Marked for Ferdinando Borgia
From our football correspondent
Steady
The dugout5 Nov 2035
Sidney Eldred: 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.” Dinamo Minsk have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Market5 Nov 2035
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Dinamo Minsk is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad5 Nov 2035
Gal Kranjčič 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.
Squad5 Nov 2035
“The easiest signature of my career.” Ferdinando Borgia and Dinamo Minsk agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Market5 Nov 2035
“We are a long way apart, and pretending otherwise helps nobody.” Neither side is close, and the calendar is not on the club's side.
Squad5 Nov 2035
Evan Easton 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.
Squad5 Nov 2035
There is a level at which a footballer stops being tested and starts being contained, and he reached it some time ago. Dinamo Minsk know it, and so does everybody who watches him.
The dugout5 Nov 2035
Ethan Wheatley knocks on the manager's door
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Dinamo Minsk, and both men came out saying it was fine.
The dugout5 Nov 2035
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 Ferdinando Borgia is on it.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
Match29 Oct 2035
Dinamo Minsk refuse to drop out of the race
Position 2, 62 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.
Market29 Oct 2035
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Dinamo Minsk they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
The dugout29 Oct 2035
“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.
Market29 Oct 2035
“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.
Squad29 Oct 2035
Gal Kranjčič and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad29 Oct 2035
A move Vall Janković would have made for nothing
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Vall Janković is living that version at Dinamo Minsk, and it tends to show in the first month.
Squad29 Oct 2035
Words at Dinamo Minsk training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Evan Easton 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 dugout29 Oct 2035
“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.
The dugout29 Oct 2035
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.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match29 Sep 2035
Hard to beat is not the same as winning, but 16 matches without defeat is a foundation Dinamo Minsk did not have in the autumn.
Match29 Sep 2035
The run at home goes on for Dinamo Minsk
18 matches unbeaten here. Every visiting manager is asked about it in the week before, which is precisely why it keeps going.
Match26 Sep 2035
A 3‑0 win over Dnepr Mogilev, and the draw for the next round can be watched with some interest for once.
Player ratings1 Oct 2035
Successful dribbles: 34. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Match1 Oct 2035
Dinamo Minsk are in among the leaders
Position 2 and 62 points on the board. Nobody at the ground will say the word out loud yet, and everybody at the ground is thinking it.
Market1 Oct 2035
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Dinamo Minsk they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad1 Oct 2035
Gal Kranjčič and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad1 Oct 2035
200 times in these colours, in all weathers and under four or five different managers. That kind of service is quietly disappearing from the game.
Market1 Oct 2035
“We are a long way apart, and pretending otherwise helps nobody.” Neither side is close, and the calendar is not on the club's side.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad24 Sep 2035
14 days out for Gal Kranjčič after a fracture
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Dinamo Minsk will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Match23 Sep 2035
The unbeaten run reaches 14. Some of them were wins and some were escapes, but a side that refuses to lose is a side other dressing rooms talk about.
Market24 Sep 2035
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Dinamo Minsk is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Player ratings24 Sep 2035
Successful dribbles: 26. 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.
Market24 Sep 2035
The offer from Arsenal Dzerzhinsk for Moustapha Djimet 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.
Squad24 Sep 2035
Gal Kranjčič 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 Dinamo Minsk this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad24 Sep 2035
A move Diógenes Inácio would have made for nothing
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Diógenes Inácio is living that version at Dinamo Minsk, and it tends to show in the first month.
Transfer targets24 Sep 2035
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. CSKA Sofia have kept their man, and Dinamo Minsk go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Squad3 Sep 2035
A fracture rules Gal Kranjčič out for 35 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Dinamo Minsk will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Match3 Sep 2035
57 points on the board and a place in the leading group. Nobody at the ground is saying the word out loud yet.
Market3 Sep 2035
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Molodechno waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Dinamo Minsk is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Match1 Sep 2035
Hard to beat is not the same as winning, but 12 matches without defeat is a foundation Dinamo Minsk did not have in the autumn.
Market3 Sep 2035
“I listened, I thought about it, and I am staying. That is the whole story.” The clubs had agreed a fee. Nikita Zhdan had not agreed to go, which turned out to be the part that mattered.
Market3 Sep 2035
“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.
Market3 Sep 2035
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Ferdinando Borgia will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Dinamo Minsk the goodbyes have quietly begun.
