He is 19, he is averaging 6.56, and older professionals have started passing to him in the difficult minutes. That last part is the real scouting report.
“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 The request is on a desk at Novi Pazar, and it is not being withdrawn.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 22 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.
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.
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. Novi Pazar will be quietly delighted and privately nervous.
Stefan Stanisavljević 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.
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.
In brief
The dugoutJovan Marinković is still being punished for one mistake
The dugoutKaheim Dixon knocks on the manager's door
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Abdulsamed Abdullahi was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Ivan Davidović 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.
“I am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at Novi Pazar, and 5 appearances in 15 say he has earned the hearing.
Nobody will confirm this and nothing else explains the last month of selections. A costly error buys a player a period of being second choice that is always longer than the error was.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Abdulsamed Abdullahi was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Novi Pazar this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Novi Pazar has been clear about where Jonny stands, which is more than many ever get.
In brief
The dugoutSkima Togbe knocks on the manager's door
He looks like a man who lives here now rather than one who is working here. It took most of a season, and at Novi Pazar the difference is visible from the back of the stand.
Driton Camaj 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.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Bogdan Babic has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.
Squad12 Apr 2027
Words at Novi Pazar training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Abdulsamed Abdullahi 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.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Novi Pazar. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
Driton Camaj 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.
Squad5 Apr 2027
Words at Novi Pazar training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Abdulsamed Abdullahi 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.
Nobody will confirm this and nothing else explains the last month of selections. A costly error buys a player a period of being second choice that is always longer than the error was.
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 Stefan Stanisavljević has written the date down.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Novi Pazar, and both men came out saying it was fine.
18 days, the medical staff say, and medical staff are optimists by profession. The team sheet will look wrong without him.
Squad22 Mar 2027
Words at Novi Pazar training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Abdulsamed Abdullahi 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Novi Pazar this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Stefan Stanisavljević trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Novi Pazar. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
He looks like a man who lives here now rather than one who is working here. It took most of a season, and at Novi Pazar the difference is visible from the back of the stand.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager plants his flag on Driton Camaj
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Abdulsamed Abdullahi was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Ivan Davidović 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.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Novi Pazar. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Novi Pazar, and both men came out saying it was fine.
28 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Novi Pazar lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Novi Pazar this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad1 Mar 2027
Words at Novi Pazar training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Abdulsamed Abdullahi 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.
“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.
Squad22 Feb 2027
Words at Novi Pazar training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Abdulsamed Abdullahi 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.
He asked about his future and was given an answer with minutes in it. The manager has now made a promise in a building where promises are remembered, and the clock on it has started.
The phone has started ringing about Ajia Yakub again, and this time the name on the line is Poltava. Novi Pazar are listening politely and promising nothing.
Squad8 Feb 2027
Words at Novi Pazar training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Abdulsamed Abdullahi 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 dugout8 Feb 2027
The view from the dugout
“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 0‑2 defeat, delivered by Nikola Tadic to a room that had heard them before.
A month is long enough that nobody gets in by accident. Dimitrije Janković is in the division's best eleven for it, which is a quieter compliment than an award and a more reliable 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.
Two goals and a mark of 8.95 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
A mark of 8.05 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 20-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 1 arrived, 3 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
8 without a win is the sort of run that changes how a town talks about its club, and Javor-Matis were the afternoon it stopped. Nothing is fixed by one result and everything feels different by one.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. CSKA Moscow have kept their man, and Novi Pazar go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
He is 20 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.
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.
Fejsal Mulić has gone, the accounts have $1.1M in them, and the supporters have the feeling of having been sold something themselves. Good business and a good decision are not always the same thing.
Crvena Zvezda paid $1.1M and Novi Pazar took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
Novi Pazar asked and Legia said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Abdulsamed Abdullahi was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Anes Rušević 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.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Nikola Tadic after 0‑1, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
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.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: CSKA Moscow keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Driton Camaj 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.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Marko Maksimovic has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.
6 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about Novi Pazar and Crvena Zvezda in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
Two or more conceded in each of the last 4 matches. It is not one mistake repeating itself, which would be the easier thing to fix; it is a different one every week.
Successful dribbles: 18. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Squad28 Dec 2026
Words at Novi Pazar training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Abdulsamed Abdullahi 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 fixture the rest of the division is looking forward to more than either of the sides in it. Both know a win changes the season and a defeat does not end it, which is what makes it hard to play.
