15 without defeat on their own grass. The pitch has not changed; the crowd has — louder earlier, and quicker to sense when the opposition would rather be somewhere else.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Bernard Tekpetey provided it, and the 7.93 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
“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 The request is on a desk at CSKA Sofia, and it is not being withdrawn.
7.85, 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.
Andrey Yordanov 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.
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.
8.31. 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 ratingsKevin Dodaj was on a different afternoon to everybody else
The dugoutThe manager makes an example of Ilian Iliev
1‑2 against Rizespor. Continental football is unforgiving about the things a domestic league lets a side get away with, and this was a night spent finding out which of those the club still has.
Position 3, 30 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.
Jean-Philippe Gbamin 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.
1‑2 to Marek, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Squad25 Oct 2027
Dinis Almeida 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.
Successful dribbles: 17. 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.
Publicly it is behind everybody. It is not behind the man who picks the team, and the only place that shows is a team sheet. He will get another chance; he will get it in a match that matters less.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Angel Aleksandrov after 1‑2, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
Plamen Andreev 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 Dinis Almeida was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Player ratings18 Oct 2027
Bruno Jordão was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.02. 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.
“The players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 1‑0, Angel Aleksandrov could afford to be generous.
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 Ioannis Pittas is on it.
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Arda in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
A conversation in the manager’s office, and a commitment that came out of it. Promises like that are cheap to make and expensive to break, and Bruno Jordão has written the date down.
“I have done everything asked of me in training and it has not changed a thing on a Saturday.” The most familiar complaint in football, and one CSKA Sofia will have to answer with minutes or with a transfer.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 8 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Mohamed Brahimi 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.
At 22 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.
Squad4 Oct 2027
Words at CSKA Sofia training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Dinis Almeida 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.
200 games in this shirt, through managers and relegations and everything else. Service like it is disappearing from the game and the crowd knows what it is watching.
“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 CSKA Sofia, and it is not being withdrawn.
11 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
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.
He is 23 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.
Everybody at CSKA Sofia saw it before anybody said it, which is how this always goes. At 35 the decline is real and measurable — 3 points — and the only question left is how the club handles somebody it owes a great deal to.
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Player ratings13 Sep 2027
Up for the corner, and Bruno Jordão delivers — 7.47
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Bruno Jordão scored, was marked 7.47, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
7 matches without defeat, and then Lokomotiv Plovdiv. Nobody at the ground pretended it would go on forever; nobody expected it to stop here either.
Squad13 Sep 2027
Dinis Almeida 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.
Something was said to Plamen Andreev and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
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 Jean-Philippe Gbamin is on it.
That is the business done at CSKA Sofia 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Dinis Almeida was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
10 signings in three months. Every one of them may be an upgrade and the team can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild that never appears in the transfer-window verdicts.
“I watch every CSKA Sofia game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Spartak 1918 runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
Nobody at CSKA Sofia 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.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what CSKA Sofia can pretend not to have heard.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. CSKA Sofia have lost him in all but the paperwork.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. CSKA Sofia will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Plamen Andreev 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.
9 without defeat on their own grass. The pitch has not changed; the crowd has — louder earlier, and quicker to sense when the opposition would rather be somewhere else.
Cherno More will want this one forgotten quickly: 3‑0, every duel lost, and a long ride home. CSKA Sofia were ruthless in the way good sides are ruthless.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. CSKA Sofia will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Two goals and a mark of 8.50 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
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.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 7.85 at 35, and nobody on the pitch was better.
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 7.88 for the rest of it.
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.
4 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.
CSKA Sofia asked and Beroe 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
SquadDinis Almeida falls out with a teammate over standards
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. CSKA Sofia will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
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.
“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 dugout9 Aug 2027
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.” Angel Aleksandrov, on a 1‑0 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. CSKA Sofia will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 8 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
The unbeaten run reaches 12. Some of them were wins and some were escapes, but a side that refuses to lose is a side other dressing rooms talk about.
Player ratings2 Aug 2027
Up for the corner, and Bruno Jordão delivers — 7.65
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Bruno Jordão scored, was marked 7.65, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
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.
“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.
Squad2 Aug 2027
Words at CSKA Sofia training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Dinis Almeida 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.
In brief
Player ratingsNinety minutes of Ioannis Pittas at his very best
“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 CSKA Sofia, and it is not being withdrawn.
“It was not right for me. I am not going to explain why to anybody except the people I owe an explanation to.” A deal agreed between two clubs, and a player who declined to be part of it.