The dugout3 Sep 2035
Jack Wood keeps the receipts
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Dinamo Minsk may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Transfer targets3 Sep 2035
The deal with CSKA Moscow 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.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad20 Aug 2035
A fracture rules Gal Kranjčič out for 49 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Dinamo Minsk will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Market20 Aug 2035
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Belshina waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Dinamo Minsk is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Match18 Aug 2035
The unbeaten run reaches 10. Some of them were wins and some were escapes, but a side that refuses to lose is a side other dressing rooms talk about.
Transfer targets20 Aug 2035
The clubs have shaken hands with BATE; the player has not yet. Personal terms are next, and personal terms are where more deals die than anybody prints.
Market20 Aug 2035
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Dinamo Minsk can pretend not to have heard.
Market20 Aug 2035
Lyfe Oldenstam has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Dinamo Minsk they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Market20 Aug 2035
The deal that would have taken Tidjane Sissoko to Lokomotiv Gomel has collapsed at the last stage, and he reports back to Dinamo Minsk with a summer to forget and a season still to play. Nobody is saying which side walked away.
Transfer targets20 Aug 2035
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Shakhtar keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Player ratings20 Aug 2035
Successful dribbles: 23. 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
Triumph
Squad6 Aug 2035
Gal Kranjčič breaks a bone — 63 days out
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 63 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Match6 Aug 2035
47 points on the board and a place in the leading group. Nobody at the ground is saying the word out loud yet.
Market6 Aug 2035
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Lida waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Dinamo Minsk is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Player ratings6 Aug 2035
Two goals and a mark of 8.65 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Match4 Aug 2035
6 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.
Market6 Aug 2035
“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.
Market6 Aug 2035
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Ferdinando Borgia will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Dinamo Minsk the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Transfer targets6 Aug 2035
$310.0K on the table at BATE. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
Squad6 Aug 2035
Gal Kranjčič 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 Dinamo Minsk this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad9 Jul 2035
91 days out for Gal Kranjčič after a fracture
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Dinamo Minsk will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Match9 Jul 2035
35 points on the board and a place in the leading group. Nobody at the ground is saying the word out loud yet.
Market9 Jul 2035
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Dinamo Minsk have lost him in all but the paperwork.
Market9 Jul 2035
“I listened, I thought about it, and I am staying. That is the whole story.” The clubs had agreed a fee. Andrei Shikavka had not agreed to go, which turned out to be the part that mattered.
Market9 Jul 2035
The offer from BATE for Tidjane Sissoko 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.
Market9 Jul 2035
Mert Salim 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 Dinamo Minsk can pretend not to have heard.
Player ratings9 Jul 2035
A defender's goal wins it for Dinamo Minsk — 7.96
1 for Lyfe Oldenstam, marked 7.96, 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.
Player ratings9 Jul 2035
Successful dribbles: 25. 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.
Boardroom9 Jul 2035
There is no worse way to lose a footballer. Ferdinando Borgia has pre-agreed a move away, which means every appearance between now and June is made by a man the club can no longer sell, and somebody upstairs will be asked why the contract was allowed to get here.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad2 Jul 2035
Gal Kranjčič breaks a bone — 98 days out
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 98 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Market2 Jul 2035
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Naftan waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Dinamo Minsk is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Market2 Jul 2035
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Dinamo Minsk is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Player ratings2 Jul 2035
Successful dribbles: 27. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
The dugout2 Jul 2035
“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.
Market2 Jul 2035
“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 Dinamo Minsk, and it is not being withdrawn.
Market2 Jul 2035
The offer from Lokomotiv Gomel for Valery Stasevich 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.
Boardroom2 Jul 2035
There is no worse way to lose a footballer. Filip Rejczyk has pre-agreed a move away, which means every appearance between now and June is made by a man the club can no longer sell, and somebody upstairs will be asked why the contract was allowed to get here.
Squad2 Jul 2035
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Filip Krušelj commits to Dinamo Minsk for another 4 years.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad18 Jun 2035
A fracture rules Gal Kranjčič out for 112 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Dinamo Minsk will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Market18 Jun 2035
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Naftan waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Dinamo Minsk is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Player ratings18 Jun 2035
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.
The dugout18 Jun 2035
Jack Wood: 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.” Dinamo Minsk have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Squad18 Jun 2035
Preslav Bachev 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.
Match16 Jun 2035
Dinamo Minsk make home a hard place to visit
9 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.
Transfer targets18 Jun 2035
Dinamo Minsk asked and Shakhtar said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Market18 Jun 2035
The name of Egor Rusakov has come up in conversations Dinamo Minsk were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Match19 May 2035
Momentum is a hard thing to buy and an easy thing to lose, and right now Dinamo Minsk have 7 straight wins of it.
