Marked for Issa Bah
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market15 Nov 2027
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Adeloye Folahan will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Vora the goodbyes have quietly begun.
The dugout15 Nov 2027
This is not rotation. Ruendi Zaçellari has not been in the manager's plans for some time, and nobody at Vora is pretending otherwise.
Squad15 Nov 2027
Words exchanged at Vora
Vinicius César 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.
Squad15 Nov 2027
A row about effort at Vora
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Klejdi Paloka was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad15 Nov 2027
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Vora can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Market15 Nov 2027
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Jaydon Zijsling has his answer from Vora; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
The dugout15 Nov 2027
The manager makes an example of Issa Bah
“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.
Squad15 Nov 2027
Mustapha Koma, 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 Vora would like this to lead.
Looking ahead15 Nov 2027
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Adeloye Folahan’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Vora needing him to play as if none of it matters.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Player ratings18 Oct 2027
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 8.52, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
Market18 Oct 2027
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Vora they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
The dugout18 Oct 2027
This is not rotation. Ruendi Zaçellari has not been in the manager's plans for some time, and nobody at Vora is pretending otherwise.
Match16 Oct 2027
7 unbeaten for Vora
Hard to beat is not the same as winning, but 7 matches without defeat is a foundation Vora did not have in the autumn.
Squad18 Oct 2027
A falling-out at Vora
Klejdi Paloka and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Match16 Oct 2027
A 3‑2 win over Kastrioti Krujë, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Squad18 Oct 2027
A row about effort at Vora
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Manssour Fofana was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The terraces18 Oct 2027
He is 22 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 dugout18 Oct 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Serxhio Dreshaj, and the manager let it.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Boardroom2 Aug 2027
Artan Nderjaku has until the next board meeting
What was said behind closed doors has now been said in front of a microphone. Everybody at Vora can do the arithmetic, including the man it is aimed at.
Boardroom2 Aug 2027
The Vora board call everybody in
Nothing has been announced and everybody understands what it means. A board that summons the whole football department on a Tuesday morning is a board that has stopped believing the problem will fix itself.
Market2 Aug 2027
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Vora can pretend not to have heard.
Market2 Aug 2027
The name of Adeloye Folahan has come up in conversations Vora were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Transfer targets2 Aug 2027
$190.0K 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.
Transfer targets2 Aug 2027
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.
Squad2 Aug 2027
A row about effort at Vora
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Jurgen Vrapi was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad2 Aug 2027
Tempers go at Vora
Stiven Bibo 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.
Squad2 Aug 2027
Issa Bah wants to go home
“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 Vora know it.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
The terraces19 Jul 2027
Supporters organise against the Vora board
A bad atmosphere can be waited out. A group of people meeting afterwards to decide what to do about it cannot, and everybody in the building knows which stage this is.
Boardroom19 Jul 2027
Pressure builds in the Vora boardroom
The directors have stopped offering the manager public warmth. In football that is usually the stage before the short statement.
Market19 Jul 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 Vora, and it is not being withdrawn.
The dugout19 Jul 2027
This is not rotation. Aleks Dedgjonaj has not been in the manager's plans for some time, and nobody at Vora is pretending otherwise.
Squad19 Jul 2027
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Shammasu Muhammed commits to Vora for another 3 years.
Transfer targets19 Jul 2027
$190.0K 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.
Squad19 Jul 2027
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Vora this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad19 Jul 2027
Too much change too quickly at Vora
7 signings in three months. Every one of them may be an upgrade and the team can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild that never appears in the transfer-window verdicts.
Transfer targets19 Jul 2027
A loan move for Bakary Goudiaby is in the works
Vora have made the call to Dinamo City. 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
Crisis
Boardroom7 Jun 2027
It is over: Vora are relegated
The arithmetic ran out, and everybody could see it coming from a distance. The hard summer starts now, and next season's fixtures will be full of unfamiliar names.
Boardroom7 Jun 2027
The board’s statement ran to three sentences and one of them mentioned results. Artan Nderjaku has managed long enough to translate: win soon, or the next statement is shorter.
Market7 Jun 2027
Add another name to the list: Pogradeci have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Adeloye Folahan. The answer from Vora has not changed — yet.
Market7 Jun 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 Vora, and it is not being withdrawn.
Transfer targets7 Jun 2027
The deal with Egnatia Rrogozhinë 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.
Squad7 Jun 2027
“The easiest signature of my career.” Adeloye Folahan and Vora agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad7 Jun 2027
Words exchanged at Vora
Xhuljo Tabaku 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.
Squad7 Jun 2027
A row about effort at Vora
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Chuckwudi Igbokwe was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout7 Jun 2027
Orgito Ruci faces a manager he fell out with
They have worked together before and it did not end well. Nobody at Vora expects the new manager to have forgotten, least of all Orgito Ruci.