“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 The request is on a desk at Ferencvaros, and it is not being withdrawn.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 Ferencvaros this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Bersant Celina was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Nobody at Ferencvaros will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
The dugout15 Nov 2027
The manager has not finished forgetting Gábor Szalai's mistake
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.
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Olivér Nagy has his answer from Ferencvaros; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Veljko Birmančević signs something — a contract at Ferencvaros or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
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 7.84 for the rest of it.
Mariano Gómez 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 have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Ferencvaros can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
14 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.
The terraces1 Nov 2027
The mood at Ferencvaros has turned into something else
Supporters who sing when it goes badly are supporters. Supporters who gather afterwards are a problem, and everybody inside the building knows which of the two this now is.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Ferencvaros can pretend not to have heard.
Mariano Gómez 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.
Squad1 Nov 2027
Words at Ferencvaros training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Bersant Celina 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.
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.
A midfielder is measured on whether the team functions when he is on the pitch, which is nearly impossible to see and completely obvious in retrospect. 9 actions, 6.78, and a manager who will not be substituting him again in a hurry.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Ferencvaros they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Cristhián Rivas scored, was marked 7.95, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
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.
Nobody makes a documentary about a hamstring and everybody in the game fears one. Ferencvaros will be careful with the return date, because the second one is always worse than the first.
Half the programme played, position 12, 6 on the board. Doubling it is the sum every supporter has done and the only one nobody at the club will do out loud.
In brief
The dugoutBersant Celina has become a man the manager trusts
12 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.
“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 Ferencvaros, and it is not being withdrawn.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Ferencvaros have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
7.86, 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.
Bersant Celina and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Marked 8.12 — 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.
Minute 94, against Debrecen, 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.
In brief
SquadLevente Katona falls out with a teammate over standards
Mariano Gómez 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 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.
Boardroom11 Oct 2027
87% of the income goes out in wages at Ferencvaros
Every club in football pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time somebody has tried it.
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 Dénes Dibusz is on it.
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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Naby Keïta trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Debrecen in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
Numbers do not stay secret in a dressing room. He is not asking for more than he is worth; he is asking why somebody beside him is worth more, and Ferencvaros have no good answer.
It has stopped being a mood in the stands and started being something organised. Boards can ignore a bad atmosphere for a long time; they cannot ignore this stage of it for very long at all.
Mariano Gómez 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.
4 games without scoring. Strikers stop looking up, midfielders take the extra touch, and every shot that clears the bar is followed by a groan that has been building since the last goal.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Bersant Celina was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“I have given this everything, but my family is not here and neither am I, not really.” A footballer can be coached out of bad form. Nobody has ever been coached out of this, and Ferencvaros know it.
A midfielder is measured on whether the team functions when he is on the pitch, which is nearly impossible to see and completely obvious in retrospect. 13 actions, 7.36, and a manager who will not be substituting him again in a hurry.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Ferencvaros can pretend not to have heard.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Ferencvaros is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
3 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Ferencvaros can tell you which week it ends in.
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.
The dugout27 Sep 2027
Dénes Dibusz is still being punished for one mistake
Nobody will confirm it and the team sheets confirm it every week. One error has bought him a spell as second choice that is already longer than the error deserved.
Goalkeepers do not get to make mistakes; they get to make goals. He made one, he knew it instantly, and there was nobody behind him to make it anything 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 Ferencvaros can pretend not to have heard.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Ferencvaros have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Ferencvaros this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Bersant Celina was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The words a physio says slowly. 16 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
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.
Mariano Gómez 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.
Squad13 Sep 2027
Words at Ferencvaros training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Bersant Celina 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.
The music was off and the showers ran late. What was said in that dressing room stays there, but Saturday will publish the minutes.
Squad13 Sep 2027
10 new faces, and Ferencvaros 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 dugout13 Sep 2027
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 Viktor Kleinheisler to a room that had heard them before.
The words a physio says slowly. 24 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Ferencvaros can pretend not to have heard.
Boardroom6 Sep 2027
Deadline passes with 15 signed and 18 gone
That is the business done at Ferencvaros 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Ferencvaros this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Add another name to the list: Vasas have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Edgar Sevikyan. The answer from Ferencvaros has not changed — yet.
