Marked for Vukašin Topić
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Boardroom3 Apr 2028
The board’s statement ran to three sentences and one of them mentioned results. Miroslav Rajkovic has managed long enough to translate: win soon, or the next statement is shorter.
Squad3 Apr 2028
Words exchanged at Voždovac
Stefan Milić 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.
Squad3 Apr 2028
Miloš Vranjanin 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.
Market3 Apr 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.
Loan watch3 Apr 2028
“I am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at Voždovac, and 5 appearances in 12 say he has earned the hearing.
The dugout3 Apr 2028
Stefan Milić without the man who signed him
Every squad is half players the manager chose and half players he inherited. Stefan Milić was chosen, the man who chose him has gone, and he starts again from nothing under the next one.
Squad3 Apr 2028
Voždovac will explain it as a decision about the team, and it may well be one. A dressing room has never once read it that way.
Squad3 Apr 2028
“Ask me in the summer. I will know before anybody else does.” He is 36 with 383 appearances behind him, and Voždovac have to plan for both answers.
The dugout3 Apr 2028
Oliwier Latosi 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 Oliwier Latosi trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
Match20 Mar 2028
Vojvodina are in among the leaders
Position 2 and 61 points on the board. Nobody at the ground will say the word out loud yet, and everybody at the ground is thinking it.
Market20 Mar 2028
“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 The request is on a desk at Vojvodina, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad20 Mar 2028
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Vojvodina this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad20 Mar 2028
A move Christos Sioutas 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. Christos Sioutas is living that version at Vojvodina, and it tends to show in the first month.
Squad20 Mar 2028
Sunday Aniebet 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.
Loan watch20 Mar 2028
“I am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at Vojvodina, and 11 appearances in 37 say he has earned the hearing.
Squad20 Mar 2028
“The easiest signature of my career.” Luka Verbič and Vojvodina agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
The dugout20 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.
The dugout20 Mar 2028
Nobody will confirm this and nothing else explains the last month of selections. A costly error buys a player a period of being second choice that is always longer than the error was.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad6 Sep 2027
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Martin Pastornický is living that version at Voždovac, and it tends to show in the first month.
Market6 Sep 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 Voždovac, and it is not being withdrawn.
Boardroom6 Sep 2027
Deadline passes with 19 signed and 20 gone
That is the business done at Voždovac until the window opens again. Whether it was enough will be answered on Saturdays rather than in a column, and the first Saturday is close.
Squad6 Sep 2027
Words exchanged at Voždovac
Luka Svetličić 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.
Market6 Sep 2027
Vojvodina pay $170.0K, 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.
Squad6 Sep 2027
A row about effort at Voždovac
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Miloš Vranjanin was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Transfer targets6 Sep 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.
Squad6 Sep 2027
There is a level at which a footballer stops being tested and starts being contained, and he reached it some time ago. Voždovac know it, and so does everybody who watches him.
Market6 Sep 2027
Dawid Mandziuk is 20, and Voždovac have signed him for the player he will be rather than the one he is. The first team can wait; the point of a deal like this is the years it buys.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad3 May 2027
Kristian Šekularac 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.
Squad3 May 2027
A row about effort at Voždovac
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Miloš Vranjanin was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout3 May 2027
The manager makes an example of Danilo Knežević
“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.
Loan watch3 May 2027
“I watch every Voždovac game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Egaleo runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
Squad3 May 2027
“I did not come here to warm up in front of people.” He is out of contract eventually, he is old enough to count the weeks, and Voždovac will have to give him a reason to stay or an exit.
The dugout3 May 2027
Uroš Vukićević 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 Uroš Vukićević trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad26 Apr 2027
A season average of 7.02 at an age when most of his year group are still in the youth team. Voždovac know what they have, and so, by now, does everybody else.
Squad26 Apr 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 Voždovac this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The dugout26 Apr 2027
“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.
Squad26 Apr 2027
A row about effort at Voždovac
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Ognjen Dimitrić was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout26 Apr 2027
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Voždovac, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Market26 Apr 2027
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Voždovac know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad19 Apr 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 Voždovac this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad19 Apr 2027
A row about effort at Voždovac
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Miloš Vranjanin was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad19 Apr 2027
“Some mornings you wake up and you are still a long way from everything you know.” It is not the football and it never was; Voždovac are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Boardroom19 Apr 2027
Wages eat 97% of everything Voždovac earn
There is a figure at which a wage bill stops being ambitious and becomes the reason nothing else is possible, and this club has reached it. Nothing is left over for a transfer, a stand or a rainy afternoon.
Loan watch19 Apr 2027
“I did not go to FAP Priboj to sit and watch. I want to come back to Voždovac and fight for my place.” 10 appearances in 35 matches say the rest.
