Marked for Lovro Kitin
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market9 Jul 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.
Market9 Jul 2035
The offer from NK Krka for Maj Balažic 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
David Planka 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 NK Maribor hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
Market9 Jul 2035
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Martino Botti wants continental football; whether NK Maribor can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
Squad9 Jul 2035
Valgeir Valgeirsson 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.
Squad9 Jul 2035
A move Lovro Kitin 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. Lovro Kitin is living that version at NK Maribor, and it tends to show in the first month.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad25 Dec 2034
A knee injury of the worst kind for Valeriy Bondar
128 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Qarabag lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Squad25 Dec 2034
“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.
Market25 Dec 2034
Only the photograph left for Joaquín Stizza
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Joaquín Stizza will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Qarabag the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad25 Dec 2034
Kady Borges 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 Dec 2034
Pedro Bicalho 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.
Boardroom25 Dec 2034
Qarabag counting the cost
The accounts make uncomfortable reading. Wages first and ambition second is the order of business at Qarabag now.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match9 Dec 2034
Nobody wins at Qarabag
46 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
Squad11 Dec 2034
A knee injury of the worst kind for Valeriy Bondar
142 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Qarabag lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Match11 Dec 2034
Qarabag are in among the leaders
Position 1 and 45 points on the board. Nobody at the ground will say the word out loud yet, and everybody at the ground is thinking it.
Match9 Dec 2034
Still nobody has beaten Qarabag
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.
Match6 Dec 2034
Qarabag bow out of the cup
AZAL go through and Qarabag go home, 0‑0 the scoreline that did it. The dressing room will call the league the priority now, because that is what dressing rooms say.
Market11 Dec 2034
“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 Qarabag, and it is not being withdrawn.
Player ratings11 Dec 2034
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 7.80, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
Player ratings11 Dec 2034
Up for the corner, and Lovro Kitin delivers — 7.95
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Lovro Kitin scored, was marked 7.95, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
Squad11 Dec 2034
Kady Borges 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.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Match25 Nov 2034
The run at home goes on for Qarabag
44 matches unbeaten here. Every visiting manager is asked about it in the week before, which is precisely why it keeps going.
Match25 Nov 2034
Nobody wants to play Qarabag right now
9 wins in a row changes how opponents warm up: quieter, more glances across. Runs end, everybody knows that — but nobody in this dressing room is planning for it.
Market27 Nov 2034
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Qarabag is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad27 Nov 2034
Kady Borges 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.
Squad27 Nov 2034
Alex Payares gets the move he always wanted
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Alex Payares has just signed for Qarabag, and for once the answer mattered.
Squad27 Nov 2034
Pedro Bicalho 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.
Match25 Nov 2034
It finished 1‑0, and it was Musa Qurbanlı’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Qarabag.
Squad27 Nov 2034
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Ceyhun Nuriyev, and the manager let it.
Player ratings27 Nov 2034
Successful dribbles: 16. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Match11 Nov 2034
Nobody wins at Qarabag
43 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
Match13 Nov 2034
Qarabag up to position 1
33 points on the board and a place in the leading group. Nobody at the ground is saying the word out loud yet.
Match11 Nov 2034
Qarabag make it 7 in a row
Momentum is a hard thing to buy and an easy thing to lose, and right now Qarabag have 7 straight wins of it.
Player ratings13 Nov 2034
Two goals and a mark of 8.56 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Market13 Nov 2034
“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 Qarabag, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad13 Nov 2034
Joaquín Stizza: 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.” Qarabag have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Squad13 Nov 2034
Kady Borges 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.
Market13 Nov 2034
Only the photograph left for Divine Onourah
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Divine Onourah will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Qarabag the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Market13 Nov 2034
Inas Kukavica 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 Qarabag hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match16 Oct 2034
Qarabag refuse to drop out of the race
Position 1, 21 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.
Market16 Oct 2034
Lovro Kitin 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 Qarabag can pretend not to have heard.
Squad16 Oct 2034
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 6 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Player ratings16 Oct 2034
Jordan Rezabala, 34, rolls back the years — 8.31
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.31 at 34, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Player ratings16 Oct 2034
A defender's goal wins it for Qarabag — 7.66
1 for Kady Borges, marked 7.66, 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 ratings16 Oct 2034
Headers, blocks, tackles, interceptions — 25 of them, and not one goal behind him. The sort of performance that never makes a highlight reel and wins football matches.
