Marked for Frédéric Maciel
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Player ratings11 Jan 2027
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 7.70 for the rest of it.
Market11 Jan 2027
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.
Transfer targets11 Jan 2027
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. CSKA 1948 have done the hard part with Beroe, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Squad11 Jan 2027
At 22 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.
Boardroom11 Jan 2027
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.
Transfer targets11 Jan 2027
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. CSKA Moscow have kept their man, and CSKA 1948 go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad11 Jan 2027
Dragan Grivić and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Match9 Jan 2027
1‑2 to Ludogorets, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
The dugout11 Jan 2027
“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.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
Player ratings4 Jan 2027
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 8.88, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
Squad4 Jan 2027
The kind of year that ends with a name being read out in a hall. CSKA 1948 had the benefit of it every week and now have the problem of everybody else knowing.
Player ratings4 Jan 2027
Successful dribbles: 20. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
Transfer targets4 Jan 2027
The approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.
Squad4 Jan 2027
Words exchanged at CSKA 1948
Dragan Grivić 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 dugout4 Jan 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Dimitar Sheytanov, and the manager let it.
Match2 Jan 2027
CSKA 1948 hit back inside 4 minutes
Botev Plovdiv held the lead for 4 minutes, which is not long enough to enjoy it. CSKA 1948 answered before the celebration had properly finished, and the shape of the afternoon changed with it.
Market4 Jan 2027
“We are a long way apart, and pretending otherwise helps nobody.” Neither side is close, and the calendar is not on the club's side.
Match2 Jan 2027
It needed Mamadou Diallo to find the net to bring anything home at all: 2‑2 against Botev Plovdiv, and half the dressing room will call it a point won.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad28 Dec 2026
7 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.
Squad28 Dec 2026
André Hoffmann and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad28 Dec 2026
Words at CSKA 1948 training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Dimitar Sheytanov 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 dugout28 Dec 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to João Pinto, and the manager let it.
Match26 Dec 2026
CSKA Sofia left with the points after a 0‑1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Player ratings28 Dec 2026
Successful dribbles: 17. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
The dugout28 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 0‑1 Angel Mihaylov left the room before anybody could ask which.
Squad28 Dec 2026
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Gonçalo Cascalheira commits to CSKA 1948 for another 3 years.
The dugout28 Dec 2026
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. CSKA 1948 told José Martínes something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad7 Dec 2026
“The easiest signature of my career.” Frédéric Maciel and CSKA 1948 agree another 2 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad7 Dec 2026
João Pinto 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 CSKA 1948 this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match5 Dec 2026
It finished 1‑0, and it was Atanas Iliev’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to CSKA 1948.
Player ratings7 Dec 2026
Marked 8.15 — 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.
Squad7 Dec 2026
11 clean sheets and counting. Strikers leave this ground muttering his name, which is exactly how a goalkeeper measures a good season.
Player ratings7 Dec 2026
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.
Squad7 Dec 2026
The manager has re-ordered his thinking and Brian Sobrero has come out of it lower. He will be told it is temporary, and the players who have heard that before will avoid his eye.
The dugout7 Dec 2026
“The players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 1‑0, Angel Mihaylov could afford to be generous.
The dugout7 Dec 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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Match28 Nov 2026
CSKA 1948 beaten on the continent
2‑4 against Wisla Krakow, and an evening that measured the gap rather than the ninety minutes. Nothing about it was a disgrace and nothing about it was close.
Squad30 Nov 2026
6 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.
Squad30 Nov 2026
João Pinto and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Match28 Nov 2026
Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 6 goals between CSKA 1948 and Wisla Krakow, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.
The dugout30 Nov 2026
The manager makes an example of João Pinto
“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.
Match28 Nov 2026
Beaten 0‑1, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
The dugout30 Nov 2026
No place for Yohann Magnin on the big day
He found out with everybody else, an hour before kick-off, from a sheet of paper on a wall. Nobody at CSKA 1948 pretended it was anything other than a decision about him.
The dugout30 Nov 2026
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. CSKA 1948 told Borislav Tsonev something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
The dugout30 Nov 2026
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 2‑4 defeat, delivered by Angel Mihaylov to a room that had heard them before.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Match21 Nov 2026
Nobody wants to play CSKA 1948 right now
3 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.
Squad23 Nov 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.
The dugout23 Nov 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Frédéric Maciel, and the manager let it.
Match21 Nov 2026
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: José Martínes. 1‑0 against Botev Vratsa, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Player ratings23 Nov 2026
Ninety minutes of Elias Franco at his very best
Marked 8.09. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at CSKA 1948.
Player ratings23 Nov 2026
Successful dribbles: 17. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad23 Nov 2026
10 shut-outs and counting. Goalkeepers are only noticed when they fail, and Dimitar Sheytanov has given nobody the chance.