Something was said to Tomislav Dadić and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
The dugout21 Dec 2026
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 1‑2 Nikola Tadic left the room before anybody could ask which.
Nobody at Novi Pazar 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.
“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 Novi Pazar, and it is not being withdrawn.
Beaten 0‑1, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Squad7 Dec 2026
Words at Novi Pazar training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Abdulsamed Abdullahi 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.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Novi Pazar have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Marked 8.57 — 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 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.
A player who expected to start watched it instead. The manager will call it a decision for the team; Driton Camaj will call it something else in private.
Driton Camaj 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 8.26. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Novi Pazar.
Squad16 Nov 2026
Words at Novi Pazar training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Abdulsamed Abdullahi 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.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Novi Pazar told Luka Bijelović something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Nikola Tadic on a 1‑0 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Novi Pazar, and both men came out saying it was fine.
0‑4. There is a level at which football is played every single week by clubs that have been doing it for fifty years, and an evening like this is what it feels like to arrive there without having done it.
1‑6 against Sporting CP, and no complaints that would survive the replay. The manager spoke about character afterwards; the terraces used shorter words.
Two goals and a mark of 9.30 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Novi Pazar this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 7 goals between Novi Pazar and Sporting CP, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.
0‑5. There is a level at which football is played every single week by clubs that have been doing it for fifty years, and an evening like this is what it feels like to arrive there without having done it.
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 8.33, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
Match24 Oct 2026
Nobody could stop scoring
7 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about Novi Pazar and Sporting CP in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 6 goals between Novi Pazar and Cukaricki, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 12 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
0‑4 against Newcastle United. The honest reading is not that the players were poor; it is that the distance between this club and that one is currently measured in things money takes years to buy.
0‑4 against Fenerbahce, and no complaints that would survive the replay. The manager spoke about character afterwards; the terraces used shorter words.
The chances are being made and something is happening between the making and the finishing. 3 matches now, and the anxiety in the ground arrives a little earlier every week.
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Željko Samčović, and the manager let it.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Words at Novi Pazar training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Abdulsamed Abdullahi 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.
A midfielder is measured on whether the team functions when he is on the pitch, which is nearly impossible to see and completely obvious in retrospect. 10 actions, 6.74, and a manager who will not be substituting him again in a hurry.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 6 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Ivan Radonjic has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Strahinja Dimitrijevic is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
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 goal that put Crvena Zvezda ahead was still being replayed on the concourse when Novi Pazar equalised, 4 minutes later. Leads are only worth what you do with them.
It needed Stefan Stanisavljević to find the net to bring anything home at all: 1‑1 against Crvena Zvezda, and half the dressing room will call it a point won.
“It is not the end of the world and it is not good enough. Both of those are true.” The manager, after a 1‑1 draw, said the honest thing and then went to say it again inside.
In brief
Looking aheadA test against the best for Novi Pazar
SquadA Novi Pazar teenager takes the young player award
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 15 arrived, 0 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
Novi Pazar had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Olympique Lyonnais, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
A 1‑0 win over Radnicki 1923, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Abdulsamed Abdullahi was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Novi Pazar this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
A brace, and Driton Camaj takes the afternoon — 8.96
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Driton Camaj provided it, and the 8.96 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Driton Camaj. 3‑1 against Mladost Lucani, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Radnicki Nis have kept their man, and Novi Pazar go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
He is 21 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.
Ivan Davidović 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.
10 new signings in one window. Every one may be an upgrade and the side can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild the verdicts never mention.
0-3, and long before the end the away end had switched from encouragement to something considerably more pointed. Nobody rings a phone-in about losing narrowly.
Novi Pazar asked and Anderlecht said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Words at Novi Pazar training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Abdulsamed Abdullahi 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.
Anes Rušević 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.
1 error, one goal, and a night in front of the same three seconds. He will see it tonight, tomorrow and probably in February, and everybody who has played knows exactly which frame he keeps stopping on.
Napredak will want this one forgotten quickly: 3‑0, every duel lost, and a long ride home. Novi Pazar were ruthless in the way good sides are ruthless.
The hardest thing about being 20 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Dimitrije Janković did not need any: 7.61, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Novi Pazar this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Novi Pazar asked and Panathinaikos said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
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.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Words at Novi Pazar training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Abdulsamed Abdullahi 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.