Marked for Mustafa Hekimoğlu
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match3 Oct 2026
4‑0, and Mustafa Hekimoğlu took the headlines on an afternoon when everything Konyaspor tried came off. Days like this are retold all winter.
Player ratings5 Oct 2026
A brace, and Jackson Muleka takes the afternoon — 9.18
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Jackson Muleka provided it, and the 9.18 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Player ratings5 Oct 2026
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 8.50, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
Player ratings5 Oct 2026
Successful dribbles: 24. 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.
Match3 Oct 2026
Konyaspor make it 3 in a row
Momentum is a hard thing to buy and an easy thing to lose, and right now Konyaspor have 3 straight wins of it.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Diogo Gonçalves 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 Oct 2026
Words at Konyaspor training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jean-Luc Dompé 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 terraces5 Oct 2026
At 19 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.
Player ratings5 Oct 2026
A performance of 8.18 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
In brief
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The dugout
Okay Yokuşlu gets it from the manager
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Boardroom
107% of the income goes out in wages at Konyaspor
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The dugout
The view from the dugout
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Player ratings21 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 24. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Squad21 Sep 2026
At 19 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.
Squad21 Sep 2026
Enis Bardhi 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 Konyaspor this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match19 Sep 2026
A 2‑1 win over Fatih Karagumruk, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Player ratings21 Sep 2026
Marked 8.20 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
Player ratings21 Sep 2026
Mostafa Mohamed was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.19. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
The dugout21 Sep 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Marko Jevtović, and the manager let it.
The dugout21 Sep 2026
Ali Soyuncu: “That is the standard”
“That is what I want every week. Not the result, the way they went about it.” The manager, after 2‑1, already talking about the next one.
The dugout21 Sep 2026
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.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad31 Aug 2026
11 saves, and a scoreline the ten men in front of him had no right to. Goalkeepers only get noticed on the bad days; this was one of the other ones.
Market31 Aug 2026
Gaziantep pay $770.0K, and the deal is done. The number reads well on a balance sheet; whether it reads well on the pitch is next season's question.
Market31 Aug 2026
The phone has started ringing about Rayyan Baniya again, and this time the name on the line is Sivasspor. Konyaspor are listening politely and promising nothing.
Market31 Aug 2026
Giresunspor pay $160.0K, and the deal is done. The number reads well on a balance sheet; whether it reads well on the pitch is next season's question.
Squad31 Aug 2026
Guilherme 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 Aug 2026
Konyaspor asked and Alanyaspor said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
The dugout31 Aug 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Adil Demirbağ, and the manager let it.
Squad31 Aug 2026
Konyaspor are still strangers to each other
10 new signings in one window. Every one may be an upgrade and the side can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild the verdicts never mention.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Market17 Aug 2026
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Transfer targets17 Aug 2026
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Konyaspor have done the hard part with Trabzonspor, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Transfer targets17 Aug 2026
Konyaspor asked and Kayserispor said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Market17 Aug 2026
Business is business: Josip Ćalušić goes
Ankaragucu paid $940.0K and Konyaspor took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Words exchanged at Konyaspor
Diogo Gonçalves 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.
Match15 Aug 2026
A 2‑0 win over Gaziantep, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
Marked 8.50 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 18. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
Ninety minutes of Enis Bardhi at his very best
Marked 8.22. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Konyaspor.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market10 Aug 2026
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Konyaspor people have started saying his name in the past tense.
Transfer targets10 Aug 2026
Konyaspor asked and Besiktas said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Market10 Aug 2026
Konyaspor say no — this time
The offer from Adana Demirspor for Sander Svendsen 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 targets10 Aug 2026
Everything agreed with AZ, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
Squad10 Aug 2026
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Diogo Gonçalves commits to Konyaspor for another 5 years.
Market10 Aug 2026
Business is business: Tunahan Taşçı goes
Hatayspor paid $930.0K and Konyaspor took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
Squad10 Aug 2026
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Konyaspor this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Market10 Aug 2026
The phone has started ringing about Rayyan Baniya again, and this time the name on the line is Antalyaspor. Konyaspor are listening politely and promising nothing.
Squad10 Aug 2026
Words at Konyaspor training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jean-Luc Dompé 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
Steady
Squad3 Aug 2026
A career in one shirt: Necip Uysal
18 seasons and 337 appearances, all of them here. Careers like this are not designed; they happen to a certain kind of man at a certain kind of club, and this town has one.
Market3 Aug 2026
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Market3 Aug 2026
Orkun Kökçü wants to know where this is going
“I want to win things, and I would like to do it here.” Nothing has been demanded and nothing has been threatened — but a boardroom at Besiktas hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
Squad3 Aug 2026
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Leandro Trossard and Besiktas agree another 3 years.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Words exchanged at Besiktas
Orkun Kökçü 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 Aug 2026
Words at Besiktas training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Fabio Miretti 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.