Player ratings23 Nov 2026
Nobody on the pitch touched José Martínes
7.95, and no serious argument from anybody who was there. CSKA 1948 had eleven men on the pitch and one of them decided how it went.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match14 Nov 2026
Frédéric Maciel wins it after the whistle should have gone
90 minutes played. Frédéric Maciel found the finish in time that only existed because of earlier delays, and Dobrudzha went from a point to nothing inside one movement.
Match16 Nov 2026
CSKA 1948 refuse to drop out of the race
Position 3, 33 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.
Transfer targets16 Nov 2026
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: another club keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Player ratings16 Nov 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.
Squad16 Nov 2026
Dragan Grivić and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
The dugout16 Nov 2026
The manager makes an example of Petar Marinov
“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.
Match14 Nov 2026
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Frédéric Maciel. 1‑0 against Dobrudzha, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Squad16 Nov 2026
9 clean sheets and counting. Strikers leave this ground muttering his name, which is exactly how a goalkeeper measures a good season.
Player ratings16 Nov 2026
A mark of 7.53, and nobody in the ground would argue with it. He was involved in everything that mattered and most of what did not.
In brief
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Squad
Too much change too quickly at CSKA 1948
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The dugout
The view from the dugout
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The dugout
Frédéric Maciel knocks on the manager's door
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Player ratings2 Nov 2026
Successful dribbles: 24. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Match31 Oct 2026
A 1‑0 win over Beroe, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
The dugout2 Nov 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Brian Sobrero, and the manager let it.
Market2 Nov 2026
“We are a long way apart, and pretending otherwise helps nobody.” Neither side is close, and the calendar is not on the club's side.
Boardroom2 Nov 2026
$3.8M on the table at CSKA 1948
The board have answered with money instead of encouragement, which is the only answer a manager ever wants. Spending it well is now entirely his problem.
Player ratings2 Nov 2026
A mark of 7.87, and nobody in the ground would argue with it. He was involved in everything that mattered and most of what did not.
Squad2 Nov 2026
8 clean sheets and counting. Strikers leave this ground muttering his name, which is exactly how a goalkeeper measures a good season.
Squad2 Nov 2026
Four or five weekends of consistency, measured against everybody else in the division. A quieter compliment than an award and a more reliable one.
The dugout2 Nov 2026
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Angel Mihaylov on a 1‑0 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match17 Oct 2026
The drought breaks for CSKA 1948
7 without a win is the sort of run that changes how a town talks about its club, and Montana were the afternoon it stopped. Nothing is fixed by one result and everything feels different by one.
The dugout19 Oct 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.
Match17 Oct 2026
A 1‑0 win over Montana, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Market19 Oct 2026
“We are a long way apart, and pretending otherwise helps nobody.” Neither side is close, and the calendar is not on the club's side.
Player ratings19 Oct 2026
Marked 7.88 on an afternoon he ran from the first whistle to the last. Whatever else went wrong, CSKA 1948 had the best player on the pitch.
Squad19 Oct 2026
CSKA 1948 are still strangers to each other
9 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.
Squad19 Oct 2026
“The easiest signature of my career.” Hristo Krastev and CSKA 1948 agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
The dugout19 Oct 2026
The view from the dugout
“We controlled it. There were spells I did not like and we will look at them, but the group showed me something.” Angel Mihaylov, on a 1‑0 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
Player ratings19 Oct 2026
Berna runs at them all day
Successful dribbles: 14. 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
Match3 Oct 2026
CSKA 1948 beaten on the continent
2‑4 against KAA Gent, and an evening that measured the gap rather than the ninety minutes. Nothing about it was a disgrace and nothing about it was close.
Player ratings5 Oct 2026
Two goals and a mark of 8.74 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Match3 Oct 2026
The wait goes on for CSKA 1948
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.
Squad5 Oct 2026
6 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.
Player ratings5 Oct 2026
Successful dribbles: 26. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Gonçalo Churro arrives at the club he grew up with
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Gonçalo Churro has, at CSKA 1948, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
Match3 Oct 2026
6 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about CSKA 1948 and KAA Gent in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Dragan Grivić 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 dugout5 Oct 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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad28 Sep 2026
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 8 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Match26 Sep 2026
No end in sight to CSKA 1948's wait for a win
4 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at CSKA 1948 has to find a result from somewhere.
Squad28 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.
The dugout28 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.
Match26 Sep 2026
Late, late show earns CSKA 1948 a point
Minute 89, against Ludogorets, 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.
Match26 Sep 2026
1‑1, and both dressing rooms will call it two points lost. A draw that asked plenty of questions and answered none of them.
The dugout28 Sep 2026
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 Dimitar Sheytanov is on it.
The dugout28 Sep 2026
“There are things I liked and things we will be doing on Tuesday until they are right.” 1‑1, and a manager who had already decided what Tuesday looked like.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Every shape has positions in it and this one does not have his. CSKA 1948 will either change the shape, change his job, or change his club, and he is waiting to hear which.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Player ratings21 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 33. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
Match19 Sep 2026
A European lesson for CSKA 1948
0‑1 against Wisla Krakow. Continental football is unforgiving about the things a domestic league lets a side get away with, and this was a night spent finding out which of those the club still has.
