123 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Olimpija Ljubljana lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Marvin Çuni 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.
Olimpija Ljubljana asked and CSKA Moscow said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
“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 Olimpija Ljubljana, and 3 appearances in 24 say he has earned the hearing.
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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Marko Brest trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
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.
Olimpija Ljubljana have let the market know Veljko Jelenković can be had. No price in the advert, but everyone in the trade knows roughly what it says.
The words a physio says slowly. 130 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Position 2, 27 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.
“I watch every Olimpija Ljubljana game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Ilirija 1911 runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
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.
Nobody at Olimpija Ljubljana 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.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Olimpija Ljubljana, and both men came out saying it was fine.
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.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Gijón keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Marvin Çuni 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.
Olimpija Ljubljana asked and Slovan Bratislava said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
“I watch every Olimpija Ljubljana game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Jesenice runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
Olimpija Ljubljana have made the call to CSKA Moscow. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
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 offer from NK Celje for Nemanja Motika 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.
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. Olimpija Ljubljana will be quietly delighted and privately nervous.
Everything agreed with Nafta 1903, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
Marvin Çuni 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Nafta 1903 have kept their man, and Olimpija Ljubljana go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
“I did not go to Jesenice to sit and watch. I want to come back to Olimpija Ljubljana and fight for my place.” 3 appearances in 17 matches say the rest.
Marko Brest 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.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 19 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Dino Kojić 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 did not go to Jesenice to sit and watch. I want to come back to Olimpija Ljubljana and fight for my place.” 5 appearances in 16 matches say the rest.
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 Marvin Çuni is on it.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Olimpija Ljubljana, and both men came out saying it was fine.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Fredéric Ananou and Olimpija Ljubljana agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad7 Dec 2026
Dino Kojić 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.
Marked 6.41 on 10 actions at both ends of the pitch. Midfielders like this get described as unspectacular by people who have never tried to play against 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.
“I did not go to Jesenice to sit and watch. I want to come back to Olimpija Ljubljana and fight for my place.” 3 appearances in 13 matches say the rest.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Robert Oblak after 0‑1, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
Nobody at Olimpija Ljubljana 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.
In brief
Player ratingsThe one thing Marvin Çuni could not do
8 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 ratings9 Nov 2026
Up for the corner, and Agustín Doffo delivers — 7.60
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Agustín Doffo scored, was marked 7.60, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
Marko Brest 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.
Squad9 Nov 2026
Dino Kojić 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.
“I watch every Olimpija Ljubljana game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Jesenice runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
He found out with everybody else, an hour before kick-off, from a sheet of paper on a wall. Nobody at Olimpija Ljubljana pretended it was anything other than a decision about him.
In brief
The dugoutMatevž Vidovšek has become a man the manager trusts
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 19 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 easiest signature of my career.” Antonio Marin and Olimpija Ljubljana agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Nemanja Motika 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.
8.06. 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.
Warm-up bib, ninety minutes of watching, and a handshake at the end that fooled nobody. Big matches tell you who a manager trusts; this one told Marko Brest.
1‑0 against Austria Wien, under lights, against people who do not speak the same language as the crowd. These are the evenings a club measures its decade in, and there are never as many of them as anybody expects.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Bruno Lourenço provided it, and the 8.22 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
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 7.99 for the rest of 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 Olimpija Ljubljana this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
7 goals in one match, Bruno Lourenço on the scoresheet, and a scoreline that will look like a misprint. Neutrals could not have asked more of Olimpija Ljubljana and NK Domzale.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Nemanja Motika 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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Marko Brest. 2‑0 against Radomlje, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Dino Kojić 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.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Olimpija Ljubljana told Marko Brest something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
The words a physio says slowly. 20 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 6 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
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 7.86 for the rest of it.
The offer from ND Gorica for Jordi Govea 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.
The number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $170.6K — a club that wants Alexander Stožinić enough to be asked twice.
Olimpija Ljubljana have gone to Primorje with a bid, and the supporters have gone to the internet with an opinion about it. Whether either changes anything is up to the selling club.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Young Boys have kept their man, and Olimpija Ljubljana go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Konyaspor have kept their man, and Olimpija Ljubljana go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Involvement in 2 goals, from a player who spent the ninety minutes doing the thing a manager actually wants: being where the ball was going to end up. 7.83 beside his name.
Marko Brest 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.
Add another name to the list: Ilirija 1911 have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Inas Kukavica. The answer from Olimpija Ljubljana has not changed — yet.
“96 caps was 96 more than the boy who started ever expected.” At 37 he has stepped away from the national side and has not stepped away from Olimpija Ljubljana.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Dino Kojić 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.