Aleks Šturm

Attacking Midfielder (R) - Free Agent
26 Jun 2030
Wednesday
Process

Marked for Aleks Šturm

167 Edition

The Koper Herald

8 Oct 2029
From our football correspondent Steady

Squad

27 days out for Karlo Pajsar after a fracture

A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Koper will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.

Player ratings

Giuseppe Agyemang runs at them all day

Successful dribbles: 31. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.

Market

Jurica Jurčec asks to leave Koper

“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.

Market

Jurica Jurčec is on his way

The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Koper is pretending he will be back in the shirt.

Squad

Tempers go at Koper

Maj Mittendorfer 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.

Squad

Adrian Zeljković 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.

Squad

Koper lose Aleks Šturm

39 days, the medical staff say, and medical staff are optimists by profession. The team sheet will look wrong without him.

Boardroom

Wages swallow 115% of the Koper income

Every club 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 it has been tried.

Player ratings

Nobody on the pitch touched Andraž Ruedl

7.75, and no serious argument from anybody who was there. Koper had eleven men on the pitch and one of them decided how it went.

In brief

Back issues
125 Edition

The Koper Herald

18 Dec 2028
From our football correspondent Steady

Market

Edoardo Piana hands in a written request

“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Koper can pretend not to have heard.

Squad

Words exchanged at Koper

Adrian Zeljković 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.

Squad

Words at Koper training over how hard people work

Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Maj Mittendorfer 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.

The dugout

No hiding place for Jasmin Kurtić

“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Jasmin Kurtić, and the manager let it.

The dugout

When it matters, Edoardo Piana plays

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 dugout

Andraž Ruedl 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 Andraž Ruedl trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.

In brief

118 Edition

The Koper Herald

30 Oct 2028
From our football correspondent Steady

Squad

The knee: Orkhan Guseynov out for 53 days

53 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Koper lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.

Market

Check Oumar Diakité puts it in writing

“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 Koper, and it is not being withdrawn.

The dugout

news_h_frozen_out_of_the_side

news_b_frozen_out_of_the_side

The dugout

Aleks Šturm keeps the receipts

“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Koper may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.

Squad

A falling-out at Koper

Maj Mittendorfer and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.

Squad

A row about effort at Koper

Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Adrian Zeljković was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.

Match

NK Domzale take the points off Koper

Beaten 0‑2, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.

The dugout

No hiding place for Nik Pirc

“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Nik Pirc, and the manager let it.

The dugout

Koper keep their word to Andraž Ruedl

Clubs make promises constantly and the page usually only hears about them when they are broken. This one was honoured, and the dressing room noticed that faster than any supporter did.

In brief