“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 The request is on a desk at AF Elbasani, and it is not being withdrawn.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at AF Elbasani this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Romarjo Sulo and AF Elbasani agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad19 Apr 2027
Words at AF Elbasani training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Marjus Korreshi 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.
Position 10 and 3 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.
Insa Boye 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.
Squad8 Mar 2027
Words at AF Elbasani training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Marjus Korreshi 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.
He is not being dropped. There is simply nowhere in the formation AF Elbasani are playing to put a man who does what he does, which is a harder thing to be told than any team sheet.
He asked about his future and was given an answer with minutes in it. The manager has now made a promise in a building where promises are remembered, and the clock on it has started.
19 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. AF Elbasani lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Position 10 and 2 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 AF Elbasani can pretend not to have heard.
Transfer targets11 Jan 2027
$400.0K settles it between the clubs for Lucho Vásquez
Skënderbeu Korçë have accepted the money. What AF Elbasani do not yet have is the man, and between here and the photograph is a conversation about wages that both sides are dreading.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. AF Elbasani have done the hard part with Tirana, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Insa Boye 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 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
26 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. AF Elbasani lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what AF Elbasani can pretend not to have heard.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Ernesto Marqeshi is 19, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at AF Elbasani this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“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; AF Elbasani are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
33 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. AF Elbasani lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Player ratings28 Dec 2026
A brace, and Mustapha Koma takes the afternoon — 9.03
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Mustapha Koma provided it, and the 9.03 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Insa Boye was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
He is 19 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.
15 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
The words a physio says slowly. 40 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at AF Elbasani this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Insa Boye was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
14 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
Position 10 and 2 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.
Glenis Belloj and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad14 Dec 2026
Words at AF Elbasani training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Amri Kallaku 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.
Redon Gega 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.
Squad16 Nov 2026
Words at AF Elbasani training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Amri Kallaku 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.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. AF Elbasani told Skender Lilaj something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
The team at the top of the table next, and the honest measure of where this side actually is. Anybody can beat the club below them; the question is what happens against Flamurtari.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at AF Elbasani, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Squad16 Nov 2026
Glenis Belloj, 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 AF Elbasani would like this to lead.
The chances are being made and something is happening between the making and the finishing. 3 matches now, and the anxiety in the ground arrives a little earlier every week.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at AF Elbasani this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Xhordan Lajthia was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Alessio Allkollari is living that version at AF Elbasani, and it tends to show in the first month.
The most common injury in the game and the most rushed back from. AF Elbasani will quote 14 days and will be careful with it, because the second one is always worse than the first.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Vllaznia Shkodër is saying, and nobody at AF Elbasani is enjoying the guessing.
He left as a boy and has come back still knowing where the away end is. Most signings have to be explained to a town; this one needed a photograph and nothing else.
Insa Boye and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Amri Kallaku 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.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at AF Elbasani, another week without a signature from Glenis Belloj.
AF Elbasani have made the call to Partizani Tirana. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.