From our football correspondent
Steady
Match24 Oct 2026
3‑0, and José Martínes took the headlines on an afternoon when everything CSKA 1948 tried came off. Days like this are retold all winter.
Match24 Oct 2026
CSKA 1948 come up short in Europe
0‑2 away to the standard of Cagliari. Nobody will pretend this was a scandal; the gap is real, it is measurable, and closing it is a project rather than a team talk.
Player ratings26 Oct 2026
A brace, and José Martínes takes the afternoon — 8.88
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. José Martínes provided it, and the 8.88 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Squad26 Oct 2026
6 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.
Squad26 Oct 2026
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at CSKA 1948 this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Player ratings26 Oct 2026
One of those days for Berna
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.06, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
The dugout26 Oct 2026
The manager makes an example of Dragan Grivić
“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 dugout26 Oct 2026
The team sheet said everything about Atanas Iliev
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 Atanas Iliev.
Squad26 Oct 2026
CSKA 1948 are still strangers to each other
11 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.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Player ratings19 Oct 2026
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.
Player ratings19 Oct 2026
Two goals and a mark of 8.94 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Match17 Oct 2026
It had gone 8 games. The players did not celebrate like men who had won a match; they celebrated like men who had been let out of something.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Yohann Magnin and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Laurenz Orgler is 22, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Match17 Oct 2026
Montana made CSKA 1948 work for it, but the scoreboard read 3‑1 at the end and the table does not ask how.
Player ratings19 Oct 2026
A performance of 8.85 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
The dugout19 Oct 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Jota Silva, and the manager let it.
The dugout19 Oct 2026
The view from the dugout
“We controlled it. There were spells I did not like and we will look at them, but the group showed me something.” Atanas Zafirov, on a 3‑1 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match10 Oct 2026
The wait goes on for CSKA 1948
8 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
Squad12 Oct 2026
Words exchanged at CSKA 1948
Yohann Magnin 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.
Player ratings12 Oct 2026
Successful dribbles: 20. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
The dugout12 Oct 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Dimitar Sheytanov, and the manager let it.
Market12 Oct 2026
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Ivo Chochev is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Market12 Oct 2026
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Mihail Atanasov 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.
Match10 Oct 2026
CSKA 1948 caught on 90 minutes
The board was up, the win was priced in, and then Septemvri scored. There is no worse minute to concede in and the ground emptied in the silence that follows one.
The dugout12 Oct 2026
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.
Match10 Oct 2026
It needed Berna to find the net to bring anything home at all: 1‑1 against Septemvri, and half the dressing room will call it a point won.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match3 Oct 2026
CSKA 1948 do the business in Europe
0‑0. Continental football is where a club finds out what it actually is, and CSKA 1948 came through the finding-out well against KV Oostende.
Match3 Oct 2026
The wait goes on for CSKA 1948
7 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Yohann Magnin 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.
Player ratings5 Oct 2026
Successful dribbles: 21. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Match3 Oct 2026
3 matches without a goal for CSKA 1948
The chances are being made and something is happening between the making and the finishing. 3 matches now, and the anxiety in the ground arrives a little earlier every week.
The dugout5 Oct 2026
The manager makes an example of Preslav Borukov
“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.
Player ratings5 Oct 2026
7.42, and no serious argument from anybody who was there. CSKA 1948 had eleven men on the pitch and one of them decided how it went.
The dugout5 Oct 2026
Lasha Dvali left out for the big one
A player who expected to start watched it instead. The manager will call it a decision for the team; Lasha Dvali will call it something else in private.
The dugout5 Oct 2026
The one version of being left out a player cannot argue with, and the one he takes worst. Somebody else has been better and the team sheet says so, in public, every week until it changes.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match26 Sep 2026
Chastening afternoon for CSKA 1948
A 0‑3 beating by Ludogorets was the sort of result that empties a stadium long before the final whistle.
Match26 Sep 2026
5 matches without a win for CSKA 1948
The run now stands at 5, and the questions being asked around CSKA 1948 are no longer polite ones.
