Marked for Martin Lukov
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad18 Oct 2027
Bojan Milosavljević 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.
Squad18 Oct 2027
Andrei Chindriş 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.
Player ratings18 Oct 2027
Successful dribbles: 19. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market27 Sep 2027
“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.
Match25 Sep 2027
6 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
Squad27 Sep 2027
Julien Lamy 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 Lokomotiv Plovdiv this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad27 Sep 2027
Words at Lokomotiv Plovdiv training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Andrei Chindriş 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.
Squad27 Sep 2027
The manager makes an example of Cătălin Itu
“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.
Squad27 Sep 2027
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Martin Lukov and Lokomotiv Plovdiv agree another 1 years.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match31 Jul 2027
6 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
Player ratings2 Aug 2027
Ivaylo Ivanov goes up and wins it — 7.60
A defender on the scoresheet, which happens rarely enough that everybody in the ground remembers who took the corner. 1 for him, and a mark of 7.60 for the rest of it.
Player ratings2 Aug 2027
Successful dribbles: 22. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
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 Lokomotiv Plovdiv this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad2 Aug 2027
Words at Lokomotiv Plovdiv training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Andrei Chindriş 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 manager makes an example of Martin Ruskov
“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.
Squad2 Aug 2027
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Martin Lukov commits to Lokomotiv Plovdiv for another 1 years.
Match31 Jul 2027
1‑1, and both dressing rooms will call it two points lost. A draw that asked plenty of questions and answered none of them.
Market2 Aug 2027
Martin Atanasov is free to find somewhere else
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Lokomotiv Plovdiv has been clear about where Martin Atanasov stands, which is more than many ever get.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Match24 Jul 2027
Still nobody has beaten Levski
The unbeaten run reaches 32. Some of them were wins and some were escapes, but a side that refuses to lose is a side other dressing rooms talk about.
Squad26 Jul 2027
Georgi Kostadinov damages knee ligaments — 82 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 82 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.
Player ratings26 Jul 2027
Successful dribbles: 24. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Market26 Jul 2027
“I have ambitions, and I would like the club to share them.” Nobody has asked to leave and nobody has been shown the door — but a player chooses that sentence carefully, and a boardroom hears it exactly as it was meant.
Squad26 Jul 2027
Tempers go at Levski
Christian Makoun 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.
Squad26 Jul 2027
Álex Centelles 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.
Market26 Jul 2027
Business is business: Martin Lukov goes
Lokomotiv Plovdiv paid $180.0K and Levski took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
Squad26 Jul 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Radoslav Kirilov, and the manager let it.
Market26 Jul 2027
Both sides expect a conversation in the coming days. Levski will name a price, and everything after that is arithmetic.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match24 Jul 2027
No end in sight to Lokomotiv Plovdiv's wait for a win
5 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Lokomotiv Plovdiv has to find a result from somewhere.
Market26 Jul 2027
As if he never left: Martin Lukov returns
Some transfers need a press campaign. This one needed a shirt with the old number on it. Martin Lukov is a Lokomotiv Plovdiv player again, and the town has its story of the summer.
Squad26 Jul 2027
Bojan Milosavljević 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.
Market26 Jul 2027
Botev Plovdiv paid $730.0K and Lokomotiv Plovdiv took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
Squad26 Jul 2027
Andrei Chindriş 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.
Match24 Jul 2027
3 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Lokomotiv Plovdiv can tell you which week it ends in.
The terraces26 Jul 2027
At 23 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.
Squad26 Jul 2027
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Valeri Bozhinov and Lokomotiv Plovdiv agree another 3 years.
Player ratings26 Jul 2027
Successful dribbles: 17. 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
Upbeat
Squad5 Jul 2027
A knee injury of the worst kind for Georgi Kostadinov
106 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Levski lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Match5 Jul 2027
Levski up to position 1
72 points on the board and a place in the leading group. Nobody at the ground is saying the word out loud yet.
Market5 Jul 2027
“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 Levski, and it is not being withdrawn.
In brief
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Squad
Álex Centelles signs a new deal
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Squad
Words at Levski training over how hard people work
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Squad
Tempers go at Levski
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Boardroom
Levski sign 10 boys into the academy
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market21 Jun 2027
Levski say no — this time
The offer from CSKA Sofia for Nikola Serafimov was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
Squad21 Jun 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 Levski this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad21 Jun 2027
Mohammad Gandomi is a better footballer than he was
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 21 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.
Squad21 Jun 2027
Words at Levski training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Akram Bouras 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.
Squad21 Jun 2027
He is doing things on a Saturday afternoon that nobody around him can answer, which is flattering for about one season and a problem after that. Levski will not keep him by pretending otherwise.
Market21 Jun 2027
Martin Lukov is free to find somewhere else
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Levski has been clear about where Martin Lukov stands, which is more than many ever get.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market19 Apr 2027
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Levski can pretend not to have heard.
Squad19 Apr 2027
Martin Lukov: that is not what I was promised
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Levski have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Market19 Apr 2027
Christian Makoun wants to know where this is going
“I want to win things, and I would like to do it here.” Nothing has been demanded and nothing has been threatened — but a boardroom at Levski hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
Squad19 Apr 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 Levski this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad19 Apr 2027
Words at Levski training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Álex Centelles 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.
Squad19 Apr 2027
Everton Bala has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Levski 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.