Successful dribbles: 26. 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 phone has started ringing about Dimitar Evtimov again, and this time the name on the line is Iraklis. CSKA Sofia are listening politely and promising nothing.
Squad26 Jul 2027
Dinis Almeida 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.
The fee is $2.9M, the contract is signed, and the argument about whether he is worth it can begin. Levski drove a hard bargain; time will say who won it.
A new deal for the man in the dugout, and the clearest thing a board can say without calling a press conference about it. Stability is cheap to promise and expensive to deliver.
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 Sofia this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Senior shirt numbers handed to boys the coaches have known since they were twelve. Most will not make it and all of them have already done the hard part.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Cremonese have kept their man, and CSKA Sofia go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Mihail Petrov 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.
The deal with Levski 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.
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 Sofia this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad12 Jul 2027
Dinis Almeida 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.
He is doing things every Saturday that nobody around him can answer. It is flattering for a season and a problem after that, and CSKA Sofia know which stage they are at.
The offer went to Levski 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.
Bernard Tekpetey 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.
27 appearances and 0 goals away from here, and a player the manager did not have in August. Loans are sent out hoping for exactly this and most of them do not deliver it.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Dinis Almeida was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The demotion a club never announces and a dressing room always notices. Radoslav Kirilov is further from the side than he was, and the reason will not be given until he asks.
10 arrivals, an average age nobody would call a squad, and a set of parents being shown around a building their sons will spend more time in than at home. The scouting has already happened; today is only the paperwork.
Bernard Tekpetey 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.
CSKA Sofia asked and Botev Plovdiv said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
27 games, 0 goals, and a squad option that has arrived without a fee attached. The interesting question at CSKA Sofia now is not whether he plays but who he displaces.
7 signings in three months. Every one of them may be an upgrade and the team can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild that never appears in the transfer-window verdicts.
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 Ioannis Pittas is on it.
There is a level at which a footballer stops being tested and starts being contained, and he reached it some time ago. CSKA Sofia know it, and so does everybody who watches him.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. CSKA Sofia know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
A year in and the city has not opened up, the language has not come, and lunch is eaten alone more often than anybody at CSKA Sofia would admit. It shows on Saturdays.
“I know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” Sportist Svoge had the fee agreed and the shirt ready; they did not have the player, and now they will not.
The accountants will call it good business and they will be right, which is not the point anybody outside the boardroom is making. Maks Ebong was one of the reasons people came, and $11.8M does not replace that by itself.
The fee is $2.1M, the contract is signed, and the argument about whether he is worth it can begin. Lokomotiv Sofia drove a hard bargain; time will say who won it.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 22 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.
Ante Aralica was the name on every phone-in, and the club has gone and signed him for $2.1M. For one week the board can do no wrong, which is a week most boards never get.
CSKA Sofia asked and Lokomotiv Sofia said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Squad21 Jun 2027
Dinis Almeida 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 was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at CSKA Sofia this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“I listened, I thought about it, and I am staying. That is the whole story.” The clubs had agreed a fee. Maks Ebong had not agreed to go, which turned out to be the part that mattered.
The offer from Levski for Ioannis Pittas 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.
CSKA Sofia and Lokomotiv Sofia have settled on $2.1M. 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.
Lokomotiv Plovdiv paid $7.7M and CSKA Sofia took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
Leandro Godoy has gone, the accounts have $7.7M in them, and the supporters have the feeling of having been sold something themselves. Good business and a good decision are not always the same thing.
CSKA 1948 paid $4.6M and CSKA Sofia took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
The number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $2.6M — a club that wants Ante Aralica enough to be asked twice.
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 Sofia this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
CSKA Sofia asked and Korona 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 last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. CSKA Sofia have lost him in all but the paperwork.
Position 2, 66 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.
CSKA Sofia have gone to Lokomotiv Sofia 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. Lokomotiv Sofia have kept their man, and CSKA Sofia go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
The number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $6.4M — a club that wants Christian Makoun enough to be asked twice.
James Eto'o 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 Teodor Ivanov has come up in conversations CSKA Sofia were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
In brief
SquadWords at CSKA Sofia training over how hard people work
Qualification is secured, and next season the big floodlit nights are continental ones. For the players it is a stage; for the accounts it is a lifeline; for the supporters it is passports.
An individual honour is a strange thing in a team game, and the best of them are never argued with. He has had the sort of year that ends with his name being read out, and CSKA Sofia have had the benefit of it.
