The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Botev Plovdiv have lost him in all but the paperwork.
Two goals and a mark of 9.47 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
“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 The request is on a desk at Botev Plovdiv, and it is not being withdrawn.
A mark of 8.38 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 20-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
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.
Alberto Salido had done his part in building a 2-goal cushion. What happened after that was collective, and Botev Vratsa were allowed back into a match that had been finished with.
Two goals and a mark of 9.62 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
“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 The request is on a desk at Botev Plovdiv, and it is not being withdrawn.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Botev Plovdiv have lost him in all but the paperwork.
7 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.
Samuel Kalu 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.
Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 7 goals between Botev Plovdiv and Dobrudzha, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.
Match16 Jan 2027
Another one collected away from home
4 on the bounce on the road for Botev Plovdiv. The coaches leave early, arrive at unlovely grounds in the dark, and keep coming home with three points.
Botev Plovdiv asked and Tskhinvali said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
In brief
Player ratingsNinety minutes of Alberto Salido at his very best
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Botev Plovdiv will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
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.
Botev Plovdiv had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Sporting CP, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
One scored and one made, which is a different afternoon from scoring twice and an easier one to overlook. Marked 7.94, and involved in 2 of his side's goals.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Botev Plovdiv will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
5 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.
The kind of year that ends with a name being read out in a hall. Botev Plovdiv had the benefit of it every week and now have the problem of everybody else knowing.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 7.86 at 33, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 31 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.14 at 33, and nobody on the pitch was better.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Botev Plovdiv this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
One scored and one made, which is a different afternoon from scoring twice and an easier one to overlook. Marked 7.84, and involved in 2 of his side's goals.
In brief
MatchSamuel Kalu among the goals in a wild afternoon
Player ratingsAlberto Salido was on a different afternoon to everybody else
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 38 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
3 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.
Samuel Kalu 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.
7 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about Botev Plovdiv and Montana in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Botev Plovdiv will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Botev Plovdiv will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.05 at 35, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 6 goals between Botev Plovdiv and Arda, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.
Player ratings7 Dec 2026
Samuel Kalu was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.87. 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.
In brief
Player ratingsMauro Rodrigues was on a different afternoon to everybody else
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 63 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Botev Plovdiv this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad30 Nov 2026
Words at Botev Plovdiv training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Simeon Petrov 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.
Behind, and beaten by any honest reading, until minute 89. Ludogorets had the points in their pocket and a corner of the ground still believed, which is generally when it happens.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Botev Plovdiv will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Lokomotiv Sofia go through and Botev Plovdiv go home, 1‑2 the scoreline that did it. The dressing room will call the league the priority now, because that is what dressing rooms say.
Ninety minutes of very little, and then everything at once. The winner arrived in the 86th, and Beroe spent what remained of the match appealing to the referee rather than chasing the ball.
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.
At 35 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.26 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
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 7.56 for the rest of it.
Samuel Kalu 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.
Two goals and a mark of 9.27 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Samuel Kalu 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Bryan Hein was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Behind, and beaten by any honest reading, until minute 96. CSKA Sofia had the points in their pocket and a corner of the ground still believed, which is generally when it happens.
It needed Alberto Salido to find the net to bring anything home at all: 3‑3 against CSKA Sofia, and half the dressing room will call it a point won.
Squad16 Nov 2026
7 new faces, and Botev Plovdiv are still learning each other
A squad rebuilt inside one window pays for it in a currency nobody budgets for. The football is not worse than the sum of the players; it is worse than the sum of the players who have played together before.
“It is not the end of the world and it is not good enough. Both of those are true.” The manager, after a 3‑3 draw, said the honest thing and then went to say it again inside.
In brief
Loan watchThe goals keep arriving from Tailson’s exile
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.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Miroslav Grudev 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.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Momchil Grudev is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
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.
Successful dribbles: 33. 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Botev Plovdiv this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad2 Nov 2026
Words at Botev Plovdiv training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Cláudio Silva 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.
50 for the club now, each one filed in somebody’s memory with a date and a scoreline. Numbers like this are what supporters argue about in twenty years.
Marked 8.29 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
“I did not go to Dobrudzha to sit and watch. I want to come back to Botev Plovdiv and fight for my place.” 11 appearances in 10 matches say the rest.
The dugout2 Nov 2026
The manager’s verdict
“That is on me. I pick the team and I picked wrong.” Managers say that when they mean it and when they need to be seen to, and after 1‑2 Martin Krastev left the room before anybody could ask which.
