the harder part.
Squad31 Jan 2028
Kader Keïta 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 targets31 Jan 2028
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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad24 Jan 2028
A knee injury of the worst kind for Albert Cuculescu
23 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Rapid Bucharest lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Player ratings24 Jan 2028
Successful dribbles: 29. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Market24 Jan 2028
Luka Gojković hands in a written request
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Rapid Bucharest can pretend not to have heard.
Market24 Jan 2028
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Transfer targets24 Jan 2028
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Lokomotiv Moscow keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Transfer targets24 Jan 2028
The offer went to FC Argeș this week and it is theirs to answer. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loud the door closes.
Transfer targets24 Jan 2028
The offer went to CFR Cluj this week and it is theirs to answer. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loud the door closes.
Squad24 Jan 2028
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Rapid Bucharest this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad24 Jan 2028
Words at Rapid Bucharest training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Antoine Baroan 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.