Marked for Stefan Mladenović
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad11 Nov 2030
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 27 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Player ratings11 Nov 2030
Miloš Pantović, 34, rolls back the years — 8.01
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.01 at 34, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Market11 Nov 2030
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Tamerlan Khachirov will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around OFK Beograd the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad11 Nov 2030
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at OFK Beograd this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad11 Nov 2030
Words at OFK Beograd training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Tayrell Wouter 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.
Match9 Nov 2030
A 1‑0 win over Novi Pazar, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Squad11 Nov 2030
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Gabriel Kodrasi, and the manager let it.
Player ratings11 Nov 2030
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.34, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Player ratings11 Nov 2030
Headers, blocks, tackles, interceptions — 8 of them, and not one goal behind him. The sort of performance that never makes a highlight reel and wins football matches.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market30 Sep 2030
“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 The request is on a desk at OFK Beograd, and it is not being withdrawn.
Player ratings30 Sep 2030
Successful dribbles: 26. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad30 Sep 2030
Miloš Pantović 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.
Squad30 Sep 2030
Tayrell Wouter 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 terraces30 Sep 2030
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Stefan Mladenović has it now, and everything he does for the rest of his time here will be measured against the goodwill he was handed for free.
Squad30 Sep 2030
No hiding place for Quirino
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Quirino, and the manager let it.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad15 Jul 2030
Volodymyr Adamiuk damages knee ligaments — 85 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 85 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.
Squad15 Jul 2030
“The easiest signature of my career.” Stefan Mladenović and OFK Beograd agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad15 Jul 2030
Tayrell Wouter 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.
In brief
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Squad
Owen Blind is a better footballer than he was
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad24 Sep 2029
A knee injury of the worst kind for Volodymyr Adamiuk
29 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. OFK Beograd lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Squad24 Sep 2029
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 93 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Squad24 Sep 2029
Miloš Pantović 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.
Squad24 Sep 2029
Milan Rodić 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.
Player ratings24 Sep 2029
Luka Marjanac was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.29. 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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad2 Jul 2029
Mattia Bottani damages knee ligaments — 161 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 161 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.
Squad2 Jul 2029
Mirko Andrić breaks a bone — 31 days out
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 31 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Boardroom2 Jul 2029
The board have said in public what they had been saying in private. Results between now and the next meeting decide it, and everybody in the building knows the arithmetic.
Boardroom2 Jul 2029
The official line will be that it was routine. It was not routine, the timing says so, and every person in that room knows what the next bad result costs.
Market2 Jul 2029
“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 OFK Beograd, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad2 Jul 2029
Stefan Mladenović is a better footballer than he was
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 21 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.
Squad2 Jul 2029
“The easiest signature of my career.” Milan Rodić and OFK Beograd agree another 2 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Boardroom2 Jul 2029
Intake day at the OFK Beograd academy
6 arrivals, an average age nobody would call a squad, and a set of parents being shown around a building their sons will spend more time in than at home. The scouting has already happened; today is only the paperwork.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad18 Jun 2029
A fracture rules Mirko Andrić out for 48 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason OFK Beograd will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Market18 Jun 2029
“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 OFK Beograd, and it is not being withdrawn.
Market18 Jun 2029
The offer from Botafogo for Stefan Mladenović 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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad11 Jun 2029
Mirko Andrić breaks a bone — 56 days out
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 56 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Market11 Jun 2029
Quirino 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 OFK Beograd can pretend not to have heard.
The terraces11 Jun 2029
OFK Beograd sell a favourite for $1.5M
The accountants will call it good business and they will be right, which is not the point anybody outside the boardroom is making. Vasilije Novičić was one of the reasons people came, and $1.5M does not replace that by itself.
Market11 Jun 2029
Konyaspor pay $1.5M, and the deal is done. The number reads well on a balance sheet; whether it reads well on the pitch is next season's question.
Market11 Jun 2029
The interest is real enough to have reached print. OFK Beograd have said nothing, which in a transfer window is its own kind of answer.