Ferencvaros asked and Soroksár said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
“I have given this everything, but my family is not here and neither am I, not really.” A footballer can be coached out of bad form. Nobody has ever been coached out of this, and Ferencvaros know it.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Barnabás Nagy was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
33 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Ferencvaros lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Ferencvaros can pretend not to have heard.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Sparta Prague is saying, and nobody at Ferencvaros is enjoying the guessing.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Ferencvaros have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Barnabás Nagy will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Ferencvaros the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Mariano Gómez and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad30 Aug 2027
Words at Ferencvaros training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Bersant Celina 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.
41 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Ferencvaros lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Ferencvaros can pretend not to have heard.
Sparta Prague have accepted the money. What Ferencvaros do not yet have is the man, and between here and the photograph is a conversation about wages that both sides are dreading.
7.20, 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Ferencvaros this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
6 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about Ferencvaros and MTK Budapest in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
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.
15 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Ferencvaros lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
“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 Ferencvaros, and it is not being withdrawn.
Mariano Gómez 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: 22. 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 Aleksandar Ćirković again, and this time the name on the line is Obolon. Ferencvaros are listening politely and promising nothing.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Ferencvaros can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
24 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Ferencvaros lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
“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 Ferencvaros, and it is not being withdrawn.
It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether Ferencvaros can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
Mariano Gómez 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 Bersant Celina was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The words a physio says slowly. 31 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Ferencvaros people have started saying his name in the past tense.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Ferencvaros can pretend not to have heard.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Ferencvaros they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
5 boys move up, and somewhere in the building the people who coached them at twelve are quietly having the best morning of their working year. Nothing about this shows up in a result and it is why the academy exists.
39 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Ferencvaros lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Ferencvaros this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The phone has started ringing about Aleksandar Ćirković again, and this time the name on the line is Napredak. Ferencvaros are listening politely and promising nothing.
15 days, the scan says, and scans are kinder than reality. The fixtures in that window have just become somebody else’s job.
Squad26 Jul 2027
Words at Ferencvaros training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Barnabás Nagy 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.
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 Dénes Dibusz is on it.
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Nyíregyháza in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Ferencvaros know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
46 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Ferencvaros lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
49 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.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Karcag waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Ferencvaros is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: GKS Tychy keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Mariano Gómez 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.
Mezőkövesd paid $250.0K and Ferencvaros took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
Squad19 Jul 2027
Words at Ferencvaros training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Bersant Celina 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 watch every Ferencvaros game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Soroksár runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
In brief
The dugoutMariano Gómez has become a man the manager trusts
“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 Ferencvaros, and it is not being withdrawn.
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Ferencvaros heard it as anything else.
Ferencvaros asked and Budafoki MTE 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 deal that would have taken Csongor Kokovai to BVSC-Zugló has collapsed at the last stage, and he reports back to Ferencvaros with a summer to forget and a season still to play. Nobody is saying which side walked away.
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Levente Katona has, at Ferencvaros, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
Mariano Gómez 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.
Every dressing room knows how to read a signing like this one. Levente Katona is not here to sit and wait indefinitely, and the man whose place he has been bought to take knows it better than anyone.
17 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.
In brief
The dugoutBersant Celina has become a man the manager trusts
The dugoutGábor Szalai knocks on the manager’s door
Ferencvaros have gone to Nyíregyháza 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 number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $1.2M — a club that wants Levente Katona enough to be asked twice.
Bersant Celina 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.
“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; Ferencvaros are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Mariano Gómez was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Signed today, seen by nobody for years, and one of them may one day be the reason the club exists. That is the whole of the argument for an academy, and it is a good one.
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.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager makes an example of Dániel Gyollai
The words a physio says slowly. 21 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
“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 Ferencvaros, and it is not being withdrawn.
Some transfers need a press campaign. This one needed a shirt with the old number on it. Ádám Halmai is a Ferencvaros player again, and the town has its story of the summer.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Ágoston Bényei is living that version at Ferencvaros, and it tends to show in the first month.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Ferencvaros this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad28 Jun 2027
Words at Ferencvaros training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Bersant Celina 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.
Every dressing room knows how to read a signing like this one. Ágoston Bényei is not here to sit and wait indefinitely, and the man whose place he has been bought to take knows it better than anyone.
