“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Konyaspor heard it as anything else.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Konyaspor this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad2 Aug 2027
Words at Konyaspor training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Riechedly Bazoer 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 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.
A season-long audition: Al-Nassr still own him, but the shirt and the minutes are Konyaspor's to give. A loan is a bet both clubs believe they are winning.
“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 The request is on a desk at Konyaspor, and it is not being withdrawn.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Konyaspor this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The name of Jo Jin-Ho has come up in conversations Konyaspor were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Squad25 Jan 2027
Words at Konyaspor training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Riechedly Bazoer 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.
“I have given this everything, but my family is not here and neither am I, not really.” A footballer can be coached out of bad form. Nobody has ever been coached out of this, and Konyaspor know it.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Konyaspor this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Boardroom17 Aug 2026
5 academy players handed senior numbers at Konyaspor
The morning the pathway stops being a brochure and becomes a team sheet. Most of them will not be here in three years; all of them have already done the hard part, which was getting to today.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Salih Torun has been at this club since he was a boy and is now, formally, one of the first-team squad — which for a local readership beats any signing of any size.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Ozan Karaman 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. Muhammed Muldur is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Words at Konyaspor training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Marko Jevtović 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 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.
In brief
BoardroomKonyaspor turn down the training-ground plan