Viktor Benes

Goalkeeper - Paksi
3 Dec 2028
Sunday
Process

Marked for Viktor Benes

120 Edition

The Paksi Gazette

13 Nov 2028
From our football correspondent Crisis

Match

The wait goes on for Paksi

6 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.

Player ratings

Age has not caught János Hahn yet — 7.92

At 33 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 7.92 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.

Player ratings

Nobody could get near Bamidele Yusuf

Successful dribbles: 24. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.

Squad

Tempers go at Paksi

Milan Gajić 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.

Match

A bad afternoon for Paksi against Honved

1‑2 to Honved, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.

Squad

Words at Paksi training over how hard people work

Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Guti 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.

In brief

Back issues
112 Edition

The Paksi Gazette

18 Sep 2028
From our football correspondent Upbeat

Squad

Tempers go at Paksi

Milan Gajić 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.

Match

Paksi find a way past Diosgyor

Diosgyor made Paksi work for it, but the scoreboard read 1‑0 at the end and the table does not ask how.

Player ratings

Bamidele Yusuf in the eights

A performance of 8.29 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.

Squad

Zsombor Bévárdi 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

Home is on Viktor Benes's mind

“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; Paksi are dealing with a man who wants a different country.

Squad

Erik Silye 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.

Market

The Barna Tóth story refuses to die

It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Barna Tóth signs something — a contract at Paksi or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.

Player ratings

Nobody could get near Ilmari Niskanen

Successful dribbles: 7. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.

Market

Paksi put Timur Abdrashitov up for sale

The list is a quiet document with a loud meaning. Timur Abdrashitov may talk to anybody who asks, and everybody at the club understands what that means.

In brief

108 Edition

The Paksi Gazette

21 Aug 2028
From our football correspondent Crisis

Squad

Ricardo Valente: 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.” Paksi have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.

Market

Only the photograph left for Márk Gyetván

Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Márk Gyetván will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Paksi the goodbyes have quietly begun.

Squad

Zoltán Pesti is a better footballer than he was

Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 23 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.

Squad

Bálint Vécsei 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 Paksi this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.

Player ratings

Bamidele Yusuf runs at them all day

Successful dribbles: 20. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.

Match

Paksi come up short against Fehervar

Fehervar left with the points after a 0‑2 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.

In brief

103 Edition

The Paksi Gazette

17 Jul 2028
From our football correspondent Uneasy

Market

Ricardo Valente 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 Paksi, and it is not being withdrawn.

Market

Viktor Benes is on his way

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

Squad

Tempers go at Paksi

Bálint Vécsei 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.

In brief

102 Edition

The Paksi Gazette

10 Jul 2028
From our football correspondent Uneasy

Market

Rafa De Vicente has one foot out of the door

Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Paksi they have already started talking about him in the past tense.

Squad

Bálint Vécsei 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 Paksi this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.

Squad

Words at Paksi training over how hard people work

Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Milán Szekszárdi 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.

Squad

Viktor Benes wants to go home

“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 Paksi know it.

Squad

Viktor Benes wants to finish where he started

Every long career reaches the week the player starts thinking about the last one. He would like it to be at the club that first put him on a pitch, and Paksi now know that too.

Market

Still no signature from Gavin Vlijter

1 months left and the two sides are nowhere near each other. Every week this drags on takes money off what Paksi could get for him.

In brief

99 Edition

The Paksi Gazette

19 Jun 2028
From our football correspondent Uneasy

Squad

Barna Tóth damages knee ligaments — 19 days out

The words a physio says slowly. 19 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.

Squad

Olivér Tamás keeps the receipts

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

Boardroom

Viktor Benes has agreed to leave Paksi for nothing

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.

Market

Viktor Benes has one foot out of the door

Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Paksi they have already started talking about him in the past tense.

Squad

Tempers go at Paksi

Bálint Vécsei 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

When it matters, Bamidele Yusuf 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.

In brief

76 Edition

The Paksi Gazette

10 Jan 2028
From our football correspondent Uneasy

Market

Paksi say no — this time

The offer from Haladas for Zoltán Pesti was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.

Squad

Bálint Vécsei 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 Paksi this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.

Squad

Words at Paksi training over how hard people work

Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ádám Kovácsik 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.

Squad

Kristóf Papp 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.

