Marked for Justice Apaingolo
From our football correspondent
Steady
Match9 Oct 2028
Position 3, 10 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.
The dugout9 Oct 2028
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Skënderbeu Korçë may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Market9 Oct 2028
Vasilis Tounis has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Skënderbeu Korçë they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad9 Oct 2028
Esin Hakaj 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.
Squad9 Oct 2028
Flavio Mecja 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.
Match7 Oct 2028
Beaten 1‑2, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Loan watch9 Oct 2028
“I watch every Skënderbeu Korçë game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Kolkheti-1913 Poti runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
The dugout9 Oct 2028
The manager’s verdict
“That is on me. I pick the team and I picked wrong.” Managers say that when they mean it and when they need to be seen to, and after 1‑2 Alban Kallaku left the room before anybody could ask which.
The dugout9 Oct 2028
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Skënderbeu Korçë, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
Boardroom25 Sep 2028
The caretaker keeps it: Alban Kallaku confirmed
A month of looking elsewhere ended where it started. He already knows every name in the building; the rest of it he now has to prove in public.
Market25 Sep 2028
“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.
Market25 Sep 2028
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Skënderbeu Korçë is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad25 Sep 2028
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Flavio Mecja was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad25 Sep 2028
Matteo Milan 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.
Player ratings25 Sep 2028
A mark of 7.53, and nobody in the ground would argue with it. He was involved in everything that mattered and most of what did not.
The dugout25 Sep 2028
A fresh start for Paulo Estrela under the new man
Nothing resets a career like somebody arriving who did not pick the side last season. Paulo Estrela has taken the hint, and Skënderbeu Korçë are getting a version of him the previous regime had stopped seeing.
The dugout25 Sep 2028
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
The dugout25 Sep 2028
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Alban Kallaku after the 0‑0 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market18 Sep 2028
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Skënderbeu Korçë can pretend not to have heard.
Squad18 Sep 2028
Words at Skënderbeu Korçë training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Flavio Mecja 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.
Match16 Sep 2028
Egnatia Rrogozhinë left with the points after a 1‑2 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Squad18 Sep 2028
Mikael Rakipaj 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 dugout18 Sep 2028
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Bjorni Kastrati after 1‑2, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
Market18 Sep 2028
Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Paulo Estrela’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.
Market18 Sep 2028
The list is a quiet document with a loud meaning. Paulo Estrela may talk to anybody who asks, and everybody at the club understands what that means.
Player ratings18 Sep 2028
Successful dribbles: 9. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
The dugout18 Sep 2028
The shape wanted a different profile against this opponent, which is a real football answer and no comfort at all to the man it is about. He did nothing wrong and he did not play.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad11 Sep 2028
Esin Hakaj 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.
Squad11 Sep 2028
Geraldo Bajrami 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.
Market11 Sep 2028
The clock runs on Aristidi Kolaj's contract
48 months left and silence from upstairs — no offer, no talks, nothing for his people to answer. Clubs that let a calendar do their negotiating usually end up negotiating with the calendar.
Squad11 Sep 2028
“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 Skënderbeu Korçë know it.
Market11 Sep 2028
Vasilis Tounis is free to find somewhere else
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Skënderbeu Korçë has been clear about where Vasilis Tounis stands, which is more than many ever get.
The dugout11 Sep 2028
Ilir Dabjani gets it from the manager
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
Looking ahead11 Sep 2028
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.
The dugout11 Sep 2028
Idris Nuradeen asks for a word with the manager
“I would rather say it to his face than read about it.” The meeting was requested by the player, which tells you most of what you need to know.
Market11 Sep 2028
The Marco Alia talk will not go away
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Skënderbeu Korçë know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Boardroom5 Jun 2028
Muço Dajsinani has until the next board meeting
What was said behind closed doors has now been said in front of a microphone. Everybody at Skënderbeu Korçë can do the arithmetic, including the man it is aimed at.
Market5 Jun 2028
“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.
The dugout5 Jun 2028
This is not rotation. Baba Hamadu Musa has not been in the manager's plans for some time, and nobody at Skënderbeu Korçë is pretending otherwise.
Market5 Jun 2028
Ilir Dabjani has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Skënderbeu Korçë they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad5 Jun 2028
Esin Hakaj and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Boardroom5 Jun 2028
Nothing happens for months and then he simply arrives, at no cost, having signed a pre-contract while still turning out for somebody else. It is the least dramatic way to sign a footballer and frequently the shrewdest.
Squad5 Jun 2028
Words at Skënderbeu Korçë training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Idris Nuradeen 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 dugout5 Jun 2028
Flavio Mecja without the man who signed him
Every squad is half players the manager chose and half players he inherited. Flavio Mecja was chosen, the man who chose him has gone, and he starts again from nothing under the next one.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market17 Jan 2028
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Vora waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Skënderbeu Korçë is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Match17 Jan 2028
The last league game has been played and the table has stopped moving: 23 points. The summer begins on Monday, and so does the argument about what it all meant.
Market17 Jan 2028
“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 Skënderbeu Korçë, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad17 Jan 2028
46 days, the scan says, and scans are kinder than reality. The fixtures in that window have just become somebody else’s job.
Market17 Jan 2028
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Skënderbeu Korçë is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad17 Jan 2028
Rrok Toma 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.
Squad17 Jan 2028
Edwin Ayiba 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.
Squad17 Jan 2028
17 days, the scan says, and scans are kinder than reality. The fixtures in that window have just become somebody else’s job.
Player ratings17 Jan 2028
Headers, blocks, tackles, interceptions — 18 of them, and not one goal behind him. The sort of performance that never makes a highlight reel and wins football matches.
