Marked for Edoardo Contiero
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad17 Apr 2028
The words a physio says slowly. 91 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Squad17 Apr 2028
Tiago Manso 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 Kifisia this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad17 Apr 2028
Jorge Pombo 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 Apr 2028
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Leonardo Santini commits to Kifisia for another 3 years.
The dugout17 Apr 2028
Benny 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 Benny is on it.
The dugout17 Apr 2028
The manager makes an example of Karamoko Bamba
“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 dugout17 Apr 2028
“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.
Market17 Apr 2028
No fee and no drama: Leonardo Santini has signed at Kifisia, and the wage bill is the only line that moved.
Market17 Apr 2028
Kifisia have let the market know Konstantinos Apostolakis can be had. No price in the advert, but everyone in the trade knows roughly what it says.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market17 Jan 2028
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and AEL Larisa waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Kifisia is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
The dugout17 Jan 2028
Enzo Romero: 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.” Kifisia have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Market17 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 Kifisia can pretend not to have heard.
Transfer targets17 Jan 2028
Everything agreed with Palmeiras, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
Squad17 Jan 2028
Jorge Pombo 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 Kifisia this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Player ratings17 Jan 2028
Jorge Pombo beats them one at a time
Successful dribbles: 22. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Squad17 Jan 2028
Dimitris Theodoridis 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.
Transfer targets17 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.
Match15 Jan 2028
A 2‑1 win over Volos NPS, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match23 Aug 2027
Kifisia are in real trouble now
Position 12, 18 points, and a fixture list with fewer games left in it than excuses. The arithmetic is not cruel yet, but it has stopped being kind.
Market23 Aug 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 Kifisia, and it is not being withdrawn.
Transfer targets23 Aug 2027
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Kifisia have done the hard part with Aris Thessaloniki, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Squad23 Aug 2027
Words exchanged at Kifisia
Jorge Pombo 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.
Squad23 Aug 2027
Edoardo Contiero is a better footballer than he was
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 21 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
Squad23 Aug 2027
At 33 the improving is meant to be over. It is not: 3 points better than the mark taken at the start of the year, which is the sort of thing that happens to players who take the boring parts of the job seriously.
Squad23 Aug 2027
Words at Kifisia training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Dimitris Theodoridis 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.
Transfer targets23 Aug 2027
OFK Beograd have been asked whether they would lend him. Loans are agreed quickly or not at all, and this one will be one or the other by the weekend.
The dugout23 Aug 2027
“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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad26 Jul 2027
17 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Kifisia lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Match26 Jul 2027
Kifisia are in real trouble now
Position 12, 18 points, and a fixture list with fewer games left in it than excuses. The arithmetic is not cruel yet, but it has stopped being kind.
Market26 Jul 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.
Market26 Jul 2027
AEK come back empty-handed
The bid was some way short and Kifisia did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Squad26 Jul 2027
A falling-out at Kifisia
Tiago Manso and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad26 Jul 2027
Words at Kifisia training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jorge Pombo 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.
Squad26 Jul 2027
5 new faces, and Kifisia are still learning each other
A squad rebuilt inside one window pays for it in a currency nobody budgets for. The football is not worse than the sum of the players; it is worse than the sum of the players who have played together before.
The dugout26 Jul 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 dugout26 Jul 2027
Clubs make promises constantly and the page usually only hears about them when they are broken. This one was honoured, and the dressing room noticed that faster than any supporter did.