Rimal Arapi

Left Forward - Free Agent
16 Oct 2027
Saturday
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Marked for Rimal Arapi

23 Edition

The Tirana Sentinel

4 Jan 2027
From our football correspondent Steady

Squad4 Jan 2027

A knee injury of the worst kind for Suleiman Badaru

28 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Tirana lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.

The dugout4 Jan 2027

Diar Halili keeps the receipts

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

Squad4 Jan 2027

The season belongs to Freddy Álvarez

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 Tirana have had the benefit of it.

Market4 Jan 2027

Rimal Arapi asks to leave Tirana

“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.

Squad4 Jan 2027

Home is on Basilio Basilio'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; Tirana are dealing with a man who wants a different country.

Match2 Jan 2027

Still nobody has beaten Tirana

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.

Squad4 Jan 2027

Serxho Vogli is a better footballer than he was

Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 18 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.

Market4 Jan 2027

Eyes on Diar Halili again

The phone has started ringing about Diar Halili again, and this time the name on the line is Luftëtari. Tirana are listening politely and promising nothing.

The dugout4 Jan 2027

No hiding place for Taofeek Otaniyi

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

In brief

Back issues
6 Edition

The Tirana Sentinel

7 Sep 2026
From our football correspondent Upbeat

Squad7 Sep 2026

A knee injury of the worst kind for Klajdi Kuka

75 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Tirana lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.

Boardroom7 Sep 2026

Window shuts: 2 in, 7 out at Tirana

The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 2 arrived, 7 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.

Market7 Sep 2026

Mateo Deda has one foot out of the door

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

Squad7 Sep 2026

A row about effort at Tirana

Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Taofeek Otaniyi was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.

Squad7 Sep 2026

Tirana are still strangers to each other

7 new signings in one window. Every one may be an upgrade and the side can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild the verdicts never mention.

Looking ahead7 Sep 2026

Klajdi Kuka faces his old club

AF Elbasani next, and one man in the Tirana dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.

The dugout7 Sep 2026

Taofeek Otaniyi 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 Taofeek Otaniyi trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.

Market7 Sep 2026

The Basilio Basilio talk will not go away

Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Tirana know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.

Squad7 Sep 2026

Taofeek Otaniyi remains an outsider

A year in and the city has not opened up, the language has not come, and lunch is eaten alone more often than anybody at Tirana would admit. It shows on Saturdays.

In brief

5 Edition

The Tirana Sentinel

31 Aug 2026
From our football correspondent Triumph

Squad31 Aug 2026

Klajdi Kuka damages knee ligaments — 83 days out

The words a physio says slowly. 83 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.

Market31 Aug 2026

Rimal Arapi 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 Tirana can pretend not to have heard.

Boardroom31 Aug 2026

1 academy graduates step up at Tirana

Senior shirt numbers handed to boys the coaches have known since they were twelve. Most will not make it and all of them have already done the hard part.

The terraces31 Aug 2026

One of their own: Etienne Tare

He is 22 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.

Match29 Aug 2026

Serge Tabékou sends Tirana past Dinamo City

It finished 2‑0, and it was Serge Tabékou’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Tirana.

Market31 Aug 2026

One of our own: Rimal Arapi joins the Tirana first team

Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Rimal Arapi is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.

Squad31 Aug 2026

Words at Tirana training over how hard people work

Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Etienne Tare 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.

Player ratings31 Aug 2026

Serge Tabékou in the eights

A performance of 8.03 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.

Squad31 Aug 2026

Appearance number 100 for Luciano Vera

100 games in this shirt, through managers and relegations and everything else. Service like it is disappearing from the game and the crowd knows what it is watching.

In brief

  • The dugout The manager’s verdict
  • Squad Taofeek Otaniyi has outgrown this division
  • Boardroom Tirana turn down the training-ground plan