Player ratings16 Oct 2034
Defensive actions: 25. He was first to everything and second to nothing, and the goalkeeper had an easy day because of it.
Market16 Oct 2034
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Camilo Salamanca will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Qarabag the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Match14 Oct 2034
Qarabag cannot stop winning
3 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.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match30 Sep 2034
Qarabag make home a hard place to visit
40 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.
Match30 Sep 2034
5‑2, and Camilo Durán took the headlines on an afternoon when everything Qarabag tried came off. Days like this are retold all winter.
Squad2 Oct 2034
“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.
Player ratings2 Oct 2034
A brace, and Camilo Durán takes the afternoon — 8.17
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Camilo Durán provided it, and the 8.17 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Player ratings2 Oct 2034
A defender's goal wins it for Qarabag — 7.86
1 for Lovro Kitin, marked 7.86, 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.
Market2 Oct 2034
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Qarabag is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad2 Oct 2034
“The easiest signature of my career.” Camilo Durán and Qarabag agree another 2 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad2 Oct 2034
Kady Borges 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.
Match30 Sep 2034
7 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about Qarabag and Inter in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match16 Sep 2034
Qarabag make home a hard place to visit
39 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.
Match16 Sep 2034
Rarely has this fixture seen a display like it: 4‑1 against AZAL, and it could have been more.
Squad18 Sep 2034
“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.
Match18 Sep 2034
Qarabag are in among the leaders
Position 3 and 11 points on the board. Nobody at the ground will say the word out loud yet, and everybody at the ground is thinking it.
Player ratings18 Sep 2034
Lovro Kitin pops up at the right end — 7.85
7.85, 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.
Market18 Sep 2034
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Camilo Salamanca will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Qarabag the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad18 Sep 2034
Kady Borges 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.
Player ratings18 Sep 2034
A hand in 2 of them from Musa Qurbanlı — 7.84
Marked 7.84. There is a kind of forward whose value only shows up when you count what he was involved in rather than what he finished, and this is the day that argument makes itself.
Squad18 Sep 2034
Words at Qarabag training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Valeriy Bondar 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
Upbeat
Match2 Sep 2034
18 unbeaten for Qarabag
Hard to beat is not the same as winning, but 18 matches without defeat is a foundation Qarabag did not have in the autumn.
Match2 Sep 2034
The 85th minute, half the ground already edging towards the exits, and Ester Sokler decided nobody was going anywhere. Khazar had no time left to answer.
Market4 Sep 2034
“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 Qarabag, and it is not being withdrawn.
Player ratings4 Sep 2034
Two goals and a mark of 7.87 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Squad4 Sep 2034
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Mykyta Turbaievskyi has just signed for Qarabag, and for once the answer mattered.
Market4 Sep 2034
The fee was agreed and the flight was looked at — and then the phone stopped ringing. Inter moved on, Tobiáš Pališčák reports back to Qarabag, and everybody pretends Monday is just Monday.
Squad4 Sep 2034
There were 6 saves in it, and at least three that had no business being saves at all. The ten outfield players owe him a drink and they know it.
Player ratings4 Sep 2034
Age has not caught Emmanuel Addai yet — 7.84
At 33 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 7.84 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Market4 Sep 2034
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Qarabag is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match26 Aug 2034
Nobody wins at Qarabag
38 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
Match26 Aug 2034
17 unbeaten for Qarabag
Hard to beat is not the same as winning, but 17 matches without defeat is a foundation Qarabag did not have in the autumn.
Market28 Aug 2034
Qarabag say no — this time
The offer from Inter for Lovro Kitin 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.
Squad28 Aug 2034
Kady Borges 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 Qarabag this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad28 Aug 2034
Valeriy Bondar gets the move he always wanted
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Valeriy Bondar has just signed for Qarabag, and for once the answer mattered.
Squad28 Aug 2034
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Agil Dadashov is 19, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Match26 Aug 2034
It finished 2‑1, and it was Ester Sokler’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Qarabag.
Squad28 Aug 2034
The manager makes an example of Matei Popa
“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 ratings28 Aug 2034
Successful dribbles: 18. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match12 Aug 2034
The run at home goes on for Qarabag
37 matches unbeaten here. Every visiting manager is asked about it in the week before, which is precisely why it keeps going.
