Oleh Babenko

Central Defender - Skonto U20
28 Apr 2028
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Marked for Oleh Babenko

68 Edition

The Skonto Gazette

15 Nov 2027
From our football correspondent Uneasy

Squad15 Nov 2027

Oleh Babenko damages knee ligaments — 14 days out

The words a physio says slowly. 14 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.

Squad15 Nov 2027

The season belongs to Vladimirs Savalnieks

An individual honour is a strange thing in a team game, and the best of them are never argued with. He has had the sort of year that ends with his name being read out, and Skonto have had the benefit of it.

Squad15 Nov 2027

Moustapha Diaw 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 Skonto this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.

Squad15 Nov 2027

Home is on Promise Damala'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; Skonto are dealing with a man who wants a different country.

The dugout15 Nov 2027

When it matters, Pavels Fertovs 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 dugout15 Nov 2027

Taofeek Otaniyi 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

  • Match Continental football is in reach for Skonto
  • The dugout The manager plants his flag on Frankie Phillips
Back issues
67 Edition

The Skonto Gazette

8 Nov 2027
From our football correspondent Uneasy

Squad8 Nov 2027

Oleh Babenko damages knee ligaments — 21 days out

The words a physio says slowly. 21 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.

Squad8 Nov 2027

Tempers go at Skonto

Frankie Phillips 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.

Squad8 Nov 2027

Pavels Fertovs signs a new deal

“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Pavels Fertovs commits to Skonto for another 3 years.

The dugout8 Nov 2027

The manager makes an example of Frankie Phillips

“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.

Squad8 Nov 2027

Christopher Nwaeze 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 watch8 Nov 2027

Marcis Kamess counts the days

“I watch every Skonto game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Daugavpils runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.

In brief

66 Edition

The Skonto Gazette

1 Nov 2027
From our football correspondent Uneasy

Squad1 Nov 2027

The knee: Oleh Babenko out for 29 days

29 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Skonto lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.

Market1 Nov 2027

Kaspars Jagodinskis has one foot out of the door

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

Squad1 Nov 2027

Words exchanged at Skonto

Frankie Phillips 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.

Squad1 Nov 2027

Words at Skonto training over how hard people work

Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Pavels Fertovs 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 dugout1 Nov 2027

Vladimirs Savalnieks 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 Vladimirs Savalnieks is on it.

Market1 Nov 2027

No place for Marc Anthony Nkoumouck in the plan

“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Marc Anthony Nkoumouck has his answer from Skonto; what he does with it is the next window’s story.

In brief