Squad28 Sep 2026
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at CSKA 1948 this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The dugout28 Sep 2026
The manager makes an example of Atanas Iliev
“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.
Market28 Sep 2026
“They were honest with me, and I would rather know.” Mamadou Diallo has been informed he is not in the manager's thinking at CSKA 1948.
Boardroom28 Sep 2026
The manager kept them in and said what needed saying. A response is expected on Saturday, and if it does not come the questions move upstairs.
Squad28 Sep 2026
11 new faces, and CSKA 1948 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.
The dugout28 Sep 2026
The view from the dugout
“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 0‑3 defeat, delivered by Atanas Zafirov to a room that had heard them before.
Player ratings28 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 15. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Match19 Sep 2026
CSKA 1948 do the business in Europe
1‑1. Continental football is where a club finds out what it actually is, and CSKA 1948 came through the finding-out well against Pogon.
Match19 Sep 2026
4 matches without a win for CSKA 1948
The run now stands at 4, and the questions being asked around CSKA 1948 are no longer polite ones.
Squad21 Sep 2026
Yohann Magnin and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Match19 Sep 2026
Beaten 0‑1, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Player ratings21 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 17. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
The dugout21 Sep 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Mamadou Diallo, and the manager let it.
The dugout21 Sep 2026
No place for Atanas Iliev on the big day
He found out with everybody else, an hour before kick-off, from a sheet of paper on a wall. Nobody at CSKA 1948 pretended it was anything other than a decision about him.
The dugout21 Sep 2026
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 dugout21 Sep 2026
Somebody else has been better, the manager has said so with a team sheet, and there is no argument to be had. He will get the shirt back the only way it can be got back.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad14 Sep 2026
Aleksandar Georgiev 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.
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 19. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Market14 Sep 2026
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Ivo Yankov 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.
Market14 Sep 2026
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Plamen Yankov is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
The dugout14 Sep 2026
“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.
Match12 Sep 2026
CSKA Sofia left with the points after a 0‑1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Market14 Sep 2026
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at CSKA 1948, another week without a signature from Aleksandar Georgiev.
The dugout14 Sep 2026
Berna is still paying for one afternoon at CSKA 1948
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 dugout14 Sep 2026
“I could talk about decisions and I could talk about luck. I will not. We lost.” The manager, 0‑1, and a press conference that lasted four minutes.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market7 Sep 2026
Ludogorets come back empty-handed
The bid was some way short and CSKA 1948 did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Squad7 Sep 2026
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.
Market7 Sep 2026
The fee is $2.8M, the contract is signed, and the argument about whether he is worth it can begin. Cherno More drove a hard bargain; time will say who won it.
Player ratings7 Sep 2026
Up for the corner, and Dragan Grivić delivers — 7.80
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Dragan Grivić scored, was marked 7.80, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
Boardroom7 Sep 2026
CSKA 1948 close the window on a squad of their own making
23 in and 7 out, and no more changes for months. The manager has what he has, the supporters have their opinion of it, and the table will have the last word.
Market7 Sep 2026
The name of José Martínes has come up in conversations CSKA 1948 were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Transfer targets7 Sep 2026
CSKA 1948 asked and Botev Vratsa said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Match5 Sep 2026
Hard to beat is not the same as winning, but 7 matches without defeat is a foundation CSKA 1948 did not have in the autumn.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Yohann Magnin 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.
In brief
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The terraces
CSKA 1948 spend $2.8M on the signing the town wanted
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Match
The run is over for CSKA 1948
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Player ratings
Hernâni ran the middle of the pitch — 6.94
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Match29 Aug 2026
Nobody wants to play CSKA 1948 right now
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.
Squad31 Aug 2026
6 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.
The terraces31 Aug 2026
CSKA 1948 sell a favourite for $2.3M
The accountants will call it good business and they will be right, which is not the point anybody outside the boardroom is making. Benaissa Benamar was one of the reasons people came, and $2.3M does not replace that by itself.