Match12 Aug 2034
15 unbeaten for Qarabag
Hard to beat is not the same as winning, but 15 matches without defeat is a foundation Qarabag did not have in the autumn.
Squad14 Aug 2034
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Qarabag may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Squad14 Aug 2034
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 7 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Player ratings14 Aug 2034
Lovro Kitin goes up and wins it — 7.69
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 7.69 for the rest of it.
Squad14 Aug 2034
“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 Qarabag know it.
Market14 Aug 2034
Qarabag say no — this time
The offer from Gabala for Alejo Sánchez Roa 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.
Squad14 Aug 2034
Kady Borges 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 Qarabag this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Market14 Aug 2034
Divine Onourah has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Qarabag they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market31 Jul 2034
“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 Qarabag, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad31 Jul 2034
Kady Borges 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 Qarabag this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Market31 Jul 2034
The deal that would have taken Alejo Sánchez Roa to Ravan has collapsed at the last stage, and he reports back to Qarabag with a summer to forget and a season still to play. Nobody is saying which side walked away.
Squad31 Jul 2034
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Agil Dadashov is 19, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Squad31 Jul 2034
Words at Qarabag training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Pedro Bicalho 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.
Squad31 Jul 2034
Inas Kukavica has improved at 26, which nobody expected
Careers are supposed to plateau and then decline, and the players who ignore that are always the ones who were listening on the training ground. 3 points of it, over months, at an age where the direction normally only goes one way.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market17 Jul 2034
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Santiago Sosa Yung wants continental football; whether Qarabag can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
Squad17 Jul 2034
Kady Borges 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 Qarabag this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Market17 Jul 2034
Qarabag say no — this time
The offer from Ravan for Daniil Silev 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.
Market17 Jul 2034
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Qarabag is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Market17 Jul 2034
The interest is real enough to have reached print. Qarabag have said nothing, which in a transfer window is its own kind of answer.
Squad17 Jul 2034
Words at Qarabag training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Lovro Kitin 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
Upbeat
Match26 Jun 2034
Qarabag refuse to drop out of the race
Position 1, 45 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.
Market26 Jun 2034
“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 Qarabag, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad26 Jun 2034
Kady Borges 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.
Market26 Jun 2034
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Qarabag they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad26 Jun 2034
Lovro Kitin 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.
Market26 Jun 2034
The interest is real enough to have reached print. Qarabag have said nothing, which in a transfer window is its own kind of answer.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad19 Jun 2034
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Santiago Sosa Yung is living that version at Qarabag, and it tends to show in the first month.
Squad19 Jun 2034
Kady Borges 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 Qarabag this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Market19 Jun 2034
AZAL come back empty-handed
The bid was some way short and Qarabag did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Squad19 Jun 2034
Words at Qarabag training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Pedro Bicalho 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.
Squad19 Jun 2034
The manager makes an example of Lovro Kitin
“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.
Market19 Jun 2034
Both sides expect a conversation in the coming days. Qarabag will name a price, and everything after that is arithmetic.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market5 Jun 2034
“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.
Boardroom5 Jun 2034
An order from above at Qarabag: somebody has to go
Balance sheets do not care about form or about who the manager was planning to build around. The board have decided a sale is required, and the only question left is which name ends up carrying it.
Market5 Jun 2034
“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.
Squad5 Jun 2034
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Kady Borges and Qarabag agree another 2 years.
Market5 Jun 2034
Qarabag say no — this time
The offer from Kapaz for Enzo Romero 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.
Squad5 Jun 2034
Kady Borges 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 Qarabag this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Market5 Jun 2034
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Thiago Villalba wants continental football; whether Qarabag can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
Squad5 Jun 2034
Words at Qarabag training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Lovro Kitin 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.
Squad5 Jun 2034
Kady Borges has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Qarabag 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.
In brief
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Boardroom
$6.6M a year onto the Qarabag books
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Boardroom
The Qarabag production line keeps running
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad15 May 2034
“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.
Market15 May 2034
Joaquín Stizza has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Qarabag they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad15 May 2034
Kady Borges 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.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad24 Apr 2034
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 20 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Market24 Apr 2034
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Qarabag can pretend not to have heard.
