Marked for Hetem Lushaj
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match21 Nov 2026
The wait goes on for Flamurtari
4 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.
Squad23 Nov 2026
Cristian Núñez 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.
Match21 Nov 2026
The goals have deserted Flamurtari
3 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Flamurtari can tell you which week it ends in.
Player ratings23 Nov 2026
Marked 7.29. Ask anyone leaving the ground what settled it and you will get one name, which is the only award that has ever really counted.
The dugout23 Nov 2026
The manager makes an example of Hetem Lushaj
“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.
Squad23 Nov 2026
A row about effort at Flamurtari
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Dimitris Chantakias was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout23 Nov 2026
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Aizak Skënderaj after the 0‑0 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
The dugout23 Nov 2026
Christ Evo Ememe has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Flamurtari 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.
Match21 Nov 2026
The crowd waited for a goal that never came. Teuta Durrës defended in numbers and left with what they came for, and the two sides could be playing still without troubling a scorer.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
Match2 Nov 2026
18 points on the board and a place in the leading group. Nobody at the ground is saying the word out loud yet.
Squad2 Nov 2026
Jacques Mbé 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 Flamurtari this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Player ratings2 Nov 2026
Successful dribbles: 15. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
Squad2 Nov 2026
Somebody has moved past him. It is not a dropping and it is worse than one, because a dropping is about a Saturday and this is about where he stands.
Squad2 Nov 2026
William Baeten named in the team of the month
A month is long enough that nobody gets in by accident. William Baeten is in the division's best eleven for it, which is a quieter compliment than an award and a more reliable one.
Match31 Oct 2026
A 1‑1 draw with Partizani Tirana leaves the dressing room somewhere between relief and regret.
Squad2 Nov 2026
A row about effort at Flamurtari
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Dimitris Chantakias was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout2 Nov 2026
The view from the dugout
“We did not lose. Some weeks that is all you get, and I would rather have the point than not.” Aizak Skënderaj chose the glass-half-full version of 1‑1; the supporters left with the other one.
The dugout2 Nov 2026
Momčilo Rašo has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Flamurtari 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.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match26 Oct 2026
First, on 17 points. The table is a fact and a fact is allowed to be enjoyed, which is as far as anybody at the club is prepared to go in public.
Squad26 Oct 2026
Jacques Mbé 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.
Match24 Oct 2026
It finished 1‑0, and it was William Baeten’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Flamurtari.
Squad26 Oct 2026
Lorenc Trashi 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.
Player ratings26 Oct 2026
Ninety minutes of William Baeten at his very best
Marked 8.13. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Flamurtari.
The dugout26 Oct 2026
The manager makes an example of Hetem Lushaj
“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.
Player ratings26 Oct 2026
Nobody could get near Redi Kasa
Successful dribbles: 16. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
The dugout26 Oct 2026
The manager’s verdict
“I am not going to get carried away and I will not let them either. It was a good day. There will be harder ones.” Aizak Skënderaj kept it short after the 1‑0 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
The dugout26 Oct 2026
Christ Evo Ememe has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Flamurtari 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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Player ratings19 Oct 2026
Successful dribbles: 28. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Player ratings19 Oct 2026
Lorenc Trashi, 34, rolls back the years — 7.97
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 7.97 at 34, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Squad19 Oct 2026
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Hetem Lushaj and Flamurtari agree another 4 years.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Jacques Mbé 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.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Words at Flamurtari training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Lorenc Trashi 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 dugout19 Oct 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Igor Aleksovski, and the manager let it.
Match17 Oct 2026
It needed Lorenc Trashi to find the net to bring anything home at all: 1‑1 against Egnatia Rrogozhinë, and half the dressing room will call it a point won.
The dugout19 Oct 2026
“It is not the end of the world and it is not good enough. Both of those are true.” The manager, after a 1‑1 draw, said the honest thing and then went to say it again inside.
Market19 Oct 2026
No place for Hamza Ramani in the plan
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Hamza Ramani has his answer from Flamurtari; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Match5 Oct 2026
Flamurtari are in among the leaders
Position 3 and 10 points on the board. Nobody at the ground will say the word out loud yet, and everybody at the ground is thinking it.
Squad5 Oct 2026
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Flamurtari this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match3 Oct 2026
Beaten 0‑1, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Lorenc Trashi 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.
Boardroom5 Oct 2026
Wages swallow 115% of the Flamurtari 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.
The dugout5 Oct 2026
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Aizak Skënderaj after 0‑1, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
Player ratings5 Oct 2026
Successful dribbles: 15. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Lorenc Trashi named in the team of the month
A month is long enough that nobody gets in by accident. Lorenc Trashi is in the division's best eleven for it, which is a quieter compliment than an award and a more reliable one.
The dugout5 Oct 2026
Hetem Lushaj dropped after a run of poor form
The one version of being left out a player cannot argue with, and the one he takes worst. Somebody else has been better and the team sheet says so, in public, every week until it changes.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match23 Sep 2026
A 1‑0 win over Dinamo City, a place in the next round, and the quiet arithmetic every supporter does on the walk home: how many more until a final?
Match28 Sep 2026
The view from the top for Flamurtari
10 points, and the rest of the division looking up. Every side that finishes first spends the season pretending it is not thinking about it, and this one has started pretending.
Player ratings28 Sep 2026
No sign of nerves from Pereowei Magbisa at 19 — 7.97
The hardest thing about being 19 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Pereowei Magbisa did not need any: 7.97, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Cristian Núñez 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.
The terraces28 Sep 2026
At 19 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
Player ratings28 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 17. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
The dugout28 Sep 2026
Hetem Lushaj 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.
Player ratings28 Sep 2026
Marked 7.27 on an afternoon he ran from the first whistle to the last. Whatever else went wrong, Flamurtari had the best player on the pitch.
The dugout28 Sep 2026
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Aizak Skënderaj was not hiding it after 0‑0, and nobody in the Flamurtari dressing room was either.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Player ratings21 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 23. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad21 Sep 2026
Cristian Núñez 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.
Match19 Sep 2026
Dinamo City left with the points after a 0‑1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
The dugout21 Sep 2026
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Aizak Skënderaj after 0‑1, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
Squad21 Sep 2026
Words at Flamurtari training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Dimitris Chantakias 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 dugout21 Sep 2026
The form table has caught Hetem Lushaj
Somebody else has been better, the manager has said so with a team sheet, and there is no argument to be had. He will get the shirt back the only way it can be got back.
Looking ahead21 Sep 2026
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Alex Peralta’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Flamurtari needing him to play as if none of it matters.
Market21 Sep 2026
Flamurtari have made Christ Evo Ememe available for transfer. A career at this club is over in all but paperwork.
The dugout21 Sep 2026
The manager wanted a different profile for this opponent, which is a real football reason and no consolation. He did nothing wrong and he did not play.
In brief
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Squad
Léo Melo is not doing himself any favours
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Looking ahead
Looking ahead: the trip to Bylis
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Squad
Lorenc Trashi named in the team of the week