Jean-Philippe Gbamin 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.
Squad31 May 2027
Words at CSKA Sofia training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. James Eto'o 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.
26 games and 0 goals away from here, and a man the manager did not have last summer. The loan did what loans are supposed to do and almost never do.
Squad31 May 2027
5 new faces, and CSKA Sofia 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.
Nobody at CSKA Sofia 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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Ángelo Martino trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. CSKA Sofia know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
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 Przemysław Tytoń is on it.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Bruno Jordão trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until James Eto'o signs something — a contract at CSKA Sofia or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
He asked about his future and was given an answer with minutes in it. The manager has now made a promise in a building where promises are remembered, and the clock on it has started.
Nobody writes a headline about a tutor. Nobody has to be told, either, what happens to a signing who spends two years being the man nobody can talk to at lunch.
The message was aimed at the stands as much as the dressing room: Petko Panayotov plays, and the argument is closed until the manager decides otherwise.
“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 CSKA Sofia, and it is not being withdrawn.
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 Sofia this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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 Jean-Philippe Gbamin is on it.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Bruno Jordão trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Jean-Philippe Gbamin signs something — a contract at CSKA Sofia or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
He asked about his future and was given an answer with minutes in it. The manager has now made a promise in a building where promises are remembered, and the clock on it has started.
Jean-Philippe Gbamin 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.
Nobody at CSKA Sofia 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.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. CSKA Sofia know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at CSKA Sofia. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
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.
He is not being dropped. There is simply nowhere in the formation CSKA Sofia are playing to put a man who does what he does, which is a harder thing to be told than any team sheet.
Adrian Błąd is 36 and has run out of things to prove. What he has left is where to stand, when to slow it down and what to say at half-time, and none of that is on a fitness chart.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. CSKA Sofia know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at CSKA Sofia. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
A year in and the language has not come, the city has not opened up, and he eats alone more often than anybody at CSKA Sofia would like to admit. It is showing on Saturdays.
Nobody at CSKA Sofia 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 CSKA Sofia, and both men came out saying it was fine.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until James Eto'o signs something — a contract at CSKA Sofia or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at CSKA Sofia. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at CSKA Sofia has been clear about where Petko Panayotov stands, which is more than many ever get.
Nobody at CSKA Sofia 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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Kjell Peersman trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
3 goals in 25 games at Sportist Svoge — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at CSKA Sofia updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
3 goals in 22 games at Lokomotiv Plovdiv — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at CSKA Sofia updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
“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 CSKA Sofia, and it is not being withdrawn.
James Eto'o 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.
“I did not go to Fratria to sit and watch. I want to come back to CSKA Sofia and fight for my place.” 2 appearances in 11 matches say the rest.
Squad12 Apr 2027
6 new faces, and CSKA Sofia 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.
Nobody at CSKA Sofia 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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Petko Panayotov trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
He asked about his future and was given an answer with minutes in it. The manager has now made a promise in a building where promises are remembered, and the clock on it has started.
Bernard Tekpetey 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.
“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 CSKA Sofia, and 7 appearances in 34 say he has earned the hearing.
Four or five weekends of consistency, judged against everybody in the division doing his job. Bozhidar Petrov has come out of that comparison in the side, and CSKA Sofia have had the benefit of every one of those afternoons.
Nobody at CSKA Sofia 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.
6 goals in 8 games at Dunav Ruse — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at CSKA Sofia updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Nikola Neychev trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” CSKA Sofia have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
At 21 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.
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 Sofia this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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.
He asked about his future and was given an answer with minutes in it. The manager has now made a promise in a building where promises are remembered, and the clock on it has started.
The language has come, the shrug has gone, and he argues in training like a man who expects to be here next year. None of it shows up on a fee and all of it shows up on the pitch.
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 Sofia this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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 Jean-Philippe Gbamin is on it.
The system has changed and his position has not. A footballer can improve his form; he cannot improve the manager’s formation, and that is the whole of the problem.
A window away with the national side, and a shirt at CSKA Sofia that briefly doubles as an advertisement. A call-up flatters the player and the club that built him in the same breath.
A call-up flatters the player and the club that produced him in the same breath. CSKA Sofia would like him back in one piece and know they will not be consulted.
A conversation in the manager’s office, and a commitment that came out of it. Promises like that are cheap to make and expensive to break, and Ilian Iliev has written the date down.
