Boris Popović

Central Defender - Arouca
21 Aug 2027
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Marked for Boris Popović

49 Edition

The Arouca Chronicle

5 Jul 2027
From our football correspondent Uneasy

Boardroom5 Jul 2027

Arouca put Daniel Sousa on notice

The board have said in public what they had been saying in private. Results between now and the next meeting decide it, and everybody in the building knows the arithmetic.

Boardroom5 Jul 2027

The Arouca board call everybody in

Nothing has been announced and everybody understands what it means. A board that summons the whole football department on a Tuesday morning is a board that has stopped believing the problem will fix itself.

Squad5 Jul 2027

Tempers go at Arouca

Ignacio de Arruabarrena 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 Jul 2027

Words at Arouca training over how hard people work

Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Lee Hyun-Ju 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.

Squad5 Jul 2027

A late step up for Espen van Ee

At 24 the improving is meant to be over. It is not: 3 points better than the mark taken at the start of the year, which is the sort of thing that happens to players who take the boring parts of the job seriously.

Squad5 Jul 2027

Boris Popović signs on for more

“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Boris Popović and Arouca agree another 3 years.

Market5 Jul 2027

Arouca sign Duarte Nogueira, one for the future

Duarte Nogueira is 20, and Arouca have signed him for the player he will be rather than the one he is. The first team can wait; the point of a deal like this is the years it buys.

Market5 Jul 2027

Arouca buy the years ahead of Francisco Couto

He is 20, and the scouting reports agree on the only line that matters: the ceiling. Signings like this are lottery tickets written by professionals.

Boardroom5 Jul 2027

Intake day at the Arouca academy

5 arrivals, an average age nobody would call a squad, and a set of parents being shown around a building their sons will spend more time in than at home. The scouting has already happened; today is only the paperwork.

In brief

Back issues
44 Edition

The Arouca Chronicle

31 May 2027
From our football correspondent Uneasy

Market31 May 2027

Naïs Djouahra 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 Arouca can pretend not to have heard.

Squad31 May 2027

Pablo Gozálbez: that is not what I was promised

“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Arouca have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.

Squad31 May 2027

Naïs Djouahra 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 Arouca this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.

In brief

32 Edition

The Arouca Chronicle

8 Mar 2027
From our football correspondent Crisis

Boardroom8 Mar 2027

Arouca put Daniel Sousa on notice

The board have said in public what they had been saying in private. Results between now and the next meeting decide it, and everybody in the building knows the arithmetic.

Market8 Mar 2027

Naïs Djouahra puts it in writing

“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 Arouca, and it is not being withdrawn.

Player ratings8 Mar 2027

Lee Hyun-Ju runs at them all day

Successful dribbles: 25. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.

Squad8 Mar 2027

Guillermo Martínez signs on for more

“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Guillermo Martínez and Arouca agree another 3 years.

Player ratings8 Mar 2027

Nothing got past Taichi Fukui

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.

Boardroom8 Mar 2027

Francisco Couto will join Arouca for nothing

The paperwork is done long before the player is. Francisco Couto has agreed terms to come here when his current deal runs out, which means Arouca have spent a summer's transfer budget on a phone call.

Squad8 Mar 2027

Fally Mayulu 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 Arouca this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.

Squad8 Mar 2027

Guillermo Bassi 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.

Squad8 Mar 2027

No hiding place for Boris Popović

“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Boris Popović, and the manager let it.

In brief