Squad

Home is on Viktor Benes's mind

“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; Paksi are dealing with a man who wants a different country.

Market

Vasas expected to open talks for Márk Gyetván

Both sides expect a conversation in the coming days. Paksi will name a price, and everything after that is arithmetic.

In brief

61 Edition

The Paksi Gazette

27 Sep 2027
From our football correspondent Uneasy

Squad

Ádám Kovácsik breaks a bone — 115 days out

Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 115 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.

Player ratings

Nobody could get near Bamidele Yusuf

Successful dribbles: 25. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.

Match

The wait goes on for Paksi

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.

Squad

Bálint Vécsei 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 Paksi this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.

Match

The goals have deserted Paksi

3 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Paksi can tell you which week it ends in.

Squad

Bence Lenzsér 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.

In brief

51 Edition

The FK Senica Chronicle

19 Jul 2027
From our football correspondent Steady

Market

Gomel come back empty-handed

The bid was some way short and FK Senica did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.

Market

Viktor Benes 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 FK Senica, and it is not being withdrawn.

Squad

Jakub Suslov 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 FK Senica this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.

Boardroom

Graduation day at FK Senica

5 boys move up, and somewhere in the building the people who coached them at twelve are quietly having the best morning of their working year. Nothing about this shows up in a result and it is why the academy exists.

Squad

Peter Valjent 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.

Market

FK Senica promote Marek Kucka from within

The academy exists for exactly this morning. Marek Kucka has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.

In brief

49 Edition

The FK Senica Chronicle

5 Jul 2027
From our football correspondent Steady

Market

FK Senica say no — this time

The offer from CSKA Sofia for Peter Valjent was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.

Market

Patrik Hubocan 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 FK Senica can pretend not to have heard.

Market

Jakub Suslov attracts admirers

The name of Jakub Suslov has come up in conversations FK Senica were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.

Squad

Peter Valjent 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.

Market

Lokomotivi expected to open talks for Juraj Bozenik

Both sides expect a conversation in the coming days. FK Senica will name a price, and everything after that is arithmetic.

Boardroom

Intake day at the FK Senica academy

9 arrivals, an average age nobody would call a squad, and a set of parents being shown around a building their sons will spend more time in than at home. The scouting has already happened; today is only the paperwork.

In brief

43 Edition

The FK Senica Chronicle

24 May 2027
From our football correspondent Steady

Squad

Jakub Suslov 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 FK Senica this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.

Squad

Words at FK Senica training over how hard people work

Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jakub Hamsik 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.

Squad

No hiding place for Viktor Benes

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

In brief

39 Edition

The FK Senica Chronicle

26 Apr 2027
From our football correspondent Steady

Squad

Ondrej Rusnak keeps the receipts

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

Squad

Peter Valjent 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 FK Senica this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.

Squad

Viktor Benes 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.

In brief

35 Edition

The FK Senica Chronicle

29 Mar 2027
From our football correspondent Steady

Squad

Jakub Hamsik 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.

Market

Lillestrom are about to pick up the phone

A conversation is coming this week. FK Senica will put a number on him, and from there it stops being football and becomes arithmetic.

Squad

Peter Valjent 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.

In brief

30 Edition

The FK Senica Chronicle

22 Feb 2027
From our football correspondent Steady

Squad

Jakub Suslov 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 FK Senica this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.

Squad

Peter Valjent 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.

Market

Polissia expected to open talks for David Mazuch

Both sides expect a conversation in the coming days. FK Senica will name a price, and everything after that is arithmetic.

In brief

27 Edition

The FK Senica Chronicle

1 Feb 2027
From our football correspondent Steady

Market

Peter Duris 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 FK Senica can pretend not to have heard.

Market

FK Senica say no — this time

The offer from Wycombe Wanderers for Peter Valjent was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.

Squad

Words at FK Senica training over how hard people work

Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Peter Valjent 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.

Squad

Peter Valjent 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 FK Senica, and both men came out saying it was fine.

Squad

Juraj Bozenik has become a man the manager trusts

Nobody at FK Senica 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.

Squad

Matej Mak still has not settled

A year in and the language has not come, the city has not opened up, and he eats alone more often than anybody at FK Senica would like to admit. It is showing on Saturdays.

In brief