Player ratings31 Aug 2026
Age has not caught André Hoffmann yet — 7.99
At 33 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 7.99 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Market31 Aug 2026
Benaissa Benamar has left for CSKA Sofia in a $2.3M deal. The accountants are pleased; the supporters are less certain.
Transfer targets31 Aug 2026
CSKA 1948 had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Palermo, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
Squad31 Aug 2026
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at CSKA 1948 this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match29 Aug 2026
It finished 2‑1, and it was José Martínes’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to CSKA 1948.
The dugout31 Aug 2026
The manager makes an example of Atanas Iliev
“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.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Match22 Aug 2026
Ninety minutes of very little, and then everything at once. The winner arrived in the 88th, and Slavia Sofia spent what remained of the match appealing to the referee rather than chasing the ball.
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 8.10, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
Market24 Aug 2026
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Match22 Aug 2026
CSKA 1948 cannot stop winning
5 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.
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
Nobody could get near Hernâni
Successful dribbles: 27. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Transfer targets24 Aug 2026
CSKA 1948 have gone to Cherno More 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.
Market24 Aug 2026
The name of Ognjen Gašević has come up in conversations CSKA 1948 were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Yohann Magnin and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 30. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Market17 Aug 2026
CSKA 1948 say no — this time
The offer from Levski for Fourat Soltani 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.
Transfer targets17 Aug 2026
Slavia Sofia wanted more than $1.4M and the board would not go there. Walked away, for now, which in a transfer window means until somebody blinks.
Match15 Aug 2026
CSKA 1948 cannot stop winning
3 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.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Words exchanged at CSKA 1948
Yohann Magnin 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 targets17 Aug 2026
CSKA 1948 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.
The dugout17 Aug 2026
The manager makes an example of André Hoffmann
“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.
Market17 Aug 2026
Add another name to the list: CSKA Sofia have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Benaissa Benamar. The answer from CSKA 1948 has not changed — yet.
Match15 Aug 2026
Cherno More made CSKA 1948 work for it, but the scoreboard read 1‑0 at the end and the table does not ask how.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Market10 Aug 2026
CSKA 1948 say no — this time
The offer from Septemvri for Ognjen Gašević 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.
Transfer targets10 Aug 2026
The offer went to Slavia Sofia 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.
Transfer targets10 Aug 2026
Everything agreed with Rapid Wien, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
Squad10 Aug 2026
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Yohann Magnin commits to CSKA 1948 for another 3 years.
Squad10 Aug 2026
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at CSKA 1948 this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Player ratings10 Aug 2026
Berna beats them one at a time
Successful dribbles: 21. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Market10 Aug 2026
Ludogorets pay $360.0K, and the deal is done. The number reads well on a balance sheet; whether it reads well on the pitch is next season's question.
Squad10 Aug 2026
A row about effort at CSKA 1948
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and André Hoffmann was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Market10 Aug 2026
Add another name to the list: Levski have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Fourat Soltani. The answer from CSKA 1948 has not changed — yet.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Squad3 Aug 2026
Petar Marinov gets the move he always wanted
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Petar Marinov has just signed for CSKA 1948, and for once the answer mattered.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Yohann Magnin 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.
Market3 Aug 2026
The shirt still fits. Petar Marinov is back at CSKA 1948, and half the ground remembers him in these colours already. Some signings need selling to the town; this one sold itself.
Squad3 Aug 2026
A row about effort at CSKA 1948
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and André Hoffmann was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Player ratings3 Aug 2026
Berna beats them one at a time
Successful dribbles: 20. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
The terraces3 Aug 2026
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 18-year-old it feels ownership of. Marto Boychev 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.
Match1 Aug 2026
A 2‑0 win over Dobrudzha, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Market3 Aug 2026
The name of Marto Boychev has come up in conversations CSKA 1948 were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Player ratings3 Aug 2026
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.08, and no argument anywhere in the ground.