The offer from Moss for Ioannis Pittas 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.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what CSKA Sofia can pretend not to have heard.
“Some mornings you wake up and you are still a long way from everything you know.” It is not the football and it never was; CSKA Sofia are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Pedro Melo has, at CSKA Sofia, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
7 signings in three months. Every one of them may be an upgrade and the team can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild that never appears in the transfer-window verdicts.
“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 CSKA Sofia, and 2 appearances in 7 say he has earned the hearing.
The offer from KFUM Oslo for Leandro Godoy 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.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at CSKA Sofia can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Maks Ebong 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.
“I watch every CSKA Sofia game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Botev Vratsa runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
Four or five weekends of consistency, judged against everybody in the division doing his job. Jean-Philippe Gbamin has come out of that comparison in the side, and CSKA Sofia have had the benefit of every one of those afternoons.
Nobody at CSKA Sofia 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.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at CSKA Sofia can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
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 Sofia this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
2 goals before the ground had finished arriving. Lokomotiv Sofia spent the rest of the afternoon playing a match that had already been decided, and everybody in the stadium knew it.
He found out with everybody else, an hour before kick-off, from a sheet of paper on a wall. Nobody at CSKA Sofia pretended it was anything other than a decision about him.
The offer from GAIS for Maks Ebong 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.
Successful dribbles: 26. 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 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.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Miroslav Angelov 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. Mihail Delev 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. Danail Bojinov is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what CSKA Sofia can pretend not to have heard.
Bernard Tekpetey 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.
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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Levski have kept their man, and CSKA Sofia go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
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.
In brief
The dugoutThe team sheet said everything about Kjell Peersman
The most common injury in the game and the most rushed back from. CSKA Sofia will quote 14 days and will be careful with it, because the second one is always worse than the first.
Bernard Tekpetey 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.
Successful dribbles: 20. 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.
CSKA Sofia asked and Septemvri said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
200 games in this shirt, through managers and relegations and everything else. Service like it is disappearing from the game and the crowd knows what it is watching.
“It was not right for me. I am not going to explain why to anybody except the people I owe an explanation to.” A deal agreed between two clubs, and a player who declined to be part of it.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around CSKA Sofia people have started saying his name in the past tense.
Two goals and a mark of 8.69 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 8.11 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
The offer from Dunav Ruse for Cătălin Itu 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.
“It was not right for me. I am not going to explain why to anybody except the people I owe an explanation to.” A deal agreed between two clubs, and a player who declined to be part of it.
3‑0, and Leandro Godoy took the headlines on an afternoon when everything CSKA Sofia tried came off. Days like this are retold all winter.
Player ratings25 Jan 2027
A brace, and Leandro Godoy takes the afternoon — 8.86
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Leandro Godoy provided it, and the 8.86 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
The offer from Vihren for Petko Panayotov 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 clubs have shaken hands with Levski; the player has not yet. Personal terms are next, and personal terms are where more deals die than anybody prints.
Everything agreed with Lokomotiv Sofia, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
Rarely has this fixture seen a display like it: 4‑1 against CSKA 1948, and it could have been more.
Player ratings18 Jan 2027
A brace, and Leandro Godoy takes the afternoon — 8.88
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Leandro Godoy provided it, and the 8.88 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
The clubs have shaken hands with Ludogorets; the player has not yet. Personal terms are next, and personal terms are where more deals die than anybody prints.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what CSKA Sofia can pretend not to have heard.
“I know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” Spartak 1918 had the fee agreed and the shirt ready; they did not have the player, and now they will not.
The offer from Levante for Leandro Godoy 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.
7.32, 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.
Everything agreed with Haugesund, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
“It was not right for me. I am not going to explain why to anybody except the people I owe an explanation to.” A deal agreed between two clubs, and a player who declined to be part of it.
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 7.89 for the rest of it.
CSKA Sofia have gone to Levski 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.
The deal with KAA Gent 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.
He will play here until the summer and then walk out of the door for free, having already signed elsewhere. Supporters will manage the first part of that sentence; it is the second they will struggle with.
James Eto'o 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. Teodor Ivanov is 22, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
The kind of year that ends with a name being read out in a hall. CSKA Sofia had the benefit of it every week and now have the problem of everybody else knowing.
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 Sofia this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
CSKA Sofia asked and Lokomotiv Plovdiv 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 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.
The dugout28 Dec 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.” Angel Aleksandrov, on a 3‑0 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
Everything was agreed until it was not, and Maks Ebong reports back to CSKA Sofia with a summer to forget. Neither club is saying who walked away from the table.
