Marked for Fredéric Ananou
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad22 Feb 2027
A knee injury of the worst kind for Fredéric Ananou
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.
Squad22 Feb 2027
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.
Transfer targets22 Feb 2027
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.
Loan watch22 Feb 2027
“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.
The dugout22 Feb 2027
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 dugout22 Feb 2027
Marko Brest 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 Marko Brest trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
The dugout22 Feb 2027
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.
Market22 Feb 2027
Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Dimitar Mitrovski’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad15 Feb 2027
Fredéric Ananou damages knee ligaments — 130 days out
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.
Match15 Feb 2027
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.
Squad15 Feb 2027
Marko Brest and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Loan watch15 Feb 2027
“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.
The dugout15 Feb 2027
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.
The dugout15 Feb 2027
Agustín Doffo has become a man the manager trusts
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.
The dugout15 Feb 2027
Dino Kojić knocks on the manager's door
“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 dugout15 Feb 2027
The manager makes an example of Pedro Lucas
“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.
Market15 Feb 2027
Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Matevž Vidovšek’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market25 Jan 2027
The bid was some way short and Olimpija Ljubljana did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Transfer targets25 Jan 2027
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.
Transfer targets25 Jan 2027
Gijón have been asked whether they would lend him. Loans are agreed quickly or not at all, and this one will be one or the other by the weekend.
The dugout25 Jan 2027
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 Mitrovski is on it.
The dugout25 Jan 2027
Matevž Dajčar is still being punished for one mistake
Nobody will confirm it and the team sheets confirm it every week. One error has bought him a spell as second choice that is already longer than the error deserved.
The dugout25 Jan 2027
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Fredéric Ananou trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Market25 Jan 2027
Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Dimitar Mitrovski’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.
The dugout25 Jan 2027
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Olimpija Ljubljana. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
Loan watch25 Jan 2027
The goals keep arriving from Svit Hočevar’s exile
4 goals in 17 games at Sesvete — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Olimpija Ljubljana updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad7 Dec 2026
“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.
Match5 Dec 2026
NK Domzale left with the points after a 0‑1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Player ratings7 Dec 2026
The game went through Indrit Tuci — 6.41
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.
The dugout7 Dec 2026
The manager makes an example of Jan Gorenc
“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 dugout7 Dec 2026
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.
Loan watch7 Dec 2026
“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.
The dugout7 Dec 2026
“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.
The dugout7 Dec 2026
Matevž Vidovšek has become a man the manager trusts
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.