A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Levski will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
“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.
Squad11 Oct 2027
David Kusso 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.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Mazire Soula’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Levski needing him to play as if none of it matters.
He asked about his future and was given an answer with minutes in it. The manager has now made a promise in a building where promises are remembered, and the clock on it has started.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 76 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
“I have given this everything, but my family is not here and neither am I, not really.” A footballer can be coached out of bad form. Nobody has ever been coached out of this, and Levski know it.
Successful dribbles: 19. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad4 Oct 2027
Words at Levski training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. David Kusso 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.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Levski will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
3‑0 against Kauno Zalgiris, on a night that will be replayed at this club for a generation. Continental reputations are made in single evenings and this was the evening.
23 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Levski lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
1 for Marko Grujić, marked 7.97, and a centre-half's name in the part of the report he normally only reaches by mistake. He will not be allowed to forget it in the dressing room for a month.
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.
“I have ambitions, and I would like the club to share them.” Nobody has asked to leave and nobody has been shown the door — but a player chooses that sentence carefully, and a boardroom hears it exactly as it was meant.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 19 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.
10 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Mazire Soula was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Slovan Liberec have kept their man, and Levski go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Marked 8.19 — 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.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Levski have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 24 arrived, 28 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Levski this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The clock did what Ludogorets would not, and ended it. Supporters who watched the countdown will spend the next window doing it again.
Squad6 Sep 2027
Words at Levski training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mazire Soula 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.
Levski asked and Marek said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
“I am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at Levski, and 0 appearances in 7 say he has earned the hearing.
“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.
The offer went to Betis 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.
Levski offered $3.4M; Botev Plovdiv 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.
The unbeaten run reaches 6. Some of them were wins and some were escapes, but a side that refuses to lose is a side other dressing rooms talk about.
Squad16 Aug 2027
Words at Levski training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mazire Soula 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.
Every run ends on an afternoon somebody had marked down as routine. This one went 5 matches, which is long enough that a town had stopped counting, and short enough that it will remember exactly who stopped it.
“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; Levski are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
“I know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” Unirea Slobozia had the fee agreed and the shirt ready; they did not have the player, and now they will not.
5 wins on the spin now, and the question has changed from whether the run ends to who ends it. Confidence like this cannot be bought; it has to be earned exactly this way.
The offer went to Botev Plovdiv 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.
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Kristian Dimitrov scored, was marked 7.37, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
The number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $3.6M — a club that wants Bryan Hein enough to be asked twice.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Levski is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Lokomotiv Sofia have kept their man, and Levski go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
At 23 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Septemvri have kept their man, and Levski go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
The offer from Spartak Pleven for Spas Nedyalkov 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.
Senior shirt numbers handed to boys the coaches have known since they were twelve. Most will not make it and all of them have already done the hard part.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Simeon Dyakov is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Boris Minev has been at this club since he was a boy and is now, formally, one of the first-team squad — which for a local readership beats any signing of any size.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Nikolay Milanov is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
50 for the club now, each one filed in somebody’s memory with a date and a scoreline. Numbers like this are what supporters argue about in twenty years.
Position 2, 64 points, and the result everyone checks first is now theirs. The word is still not being said around the ground, which is how you know everyone is thinking it.
Lokomotiv Sofia have accepted the money. What Levski do not yet have is the man, and between here and the photograph is a conversation about wages that both sides are dreading.
The offer from Fratria for Ognyan Vladimirov 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.
The deal with Lokomotiv Plovdiv is done in every sense but the one that puts him on the pitch. Nothing goes wrong at this stage, except on the occasions when it does.
The chase for Andrei Chindriş ended with $410.0K changing hands and Lokomotiv Plovdiv out of reasons to say no. The supporters will judge the fee the only way that matters: on Saturdays.
Squad21 Jun 2027
Words at Levski training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mazire Soula 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.
Levski 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.
Squad21 Jun 2027
11 new faces, and Levski 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.
Miguel Vila Cova 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.
He used to be one of the options. He is now one of the men the options are picked around, and the change happened quietly enough that only the dressing room noticed on the day.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Marko Grujić signs something — a contract at Levski or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
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 Adrian Raychev is on it.
5 shut-outs in 12 games. A goalkeeper’s loan is judged on the afternoons when nothing happened at all, and Ognyan Vladimirov has been having a lot of them.
A conversation in the manager’s office, and a commitment that came out of it. Promises like that are cheap to make and expensive to break, and Matteo Bignetti has written the date down.
3 goals in 7 games at Fratria — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Levski updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
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.
“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; Fratria are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
12 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.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Fratria, and both men came out saying it was fine.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Fratria this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Ventsislav Bengyuzov was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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.
“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.
Ninety specific minutes wanted a different sort of player, and the manager picked one. He is not out of form and he is not in the side, and both are true.
The offer from KFUM Oslo for Kristian Dimitrov 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.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 19 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.
Serginho 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Ilian Antonov was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
He used to be one of the options. He is now one of the men the options are picked around, and the change happened quietly enough that only the dressing room noticed on the day.
Nobody at Levski 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.
12 appearances at Marek and the goals have stopped going in. Levski lent out a goalkeeper and are watching somebody else’s season get better every week.
In brief
Loan watchThe goals keep arriving from David Kusso’s exile
22 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Fratria lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Fratria can pretend not to have heard.
1 for Kristiyan Peshov, marked 7.60, and a centre-half's name in the part of the report he normally only reaches by mistake. He will not be allowed to forget it in the dressing room for a month.
Successful dribbles: 23. 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.
Iliyan Kapitanov and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad15 Mar 2027
Words at Fratria training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ventsislav Bengyuzov 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.
13 signings in three months. Every one of them may be an upgrade and the team can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild that never appears in the transfer-window verdicts.
“I have given this everything, but my family is not here and neither am I, not really.” A footballer can be coached out of bad form. Nobody has ever been coached out of this, and Levski know it.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Levski this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Ilian Antonov was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Ilian Antonov trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Nobody at Levski 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.
The words a physio says slowly. 39 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.
Successful dribbles: 27. 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.
Ventsislav Bengyuzov 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Kristiyan Peshov was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
A 1‑0 win over Spartak Pleven, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Fratria, another week without a signature from Ventsislav Bengyuzov.
“The players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 1‑0, Nikolay Zafirov could afford to be generous.
The words a physio says slowly. 53 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.
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 9.29, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
Player ratings15 Feb 2027
Daniel Halachev, 21, plays like he has been here for years — 9.80
A mark of 9.80 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.
“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 Fratria, and it is not being withdrawn.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Ventsislav Bengyuzov provided it, and the 8.21 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.33 at 35, and nobody on the pitch was better.
76 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Fratria lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Gonçalo Cascalheira has just signed for Fratria, and for once the answer mattered.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at CSKA Sofia is saying, and nobody at Fratria is enjoying the guessing.
The chances are being made and something is happening between the making and the finishing. 4 matches now, and the anxiety in the ground arrives a little earlier every week.
Ventsislav Bengyuzov 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.
Squad25 Jan 2027
Mitko Mitkov 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 words a physio says slowly. 51 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.
The offer from CSKA 1948 for Maicon 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.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Levski have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
The kind of year that ends with a name being read out in a hall. Levski had the benefit of it every week and now have the problem of everybody else knowing.
The unbeaten run reaches 9. Some of them were wins and some were escapes, but a side that refuses to lose is a side other dressing rooms talk about.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Words at Levski training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Maicon 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.
“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.
Player ratings19 Oct 2026
Everton Bala was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.44. 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.
8.40. 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.
Player ratings19 Oct 2026
Mazire Soula was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.32. 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.