Marked for Kacper Kotala
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad25 Sep 2028
He is 19, he is averaging 7.15, and older professionals have started passing to him in the difficult minutes. That last part is the real scouting report.
Market25 Sep 2028
“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.
Squad25 Sep 2028
Viktor Mitev 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 Fratria this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad25 Sep 2028
Karol Prudel gets the move he always wanted
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Karol Prudel has just signed for Fratria, and for once the answer mattered.
Squad25 Sep 2028
Kristiyan Peshov 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.
Market25 Sep 2028
He is 20, and nobody at Fratria signed him for this season. Deals like this are judged in four years, by people who may not still be in the building.
The dugout25 Sep 2028
“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.
Market25 Sep 2028
Fratria have made Kristiyan Peshov available for transfer. A career at this club is over in all but paperwork.
Market25 Sep 2028
Zé Manuel is free to find somewhere else
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Fratria has been clear about where Zé Manuel stands, which is more than many ever get.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad8 May 2028
A season average of 7.16 at an age when most of his year group are still in the youth team. Fratria know what they have, and so, by now, does everybody else.
Squad8 May 2028
Rumen Rumenov 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.
Squad8 May 2028
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Aleksandar Tsvetkov commits to Fratria for another 2 years.
Squad8 May 2028
A row about effort at Fratria
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Sainey Sanyang was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Market8 May 2028
“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.
Boardroom8 May 2028
The numbers do not look good at Fratria
Wages have outrun income and the accountants have started attending meetings they used to send apologies to. Ambition comes second in a season like this.
The dugout8 May 2028
Petar Vutsov 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 dugout8 May 2028
The manager makes an example of Kacper Kotala
“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.
The dugout8 May 2028
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Fratria. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad27 Mar 2028
A falling-out at Fratria
Rumen Rumenov and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad27 Mar 2028
Words at Fratria training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Sainey Sanyang 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.
The dugout27 Mar 2028
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Fratria told Sainey Sanyang something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
The dugout27 Mar 2028
“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 dugout27 Mar 2028
Giacomo Volpe knocks on the manager’s door
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Giacomo Volpe trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Looking ahead27 Mar 2028
Marek next, and one man in the Fratria dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
Market27 Mar 2028
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Fratria know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
The dugout27 Mar 2028
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.
Squad27 Mar 2028
“I respect the manager and I am not going to sit here and pretend I am happy.” It is the most common sentence in football and it has never once been the end of a story.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad19 Apr 2027
He is 17, he is averaging 7.06, and older professionals have started passing to him in the difficult minutes. That last part is the real scouting report.
Squad19 Apr 2027
Words exchanged at Fratria
Iliyan Kapitanov 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.
Squad19 Apr 2027
A row about effort at Fratria
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Rumen Rumenov was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout19 Apr 2027
The manager makes an example of Serif Berbic
“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.
Market19 Apr 2027
Eryk Galara told to find a new club
“They were honest with me, and I would rather know.” Eryk Galara has been informed he is not in the manager's thinking at Fratria.
Market19 Apr 2027
2 months left and the two sides are nowhere near each other. Every week this drags on takes money off what Fratria could get for him.
The dugout19 Apr 2027
Eryk Galara 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 dugout19 Apr 2027
A conversation in the manager’s office, and a commitment that came out of it. Promises like that are cheap to make and expensive to break, and Matthias Eiba has written the date down.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market29 Mar 2027
“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.
The dugout29 Mar 2027
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Fratria may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Squad29 Mar 2027
A falling-out at Fratria
Viktor Mitev and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad29 Mar 2027
Rumen Rumenov 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.
Squad29 Mar 2027
“I have done everything asked of me in training and it has not changed a thing on a Saturday.” The most familiar complaint in football, and one Fratria will have to answer with minutes or with a transfer.
Looking ahead29 Mar 2027
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Marek in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
The dugout29 Mar 2027
Serif Berbic has been promised minutes
A conversation in the manager’s office, and a commitment that came out of it. Promises like that are cheap to make and expensive to break, and Serif Berbic has written the date down.
Market29 Mar 2027
The clock does Iliyan Kapitanov’s negotiating for him
6 months left, and both sides know what that means: every week without a signature, the fee Fratria could ask drops and the wages Iliyan Kapitanov can ask rise.
Squad29 Mar 2027
A year in and the language has not come, the city has not opened up, and he eats alone more often than anybody at Fratria would like to admit. It is showing on Saturdays.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Match13 Mar 2027
Rarely has this fixture seen a display like it: 4‑1 against Sportist Svoge, and it could have been more.
Market15 Mar 2027
Vadim Dijinari has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Fratria they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Player ratings15 Mar 2027
Marked 7.78 at 17, in a side that makes no allowances for age. He did not need any, and he looked the least nervous man on the pitch.
Player ratings15 Mar 2027
At 35 every good afternoon gets called a throwback, and this one was: 8.30, and nobody on the pitch better.
Player ratings15 Mar 2027
7.52, 1 on the scoresheet, and the specific comedy of a back-four player celebrating like somebody who does this every week. He does not, and that is exactly why the ground reacted the way it did.
Squad15 Mar 2027
A falling-out at Fratria
Iliyan Kapitanov and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad15 Mar 2027
Kristiyan Peshov 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 terraces15 Mar 2027
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 21-year-old it feels ownership of. Atanas Kilov 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.
The dugout15 Mar 2027
Serif Berbic 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.