40 points on the board and a place in the leading group. Nobody at the ground is saying the word out loud yet.
Player ratings21 Dec 2026
Up for the corner, and James Eto'o delivers — 7.79
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. James Eto'o scored, was marked 7.79, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
A 2‑0 win over Arda, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Squad21 Dec 2026
Words at CSKA Sofia training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Lumbardh Dellova 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 am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at CSKA Sofia, and 6 appearances in 19 say he has earned the hearing.
0‑2 against Racing Genk. Continental football is unforgiving about the things a domestic league lets a side get away with, and this was a night spent finding out which of those the club still has.
8 goals in one match, Sala on the scoresheet, and a scoreline that will look like a misprint. Neutrals could not have asked more of CSKA Sofia and Ludogorets.
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 Sofia this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The general version of this complaint is that a player wants more. The specific version names the thing: he wants to walk out under floodlights against clubs from other countries, and he has stopped pretending otherwise.
Squad7 Dec 2026
Léo Pereira 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.
The fixture the rest of the division is looking forward to more than either of the sides in it. Both know a win changes the season and a defeat does not end it, which is what makes it hard to play.
The dugout7 Dec 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 0‑1 defeat, delivered by Angel Aleksandrov to a room that had heard them before.
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.
0‑2 against Jagiellonia. Continental football is unforgiving about the things a domestic league lets a side get away with, and this was a night spent finding out which of those the club still has.
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 7.89 for the rest of it.
33 days, the medical staff say, and medical staff are optimists by profession. The team sheet will look wrong without him.
Squad30 Nov 2026
Léo Pereira 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.
Minute 89, against Beroe, and a goal that felt like a win to everybody who had stayed. It was a draw. Nobody leaving the ground will describe it as one.
Successful dribbles: 26. 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.
James Eto'o 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.
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 0‑1, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
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 Maks Ebong is on it.
James Eto'o 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 fixture the rest of the division is looking forward to more than either of the sides in it. Both know a win changes the season and a defeat does not end it, which is what makes it hard to play.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Lumbardh Dellova was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. CSKA Sofia told Dinis Almeida something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
Nobody at CSKA Sofia 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.
3 goals in 12 games at Lokomotiv Plovdiv — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at CSKA Sofia updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
0‑0 against OGC Nice, 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.
Two goals and a mark of 8.22 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
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.
16 combined actions and 7.60. The job he did is the one that shows up as other people looking good, and the only reliable way to notice it is to watch what happens on the afternoons he is missing.
Cup ties wait for somebody to seize them, and Martin Sorakov obliged against Septemvri. 3‑0 on the night, and the name in the next round’s hat is CSKA Sofia.
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.
10 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
Squad2 Nov 2026
Léo Pereira 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 CSKA Sofia game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Botev Vratsa runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
1‑4. OGC Nice play this football every year and it showed in every part of the pitch. The lesson is expensive and, for a club at this stage, probably necessary.
Player ratings26 Oct 2026
A brace, and Leandro Godoy takes the afternoon — 8.86
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Leandro Godoy provided it, and the 8.86 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what CSKA Sofia can pretend not to have heard.
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 Sofia this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad26 Oct 2026
Léo Pereira 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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Leandro Godoy. 3‑1 against Cherno More, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Successful dribbles: 31. 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.
James Eto'o 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 a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.12, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
The dugout19 Oct 2026
The manager’s verdict
“I am not going to get carried away and I will not let them either. It was a good day. There will be harder ones.” Angel Aleksandrov kept it short after the 4‑1 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. CSKA Sofia told Petko Panayotov something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
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 Sofia this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Teodor Ivanov is 22, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Squad12 Oct 2026
8 new faces, and CSKA Sofia 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 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.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Jean-Philippe Gbamin signs something — a contract at CSKA Sofia or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Dimitar Evtimov’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and CSKA Sofia needing him to play as if none of it matters.
“I respect the manager and I am not going to sit here and pretend I am happy.” It is the most common sentence in football and it has never once been the end of a story.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Ángelo Martino trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
2‑1 against Racing Genk, and a performance that will be described to people who were not there for the rest of the season. Ioannis Pittas was at the centre of the description.
24 points, and the rest of the division looking up. Every side that finishes first spends the season pretending it is not thinking about it, and this one has started pretending.
Dobrudzha left with the points after a 0‑1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Player ratings5 Oct 2026
Maks Ebong was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.01. 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.