Player ratings21 May 2035
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 8.88, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
Market21 May 2035
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Dinamo Minsk is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Player ratings21 May 2035
Successful dribbles: 22. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad21 May 2035
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Dinamo Minsk this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad21 May 2035
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Marat Žlibanović was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout21 May 2035
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Ivan Palitsevich on a 2‑0 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
The dugout21 May 2035
The manager makes an example of Mikalai Hryshyn
“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.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Match5 May 2035
Momentum is a hard thing to buy and an easy thing to lose, and right now Dinamo Minsk have 5 straight wins of it.
Market7 May 2035
Only the photograph left for Dušan Vukelić
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Dušan Vukelić will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Dinamo Minsk the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Player ratings7 May 2035
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.
Squad7 May 2035
Mikhail Kozakevich 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.
Match5 May 2035
Molodechno made Dinamo Minsk work for it, but the scoreboard read 1‑0 at the end and the table does not ask how.
Market7 May 2035
“We are a long way apart, and pretending otherwise helps nobody.” Neither side is close, and the calendar is not on the club's side.
Player ratings7 May 2035
The afternoon belonged to David Gagua
A mark of 7.93, and nobody in the ground would argue with it. He was involved in everything that mattered and most of what did not.
Squad7 May 2035
Andrei Moţoc makes the team of the month
Four or five weekends of consistency, measured against everybody else in the division. A quieter compliment than an award and a more reliable one.
The dugout7 May 2035
The view from the dugout
“We controlled it. There were spells I did not like and we will look at them, but the group showed me something.” Ivan Palitsevich, on a 1‑0 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Player ratings30 Apr 2035
Andrei Moţoc, 33, rolls back the years — 7.87
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 7.87 at 33, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Match28 Apr 2035
Momentum is a hard thing to buy and an easy thing to lose, and right now Dinamo Minsk have 4 straight wins of it.
Market30 Apr 2035
Sidney Eldred has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Dinamo Minsk they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad30 Apr 2035
Mikhail Kozakevich and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Match28 Apr 2035
Naftan made Dinamo Minsk work for it, but the scoreboard read 3‑1 at the end and the table does not ask how.
Match28 Apr 2035
Naftan blown away early
There is a particular helplessness in conceding 2 times before the twentieth minute. Naftan tried to reorganise, Dinamo Minsk did not allow it, and the result was written long before it was confirmed.
Player ratings30 Apr 2035
Ninety minutes of Gal Kranjčič at his very best
Marked 8.21. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Dinamo Minsk.
Squad30 Apr 2035
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Thomas Onana was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Player ratings30 Apr 2035
Successful dribbles: 17. 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
Market16 Apr 2035
Only the photograph left for Szabolcs Fiola
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Szabolcs Fiola will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Dinamo Minsk the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Boardroom16 Apr 2035
There is no worse way to lose a footballer. Jack Wood has pre-agreed a move away, which means every appearance between now and June is made by a man the club can no longer sell, and somebody upstairs will be asked why the contract was allowed to get here.
Squad16 Apr 2035
Mikhail Kozakevich 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.
Match14 Apr 2035
It finished 2‑0, and it was David Gagua’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Dinamo Minsk.
Player ratings16 Apr 2035
Marked 8.00 — 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.
The dugout16 Apr 2035
“The players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 2‑0, Ivan Palitsevich could afford to be generous.
The dugout16 Apr 2035
The manager has not finished forgetting Filip Rejczyk's mistake
Publicly it is behind everybody. It is not behind the man who picks the team, and the only place that shows is a team sheet. He will get another chance; he will get it in a match that matters less.
Squad16 Apr 2035
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Dmitry Begun was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout16 Apr 2035
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Mikhail Kozakevich trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market19 Mar 2035
Only the photograph left for Szabolcs Fiola
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Szabolcs Fiola will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Dinamo Minsk the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad19 Mar 2035
Gal Kranjčič 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 Dinamo Minsk this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The dugout19 Mar 2035
Filip Krušelj back under a manager who knows him
The new man at Dinamo Minsk has worked with Filip Krušelj before and it went well. He arrives with a view of the player already formed, which is worth more than any pre-season.
Squad19 Mar 2035
Thomas Onana 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.
Squad19 Mar 2035
“The easiest signature of my career.” Valery Stasevich and Dinamo Minsk agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
The dugout19 Mar 2035
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.
The dugout19 Mar 2035
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Szabolcs Fiola, and the manager let it.
The dugout19 Mar 2035
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Ivan Palitsevich was not hiding it after 0‑0, and nobody in the Dinamo Minsk dressing room was either.
Player ratings19 Mar 2035
Successful dribbles: 13. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.