Marked for Peter Botka
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad18 Jan 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 BATE this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad18 Jan 2027
Words at BATE training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Nikita Melnikov 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 dugout18 Jan 2027
When it matters, Peter Botka 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 dugout18 Jan 2027
The manager makes an example of Maxim Telesh
“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.
The dugout18 Jan 2027
Yuriy Kovalev 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 Yuriy Kovalev trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Squad18 Jan 2027
“I want to play”: Maxim Telesh speaks
“I respect the manager and I am not going to sit here and pretend I am happy.” It is the most common sentence in football and it has never once been the end of a story.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market18 Jan 2027
The unthinkable, invoiced: Marton Botka sold
Ferencvaros arrived with $12.1M and left with the best player in the building. The board will call it business; the queue at the ticket office will use other words.
The dugout18 Jan 2027
Krisztian Orban: that is not what I was promised
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Haladas have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
The terraces18 Jan 2027
Marton Botka has gone, the accounts have $12.1M in them, and the supporters have the feeling of having been sold something themselves. Good business and a good decision are not always the same thing.
Squad18 Jan 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 Haladas this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad18 Jan 2027
Bence Gergényi 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.
Loan watch18 Jan 2027
“I am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at Haladas, and 6 appearances in 22 say he has earned the hearing.
Transfer targets18 Jan 2027
A loan move for Zsombor Molnár is in the works
Haladas have made the call to Vasas. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
Transfer targets18 Jan 2027
A loan move for Bence Szalai is in the works
Haladas have made the call to Ujpest. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
The dugout18 Jan 2027
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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market11 Jan 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.
Squad11 Jan 2027
A falling-out at Haladas
Vitaliy Bolshakov and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
The dugout11 Jan 2027
“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.
Squad11 Jan 2027
A row about effort at Haladas
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Janos Botka was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Market11 Jan 2027
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Haladas has been clear about where Zsolt Kleinheisler stands, which is more than many ever get.
The dugout11 Jan 2027
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.
Loan watch11 Jan 2027
6 appearances away from home and 6 goals to show for them. Every one of them makes next summer's conversation a little more expensive.
The dugout11 Jan 2027
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Haladas. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
Squad11 Jan 2027
A new face in his position and a shirt he thought he owned suddenly up for discussion. Haladas have promised nothing, which is what clubs promise at this stage.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
The dugout21 Dec 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Kirill Kaplenko, and the manager let it.
Squad21 Dec 2026
A falling-out at BATE
Daniil Kutsepalov and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
The dugout21 Dec 2026
When it matters, Peter Botka 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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad21 Dec 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 Haladas this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match19 Dec 2026
0‑1 to Debrecen, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Loan watch21 Dec 2026
“I am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at Haladas, and 6 appearances in 18 say he has earned the hearing.
The dugout21 Dec 2026
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Mate Orban after 0‑1, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
Player ratings21 Dec 2026
There was no pressure on him and nowhere he had to be. Haladas lost a goal to a decision that took half a second and will be discussed all week.
The dugout21 Dec 2026
“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.
The dugout21 Dec 2026
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.
Squad21 Dec 2026
Words at Haladas training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Janos Botka 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.
Squad21 Dec 2026
Getting past Adam Lang has become the hardest job in the division
6 clean sheets and counting. Forwards used to back themselves here; now they shoot early, shoot wide, and look for somebody to blame.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match16 Nov 2026
Haladas refuse to drop out of the race
Position 3, 26 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.
Match14 Nov 2026
6 matches without a win for Haladas
The run now stands at 6, and the questions being asked around Haladas are no longer polite ones.
Squad16 Nov 2026
Words exchanged at Haladas
Norbert Szélpál 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.
Squad16 Nov 2026
Bence Gergényi 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 ratings16 Nov 2026
Successful dribbles: 18. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
The dugout16 Nov 2026
Bence Varga 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.
Market16 Nov 2026
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Szabolcs Szoboszlai has his answer from Haladas; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
The dugout16 Nov 2026
The manager has not finished forgetting Bence Varga's mistake
Publicly it is behind everybody. It is not behind the man who picks the team, and the only place that shows is a team sheet. He will get another chance; he will get it in a match that matters less.