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at CSKA Sofia has been clear about where Petko Panayotov stands, which is more than many ever get.
Boardroom5 Oct 2026
Nobody left the CSKA Sofia dressing room in a hurry
The door stayed shut a long time after the final whistle. What was said in there is between them; whether it worked is between them and Saturday.
10 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.
Two goals and a mark of 9.64 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
James Eto'o 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.
8 goals in one match, Léo Pereira on the scoresheet, and a scoreline that will look like a misprint. Neutrals could not have asked more of CSKA Sofia and Spartak 1918.
9 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.
Jean-Philippe Gbamin 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.
Nobody makes a documentary about a hamstring and everybody in the game fears one. CSKA Sofia will be careful with the return date, because the second one is always worse than the first.
4 straight away victories. Sides that win away are usually sides that can defend and can counter, and the table has begun to reflect what those journeys have earned.
Marked 8.43 — 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 was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at CSKA Sofia has been clear about where Ilian Iliev stands, which is more than many ever get.
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.
3 straight away victories. Sides that win away are usually sides that can defend and can counter, and the table has begun to reflect what those journeys have earned.
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
Leandro Godoy was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.01. 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.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Words at CSKA Sofia training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Lumbardh Dellova 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.
In brief
Squad8 new faces, and CSKA Sofia are still learning each other
“I know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” Viktoria Žižkov had the fee agreed and the shirt ready; they did not have the player, and now they will not.
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Boardroom7 Sep 2026
Deadline passes with 11 signed and 27 gone
That is the business done at CSKA Sofia 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.
Mohamed Brahimi 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.
He is doing things on a Saturday afternoon that nobody around him can answer, which is flattering for about one season and a problem after that. CSKA Sofia will not keep him by pretending otherwise.
Somebody has moved past him. It is not a dropping and it is worse than one, because a dropping is about a Saturday and this is about where he stands.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Words at CSKA Sofia training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Lumbardh Dellova 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.
Foolad arrived with $8.1M and left with the best player in the building. The board will call it business; the queue at the ticket office will use other words.
The offer from Ferencvaros for Ioannis Pittas 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.
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.
Isaac Solet has gone, the accounts have $8.1M in them, and the supporters have the feeling of having been sold something themselves. Good business and a good decision are not always the same thing.
AEK paid $3.6M and CSKA Sofia took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
Successful dribbles: 23. 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.
James Eto'o 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.
CSKA Sofia asked and Botev Plovdiv 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 5‑0 win over Sevlievo, a place in the next round, and the quiet arithmetic every supporter does on the walk home: how many more until a final?
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
A brace, and Ilian Antonov takes the afternoon — 8.80
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Ilian Antonov provided it, and the 8.80 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. CSKA Sofia have lost him in all but the paperwork.
Two goals and a mark of 8.29 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 CSKA Sofia, and it is not being withdrawn.
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.
The name of Maks Ebong has come up in conversations CSKA Sofia were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Brasil de Pelotas is saying, and nobody at CSKA Sofia is enjoying the guessing.
The offer from Aris Thessaloniki for Fedor Lapoukhov 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.
Pastor has gone, the accounts have $3.9M in them, and the supporters have the feeling of having been sold something themselves. Good business and a good decision are not always the same thing.
Ludogorets paid $3.9M and CSKA Sofia took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Jean-Philippe Gbamin scored, was marked 7.57, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
1 for Facundo Rodríguez, marked 7.86, and a centre-half's name in the part of the report he normally only reaches by mistake. He will not be allowed to forget it in the dressing room for a month.
$1.0M was the most the club would pay and CSKA 1948 were asking for more. Deals like this are revived in the last week of a window roughly half the time, and everybody involved knows it.
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.
Two goals and a mark of 8.65 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
CSKA Sofia have gone to CSKA 1948 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.
The name of Isaac Solet has come up in conversations CSKA Sofia were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
The number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $193.4K — a club that wants Benaissa Benamar enough to be asked twice.
James Eto'o 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.
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 Sofia this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“I want to win things, and I would like to do it here.” Nothing has been demanded and nothing has been threatened — but a boardroom at CSKA Sofia hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether CSKA Sofia can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
Squad3 Aug 2026
James Eto'o 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.
CSKA Sofia asked and Brasil de Pelotas said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Still no offer on the table, and James Eto'o’s deal keeps shrinking. In boardroom language, silence this long stops being an oversight and starts being an answer.