“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what CSKA Sofia can pretend not to have heard.
Position 2, 71 points, and the result everyone checks first is now theirs. The word is still not being said around the ground, which is how you know everyone is thinking it.
“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; CSKA Sofia are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Squad22 May 2028
Léo Pereira 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.
It happens to all of them and it is still the hardest paragraph a local paper has to write. 37 years old, 3 points down on where he was, and a body that has started charging interest on a career.
Stefano Sensi 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.
Clubs make promises constantly and the page usually only hears about them when they are broken. This one was honoured, and the dressing room noticed that faster than any supporter did.
“I did not go to Pirin Blagoevgrad to sit and watch. I want to come back to CSKA Sofia and fight for my place.” 6 appearances in 18 matches say the rest.
Nobody at CSKA Sofia 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.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at CSKA Sofia is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
James Eto'o and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad1 May 2028
Léo Pereira 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.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. CSKA Sofia told James Eto'o something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
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 Ioannis Pittas is on it.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Aleks Tunchev will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around CSKA Sofia the goodbyes have quietly begun.
“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 CSKA Sofia know it.
Squad6 Mar 2028
Words at CSKA Sofia training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Matthias Phaëton 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 demotion a club never announces and a dressing room always notices. Yulian Iliev is further from the side than he was, and the reason will not be given until he asks.
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 Ioannis Pittas is on it.
24 without defeat on their own grass. The pitch has not changed; the crowd has — louder earlier, and quicker to sense when the opposition would rather be somewhere else.
1 for Isaac Solet, marked 7.60, and a centre-half's name in the part of the report he normally only reaches by mistake. He will not be allowed to forget it in the dressing room for a month.
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.
In brief
Player ratingsNinety minutes of Matthias Phaëton at his very best
“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 Sofia, and it is not being withdrawn.
Position 2 and 35 points on the board. Nobody at the ground will say the word out loud yet, and everybody at the ground is thinking it.
Squad15 Nov 2027
Words at CSKA Sofia training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Léo Pereira 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.
Levski next, and the two sides the division is watching meet each other. Whoever wins will be told nothing is decided in the same breath as being congratulated.
Stefano Sensi 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.
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.
“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 Sofia, and both men came out saying it was fine.
“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 Sofia, and it is not being withdrawn.
Ludogorets next, and the two sides the division is watching meet each other. Whoever wins will be told nothing is decided in the same breath as being congratulated.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Ángelo Martino was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at CSKA Sofia, another week without a signature from Bojan Milosavljević.
Clubs make promises constantly and the page usually only hears about them when they are broken. This one was honoured, and the dressing room noticed that faster than any supporter did.
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 Ioannis Pittas is on it.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Ángelo Martino trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
7 matches without defeat, and then Botev Plovdiv. Nobody at the ground pretended it would go on forever; nobody expected it to stop here either.
Squad4 Oct 2027
Yulian Iliev 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.
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 1‑2, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
The demotion a club never announces and a dressing room always notices. Stefano Sensi is further from the side than he was, and the reason will not be given until he asks.
Squad4 Oct 2027
A place in the month's best eleven for Léo Pereira
Four or five weekends of consistency, judged against everybody in the division doing his job. Léo Pereira has come out of that comparison in the side, and CSKA Sofia have had the benefit of every one of those afternoons.
19 without defeat on their own grass. The pitch has not changed; the crowd has — louder earlier, and quicker to sense when the opposition would rather be somewhere else.
7 wins in a row changes how opponents warm up: quieter, more glances across. Runs end, everybody knows that — but nobody in this dressing room is planning for it.
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 8.35, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
Squad27 Sep 2027
Dinis Almeida 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.
200 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.
Marked 8.20 — 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.
The words a physio says slowly. 30 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.
