Marked for Marko Lekić
From our football correspondent
Steady
Match17 Oct 2026
Hard to beat is not the same as winning, but 13 matches without defeat is a foundation Partizan did not have in the autumn.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Milan Lazarević: 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.” Partizan have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Player ratings19 Oct 2026
Successful dribbles: 22. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Vanja Dragojević 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.
Squad19 Oct 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Marko Milošević, and the manager let it.
Match17 Oct 2026
It finished 1‑1, and it somehow always looked like it would. One of those afternoons where the table moves less than the tempers.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad5 Oct 2026
There were 8 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 ratings5 Oct 2026
Successful dribbles: 27. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Match3 Oct 2026
Partizan make it 3 in a row
Momentum is a hard thing to buy and an easy thing to lose, and right now Partizan have 3 straight wins of it.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Luis Ángel Mendoza 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.
Match3 Oct 2026
A 2‑1 win over Mladost Lucani, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Boardroom5 Oct 2026
219% of the income goes out in wages at Partizan
Every club in football pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time somebody has tried it.
Player ratings5 Oct 2026
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.66, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Partizan will explain it as a decision about the team, and it may well be one. A dressing room has never once read it that way.
Squad5 Oct 2026
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Sebastian Polter trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market7 Sep 2026
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Market7 Sep 2026
The deal that would have taken Bogdan Kostić to Napredak has collapsed at the last stage, and he reports back to Partizan with a summer to forget and a season still to play. Nobody is saying which side walked away.
Match5 Sep 2026
Hard to beat is not the same as winning, but 7 matches without defeat is a foundation Partizan did not have in the autumn.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Luis Ángel Mendoza 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 ratings7 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 22. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Boardroom7 Sep 2026
Wages eat 196% of everything Partizan earn
There is a figure at which a wage bill stops being ambitious and becomes the reason nothing else is possible, and this club has reached it. Nothing is left over for a transfer, a stand or a rainy afternoon.
Player ratings7 Sep 2026
Marked 8.33 — 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.
Market7 Sep 2026
Both sides expect a conversation in the coming days. Partizan will name a price, and everything after that is arithmetic.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Marko Lekić 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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Player ratings31 Aug 2026
Demba Seck runs at them all day
Successful dribbles: 33. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad31 Aug 2026
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.
Squad31 Aug 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 Partizan this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Market31 Aug 2026
The phone has started ringing about Vukašin Đurđević again, and this time the name on the line is IMT. Partizan are listening politely and promising nothing.
Match29 Aug 2026
Whatever happens, Partizan do not lose
6 games unbeaten now. Some were earned and some were survived, but a habit is forming — and habits are the hardest thing in football to play against.
Player ratings31 Aug 2026
Marked 8.52 — 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.
Match29 Aug 2026
2‑2, and both dressing rooms will call it two points lost. A draw that asked plenty of questions and answered none of them.
Squad31 Aug 2026
The first one is the one every signing is asked about until it arrives. It has arrived, and he can stop being asked.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
A defender's afternoon for Saša Zdjelar
Defensive actions: 38. He was first to everything and second to nothing, and the goalkeeper had an easy day because of it.
Match19 Aug 2026
Cup ties wait for somebody to seize them, and Luis Ángel Mendoza obliged against IMT. 2‑0 on the night, and the name in the next round’s hat is Partizan.
Market24 Aug 2026
Partizan say no — this time
The offer from IMT for Bogdan Kostić 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.
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
Defensive actions: 26, and a clean sheet at the end of it. A centre-half's best afternoons look like nothing happening, which is precisely the point.
Market24 Aug 2026
The phone has started ringing about Marko Lekić again, and this time the name on the line is Umraniyespor. Partizan are listening politely and promising nothing.
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
Defensive actions: 24. He was first to everything and second to nothing, and the goalkeeper had an easy day because of it.
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 23. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Milan Vukotić 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.
Match22 Aug 2026
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Sebastian Polter. 1‑0 against Vojvodina, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.