Marked for Ryan Francisco
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Player ratings5 Oct 2026
A defender on the scoresheet, which happens rarely enough that everybody in the ground remembers who took the corner. 1 for him, and a mark of 7.74 for the rest of it.
Player ratings5 Oct 2026
A defender on the scoresheet, which happens rarely enough that everybody in the ground remembers who took the corner. 1 for him, and a mark of 7.70 for the rest of it.
Squad5 Oct 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.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Marcos Antonio 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
Robert Arboleda scored, and precious little else went right: 2‑3 to Cruzeiro, and a quiet walk to the dressing room.
The dugout5 Oct 2026
Luciano gets it from the manager
“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.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Ryan Francisco is the division's best young player this month
At 19 he has spent a month being better than everybody his age in the league, which is a different and harder thing than one good afternoon. Sport Recife will try very hard not to make too much of it.
Squad5 Oct 2026
A muscle injury and 14 days out for Henrique Bell
The most common injury in the game and the most rushed back from. Sport Recife will quote 14 days and will be careful with it, because the second one is always worse than the first.
The dugout5 Oct 2026
“I could talk about decisions and I could talk about luck. I will not. We lost.” The manager, 2‑3, and a press conference that lasted four minutes.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
The dugout28 Sep 2026
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Vojvodina may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Ryan Francisco is 19, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Market28 Sep 2026
The general version of this complaint is that a player wants more. The specific version names the thing: he wants to walk out under floodlights against clubs from other countries, and he has stopped pretending otherwise.
Squad28 Sep 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 Vojvodina this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match26 Sep 2026
Javor-Matis made Vojvodina work for it, but the scoreboard read 2‑0 at the end and the table does not ask how.
Squad28 Sep 2026
“Some mornings you wake up and you are still a long way from everything you know.” It is not the football and it never was; Vojvodina are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Player ratings28 Sep 2026
Dejan Zukić was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.04. 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 dugout28 Sep 2026
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Petar Simic on a 2‑0 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
Player ratings28 Sep 2026
Chances created: 10. Nothing on the scoresheet and everything in the match: the pass before the pass, over and over, until the defence stopped guessing right.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad21 Sep 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 Vojvodina this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad21 Sep 2026
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Damjan Đokanović is 18, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Transfer targets21 Sep 2026
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Borac Čačak have kept their man, and Vojvodina go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Player ratings21 Sep 2026
Marked 7.90 on an afternoon he ran from the first whistle to the last. Whatever else went wrong, Vojvodina had the best player on the pitch.
Match19 Sep 2026
1‑1, and both dressing rooms will call it two points lost. A draw that asked plenty of questions and answered none of them.
Squad21 Sep 2026
Matija Gočmanac 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 dugout21 Sep 2026
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Petar Simic was not hiding it after 1‑1, and nobody in the Vojvodina dressing room was either.
The dugout21 Sep 2026
Somebody else is better right now than Đorđe Crnomarković
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.
Player ratings21 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 13. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match12 Sep 2026
IMT will want this one forgotten quickly: 4‑1, every duel lost, and a long ride home. Vojvodina were ruthless in the way good sides are ruthless.
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 9.32, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
Two goals and a mark of 8.64 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Squad14 Sep 2026
7 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.
Transfer targets14 Sep 2026
Vojvodina offered $340.0K; Zeleznicar Pancevo said it was not close. The manager will be told the money is still there for the right player, which is what managers are told.
Transfer targets14 Sep 2026
Vojvodina asked and Ludogorets 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 terraces14 Sep 2026
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 19-year-old it feels ownership of. Ryan Francisco has it now, and everything he does for the rest of his time here will be measured against the goodwill he was handed for free.
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 17. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
Ifet Đakovac ran the middle of the pitch — 7.64
He won it back and then made something of it, which is two jobs and the reason the scoreline looks the way it does. 9 combined actions and a mark of 7.64, and not one of them will make a highlights package.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market7 Sep 2026
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Vojvodina can pretend not to have heard.