The dugout16 Nov 2026
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 Norbert Szélpál is on it.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad9 Nov 2026
14 days out for Pavel Dubovskiy after a fracture
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. BATE will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Market9 Nov 2026
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around BATE they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad9 Nov 2026
Words exchanged at BATE
Yuriy Kovalev 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 Nov 2026
“The easiest signature of my career.” Vladislav Yatskevich and BATE agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
The dugout9 Nov 2026
“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 dugout9 Nov 2026
Peter Botka has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at BATE 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.
Market9 Nov 2026
“We are a long way apart, and pretending otherwise helps nobody.” Neither side is close, and the calendar is not on the club's side.
Market9 Nov 2026
The clock does Kirill Kaplenko’s negotiating for him
2 months left, and both sides know what that means: every week without a signature, the fee BATE could ask drops and the wages Kirill Kaplenko can ask rise.
The dugout9 Nov 2026
Ilya Raschenya 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 Ilya Raschenya trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad19 Oct 2026
Maksim Volodko damages knee ligaments — 23 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 23 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.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 38 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Market19 Oct 2026
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at BATE is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
The dugout19 Oct 2026
Nikita Nikonorov: that is not what I was promised
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” BATE have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Squad19 Oct 2026
A falling-out at BATE
Sergey Pryakhin and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
The dugout19 Oct 2026
A promise honoured at BATE
Something was said to Peter Botka and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
In brief
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Squad
15 new faces, and BATE are still learning each other
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The dugout
Sergey Pryakhin has become a man the manager trusts
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The dugout
Egor Kress asks for a word with the manager
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Market
Still no signature from Egor Kress
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad12 Oct 2026
A knee injury of the worst kind for Maksim Volodko
30 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. BATE lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Market12 Oct 2026
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Vladislav Yatskevich will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around BATE the goodbyes have quietly begun.
The dugout12 Oct 2026
Maxim Telesh: that is not what I was promised
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” BATE have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Squad12 Oct 2026
Words exchanged at BATE
Sergey Pryakhin 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 dugout12 Oct 2026
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. BATE told Sergey Pryakhin something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
The dugout12 Oct 2026
“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.
The dugout12 Oct 2026
Peter Botka gets picked when it counts
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 Peter Botka is on it.
Squad12 Oct 2026
A window away with the national side, and a shirt at BATE that briefly doubles as an advertisement. A call-up flatters the player and the club that built him in the same breath.
Squad12 Oct 2026
Danila Sokol called up by his country
A window away with the national side, and a shirt at BATE that briefly doubles as an advertisement. A call-up flatters the player and the club that built him in the same breath.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Match23 Sep 2026
Cup ties wait for somebody to seize them, and Peter Botka obliged against Gomel. 3‑0 on the night, and the name in the next round’s hat is BATE.
Player ratings28 Sep 2026
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 9.37, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
Match23 Sep 2026
BATE cannot stop winning
6 wins on the spin now, and the question has changed from whether the run ends to who ends it. Confidence like this cannot be bought; it has to be earned exactly this way.
The dugout28 Sep 2026
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” BATE may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Player ratings28 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 24. 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.
Market28 Sep 2026
Ilya Raschenya has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around BATE they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad28 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 BATE this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Boardroom28 Sep 2026
The paperwork is done long before the player is. Yaroslav Oreshkevich has agreed terms to come here when his current deal runs out, which means BATE have spent a summer's transfer budget on a phone call.
Transfer targets28 Sep 2026
BATE asked and Zorya said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match26 Sep 2026
3‑0, and Marton Botka took the headlines on an afternoon when everything Haladas tried came off. Days like this are retold all winter.
Player ratings28 Sep 2026
Two goals and a mark of 9.48 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Player ratings28 Sep 2026
Marked 8.00 at 18, in a side that makes no allowances for age. He did not need any, and he looked the least nervous man on the pitch.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Norbert Szélpál 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.
Player ratings28 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 18. 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.
Squad28 Sep 2026
36 days, the scan says, and scans are kinder than reality. The fixtures in that window have just become somebody else’s job.