Squad19 Apr 2027
Voždovac are still strangers to each other
6 new signings in one window. Every one may be an upgrade and the side can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild the verdicts never mention.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Match9 Jan 2027
2 goals to the good, and then a slow surrender of everything that had been earned. Zhang Jiaming will not be the one blamed for it, but nobody at Voždovac escapes the conversation that follows a collapse like this.
Player ratings11 Jan 2027
No sign of nerves from Zhang Jiaming at 19 — 8.01
The hardest thing about being 19 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Zhang Jiaming did not need any: 8.01, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Market11 Jan 2027
Voždovac say no — this time
The offer from Egaleo for Uroš Stević 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.
Transfer targets11 Jan 2027
No thanks: Nikola Simić rejects the move
Voždovac had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at TSC, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
The dugout11 Jan 2027
“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.
Squad11 Jan 2027
Words exchanged at Voždovac
Kristian Šekularac 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.
Squad11 Jan 2027
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Vukašin Topić is 18, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Squad11 Jan 2027
Words at Voždovac training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mateja Dukić 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.
Transfer targets11 Jan 2027
Voždovac asked and Radnik Surdulica said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match5 Oct 2026
Voždovac are in among the leaders
Position 2 and 19 points on the board. Nobody at the ground will say the word out loud yet, and everybody at the ground is thinking it.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Luka Svetličić 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.
Squad5 Oct 2026
At 18 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.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Milan Lazarević 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.
Boardroom5 Oct 2026
152% of the income goes out in wages at Voždovac
Every club in football 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 somebody has tried it.
Match3 Oct 2026
Dubočica made Voždovac work for it, but the scoreboard read 1‑0 at the end and the table does not ask how.
Player ratings5 Oct 2026
A mark of 7.73, and nobody in the ground would argue with it. He was involved in everything that mattered and most of what did not.
The dugout5 Oct 2026
“The players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 1‑0, Miroslav Rajkovic could afford to be generous.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Nothing is announced when this happens and everybody knows. He is a bigger part of the plan at Voždovac than he was a month ago, and the training ground worked that out before the team sheet said so.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad31 Aug 2026
90 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Voždovac lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Market31 Aug 2026
“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.
Transfer targets31 Aug 2026
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Zeleznicar Pancevo is saying, and nobody at Voždovac is enjoying the guessing.
Squad31 Aug 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 Voždovac this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Transfer targets31 Aug 2026
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Partizan have kept their man, and Voždovac go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Match29 Aug 2026
Zemun made Voždovac work for it, but the scoreboard read 2‑1 at the end and the table does not ask how.
Market31 Aug 2026
Add another name to the list: Radnicki Nis have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Vukašin Braunović. The answer from Voždovac has not changed — yet.
Player ratings31 Aug 2026
Marked 7.94 on an afternoon he ran from the first whistle to the last. Whatever else went wrong, Voždovac had the best player on the pitch.
Squad31 Aug 2026
Voždovac are still strangers to each other
10 new signings in one window. Every one may be an upgrade and the side can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild the verdicts never mention.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market17 Aug 2026
Vojvodina say no — this time
The offer from Crvena Zvezda for Mihai Butean 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.
Transfer targets17 Aug 2026
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Vojvodina have done the hard part with IMT, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Transfer targets17 Aug 2026
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Viktoria Plzen is saying, and nobody at Vojvodina is enjoying the guessing.
Transfer targets17 Aug 2026
$370.0K on the table at Radnik Surdulica. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Nardin Mulahusejnović 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.
Transfer targets17 Aug 2026
$320.0K was the most the club would pay and Cukaricki were asking for more. Deals like this are revived in the last week of a window roughly half the time, and everybody involved knows it.
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
Both jobs done by Dejan Zukić — 6.89
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, 6.89, and a manager who will not be substituting him again in a hurry.
Boardroom17 Aug 2026
Nothing happens for months and then he simply arrives, at no cost, having signed a pre-contract while still turning out for somebody else. It is the least dramatic way to sign a footballer and frequently the shrewdest.
Market17 Aug 2026
The name of Vukašin Topić has come up in conversations Vojvodina were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad17 Aug 2026
A knee injury of the worst kind for Nikola Janković
105 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Voždovac lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Match15 Aug 2026
Ušće will want this one forgotten quickly: 4‑1, every duel lost, and a long ride home. Voždovac were ruthless in the way good sides are ruthless.
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
Two goals and a mark of 8.65 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Market17 Aug 2026
“I know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” Zemun had the fee agreed and the shirt ready; they did not have the player, and now they will not.
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
Zhang Jiaming, 19, plays like he has been here for years — 7.80
A mark of 7.80 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 19-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
Market17 Aug 2026
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Words exchanged at Voždovac
Luka Svetličić 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 targets17 Aug 2026
The offer went to Vojvodina this week and it is theirs to answer. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loud the door closes.
Transfer targets17 Aug 2026
Voždovac asked and Spartak Subotica said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.