Samuel Kalu 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.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Boycho Velichkov has just signed for Botev Plovdiv, and for once the answer mattered.
Marked 9.07 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
2 behind and going nowhere, until Stanislav Shopov decided otherwise. Cherno More had done the hard part and then watched it come apart, and the noise at the final whistle was the sort a ground keeps.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.32 at 33, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Samuel Kalu 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.
Marked 8.34 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
Successful dribbles: 18. 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.
Successful dribbles: 25. 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Cláudio Silva was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Bojidar Malinov is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Ivan Zafirov is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Marked 8.13 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Botev Plovdiv this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Samuel Kalu. 2‑0 against Dobrudzha, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Marked 8.75 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Antoine Conte was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The manager has re-ordered his thinking and Frederico Namora has come out of it lower. He will be told it is temporary, and the players who have heard that before will avoid his eye.
Two goals and a mark of 10.00 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Two goals and a mark of 9.46 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Samuel Kalu 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.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Silas Ostrzinski is 22, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
2 goals before the ground had finished arriving. Spartak 1918 spent the rest of the afternoon playing a match that had already been decided, and everybody in the stadium knew it.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 13 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Frederico Namora is living that version at Botev Plovdiv, and it tends to show in the first month.
7 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about Botev Plovdiv and CSKA 1948 in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
Marked 8.99 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
Botev Plovdiv asked and Cherno More said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
A deal that was a phone call from completion at lunchtime was dead by midnight. Botev Plovdiv will try again when the window opens; Cherno More may not be selling by then.
Todor Nedelev 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.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Aleksandar Kostadinov is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Georgi Yankov 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.
Botev Plovdiv and Cherno More have settled on $1.3M. The rest belongs to the player and his agent, and a supporter who has watched one of these before knows not to buy the shirt yet.
The bid was some way short and Botev Plovdiv did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Boardroom7 Sep 2026
Deadline passes with 23 signed and 5 gone
That is the business done at Botev Plovdiv until the window opens again. Whether it was enough will be answered on Saturdays rather than in a column, and the first Saturday is close.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: another club keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Botev Plovdiv this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Paulinho Campos is living that version at Botev Plovdiv, and it tends to show in the first month.
Player ratingsAlberto Salido was on a different afternoon to everybody else
SquadMascote falls out with a teammate over standards
5Edition
The Botev Plovdiv Chronicle
31 Aug 2026
From our football correspondentUpbeat
Player ratings31 Aug 2026
A brace, and Samuel Kalu takes the afternoon — 9.55
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Samuel Kalu provided it, and the 9.55 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Ludogorets have kept their man, and Botev Plovdiv go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Samuel Kalu 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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Samuel Kalu. 3‑1 against Septemvri, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
The hardest thing about being 21 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Ehije Ukaki did not need any: 7.75, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
The fee is $1.3M, the contract is signed, and the argument about whether he is worth it can begin. CSKA 1948 drove a hard bargain; time will say who won it.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Levski have kept their man, and Botev Plovdiv go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Samuel Kalu 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.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 15 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
The offer went to Cherno More this week and it is theirs to answer. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loud the door closes.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Levski have kept their man, and Botev Plovdiv go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
The name of Hristiyan Slavkov has come up in conversations Botev Plovdiv were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
He is doing things every Saturday that nobody around him can answer. It is flattering for a season and a problem after that, and Botev Plovdiv know which stage they are at.
In brief
Squad12 new faces, and Botev Plovdiv are still learning each other
Beroe will want this one forgotten quickly: 7‑0, every duel lost, and a long ride home. Botev Plovdiv were ruthless in the way good sides are ruthless.
“I listened, I thought about it, and I am staying. That is the whole story.” The clubs had agreed a fee. Carlos Meotti had not agreed to go, which turned out to be the part that mattered.
7.90, 1 on the scoresheet, and the specific comedy of a back-four player celebrating like somebody who does this every week. He does not, and that is exactly why the ground reacted the way it did.
7.22, 1 on the scoresheet, and the specific comedy of a back-four player celebrating like somebody who does this every week. He does not, and that is exactly why the ground reacted the way it did.
Samuel Kalu 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.
3 in front and in complete control, and it finished with CSKA Sofia the happier side. There is no version of this afternoon that Botev Plovdiv will enjoy reviewing.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Levski have kept their man, and Botev Plovdiv go back to a list with one name crossed off 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 Botev Plovdiv this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Antoine Conte and Botev Plovdiv agree another 2 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Words at Botev Plovdiv training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Simeon Petrov 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.
Player ratings3 Aug 2026
Alberto Salido was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.21. 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.