Transfer targets21 Sep 2026
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: another club keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Squad21 Sep 2026
André Hoffmann 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 dugout21 Sep 2026
“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 ratings21 Sep 2026
Fourat Soltani was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.01. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
The dugout21 Sep 2026
A player who expected to start watched it instead. The manager will call it a decision for the team; Borislav Tsonev will call it something else in private.
Match19 Sep 2026
CSKA 1948 caught on 88 minutes
The board was up, the win was priced in, and then Botev Plovdiv scored. There is no worse minute to concede in and the ground emptied in the silence that follows one.
The dugout21 Sep 2026
“I could talk about decisions and I could talk about luck. I will not. We lost.” The manager, 0‑1, and a press conference that lasted four minutes.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market14 Sep 2026
Marto Boychev hands in a written request
“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 1948 can pretend not to have heard.
Transfer targets14 Sep 2026
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Sporting CP have kept their man, and CSKA 1948 go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Match12 Sep 2026
CSKA Sofia left with the points after a 0‑2 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Market14 Sep 2026
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Kiril Krastev is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Match12 Sep 2026
After 4 games, CSKA 1948 finally taste it again
The first defeat in 4 matches. The manager will say it had to come; the dressing room will say it did not have to come against CSKA Sofia; the supporters will say both, in that order, all week.
The dugout14 Sep 2026
The manager makes an example of Florian Krebs
“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.
Market14 Sep 2026
“We are a long way apart, and pretending otherwise helps nobody.” Neither side is close, and the calendar is not on the club's side.
The dugout14 Sep 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 0‑2 Angel Mihaylov left the room before anybody could ask which.
The dugout14 Sep 2026
There is no complaint available here and everybody involved knows it, which does not make the walk to the bench any shorter. Form is the only currency in football that cannot be borrowed against.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market31 Aug 2026
CSKA 1948 say no — this time
The offer from Casa Pia for Frédéric Maciel 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.
Match29 Aug 2026
CSKA 1948 make it 3 in a row
Momentum is a hard thing to buy and an easy thing to lose, and right now CSKA 1948 have 3 straight wins of it.
Transfer targets31 Aug 2026
Botev Plovdiv wanted more than $27.0K and the board would not go there. Walked away, for now, which in a transfer window means until somebody blinks.
Transfer targets31 Aug 2026
CSKA 1948 asked and Lokomotiv Plovdiv said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Match29 Aug 2026
It finished 2‑1, and it was José Martínes’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to CSKA 1948.
The dugout31 Aug 2026
The manager makes an example of Petar Marinov
“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 ratings31 Aug 2026
Marked 8.31 — 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.
Transfer targets31 Aug 2026
A loan enquiry to Lokomotiv Sofia: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.
The dugout31 Aug 2026
Somebody else is better right now than Petar Marinov
The team sheet says it in public every week until it changes. The only version of being dropped a footballer cannot argue with, and the one he takes hardest.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Match19 Aug 2026
A 2‑1 win over Cherno More, a place in the next round, and the quiet arithmetic every supporter does on the walk home: how many more until a final?
Match19 Aug 2026
The 89th minute, half the ground already edging towards the exits, and Elias Franco decided nobody was going anywhere. Cherno More had no time left to answer.
Market24 Aug 2026
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Boardroom24 Aug 2026
The number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $34.1K — a club that wants Asen Mitkov enough to be asked twice.
Player ratings24 Aug 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.
Transfer targets24 Aug 2026
$27.0K on the table at CSKA Sofia. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
Transfer targets24 Aug 2026
CSKA 1948 asked and Lokomotiv Plovdiv said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
The terraces24 Aug 2026
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 18-year-old it feels ownership of. Marto Boychev 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.
Match22 Aug 2026
CSKA 1948 keep winning on the road
3 away wins in a row. Travelling support is the truest kind, and this season it is being repaid in the only currency that counts.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Player ratings3 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 33. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
Market3 Aug 2026
CSKA 1948 say no — this time
The offer from Botev Plovdiv for Frédéric Maciel 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.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Petar Marinov gets the move he always wanted
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Petar Marinov has just signed for CSKA 1948, and for once the answer mattered.
Squad3 Aug 2026
André Hoffmann and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Market3 Aug 2026
The shirt still fits. Petar Marinov is back at CSKA 1948, and half the ground remembers him in these colours already. Some signings need selling to the town; this one sold itself.
Transfer targets3 Aug 2026
CSKA 1948 asked and Stevenage said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
The terraces3 Aug 2026
CSKA 1948 supporters have found a favourite in Berna
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Berna 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.
Squad3 Aug 2026
“The easiest signature of my career.” Elias Franco and CSKA 1948 agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.