Marked for Frédéric Maciel
From our football correspondent
Steady
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.
Match21 Nov 2026
A 2‑0 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 dugout23 Nov 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.
Player ratings23 Nov 2026
Some games turn on a moment; this one turned on a man. 7.84 on the card, and the CSKA 1948 support went home talking about one name.
The dugout23 Nov 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.” Danail Minev, on a 2‑0 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
The dugout23 Nov 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 Frédéric Maciel is on it.
Player ratings23 Nov 2026
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.
The dugout23 Nov 2026
Dragan Grivić dropped after a run of poor form
The one version of being left out a player cannot argue with, and the one he takes worst. Somebody else has been better and the team sheet says so, in public, every week until it changes.
Player ratings23 Nov 2026
10 shots, and a count that reads like a good afternoon until you check the other column. Strikers survive weeks like this on the understanding that the chances keep arriving; the day they stop is the day it becomes a problem.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad16 Nov 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.
Squad16 Nov 2026
Words at CSKA 1948 training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Berna 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 dugout16 Nov 2026
The manager makes an example of Dragan Grivić
“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 dugout16 Nov 2026
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.
The dugout16 Nov 2026
Florian Krebs knocks on the manager’s door
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Florian Krebs trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Looking ahead16 Nov 2026
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Beroe in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
Market16 Nov 2026
The Berna story refuses to die
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Berna signs something — a contract at CSKA 1948 or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Loan watch16 Nov 2026
10 starts and an average of 6.57. He went there to play and he is playing, which is the only thing a loan was ever for.
Market16 Nov 2026
The stand keeps filling up for Frédéric Maciel
Somebody from Levski has seen every one of Frédéric Maciel’s last few games. Nobody travels that far that often out of curiosity, and everybody at CSKA 1948 knows it.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad26 Oct 2026
There were 10 saves in it, and at least three that had no business being saves at all. The ten outfield players owe him a drink and they know it.
Match24 Oct 2026
The wait goes on for CSKA 1948
9 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.
Match21 Oct 2026
A European lesson for CSKA 1948
1‑2 against AZ. 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.
Squad26 Oct 2026
Berna 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 Oct 2026
0‑1 to Septemvri, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Player ratings26 Oct 2026
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. 11 actions, 6.84, and a manager who will not be substituting him again in a hurry.
The dugout26 Oct 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Lasha Dvali, and the manager let it.
The dugout26 Oct 2026
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 0‑1, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
The dugout26 Oct 2026
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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match17 Oct 2026
7 matches without a win for CSKA 1948
The run now stands at 7, and the questions being asked around CSKA 1948 are no longer polite ones.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 7 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Aka David is a better footballer than he was
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.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Berna 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.
Match17 Oct 2026
Frédéric Maciel scored, and precious little else went right: 1‑2 to Arda, and a quiet walk to the dressing room.
The dugout19 Oct 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.
The dugout19 Oct 2026
“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.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Words exchanged at CSKA 1948
Aka David 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 dugout19 Oct 2026
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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad12 Oct 2026
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Kaloyan Strinski is 20, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Squad12 Oct 2026
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Florian Krebs commits to CSKA 1948 for another 3 years.
Squad12 Oct 2026
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.
Squad12 Oct 2026
CSKA 1948 are still strangers to each other
6 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.
The dugout12 Oct 2026
When it matters, Berna plays
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.
The dugout12 Oct 2026
“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 1948, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Looking ahead12 Oct 2026
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Borislav Tsonev’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and CSKA 1948 needing him to play as if none of it matters.
Market12 Oct 2026
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Borislav Tsonev signs something — a contract at CSKA 1948 or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
The dugout12 Oct 2026
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.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Market31 Aug 2026
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Dunav Ruse waiting with a shirt. Nobody at CSKA 1948 is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Player ratings31 Aug 2026
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.
Match29 Aug 2026
Nobody wants to play CSKA 1948 right now
6 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.
Market31 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.
Market31 Aug 2026
“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 targets31 Aug 2026
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.
Match29 Aug 2026
It finished 2‑0, and it was Mamadou Diallo’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to CSKA 1948.
Market31 Aug 2026
The phone has started ringing about Aka David again, and this time the name on the line is Vihren. CSKA 1948 are listening politely and promising nothing.
Player ratings31 Aug 2026
Ninety minutes of Brian Sobrero at his very best
Marked 8.00. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at CSKA 1948.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Market24 Aug 2026
Levski come back empty-handed
The bid was some way short and CSKA 1948 did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
No sign of nerves from Kaloyan Strinski at 20 — 8.18
The hardest thing about being 20 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Kaloyan Strinski did not need any: 8.18, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Match22 Aug 2026
CSKA 1948 cannot stop winning
5 wins on the spin now, and the question has changed from whether the run ends to who ends it. Confidence like this cannot be bought; it has to be earned exactly this way.
Squad24 Aug 2026
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.
Squad24 Aug 2026
A move Nikolay Yankov would have made for nothing
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Nikolay Yankov is living that version at CSKA 1948, and it tends to show in the first month.
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 21. 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.
Market24 Aug 2026
Lokomotiv Plovdiv pay $190.0K, and the deal is done. The number reads well on a balance sheet; whether it reads well on the pitch is next season's question.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Berna 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.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Match15 Aug 2026
7‑0, and the margin flattered nobody — it could have carried another goal or two without complaint. Afternoons like this are why people keep coming.
Market17 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.
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
Two goals and a mark of 8.46 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Squad17 Aug 2026
3 goals in one afternoon from one man. The other players were also present, a witness confirmed.
Transfer targets17 Aug 2026
Everything agreed with Levski, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
Match15 Aug 2026
CSKA 1948 cannot stop winning
3 wins on the spin now, and the question has changed from whether the run ends to who ends it. Confidence like this cannot be bought; it has to be earned exactly this way.
Transfer targets17 Aug 2026
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.
Match15 Aug 2026
7 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about CSKA 1948 and Cherno More in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
Squad17 Aug 2026
A row about effort at CSKA 1948
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Berna was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Match1 Aug 2026
Dobrudzha will want this one forgotten quickly: 4‑1, every duel lost, and a long ride home. CSKA 1948 were ruthless in the way good sides are ruthless.
Player ratings3 Aug 2026
Two goals and a mark of 8.92 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Player ratings3 Aug 2026
A brace, and Borislav Tsonev takes the afternoon — 8.31
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Borislav Tsonev provided it, and the 8.31 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Market3 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.
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.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Words at CSKA 1948 training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Berna 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
CSKA 1948 asked and FC Nantes 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.
The dugout3 Aug 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.