Squad24 Apr 2034
Kady Borges 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.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad13 Mar 2034
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 62 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Squad13 Mar 2034
Həbib Hüşənov damages knee ligaments — 38 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 38 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.
Squad13 Mar 2034
Kady Borges 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.
Market13 Mar 2034
Only the photograph left for Həbib Hüşənov
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Həbib Hüşənov will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Qarabag the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad13 Mar 2034
Lovro Kitin 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.
Market13 Mar 2034
6 months remain and no agreement is close. Every week without a signature costs Qarabag money.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad20 Feb 2034
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 83 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Squad20 Feb 2034
Tamkin Mammadov damages knee ligaments — 17 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 17 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.
Market20 Feb 2034
Joaquín Stizza has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Qarabag they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad20 Feb 2034
Kady Borges 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 Qarabag this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Market20 Feb 2034
Qarabag say no — this time
The offer from Ravan for Sebastian Ulmer 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.
Squad20 Feb 2034
Words at Qarabag training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Lovro Kitin 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
Upbeat
Squad30 Jan 2034
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 104 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Squad30 Jan 2034
Tamkin Mammadov damages knee ligaments — 38 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 38 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.
Squad30 Jan 2034
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Qarabag may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Squad30 Jan 2034
Kady Borges 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.
Market30 Jan 2034
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.
Market30 Jan 2034
Add another name to the list: Ravan have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Qara Khalilzade. The answer from Qarabag has not changed — yet.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad23 Jan 2034
Tamkin Mammadov damages knee ligaments — 45 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 45 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.
Squad23 Jan 2034
Roberto León breaks a bone — 76 days out
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.
Squad23 Jan 2034
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Qarabag may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Market23 Jan 2034
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Qarabag is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad23 Jan 2034
Kady Borges 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 Qarabag this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Market23 Jan 2034
Sumgayit come back empty-handed
The bid was some way short and Qarabag did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match9 Jan 2034
Qarabag up to position 1
45 points on the board and a place in the leading group. Nobody at the ground is saying the word out loud yet.
Squad9 Jan 2034
Roberto León breaks a bone — 90 days out
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 90 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Market9 Jan 2034
“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 Qarabag, and it is not being withdrawn.
Market9 Jan 2034
Sumgayit come back empty-handed
The bid was some way short and Qarabag did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Squad9 Jan 2034
Kady Borges 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 Qarabag this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Market9 Jan 2034
Only the photograph left for Divine Onourah
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Divine Onourah will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Qarabag the goodbyes have quietly begun.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market10 Oct 2033
“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 Qarabag, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad10 Oct 2033
Kady Borges 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.
Market10 Oct 2033
Only the photograph left for Enzo Romero
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Enzo Romero will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Qarabag the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad10 Oct 2033
Pedro Bicalho 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.
Match8 Oct 2033
Neftchi made Qarabag work for it, but the scoreboard read 2‑0 at the end and the table does not ask how.
Squad10 Oct 2033
The manager makes an example of Thiago Villalba
“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 ratings10 Oct 2033
Some games turn on a moment; this one turned on a man. 7.98 on the card, and the Qarabag support went home talking about one name.
Squad10 Oct 2033
8 new faces, and Qarabag 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.
Player ratings10 Oct 2033
Successful dribbles: 14. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Match20 Aug 2033
Qarabag make it 10 in a row
Momentum is a hard thing to buy and an easy thing to lose, and right now Qarabag have 10 straight wins of it.
Player ratings22 Aug 2033
Age has not caught Ester Sokler yet — 7.83
At 34 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 7.83 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Match20 Aug 2033
Another one collected away from home
6 on the bounce on the road for Qarabag. The coaches leave early, arrive at unlovely grounds in the dark, and keep coming home with three points.
Market22 Aug 2033
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Pedro Bicalho wants continental football; whether Qarabag can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
Market22 Aug 2033
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Qarabag is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad22 Aug 2033
Kady Borges 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 Qarabag this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad22 Aug 2033
Words at Qarabag training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Pedro Bicalho 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.
Match20 Aug 2033
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Ester Sokler. 1‑0 against Sumgayit, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Market22 Aug 2033
The interest is real enough to have reached print. Qarabag have said nothing, which in a transfer window is its own kind of answer.