Marked for Sabur Ali
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market21 Sep 2026
“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.
Squad21 Sep 2026
A one-man rearguard from Denny Tiganj
There were 7 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.
Match19 Sep 2026
5 matches without a win for Rudar Velenje
The run now stands at 5, and the questions being asked around Rudar Velenje are no longer polite ones.
Squad21 Sep 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 Rudar Velenje this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad21 Sep 2026
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Sabur Ali was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Match19 Sep 2026
Behind, and beaten by any honest reading, until minute 85. Olimpija Ljubljana had the points in their pocket and a corner of the ground still believed, which is generally when it happens.
Player ratings21 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 15. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Match19 Sep 2026
It needed Adam Vošnjak to find the net to bring anything home at all: 1‑1 against Olimpija Ljubljana, and half the dressing room will call it a point won.
The dugout21 Sep 2026
“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.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match7 Sep 2026
Every point is an argument now for Rudar Velenje
Position 10 and 1 points, and the table gets read bottom-up in this part of town. The calendar has stopped being a schedule and started being a countdown.
Boardroom7 Sep 2026
Window shuts: 17 in, 1 out at Rudar Velenje
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 17 arrived, 1 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
Transfer targets7 Sep 2026
No thanks: Matej Jurička rejects the move
Rudar Velenje had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Podbrezova, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Jack McMillan was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Transfer targets7 Sep 2026
Rudar Velenje asked and NK Maribor said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Gašper Gaberšek Rotovnik and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Match5 Sep 2026
NK Zavrc left with the points after a 0‑2 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Josip Perković is the division's best young player this month
At 21 he has spent a month being better than everybody his age in the league, which is a different and harder thing than one good afternoon. Rudar Velenje will try very hard not to make too much of it.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Sandro Zukić slips down the pecking order
The demotion a club never announces and a dressing room always notices. Sandro Zukić is further from the side than he was, and the reason will not be given until he asks.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match29 Aug 2026
A 0‑3 beating by Koper was the sort of result that empties a stadium long before the final whistle.
Market31 Aug 2026
Sabur Ali puts it in writing
“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 Rudar Velenje, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad31 Aug 2026
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.
Transfer targets31 Aug 2026
The deal with Podbrezova 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.
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 Rudar Velenje this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Transfer targets31 Aug 2026
The approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.
The dugout31 Aug 2026
The manager makes an example of Denny Tiganj
“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.
Squad31 Aug 2026
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Sabur Ali was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Boardroom31 Aug 2026
The manager kept them in and said what needed saying. A response is expected on Saturday, and if it does not come the questions move upstairs.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Transfer targets17 Aug 2026
No thanks: Luka Kolar rejects the move
Rudar Velenje had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at NK Celje, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Lejs Pličanić 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.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Words at Rudar Velenje training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Adam Vošnjak 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.
Transfer targets17 Aug 2026
Rudar Velenje asked and Sibenik said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Match15 Aug 2026
1‑2 to NK Domzale, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
The dugout17 Aug 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Gašper Gaberšek Rotovnik, and the manager let it.
Squad17 Aug 2026
No place for Rok Frešer in the new shape
He is not being dropped. There is simply nowhere in the formation Rudar Velenje are playing to put a man who does what he does, which is a harder thing to be told than any team sheet.
The dugout17 Aug 2026
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 1‑2, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
Transfer targets17 Aug 2026
A loan move for Martin Bozenik is in the works
Rudar Velenje have made the call to FK Senica. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Player ratings10 Aug 2026
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 8.76, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
Player ratings10 Aug 2026
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.
Squad10 Aug 2026
16 days, the medical staff say, and medical staff are optimists by profession. The team sheet will look wrong without him.
Transfer targets10 Aug 2026
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Lokomotiva Zagreb keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Squad10 Aug 2026
Rok Frešer and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Transfer targets10 Aug 2026
Rudar Velenje asked and Dinamo Zagreb said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
The terraces10 Aug 2026
At 21 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.
Market10 Aug 2026
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Erik Sikosek 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.
Market10 Aug 2026
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Sandi Handanovic has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.