In brief
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The dugout
No hiding place for Vasilis Tounis
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Player ratings
The afternoon belonged to Esin Hakaj
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The dugout
The view from the dugout
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market15 Nov 2027
Only the photograph left for Lucho Vásquez
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Lucho Vásquez will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Skënderbeu Korçë the goodbyes have quietly begun.
The dugout15 Nov 2027
“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.
Squad15 Nov 2027
Esin Hakaj 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.
Squad15 Nov 2027
Words at Skënderbeu Korçë training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Edwin Ayiba 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 dugout15 Nov 2027
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
Boardroom15 Nov 2027
Wages eat 98% of everything Skënderbeu Korçë earn
There is a figure at which a wage bill stops being ambitious and becomes the reason nothing else is possible, and this club has reached it. Nothing is left over for a transfer, a stand or a rainy afternoon.
Squad15 Nov 2027
Skënderbeu Korçë are still strangers to each other
8 new signings in one window. Every one may be an upgrade and the side can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild the verdicts never mention.
Boardroom15 Nov 2027
Wages have outrun income and the accountants have started attending meetings they used to send apologies to. Ambition comes second in a season like this.
The dugout15 Nov 2027
Paulo Estrela asks for a word with the manager
“I would rather say it to his face than read about it.” The meeting was requested by the player, which tells you most of what you need to know.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad2 Aug 2027
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Skënderbeu Korçë will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Market2 Aug 2027
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Skënderbeu Korçë people have started saying his name in the past tense.
Market2 Aug 2027
Only the photograph left for Ilir Dabjani
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Ilir Dabjani will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Skënderbeu Korçë the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad2 Aug 2027
“The easiest signature of my career.” Philippe Guimarães and Skënderbeu Korçë agree another 2 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Transfer targets2 Aug 2027
Skënderbeu Korçë asked and Apolonia Fier said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Squad2 Aug 2027
Edwin Ayiba 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.
Squad2 Aug 2027
Vasilis Tounis and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
The dugout2 Aug 2027
Isaac Afolabi 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.
Market2 Aug 2027
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Skënderbeu Korçë, another week without a signature from Justice Apaingolo.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad19 Jul 2027
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Skënderbeu Korçë will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Transfer targets19 Jul 2027
The deal with Apolonia Fier died in the treatment room. Nobody will say what was found and everybody in the game will find out by Friday.
Squad19 Jul 2027
Esin Hakaj in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Skënderbeu Korçë this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad19 Jul 2027
Edwin Ayiba 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 dugout19 Jul 2027
Dajan Shehi knocks on the manager's door
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Skënderbeu Korçë, and both men came out saying it was fine.
The dugout19 Jul 2027
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Skënderbeu Korçë. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
Market19 Jul 2027
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Skënderbeu Korçë know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Market19 Jul 2027
The list is a quiet document with a loud meaning. Lucho Vásquez may talk to anybody who asks, and everybody at the club understands what that means.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad21 Jun 2027
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Skënderbeu Korçë will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Squad21 Jun 2027
Esin Hakaj in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Skënderbeu Korçë this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Transfer targets21 Jun 2027
The approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.
Squad21 Jun 2027
Edwin Ayiba 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.
Transfer targets21 Jun 2027
A loan enquiry to Tirana: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.
The dugout21 Jun 2027
Something was said to Ilir Dabjani and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
The dugout21 Jun 2027
Baba Hamadu Musa asks for a word with the manager
“I would rather say it to his face than read about it.” The meeting was requested by the player, which tells you most of what you need to know.
Market21 Jun 2027
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Skënderbeu Korçë know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad14 Jun 2027
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Skënderbeu Korçë will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Transfer targets14 Jun 2027
The approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.
Squad14 Jun 2027
Vasilis Tounis 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.
Squad14 Jun 2027
David Gjinollari 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.
Transfer targets14 Jun 2027
Tirana have been asked whether they would lend him. Loans are agreed quickly or not at all, and this one will be one or the other by the weekend.
Transfer targets14 Jun 2027
A loan enquiry to Abia Warriors: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.
Market14 Jun 2027
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Skënderbeu Korçë, another week without a signature from Justice Apaingolo.
Market14 Jun 2027
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Idris Nuradeen signs something — a contract at Skënderbeu Korçë or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Squad14 Jun 2027
He goes off to be somebody else’s player for a fortnight. Skënderbeu Korçë lose him for the window and would like him returned in the condition he left.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market5 Apr 2027
Only the photograph left for Lucho Vásquez
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Lucho Vásquez will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Skënderbeu Korçë the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad5 Apr 2027
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Ezéckiel Zola Ngundu is 19, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Squad5 Apr 2027
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Edwin Ayiba was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad5 Apr 2027
Xhafer Hodo and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad5 Apr 2027
“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; Skënderbeu Korçë are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
The dugout5 Apr 2027
The manager makes an example of Klahos Zani
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
Boardroom5 Apr 2027
The accounts make uncomfortable reading. Wages first and ambition second is the order of business at Skënderbeu Korçë now.
The dugout5 Apr 2027
Xhafer Hodo knocks on the manager's door
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Skënderbeu Korçë, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Market5 Apr 2027
“There is a gap, and pretending there is not helps nobody.” Neither side has moved, and the calendar is working for exactly one of them.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad22 Feb 2027
Esin Hakaj in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Skënderbeu Korçë this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad22 Feb 2027
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Edwin Ayiba was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Boardroom22 Feb 2027
155% of the income goes out in wages at Skënderbeu Korçë
Every club in football 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 somebody has tried it.
The dugout22 Feb 2027
Dajan Shehi asks for a word with the manager
“I would rather say it to his face than read about it.” The meeting was requested by the player, which tells you most of what you need to know.