Marked for Jakov Bašić
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Market24 Aug 2026
Dynamo Kyiv come back empty-handed
The bid was some way short and Zorya did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
Fedir Zadorozhnyi, 19, plays like he has been here for years — 8.27
A mark of 8.27 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 19-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
Transfer targets24 Aug 2026
$3.4M was the most the club would pay and Shakhtar were asking for more. Deals like this are revived in the last week of a window roughly half the time, and everybody involved knows it.
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
Juninho beats them one at a time
Successful dribbles: 26. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Transfer targets24 Aug 2026
Zorya asked and LNZ said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
Pylyp Budkivskyi, 34, rolls back the years — 7.82
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 7.82 at 34, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Tempers go at Zorya
Jakov Bašić 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.
Match22 Aug 2026
It finished 3‑2, and it was Pylyp Budkivskyi’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Zorya.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Words at Zorya training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jordan 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.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Squad10 Aug 2026
10 saves, and a scoreline the ten men in front of him had no right to. Goalkeepers only get noticed on the bad days; this was one of the other ones.
Transfer targets10 Aug 2026
The offer went to Shakhtar this week and it is theirs to answer. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loud the door closes.
Transfer targets10 Aug 2026
Dynamo Kyiv wanted more than $2.3M and the board would not go there. Walked away, for now, which in a transfer window means until somebody blinks.
Transfer targets10 Aug 2026
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Zorya have done the hard part with Kolos, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Squad10 Aug 2026
“The easiest signature of my career.” Jordan and Zorya agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad10 Aug 2026
Words exchanged at Zorya
Jordan 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.
Player ratings10 Aug 2026
Headers, blocks, tackles, interceptions — 22 of them, and not one goal behind him. The sort of performance that never makes a highlight reel and wins football matches.
Player ratings10 Aug 2026
Artem Slesar beats them one at a time
Successful dribbles: 20. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
The terraces10 Aug 2026
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 22-year-old it feels ownership of. Oleksandr Saputin has it now, and everything he does for the rest of his time here will be measured against the goodwill he was handed for free.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Player ratings3 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 36. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Player ratings3 Aug 2026
No sign of nerves from Fedir Zadorozhnyi at 19 — 7.64
The hardest thing about being 19 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Fedir Zadorozhnyi did not need any: 7.64, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Transfer targets3 Aug 2026
$2.1M on the table at Dynamo Kyiv. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
Market3 Aug 2026
Zorya may not be able to give Jordan what he wants
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Jordan wants continental football; whether Zorya can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
Squad3 Aug 2026
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Pylyp Budkivskyi and Zorya agree another 2 years.
Squad3 Aug 2026
A falling-out at Zorya
Jakov Bašić and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Words at Zorya training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jordan 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.
Transfer targets3 Aug 2026
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Penarol have kept their man, and Zorya go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
The terraces3 Aug 2026
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.