Marked for Borislav Tsonev
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad21 Sep 2026
Yohann Magnin 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 ratings21 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 22. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad21 Sep 2026
Petar Marinov 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.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
35 times he got in the way of something. Centre-halves get written about when they make mistakes and ignored when they do not, so an afternoon like this needs saying out loud: he is the reason the scoreline reads as it does.
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
No sign of nerves from Alasana Yirajang at 21 — 8.62
The hardest thing about being 21 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Alasana Yirajang did not need any: 8.62, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Squad14 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 CSKA 1948 this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Words at CSKA 1948 training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Petar Marinov 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 terraces14 Sep 2026
At 21 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.
Squad14 Sep 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.
Match12 Sep 2026
Three points for CSKA 1948, 1‑0 the final word against CSKA Sofia in a contest settled by the finer margins.
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.27, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 18. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market31 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 CSKA 1948, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad31 Aug 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 CSKA 1948 this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match29 Aug 2026
Whatever happens, CSKA 1948 do not lose
6 games unbeaten now. Some were earned and some were survived, but a habit is forming — and habits are the hardest thing in football to play against.
Squad31 Aug 2026
Words at CSKA 1948 training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Petar Marinov 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
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.
Squad31 Aug 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Andrés Molinas, and the manager let it.
Player ratings31 Aug 2026
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.29, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Squad31 Aug 2026
A defender's mistake gets tidied up by somebody else; a goalkeeper's ends up in the net. He knew before the ball crossed the line, and so did everybody in the ground.
Match29 Aug 2026
A 1‑1 draw with Lokomotiv Sofia leaves the dressing room somewhere between relief and regret.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market10 Aug 2026
Ludogorets come back empty-handed
The bid was some way short and CSKA 1948 did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Player ratings10 Aug 2026
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 8.26, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
Squad10 Aug 2026
A move Petar Marinov would have made for nothing
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Petar Marinov is living that version at CSKA 1948, and it tends to show in the first month.
Market10 Aug 2026
The interest is real enough to have reached print. CSKA 1948 have said nothing, which in a transfer window is its own kind of answer.
Squad10 Aug 2026
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Yohann Magnin commits to CSKA 1948 for another 3 years.
Squad10 Aug 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 CSKA 1948 this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad10 Aug 2026
André Hoffmann 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.
Market10 Aug 2026
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at CSKA 1948, another week without a signature from Petar Marinov.
Match8 Aug 2026
It needed Atanas Iliev to find the net to bring anything home at all: 2‑2 against Botev Vratsa, and half the dressing room will call it a point won.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad3 Aug 2026
Yohann Magnin 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.
Squad3 Aug 2026
The manager makes an example of Borislav Tsonev
“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.
Player ratings3 Aug 2026
Marked 8.56 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
Player ratings3 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 18. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Market3 Aug 2026
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at CSKA 1948, another week without a signature from Frédéric Maciel.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Words at CSKA 1948 training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Juanmi Carrión 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.
Market3 Aug 2026
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at CSKA 1948 has been clear about where Benaissa Benamar stands, which is more than many ever get.
Match1 Aug 2026
A 1‑1 draw with Dobrudzha leaves the dressing room somewhere between relief and regret.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Yohann Magnin 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 CSKA 1948, and both men came out saying it was fine.