“It was not right for me. I am not going to explain why to anybody except the people I owe an explanation to.” A deal agreed between two clubs, and a player who declined to be part of it.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Barnabás Czéh and Ferencvaros agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad29 Jan 2029
Naby Keïta 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.
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.
Something was said to Ádám Varga and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
2 kept out from twelve yards, and a stadium that will describe each of them for twenty years. A goalkeeper needs one night like this in a career, and this was it.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Ferencvaros have lost him in all but the paperwork.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Ferencvaros is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Ridwan Popoola 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.
Match13 Jan 2029
Another one collected away from home
3 on the bounce on the road for Ferencvaros. The coaches leave early, arrive at unlovely grounds in the dark, and keep coming home with three points.
42 points, and the rest of the division looking up. Every side that finishes first spends the season pretending it is not thinking about it, and this one has started pretending.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Ferencvaros people have started saying his name in the past tense.
4 wins on the spin now, and the question has changed from whether the run ends to who ends it. Confidence like this cannot be bought; it has to be earned exactly this way.
Ridwan Popoola 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.
8.23. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
Both sides expect a conversation in the coming days. Ferencvaros will name a price, and everything after that is arithmetic.
Squad8 Jan 2029
Words at Ferencvaros training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Naby Keïta 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.
1‑2 against Toulouse FC. Continental football is unforgiving about the things a domestic league lets a side get away with, and this was a night spent finding out which of those the club still has.
Two of the goals had his name somewhere on them, which is the afternoon a manager wants from anybody asked to both create and finish. 7.77, and 2 involvements.
He is 20 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.
Every club pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time it has been tried.
Erik Németh 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.
11 goals in 18 games at Soroksár — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Ferencvaros updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
In brief
SquadNaby Keïta falls out with a teammate over standards
Loan watchThe goals keep arriving from Muhamed Tijani’s exile
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Ferencvaros will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
2‑3 against Genclerbirligi, and an evening that measured the gap rather than the ninety minutes. Nothing about it was a disgrace and nothing about it was close.
Player ratings13 Nov 2028
A brace, and Lenny Joseph takes the afternoon — 8.93
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Lenny Joseph provided it, and the 8.93 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Barnabás Kovács scored, was marked 7.95, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Dániel Gyollai will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Ferencvaros the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Callum O'Dowda 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.
17 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Ferencvaros lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Ferencvaros they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Bersant Celina is on it.
Squad16 Oct 2028
Naby Keïta 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.
Something was said to Miloje Jelenić and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
Squad16 Oct 2028
Ádám Somogyi, 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 Ferencvaros would like this to lead.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Ferencvaros know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
The words a physio says slowly. 60 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
The offer from BVSC-Zugló for Benjámin Gólik 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.
Nobody at Ferencvaros 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Naby Keïta was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Veljko Birmančević signs something — a contract at Ferencvaros or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Dániel Gyollai’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Ferencvaros needing him to play as if none of it matters.
In brief
Loan watchThe goals keep arriving from Muhamed Tijani’s exile
Loan watchThe goals keep arriving from Zsombor Gruber’s exile
The words a physio says slowly. 69 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Ferencvaros people have started saying his name in the past tense.
He arrived for a fee and leaves for a fraction of it. $555.7K of what Ferencvaros paid for Ágoston Bényei is money the club will not see again, and the boardroom will be asked about it for two seasons.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Ferencvaros have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Boardroom4 Sep 2028
Ferencvaros close the window on a squad of their own making
11 in and 26 out, and no more changes for months. The manager has what he has, the supporters have their opinion of it, and the table will have the last word.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Akhmat Grozny have kept their man, and Ferencvaros go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
The words a physio says slowly. 85 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Ferencvaros have lost him in all but the paperwork.
A midfielder is measured on whether the team functions when he is on the pitch, which is nearly impossible to see and completely obvious in retrospect. 14 actions, 7.71, and a manager who will not be substituting him again in a hurry.
The name of Benjámin Gólik has come up in conversations Ferencvaros were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Squad21 Aug 2028
Words at Ferencvaros training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Cadu 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.
In brief
Player ratingsNinety minutes of Jonathan Levi at his very best
The words a physio says slowly. 96 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Ferencvaros have lost him in all but the paperwork.
He arrived for a fee and leaves for a fraction of it. $88.9K of what Ferencvaros paid for Claudiu Bumba is money the club will not see again, and the boardroom will be asked about it for two seasons.
13 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
Every run ends on an afternoon somebody had marked down as routine. This one went 8 matches, which is long enough that a town had stopped counting, and short enough that it will remember exactly who stopped it.
Puskas Akademia pay $300.0K, and the deal is done. The number reads well on a balance sheet; whether it reads well on the pitch is next season's question.
The mood at Ferencvaros has turned into something else
Supporters who sing when it goes badly are supporters. Supporters who gather afterwards are a problem, and everybody inside the building knows which of the two this now is.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Ferencvaros have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Mariano Gómez signs something — a contract at Ferencvaros or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Bersant Celina was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The clubs have shaken hands with Szeged-Csanád GA; the player has not yet. Personal terms are next, and personal terms are where more deals die than anybody prints.
Torpedo Moscow did not want to sell and the number is why they did. $4.7M for Jonathan Okoronkwo, and the expectation that arrives with him is the kind no amount of settling-in period softens.
Mariano Gómez 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.
At 17 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.
The terraces21 Jun 2027
Ferencvaros spend $4.7M on the signing the town wanted
It is the rarest sequence in football: supporters ask for something, and the club goes and does it. $4.7M for Jonathan Okoronkwo, and for one week nobody is complaining about anything.
Every dressing room knows how to read a signing like this one. Barnabás Kovács is not here to sit and wait indefinitely, and the man whose place he has been bought to take knows it better than anyone.
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Mariano Gómez is on it.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Ferencvaros will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
“I have ambitions, and I would like the club to share them.” Nobody has asked to leave and nobody has been shown the door — but a player chooses that sentence carefully, and a boardroom hears it exactly as it was meant.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Cristhián Rivas and Ferencvaros agree another 3 years.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Benjámin Gólik is 19, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Nobody at Ferencvaros 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.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Mariano Gómez signs something — a contract at Ferencvaros or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.