Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Dynamo Kyiv is saying, and nobody at Botev Plovdiv is enjoying the guessing.
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.
The name of Vladimir Mendes has come up in conversations Botev Plovdiv were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
A point taken on 92 minutes is worth exactly one point and considerably more than that to a dressing room. This side does not stop, which is a reputation worth more than the result.
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
Squad31 Aug 2026
Words at Botev Plovdiv training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Francisco Politino 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.
10 new signings in one window. Every one may be an upgrade and the side can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild the verdicts never mention.
The accountants will call it good business and they will be right, which is not the point anybody outside the boardroom is making. Lucas Araújo was one of the reasons people came, and $890.0K does not replace that by itself.
The deal with NK Domzale is done in every sense but the one that puts him on the pitch. Nothing goes wrong at this stage, except on the occasions when it does.
The name of Aleksa Maraš has come up in conversations Botev Plovdiv were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
The offer from Septemvri for Carlos Meotti 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.
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.
He is 19 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.
Successful dribbles: 35. 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.
The offer from CSKA Sofia for Aleksa Maraš 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.
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.
The fee is $1.6M, the contract is signed, and the argument about whether he is worth it can begin. Lokomotiv Plovdiv drove a hard bargain; time will say who won it.
Nobody makes a documentary about a hamstring and everybody in the game fears one. Botev Plovdiv will be careful with the return date, because the second one is always worse than the first.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Zadar is saying, and nobody at Botev Plovdiv is enjoying the guessing.
$420.0K on the table at CSKA 1948. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
The offer from CSKA Sofia for Lucas Araújo 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 offer went to Lokomotiv Plovdiv 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.
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.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Vladimir Vasilev 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. Stefan Dyakov 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. Radoslav Vasilev is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
In brief
Player ratingsThe afternoon belonged to Samuel Kalu
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.
Botev Plovdiv asked and Egnatia Rrogozhinë said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
0‑1 to CSKA Sofia, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
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.
Squad3 Aug 2026
9 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.