Market7 Sep 2026
Terms done: Kufre Eta is going
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Unisport Bafang waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Vojvodina is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Boardroom7 Sep 2026
Window shuts: 16 in, 6 out at Vojvodina
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 16 arrived, 6 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
Boardroom7 Sep 2026
The number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $350.0K — a club that wants Abdul Razak Yusif enough to be asked twice.
Transfer targets7 Sep 2026
Vojvodina have gone to Zeleznicar Pancevo with a bid, and the supporters have gone to the internet with an opinion about it. Whether either changes anything is up to the selling club.
Transfer targets7 Sep 2026
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.
Squad7 Sep 2026
9 new faces, and Vojvodina 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.
Transfer targets7 Sep 2026
A loan enquiry to Ludogorets: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.
The dugout7 Sep 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Mihai Butean, and the manager let it.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market31 Aug 2026
Lazar Nikolić 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 Vojvodina can pretend not to have heard.
Market31 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.
Player ratings31 Aug 2026
Njegoš Petrović pops up at the right end — 7.61
7.61, 1 on the scoresheet, and the specific comedy of a back-four player celebrating like somebody who does this every week. He does not, and that is exactly why the ground reacted the way it did.
Transfer targets31 Aug 2026
Remo Stars wanted more than $2.1M and the board would not go there. Walked away, for now, which in a transfer window means until somebody blinks.
Transfer targets31 Aug 2026
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.
Match29 Aug 2026
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Njegoš Petrović. 2‑1 against Zeleznicar Pancevo, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
The dugout31 Aug 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Nikola Stojiljković, and the manager let it.
Player ratings31 Aug 2026
Marked 7.98. Ask anyone leaving the ground what settled it and you will get one name, which is the only award that has ever really counted.
Squad31 Aug 2026
The system has changed and his position has not. A footballer can improve his form; he cannot improve the manager’s formation, and that is the whole of the problem.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market24 Aug 2026
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Sport Recife have lost him in all but the paperwork.
Market24 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.
Squad24 Aug 2026
“The easiest signature of my career.” Ryan Francisco and Sport Recife agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Sabino 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 Aug 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Ryan Francisco, and the manager let it.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Matheus Menezes and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
Marked 7.98. Ask anyone leaving the ground what settled it and you will get one name, which is the only award that has ever really counted.
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 15. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
The dugout24 Aug 2026
The form table has caught Lucas Moura
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.
In brief
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Player ratings
Nobody on the pitch touched Wendell
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Match
Cauly rescues a point for Sport Recife
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The dugout
The view from the dugout
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match22 Aug 2026
Nowhere to hide for Vojvodina
0‑4 against Partizan, and no complaints that would survive the replay. The manager spoke about character afterwards; the terraces used shorter words.
Market24 Aug 2026
“It was not right for me. I am not going to explain why to anybody except the people I owe an explanation to.” A deal agreed between two clubs, and a player who declined to be part of it.
Market24 Aug 2026
Kufre Eta 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 Vojvodina, and it is not being withdrawn.
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
At 35 every good afternoon gets called a throwback, and this one was: 7.98, and nobody on the pitch better.
Transfer targets24 Aug 2026
$1.7M on the table at Remo Stars. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
Market24 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 targets24 Aug 2026
Everything agreed with Sport Recife, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
Market24 Aug 2026
OFK Vršac 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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market10 Aug 2026
“It was not right for me. I am not going to explain why to anybody except the people I owe an explanation to.” A deal agreed between two clubs, and a player who declined to be part of it.
Market10 Aug 2026
Moreirense come back empty-handed
The bid was some way short and Sport Recife did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Market10 Aug 2026
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Sport Recife heard it as anything else.
Squad10 Aug 2026
“The easiest signature of my career.” Marcos Antonio and Sport Recife agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad10 Aug 2026
Jonathan Calleri 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.
Squad10 Aug 2026
Words at Sport Recife training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Marcos Antonio 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.
Match8 Aug 2026
Botafogo left with the points after a 1‑2 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
The dugout10 Aug 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Lucas Moura, and the manager let it.