15 without defeat on their own grass. The pitch has not changed; the crowd has — louder earlier, and quicker to sense when the opposition would rather be somewhere else.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Minyor Pernik waiting with a shirt. Nobody at CSKA Sofia is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Austria Klagenfurt have kept their man, and CSKA Sofia go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
1 for Isaac Solet, marked 7.65, and a centre-half's name in the part of the report he normally only reaches by mistake. He will not be allowed to forget it in the dressing room for a month.
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at CSKA Sofia heard it as anything else.
$510.0K on the table at Lokomotiv Plovdiv. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
12 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
Squad24 May 2027
Words at CSKA Sofia training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Léo Pereira 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.
Bruno Jordão 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.
Every run ends on an afternoon somebody had marked down as routine. This one went 6 matches, which is long enough that a town had stopped counting, and short enough that it will remember exactly who stopped it.
“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.
The dugout24 May 2027
The manager’s verdict
“That is on me. I pick the team and I picked wrong.” Managers say that when they mean it and when they need to be seen to, and after 0‑1 Stanimir Aleksandrov left the room before anybody could ask which.
34 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. CSKA Sofia lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at CSKA Sofia can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Dimitar Evtimov and CSKA Sofia agree another 2 years.
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.
Nothing happens for months and then he simply arrives, at no cost, having signed a pre-contract while still turning out for somebody else. It is the least dramatic way to sign a footballer and frequently the shrewdest.
Nobody at CSKA Sofia 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.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. CSKA Sofia know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
The words a physio says slowly. 49 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.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Ioannis Pittas provided it, and the 8.67 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
4 wins in a row changes how opponents warm up: quieter, more glances across. Runs end, everybody knows that — but nobody in this dressing room is planning for it.
The words a physio says slowly. 105 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.
The hardest thing about being 21 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Ilian Antonov did not need any: 7.84, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
There are footballers who have a good season and footballers a season is remembered for, and the second kind get their names read out in a hall in the summer. CSKA Sofia will be quietly delighted and privately nervous.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” CSKA Sofia have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
The phone has started ringing about Petko Panayotov again, and this time the name on the line is Sevlievo. CSKA Sofia are listening politely and promising nothing.
Mohamed Brahimi 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and James Eto'o was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Two sides from the top of the table, one afternoon, and a month of talk decided in ninety minutes. CSKA Sofia will not use the word title this week and will not stop thinking it.
The dugout16 Nov 2026
The manager has not finished forgetting Ivan Turitsov's mistake
Publicly it is behind everybody. It is not behind the man who picks the team, and the only place that shows is a team sheet. He will get another chance; he will get it in a match that matters less.
One weekend, judged against everybody else's. Leandro Godoy has come out on top of it, and for most footballers a weekly award is the only silverware a career ever produces.
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.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. CSKA Sofia know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
James Eto'o 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.
Marked 7.40 on 15 actions at both ends of the pitch. Midfielders like this get described as unspectacular by people who have never tried to play against one.
100 for the club now, each one filed in somebody’s memory with a date and a scoreline. Numbers like this are what supporters argue about in twenty years.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Dinis Almeida was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Minute 89, against Botev Vratsa, and a goal that felt like a win to everybody who had stayed. It was a draw. Nobody leaving the ground will describe it as one.
Clubs make promises constantly and the page usually only hears about them when they are broken. This one was honoured, and the dressing room noticed that faster than any supporter did.
15 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. CSKA Sofia lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
“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 Sofia, and it is not being withdrawn.
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 Sofia this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Ivan Turitsov and CSKA Sofia agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad12 Oct 2026
Words at CSKA Sofia training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Andrey Yordanov 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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Dimitar Evtimov trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Nobody at CSKA Sofia 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.
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Dimitar Evtimov’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and CSKA Sofia needing him to play as if none of it matters.
39 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. CSKA Sofia lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Two goals and a mark of 8.85 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Jean-Philippe Gbamin 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.
50 for the club now, each one filed in somebody’s memory with a date and a scoreline. Numbers like this are what supporters argue about in twenty years.
“The players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 3‑2, Stanimir Aleksandrov could afford to be generous.