Marked for Rabiu Abdullahi
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match20 Jan 2027
Bylis through in the cup
A 1‑1 win over Partizani Tirana, and the draw for the next round can be watched with some interest for once.
Squad25 Jan 2027
Ionuţ Gurău is the hero from the spot
A shoot-out is remembered by its ending, and this one ends with Ionuţ Gurău: 1 kept out, and a set of supporters who will describe every one of them for the next twenty years.
Match20 Jan 2027
7 matches without a win for Bylis
The run now stands at 7, and the questions being asked around Bylis are no longer polite ones.
Market25 Jan 2027
“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 The request is on a desk at Bylis, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad25 Jan 2027
Tempers go at Bylis
Gjorgi Stoilov 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 ratings25 Jan 2027
Some games turn on a moment; this one turned on a man. 7.79 on the card, and the Bylis support went home talking about one name.
The dugout25 Jan 2027
Half-satisfied: Denis Thanasi on the draw
“There are things I liked and things we will be doing on Tuesday until they are right.” 1‑1, and a manager who had already decided what Tuesday looked like.
Squad25 Jan 2027
A row about effort at Bylis
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Arli Pergjoni was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout25 Jan 2027
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.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad21 Dec 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 Bylis this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad21 Dec 2026
A row about effort at Bylis
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Pedro Vieira was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout21 Dec 2026
Ousmane Kane 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.
The dugout21 Dec 2026
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.
The dugout21 Dec 2026
The manager makes Aurel Marku a promise
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Bylis. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
Market21 Dec 2026
Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Rabiu Abdullahi’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad2 Nov 2026
A one-man rearguard from Ionuţ Gurău
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.
Match31 Oct 2026
No clean sheets in sight for Bylis
5 games now with at least two against. The back line has been rearranged, the goalkeeper has been backed publicly, and the goals keep going in anyway.
Squad2 Nov 2026
Tempers go at Bylis
Gjorgi Stoilov 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.
Match31 Oct 2026
Bylis come up short against Tirana
Tirana left with the points after a 1‑2 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Player ratings2 Nov 2026
Walisson Nem beats them one at a time
Successful dribbles: 18. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Squad2 Nov 2026
Rabiu Abdullahi is the month’s best young player
At 21 he was better than everybody his age in the division for four weeks running, which is harder than one good afternoon. Bylis will try not to make too much of it.
The dugout2 Nov 2026
The view from the dugout
“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 1‑2 defeat, delivered by Denis Thanasi to a room that had heard them before.
The dugout2 Nov 2026
Dime Dimov is still being punished for one mistake
Nobody will confirm it and the team sheets confirm it every week. One error has bought him a spell as second choice that is already longer than the error deserved.
The dugout2 Nov 2026
Somebody else is better right now than Roberts Ozols
The team sheet says it in public every week until it changes. The only version of being dropped a footballer cannot argue with, and the one he takes hardest.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match17 Oct 2026
2 behind and going nowhere, until Pedro Vieira decided otherwise. Partizani Tirana had done the hard part and then watched it come apart, and the noise at the final whistle was the sort a ground keeps.
Player ratings19 Oct 2026
A brace, and Pedro Vieira takes the afternoon — 8.59
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Pedro Vieira provided it, and the 8.59 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Player ratings19 Oct 2026
At 33 every good afternoon gets called a throwback, and this one was: 8.46, and nobody on the pitch better.
Squad19 Oct 2026
A falling-out at Bylis
Gjorgi Stoilov and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Match17 Oct 2026
It finished 3‑2, and it was Pedro Vieira’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Bylis.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Pedro Vieira 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 terraces19 Oct 2026
He is 21 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.
The dugout19 Oct 2026
The view from the dugout
“We controlled it. There were spells I did not like and we will look at them, but the group showed me something.” Denis Thanasi, on a 3‑2 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
The dugout19 Oct 2026
Ahmed Sanogo has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Bylis 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.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Match19 Sep 2026
There is no crueller way to lose a football match. Bylis scored in the 90th minute, the restart barely happened, and the away end was still standing when the whistle went.
Match19 Sep 2026
Bylis make it 3 in a row
Momentum is a hard thing to buy and an easy thing to lose, and right now Bylis have 3 straight wins of it.
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 Bylis this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match19 Sep 2026
Teuta Durrës made Bylis work for it, but the scoreboard read 2‑1 at the end and the table does not ask how.
Player ratings21 Sep 2026
The afternoon belonged to Pedro Vieira
A mark of 7.91, and nobody in the ground would argue with it. He was involved in everything that mattered and most of what did not.
The dugout21 Sep 2026
“That is what I want every week. Not the result, the way they went about it.” The manager, after 2‑1, already talking about the next one.
Squad21 Sep 2026
One weekend, judged against everybody else's. Olávio Olávio has come out on top of it, and for most footballers a weekly award is the only silverware a career ever produces.
Squad21 Sep 2026
Olamilekan Adeduro, 20, is the weekend’s best young player
Measured against every other kid in the division and first among them. The senior award is where Bylis would like this to lead.
Squad21 Sep 2026
He wheeled away like a man who had been carrying it for months, because he had. Bylis have their signing off the mark and one press-conference question retired.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad7 Sep 2026
8 saves, and a scoreline the ten men in front of him had no right to. Goalkeepers only get noticed on the bad days; this was one of the other ones.
Player ratings7 Sep 2026
Two goals and a mark of 8.89 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Market7 Sep 2026
Bruno Bruno 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 Bylis can pretend not to have heard.
Boardroom7 Sep 2026
Window shuts: 0 in, 3 out at Bylis
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 0 arrived, 3 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
Transfer targets7 Sep 2026
$110.0K on the table at Tirana. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Tempers go at Bylis
Gjorgi Stoilov 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.
Match5 Sep 2026
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Pedro Vieira. 3‑2 against Dinamo City, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Squad7 Sep 2026
A row about effort at Bylis
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Ousmane Kane was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The terraces7 Sep 2026
He is 21 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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad10 Aug 2026
Dime Dimov 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 Bylis this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Market10 Aug 2026
“We are a long way apart, and pretending otherwise helps nobody.” Neither side is close, and the calendar is not on the club's side.
The dugout10 Aug 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Maulud Riruwai, and the manager let it.