Nobody at Ferencvaros will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
The clubs have shaken hands with Szeged-Csanád GA; the player has not yet. Personal terms are next, and personal terms are where more deals die than anybody prints.
Torpedo Moscow did not want to sell and the number is why they did. $4.7M for Jonathan Okoronkwo, and the expectation that arrives with him is the kind no amount of settling-in period softens.
Mariano Gómez 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 17 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.
The terraces21 Jun 2027
Ferencvaros spend $4.7M on the signing the town wanted
It is the rarest sequence in football: supporters ask for something, and the club goes and does it. $4.7M for Jonathan Okoronkwo, and for one week nobody is complaining about anything.
Every dressing room knows how to read a signing like this one. Barnabás Kovács is not here to sit and wait indefinitely, and the man whose place he has been bought to take knows it better than anyone.
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 Mariano Gómez is on it.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Ferencvaros will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Ferencvaros and Torpedo Moscow have settled on $4.7M. The rest belongs to the player and his agent, and a supporter who has watched one of these before knows not to buy the shirt yet.
The fee is $2.5M, the contract is signed, and the argument about whether he is worth it can begin. Ujpest drove a hard bargain; time will say who won 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 Ferencvaros can pretend not to have heard.
The deal with Kecskeméti TE 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.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Muhamed Tijani is living that version at Ferencvaros, and it tends to show in the first month.
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.
The fee is $350.0K, the contract is signed, and the argument about whether he is worth it can begin. ZTE drove a hard bargain; time will say who won it.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Ferencvaros will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Bekescsaba waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Ferencvaros is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
The deal with Ujpest 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.
Ferencvaros asked and Levski said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Ferencvaros and ZTE have settled on $350.0K. 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.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Philippe Rommens and Ferencvaros agree another 3 years.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 30 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
The kind of year that ends with a name being read out in a hall. Ferencvaros had the benefit of it every week and now have the problem of everybody else knowing.
Bersant Celina 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.
16 appearances and 2 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.
6 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.
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 Bersant Celina is on it.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 38 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
“I have ambitions, and I would like the club to share them.” Nobody has asked to leave and nobody has been shown the door — but a player chooses that sentence carefully, and a boardroom hears it exactly as it was meant.
Mariano Gómez 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.
Squad24 May 2027
Barnabás Nagy 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.
Nobody at Ferencvaros 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. Ferencvaros know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
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.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Ferencvaros will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Ferencvaros this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Barnabás Nagy was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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 Mariano Gómez is on it.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Ferencvaros know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Naby Keïta 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.
Somebody to talk to at the next peg, a few words of the language, and a training ground that has stopped being a foreign country. It never appears in a scouting report and it decides most signings.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Ferencvaros will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
The 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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Naby Keïta trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
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 Attila Osváth has written the date down.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Ferencvaros will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Ferencvaros this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Ferencvaros can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Barnabás Nagy was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 25 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
49 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.
Mariano Gómez 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.
Squad26 Apr 2027
Words at Ferencvaros training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Barnabás Nagy 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.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Zoltán Skotner and Ferencvaros agree another 3 years.
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 Dénes Dibusz is on it.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Ferencvaros know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Ferencvaros, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Ferencvaros will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Mariano Gómez 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.
Nobody at Ferencvaros 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Szilárd Lestál was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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 Attila Osváth has written the date down.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Ferencvaros will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Ferencvaros this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Barnabás Nagy was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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 Veljko Birmančević is on it.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Ferencvaros know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Numbers do not stay secret in a dressing room. He is not asking for more than he is worth; he is asking why somebody beside him is worth more, and Ferencvaros have no good answer.
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.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Ferencvaros will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
“I have ambitions, and I would like the club to share them.” Nobody has asked to leave and nobody has been shown the door — but a player chooses that sentence carefully, and a boardroom hears it exactly as it was meant.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Cristhián Rivas and Ferencvaros agree another 3 years.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Benjámin Gólik is 19, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Nobody at Ferencvaros 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 has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Mariano Gómez signs something — a contract at Ferencvaros or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Ferencvaros will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Ferencvaros this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“I have given this everything, but my family is not here and neither am I, not really.” A footballer can be coached out of bad form. Nobody has ever been coached out of this, and Ferencvaros know it.
