It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Tirana this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Add another name to the list: Burreli have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Klajdi Kuka. The answer from Tirana has not changed — yet.
Squad23 Aug 2027
Mateo Deda 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.
Nobody at Tirana 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 Freddy Álvarez signs something — a contract at Tirana or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
What was a back-page story is now a matter for the terraces, and the terraces do not do nuance. Tirana would like it dealt with before it becomes the only question anybody asks.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Iliria Fushë-Krujë waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Tirana is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Serxho Prendi will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Tirana the goodbyes have quietly begun.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Tirana this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The manager has re-ordered his thinking and Basilio Basilio has come out of it lower. He will be told it is temporary, and the players who have heard that before will avoid his eye.
“I watch every Tirana game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Niki Volos runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
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.
Squad2 Aug 2027
Mateo Deda 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.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Donat Mehmeti will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Tirana the goodbyes have quietly begun.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Tirana this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Nobody at Tirana 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 Mateo Deda 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 Basilio Basilio signs something — a contract at Tirana 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 Angelos Tafas has written the date down.
32 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Tirana lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Freddy Álvarez 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.
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Mateo Deda was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 19 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.
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.
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 Patrik Myslovič is on it.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Mateo Deda 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 Redon Xhixha signs something — a contract at Tirana or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Tirana have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Tirana is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Nobody at Tirana 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.
Squad15 Feb 2027
Mateo Deda 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.
He trains hard, says the right things and goes home to an empty flat. Nobody at Tirana has done anything wrong, which is exactly what makes it so difficult to fix.
Freddy Álvarez 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.
The phone has started ringing about Donat Mehmeti again, and this time the name on the line is Vora. Tirana are listening politely and promising nothing.
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Florenc Kampula on a 2‑0 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
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 Serge Tabékou is on it.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Mateo Deda was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
In brief
The dugoutSomebody else is better right now than Ermal Meta
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Tirana this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 1‑2, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
The dugout14 Dec 2026
Johán Cortés is still being punished for one mistake
Nobody will confirm it and the team sheets confirm it every week. One error has bought him a spell as second choice that is already longer than the error deserved.
There was no pressure on him and nowhere he had to be. Tirana lost a goal to a decision that took half a second and will be discussed all week.
Squad14 Dec 2026
Words at Tirana training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mateo Deda 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.
Freddy Álvarez had done his part in building a 2-goal cushion. What happened after that was collective, and Egnatia Rrogozhinë were allowed back into a match that had been finished with.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Emiljano Mihana provided it, and the 8.91 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Two goals and a mark of 7.98 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
The hardest thing about being 17 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Mateo Deda did not need any: 7.97, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Tirana can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Tirana this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
He is 23 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.
Marked 8.15 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
“I watch every Tirana game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Korabi Peshkopi runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
Chances created: 10. Not on the scoresheet and not remotely anonymous — a passing performance that pulled a defence apart without leaving a mark on the column that gets read.
Squad21 Sep 2026
Words at Tirana training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mateo Deda 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 used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Egnatia Rrogozhinë in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.