Blaž Sintič

Left Back - Pafos
5 May 2028
Friday
Process

Marked for Blaž Sintič

79 Edition

The Pafos Herald

31 Jan 2028
From our football correspondent Upbeat

Player ratings

Both of them Franco Fagúndez's — 8.93

2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 8.93, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.

Player ratings

Vintage Nicolas Moumi Ngamaleu — 7.90

At 33 every good afternoon gets called a throwback, and this one was: 7.90, and nobody on the pitch better.

Match

8 unbeaten for Pafos

Hard to beat is not the same as winning, but 8 matches without defeat is a foundation Pafos did not have in the autumn.

Transfer targets

Pafos rebuffed over Alerrandro

Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. CSKA Moscow have kept their man, and Pafos go back to a list with one name crossed off it.

Match

Pafos see off Anorthosis

Three points for Pafos, 2‑0 the final word against Anorthosis in a contest settled by the finer margins.

Match

Another one collected away from home

3 on the bounce on the road for Pafos. The coaches leave early, arrive at unlovely grounds in the dark, and keep coming home with three points.

Squad

Words at Pafos training over how hard people work

Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. João Correia 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.

Squad

Words exchanged at Pafos

Dmytro Melnichenko 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.

Transfer targets

Pafos ask about Alexandr Sobolev

A loan enquiry to CSKA Moscow: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.

In brief

Back issues
7 Edition

The Nafta 1903 Courier

14 Sep 2026
From our football correspondent Upbeat

Player ratings

Balázs Bakti runs at them all day

Successful dribbles: 41. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.

Match

Nafta 1903 make it 4 in a row

Momentum is a hard thing to buy and an easy thing to lose, and right now Nafta 1903 have 4 straight wins of it.

Market

Blaž Sintič 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 Nafta 1903, and it is not being withdrawn.

The terraces

The crowd has taken to Taj Rožič Šuligoj

At 19 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.

Match

Nafta 1903 find a way past Bilje

Bilje made Nafta 1903 work for it, but the scoreboard read 2‑0 at the end and the table does not ask how.

Squad

Words at Nafta 1903 training over how hard people work

Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Tibor Gorenc Stankovič 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.

Player ratings

Amadej Maroša takes the honours

Marked 7.70 on an afternoon he ran from the first whistle to the last. Whatever else went wrong, Nafta 1903 had the best player on the pitch.

The dugout

A satisfied Sandi Handanovic

“The players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 2‑0, Sandi Handanovic could afford to be generous.

The dugout

Balázs Bakti 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 Nafta 1903, and both men came out saying it was fine.

In brief

6 Edition

The Nafta 1903 Courier

7 Sep 2026
From our football correspondent Steady

Market

Nafta 1903 say no — this time

The offer from Brinje Grosuplje for Aleks Pihler 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.

Boardroom

Window shuts: 22 in, 9 out at Nafta 1903

The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 22 arrived, 9 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.

Squad

Words at Nafta 1903 training over how hard people work

Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Faris Dževahirić 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.

Squad

A falling-out at Nafta 1903

Josip Marinić and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.

Squad

10 new faces, and Nafta 1903 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.

Squad

Blaž Sintič named in the team of the month

A month is long enough that nobody gets in by accident. Blaž Sintič is in the division's best eleven for it, which is a quieter compliment than an award and a more reliable one.

The dugout

Balázs Bakti asks for a word with the manager

“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 dugout

When it matters, Josip Marinić plays

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.

Market

Nafta 1903 put Aleks Pihler up for sale

The list is a quiet document with a loud meaning. Aleks Pihler may talk to anybody who asks, and everybody at the club understands what that means.

In brief

4 Edition

The Nafta 1903 Courier

24 Aug 2026
From our football correspondent Steady

Match

Cup progress for Nafta 1903

A 2‑1 win over Bistrica, a place in the next round, and the quiet arithmetic every supporter does on the walk home: how many more until a final?

Player ratings

Hugo Šelih scores twice — 8.63

Two goals and a mark of 8.63 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.

Market

Aleks Pihler 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 Nafta 1903 can pretend not to have heard.

Transfer targets

Žiga Pečjak due for a Nafta 1903 medical

Everything agreed with Olimpija Ljubljana, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.

Squad

Aljaž Antolin 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 Nafta 1903 this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.

Squad

A move Tilen Gašper Štiftar 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. Tilen Gašper Štiftar is living that version at Nafta 1903, and it tends to show in the first month.

Transfer targets

Door shut on Martin Magister

Nafta 1903 asked and Primorje said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.

Match

Luka Pihler sends Nafta 1903 past Jadran Dekani

It finished 2‑1, and it was Luka Pihler’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Nafta 1903.

The terraces

One of their own: Blaž Sintič

He is 19 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.

In brief