Marked for Martin Lobotka
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad2 Aug 2027
A knee injury of the worst kind for Vladislav Levin
95 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. MFK Ruzomberok lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Match31 Jul 2027
No end in sight to MFK Ruzomberok's wait for a win
9 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at MFK Ruzomberok has to find a result from somewhere.
Market2 Aug 2027
FK Senica come back empty-handed
The bid was some way short and MFK Ruzomberok did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Squad2 Aug 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 MFK Ruzomberok this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Player ratings2 Aug 2027
Jan Hladík beats them one at a time
Successful dribbles: 21. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Transfer targets2 Aug 2027
The approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.
Squad2 Aug 2027
Words at MFK Ruzomberok training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jan Hladík 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.
Squad2 Aug 2027
The medical room confirms 23 days on the sidelines for Martin Lobotka, and a plan built around him now has to be rebuilt.
The dugout2 Aug 2027
Filip Duda: “We have to be better”
“It is not the end of the world and it is not good enough. Both of those are true.” The manager, after a 0‑0 draw, said the honest thing and then went to say it again inside.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad12 Jul 2027
A knee injury of the worst kind for Vladislav Levin
120 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. MFK Ruzomberok lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Transfer targets12 Jul 2027
Fee done, terms next for Patrik Lukáč
MFK Ruzomberok and MFK Michalovce have settled on $170.0K. The rest belongs to the player and his agent, and a supporter who has watched one of these before knows not to buy the shirt yet.
Market12 Jul 2027
The name of Martin Šulek has come up in conversations MFK Ruzomberok were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Transfer targets12 Jul 2027
$430.0K on the table at MFK Skalica. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
Squad12 Jul 2027
Dominik Kostka 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.
Squad12 Jul 2027
Words at MFK Ruzomberok training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Matěj Koubek 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.
Squad12 Jul 2027
“The easiest signature of my career.” Martin Lobotka and MFK Ruzomberok agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Market12 Jul 2027
The Matěj Koubek talk will not go away
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. MFK Ruzomberok know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
The dugout12 Jul 2027
A conversation in the manager’s office, and a commitment that came out of it. Promises like that are cheap to make and expensive to break, and Ondřej Šašinka has written the date down.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad5 Jul 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 MFK Ruzomberok this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Transfer targets5 Jul 2027
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. MFK Skalica have kept their man, and MFK Ruzomberok go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad5 Jul 2027
Joan Tincres 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.
Squad5 Jul 2027
24 days, the medical staff say, and medical staff are optimists by profession. The team sheet will look wrong without him.
Squad5 Jul 2027
The medical room confirms 54 days on the sidelines for Martin Lobotka, and a plan built around him now has to be rebuilt.
Transfer targets5 Jul 2027
A loan move for Jasper Samooja is in the works
MFK Ruzomberok have made the call to Lecce. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
Boardroom5 Jul 2027
MFK Ruzomberok sign 6 boys into the academy
None of them will be seen by anybody outside the training ground for three years, most of them will never play a senior match, and one of them might change the club. That is the whole proposition, and it is why academies exist.
The dugout5 Jul 2027
Adrián Slávik 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 Adrián Slávik is on it.
The dugout5 Jul 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Matej Suslov, and the manager let it.