Market11 Jun 2029
Aleksa Cvetković has left for Partizan in a $1.0M deal. The accountants are pleased; the supporters are less certain.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad4 Jun 2029
A fracture rules Mirko Andrić out for 64 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason OFK Beograd will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Boardroom4 Jun 2029
The board’s statement ran to three sentences and one of them mentioned results. Miroslav Gacinovic has managed long enough to translate: win soon, or the next statement is shorter.
Market4 Jun 2029
Sumaila Wasiu 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 OFK Beograd can pretend not to have heard.
Squad4 Jun 2029
Miloš Pantović 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.
Market4 Jun 2029
Both sides expect a conversation in the coming days. OFK Beograd will name a price, and everything after that is arithmetic.
Squad4 Jun 2029
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Stefan Mladenović and OFK Beograd agree another 4 years.
Squad4 Jun 2029
Milan Rodić 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.
Boardroom4 Jun 2029
$3.7M taken back off the OFK Beograd table
What was available in the summer has quietly gone. Upstairs nobody will call it a change of ambition; downstairs nobody will call it anything else.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad28 May 2029
A fracture rules Mirko Andrić out for 72 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason OFK Beograd will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Boardroom28 May 2029
Pressure builds in the OFK Beograd boardroom
The directors have stopped offering the manager public warmth. In football that is usually the stage before the short statement.
The terraces28 May 2029
The mood at OFK Beograd has turned into something else
Supporters who sing when it goes badly are supporters. Supporters who gather afterwards are a problem, and everybody inside the building knows which of the two this now is.
Market28 May 2029
“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.
Squad28 May 2029
A season's verdict on Stefan Mladenović: the best of his age
OFK Beograd have a 21-year-old the division has just voted its finest young footballer. The club's next problem is that everybody else now knows it too.
Market28 May 2029
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around OFK Beograd they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad5 Mar 2029
A fracture rules Mirko Andrić out for 164 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason OFK Beograd will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
The terraces5 Mar 2029
The mood at OFK Beograd has turned into something else
Supporters who sing when it goes badly are supporters. Supporters who gather afterwards are a problem, and everybody inside the building knows which of the two this now is.
Boardroom5 Mar 2029
The silence upstairs is getting loud at OFK Beograd
Nobody on the board has said anything against the manager, which is the point — they have stopped saying anything for him either.
Boardroom5 Mar 2029
What was said behind closed doors has now been said in front of a microphone. Everybody at OFK Beograd can do the arithmetic, including the man it is aimed at.
Squad5 Mar 2029
Miloš Pantović 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.
Squad5 Mar 2029
Tayrell Wouter 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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market19 Feb 2029
“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.
Market19 Feb 2029
The bid was some way short and OFK Beograd did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Squad19 Feb 2029
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” OFK Beograd may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match20 Jan 2029
Chastening afternoon for OFK Beograd
A 0‑3 beating by Cukaricki was the sort of result that empties a stadium long before the final whistle.
Market22 Jan 2029
Only the photograph left for Ethan Hoard
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Ethan Hoard will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around OFK Beograd the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Market22 Jan 2029
“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.
Market22 Jan 2029
The offer from Hapoel Tel Aviv for Stefan Mladenović 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 ratings22 Jan 2029
Successful dribbles: 28. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Match20 Jan 2029
6 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
Squad22 Jan 2029
Miloš Pantović 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.
Squad22 Jan 2029
Tayrell Wouter 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.
Squad22 Jan 2029
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Ethan Hoard, and the manager let it.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Player ratings1 Jan 2029
Successful dribbles: 65. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Market1 Jan 2029
The offer from O'Higgins for Vasilije Novičić 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.
Market1 Jan 2029
“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 OFK Beograd, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad1 Jan 2029
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at OFK Beograd this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad1 Jan 2029
Words at OFK Beograd training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Tayrell Wouter 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.
Match30 Dec 2028
The goals have deserted OFK Beograd
3 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at OFK Beograd can tell you which week it ends in.
Squad1 Jan 2029
“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 OFK Beograd know it.
Player ratings1 Jan 2029
Marked 7.47 on an afternoon he ran from the first whistle to the last. Whatever else went wrong, OFK Beograd had the best player on the pitch.
Squad1 Jan 2029
Miloš Pantović has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at OFK Beograd 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.