Squad28 Sep 2026
The medical room confirms 31 days on the sidelines for Julen Moreno, and a plan built around him now has to be rebuilt.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Defences have started doubling up on Marton Botka
9 goals and a season average of 7.21 will do that. The space he used to find has gone; he keeps scoring anyway, which is the mark of the real thing.
The dugout28 Sep 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.” Mate Orban kept it short after the 3‑0 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad14 Sep 2026
The knee: Janos Botka out for 17 days
17 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Haladas lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Match12 Sep 2026
No end in sight to Haladas's wait for a win
5 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Haladas has to find a result from somewhere.
Market14 Sep 2026
Janos Botka 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 Haladas can pretend not to have heard.
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 23. 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.
Squad14 Sep 2026
A falling-out at Haladas
Norbert Szélpál and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Bence Gergényi 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
Beaten 0‑2, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Squad14 Sep 2026
The medical room confirms 14 days on the sidelines for Janos Dibusz, and a plan built around him now has to be rebuilt.
The dugout14 Sep 2026
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 0‑2 Mate Orban left the room before anybody could ask which.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Player ratings7 Sep 2026
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 8.71, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
Market7 Sep 2026
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around BATE they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Market7 Sep 2026
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Slonim waiting with a shirt. Nobody at BATE is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Player ratings7 Sep 2026
Age has not caught Yuriy Kovalev yet — 7.90
At 33 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 7.90 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Transfer targets7 Sep 2026
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Neftchi have kept their man, and BATE go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Transfer targets7 Sep 2026
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Shakhtar keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Match5 Sep 2026
BATE make it 3 in a row
Momentum is a hard thing to buy and an easy thing to lose, and right now BATE have 3 straight wins of it.
Boardroom7 Sep 2026
The rules permit it and it stings anyway. Ilya Raschenya has agreed terms with Dinamo Minsk for the summer, and until then he pulls on this shirt as a player who has already chosen his next one.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Tempers go at BATE
Pavel Mogilevets 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.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Match26 Aug 2026
BATE through in the cup
A 1‑0 win over Slavia Mozyr, and the draw for the next round can be watched with some interest for once.
Match29 Aug 2026
5‑0, and Kirill Kaplenko took the headlines on an afternoon when everything BATE tried came off. Days like this are retold all winter.
Player ratings31 Aug 2026
A brace, and Peter Botka takes the afternoon — 8.60
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Peter Botka provided it, and the 8.60 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Squad31 Aug 2026
3 goals in one afternoon from one man. The other players were also present, a witness confirmed.
Player ratings31 Aug 2026
Yuriy Kovalev, 33, rolls back the years — 7.83
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 7.83 at 33, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Market31 Aug 2026
Only the photograph left for Ilya Raschenya
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Ilya Raschenya will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around BATE the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Transfer targets31 Aug 2026
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at CSKA Moscow is saying, and nobody at BATE is enjoying the guessing.
Boardroom31 Aug 2026
He will play here until the summer and then walk out of the door for free, having already signed elsewhere. Supporters will manage the first part of that sentence; it is the second they will struggle with.
Match29 Aug 2026
Still nobody has beaten BATE
The unbeaten run reaches 7. Some of them were wins and some were escapes, but a side that refuses to lose is a side other dressing rooms talk about.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Match1 Aug 2026
The 86th minute, half the ground already edging towards the exits, and Peter Botka decided nobody was going anywhere. Vasas had no time left to answer.
Player ratings3 Aug 2026
A debut Zsolt Orban will not forget — 7.20
There is exactly one of these per career and it does not usually go like this. 0 on the scoresheet, 7.20 beside the name, and a crowd that had never seen him before chanting it by the end.
Market3 Aug 2026
The bid was some way short and Haladas did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Market3 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 Haladas, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Vitaliy Bolshakov 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.
Market3 Aug 2026
The name of Akos Lang has come up in conversations Haladas were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Transfer targets3 Aug 2026
Haladas asked and Groningen said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
The terraces3 Aug 2026
The crowd has taken to Zsolt Orban
At 17 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.
Match1 Aug 2026
Vasas made Haladas work for it, but the scoreboard read 1‑0 at the end and the table does not ask how.