Fatmir Prengaj 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.
Squad5 Apr 2027
Ilir Allmuça 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 new man at Apolonia Fier has worked with Ersildjo Asllanaj before and it went well. He arrives with a view of the player already formed, which is worth more than any pre-season.
“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 Apolonia Fier know it.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Apolonia Fier, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Fatmir Prengaj 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.
Squad16 Nov 2026
Oltjan Haremi 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 new man at Apolonia Fier has worked with Ersildjo Asllanaj before and it went well. He arrives with a view of the player already formed, which is worth more than any pre-season.
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Iliria Fushë-Krujë in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Flavio Mecja signs something — a contract at Apolonia Fier or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
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 Oltjan Haremi has written the date down.
Two hours a week with a tutor, which is the least glamorous thing at Apolonia Fier and the one that decides whether a foreign signing is still here in two years.
0‑3 to Korabi Peshkopi, and it was every bit as bad as the number suggests. There are defeats you argue about and defeats you apologise for; this was the second kind.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Oltjan Haremi was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The music was off and the showers ran late. What was said in that dressing room stays there, but Saturday will publish the minutes.
Squad14 Sep 2026
19 new faces, and Apolonia Fier are still learning each other
A squad rebuilt inside one window pays for it in a currency nobody budgets for. The football is not worse than the sum of the players; it is worse than the sum of the players who have played together before.
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 0‑3, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
Serxho Prendi 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.
Akinola Adesokan is 19, and Apolonia Fier 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.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Apolonia Fier can pretend not to have heard.
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 21 arrived, 28 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
The phone has started ringing about Ilvius Murati again, and this time the name on the line is Naftan. Apolonia Fier are listening politely and promising nothing.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Apolonia Fier this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Gresild Lika’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Apolonia Fier needing him to play as if none of it matters.
A decision that decides nothing on the pitch and everything in the room. The manager has said, without saying it, whose voice he wants heard when his own is not there.
Apolonia Fier opened the door and nobody walked through it. So Xhesild Maliqi stays — listed, trained, and available — while both sides mark the days to January on the same calendar.
20 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Apolonia Fier lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
“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.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Apolonia Fier can pretend not to have heard.
Fatmir Prengaj 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.
Boardroom31 Aug 2026
2 academy players handed senior numbers at Apolonia Fier
The morning the pathway stops being a brochure and becomes a team sheet. Most of them will not be here in three years; all of them have already done the hard part, which was getting to today.
Squad31 Aug 2026
Oltjan Haremi 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.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Esin Marqeshi is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Xhesild Maliqi has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.
The offer from Dunav Ruse for Xhuliano Markoçi 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.
The phone has started ringing about Ersi Kapo again, and this time the name on the line is Spartak Pleven. Apolonia Fier are listening politely and promising nothing.
Apolonia Fier asked and NK Maribor said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
He is doing things on a Saturday afternoon that nobody around him can answer, which is flattering for about one season and a problem after that. Apolonia Fier will not keep him by pretending otherwise.