Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Victor Kabziński will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around FCI Levadia U21 the goodbyes have quietly begun.
4 months left, and both sides know what that means: every week without a signature, the fee FCI Levadia U21 could ask drops and the wages Alexandr Karnitskiy can ask rise.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Victor Kabziński will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around FCI Levadia U21 the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Frank Tamm was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Nothing is announced when this happens and everybody knows. He is a bigger part of the plan at FCI Levadia U21 than he was a month ago, and the training ground worked that out before the team sheet said so.
A manager forgives a bad Saturday far more readily than a bad Tuesday, because one of them he can explain and the other one he chose. The reports this week have not been good.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Victor Kabziński will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around FCI Levadia U21 the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Frank Tamm was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“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 FCI Levadia U21 will have to give him a reason to stay or an exit.
It is a strip of cloth and it decides nothing on a Saturday. It still tells the dressing room exactly whose opinion the manager values, which is the whole point of it.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around FCI Levadia U21 people have started saying his name in the past tense.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at FCI Levadia U21 is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what FCI Levadia U21 can pretend not to have heard.
Abu Bakarr Bangura 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Tico 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.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what FCI Levadia U21 can pretend not to have heard.
“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 FCI Levadia U21 know it.
The phone has started ringing about Victor Kabziński again, and this time the name on the line is Welco. FCI Levadia U21 are listening politely and promising nothing.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Victor Kabziński and FCI Levadia U21 agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad14 Aug 2028
Frank Tamm 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.
Position 8 and 17 points, and the table gets read bottom-up in this part of town. The calendar has stopped being a schedule and started being a countdown.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what FCI Levadia U21 can pretend not to have heard.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around FCI Levadia U21 they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
In brief
SquadWords at FCI Levadia U21 training over how hard people work
The dugoutKarl Ainsalu knocks on the manager’s door
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Welco waiting with a shirt. Nobody at FCI Levadia U21 is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
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.
Tammeka will want this one forgotten quickly: 3‑0, every duel lost, and a long ride home. FCI Levadia were ruthless in the way good sides are ruthless.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Luke Butterfield and FCI Levadia agree another 3 years.
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.
Squad3 Apr 2028
Words at FCI Levadia training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Michael Udebuluzor 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.
Karl Andre Vallner and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad3 Apr 2028
A place in the month's best eleven for Frank Liivak
Four or five weekends of consistency, judged against everybody in the division doing his job. Frank Liivak has come out of that comparison in the side, and FCI Levadia have had the benefit of every one of those afternoons.
The words a physio says slowly. 30 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.
Kuressaare will want this one forgotten quickly: 5‑0, every duel lost, and a long ride home. FCI Levadia were ruthless in the way good sides are ruthless.
Two goals and a mark of 10.00 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Position 3 on 35 points. Every season is a story and this is the last line of it, and now the club has three months to decide what the next one is about.
Position 3, 35 points, and the result everyone checks first is now theirs. The word is still not being said around the ground, which is how you know everyone is thinking it.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Volta Redonda is saying, and nobody at FCI Levadia is enjoying the guessing.
“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; FCI Levadia are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
The words a physio says slowly. 37 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.
Player ratings5 Jul 2027
Thiago Azaf, 20, plays like he has been here for years — 8.35
A mark of 8.35 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 20-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
A season average of 7.18 at an age when most of his year group are still in the youth team. FCI Levadia know what they have, and so, by now, does everybody else.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at FCI Levadia can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Rafael Santos 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Guarani have kept their man, and FCI Levadia go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Akim Belokhonov 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 words a physio says slowly. 51 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 hardest thing about being 20 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Victor Kabziński did not need any: 7.90, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 20 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Goiás is saying, and nobody at FCI Levadia is enjoying the guessing.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” FCI Levadia have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
1 for Tico, marked 7.81, and a centre-half's name in the part of the report he normally only reaches by mistake. He will not be allowed to forget it in the dressing room for a month.
Rafael Santos 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.
7 goals in one match, Victor Kabziński on the scoresheet, and a scoreline that will look like a misprint. Neutrals could not have asked more of FCI Levadia and FC Tallinn.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what FCI Levadia can pretend not to have heard.
Rafael Santos 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.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Victor Kabziński is living that version at FCI Levadia, and it tends to show in the first month.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Dmitriy Podstrelov was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
FCI Levadia asked and Nova Iguaçu said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
15 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.
Victor Kabziński is 19, and FCI Levadia 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.
Nobody at FCI Levadia 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.