Marked for Michael Ilsanker
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market3 May 2027
“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 The request is on a desk at Botev Vratsa, and it is not being withdrawn.
Market3 May 2027
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Lyuboslav Stoyanov will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Botev Vratsa the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad3 May 2027
Radoslav Tsonev 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.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market26 Apr 2027
Iliya Yurukov 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 Botev Vratsa can pretend not to have heard.
Squad26 Apr 2027
Words at Botev Vratsa training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Radoslav Tsonev 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.
Squad26 Apr 2027
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Botev Vratsa this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market8 Mar 2027
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Botev Vratsa they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad8 Mar 2027
“The easiest signature of my career.” Daniel Genov and Botev Vratsa agree another 2 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad8 Mar 2027
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Botev Vratsa this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market1 Mar 2027
“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.
Squad1 Mar 2027
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Botev Vratsa this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad1 Mar 2027
Radoslav Tsonev 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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad14 Sep 2026
Maximiliano Planté damages knee ligaments — 43 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 43 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 34. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Market14 Sep 2026
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Admira Wacker heard it as anything else.
Squad14 Sep 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 Admira Wacker this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Florian Baumgartner 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.
Match12 Sep 2026
3 games without scoring. Strikers stop looking up, midfielders take the extra touch, and every shot that clears the bar is followed by a groan that has been building since the last goal.
Match12 Sep 2026
Beaten 0‑1, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Market14 Sep 2026
“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.
Loan watch14 Sep 2026
“I watch every Admira Wacker game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Red Bull Salzburg runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad31 Aug 2026
58 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Admira Wacker lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Player ratings31 Aug 2026
A brace, and Markus Alaba takes the afternoon — 8.29
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Markus Alaba provided it, and the 8.29 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Player ratings31 Aug 2026
Marcel Ilsanker could not have asked for more on his first appearance — 7.24
Debuts are survived rather than enjoyed. This one was enjoyed: 7.24, 0 goals, and a manager already being asked whether he starts again next week.
Player ratings31 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 27. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Market31 Aug 2026
“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 Admira Wacker, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad31 Aug 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 Admira Wacker this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The terraces31 Aug 2026
At 18 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.
Match29 Aug 2026
Beaten 0‑2, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.