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 Dénes Dibusz is on it.
In brief
SquadWords at Ferencvaros training over how hard people work
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Ferencvaros will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Mariano Gómez 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 17 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.
Squad22 Mar 2027
Words at Ferencvaros training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Barnabás Nagy 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.
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 Mariano Gómez is on it.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 94 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
0‑1 away to the standard of Galatasaray. 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Ferencvaros this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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.
Squad15 Mar 2027
Barnabás Nagy 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.
10 goals in 27 games at Szentlőrinc — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Ferencvaros updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
The dugout15 Mar 2027
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 Viktor Kleinheisler 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.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Ferencvaros will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Ferencvaros have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Nobody at Ferencvaros 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.
Squad8 Mar 2027
Words at Ferencvaros training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Szilárd Lestál 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.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Mariano Gómez signs something — a contract at Ferencvaros or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 114 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Mariano Gómez 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 have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Ferencvaros can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Squad1 Mar 2027
Words at Ferencvaros training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Barnabás Nagy 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.
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 Dénes Dibusz is on it.
7 goals in 25 games at Szentlőrinc — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Ferencvaros 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 Naby Keïta trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 123 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
1‑3 against Galatasaray. 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.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 8 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
Mariano Gómez 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Barnabás Nagy was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Viktor Kleinheisler after 1‑3, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
A player who expected to start watched it instead. The manager will call it a decision for the team; Naby Keïta will call it something else in private.
In brief
The dugoutMariano Gómez has become a man the manager trusts
“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 Ferencvaros hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Ferencvaros 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.
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 trains hard, says the right things and goes home to an empty flat. Nobody at Ferencvaros has done anything wrong, which is exactly what makes it so difficult to fix.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Ferencvaros know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
“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 Ferencvaros will have to answer with minutes or with a transfer.
Bersant Celina 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.
Ferencvaros asked and Al-Fayha said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Everyone has stopped pretending: Chornomorets will make the call about Habib Maïga this week. Ferencvaros have a number in mind, and the number is not shy.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Norbert Szendrei and Ferencvaros agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Barnabás Nagy was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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 Bersant Celina is on it.
8 goals in 22 games at Vasas — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Ferencvaros updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Ferencvaros can pretend not to have heard.
Boardroom1 Feb 2027
Ferencvaros close the window on a squad of their own making
3 in and 4 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.
The chase for Norbert Szendrei ended with $1.4M changing hands and ZTE out of reasons to say no. The supporters will judge the fee the only way that matters: on Saturdays.
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Mariano Gómez wants continental football; whether Ferencvaros can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Ferencvaros this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad1 Feb 2027
Words at Ferencvaros training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mariano Gómez 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.
Ferencvaros asked and Debrecen said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Ferencvaros can pretend not to have heard.
Nobody at Ferencvaros will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
The 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.
Somebody watched every match in the division at the weekend and decided he was the best thing in any of them. A small honour, and most careers end without one.
Position 1 on 49 points. Every season is a story and this is the last line of it, and now the club has three months to decide what the next one is about.
Two goals and a mark of 8.44 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
ZTE paid $1.4M and Ferencvaros took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Ferencvaros this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
6 goals in one match, Bersant Celina on the scoresheet, and a scoreline that will look like a misprint. Neutrals could not have asked more of Ferencvaros and Puskas Akademia.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Ferencvaros people have started saying his name in the past tense.
4 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.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 18 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.
Successful dribbles: 21. 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. ZTE have kept their man, and Ferencvaros go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Everyone has stopped pretending: ZTE will make the call about Kristoffer Zachariassen this week. Ferencvaros have a number in mind, and the number is not shy.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Ferencvaros can pretend not to have heard.
The kind of year that ends with a name being read out in a hall. Ferencvaros had the benefit of it every week and now have the problem of everybody else knowing.
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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Ferencvaros this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The phone has started ringing about Bence Ötvös again, and this time the name on the line is Szentlőrinc. Ferencvaros are listening politely and promising nothing.
“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; Ferencvaros are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
4‑0, and the margin flattered nobody — it could have carried another goal or two without complaint. Afternoons like this are why people keep coming.
The terraces28 Dec 2026
Ferencvaros are 2 in the table and the town has noticed
40 points, a place near the top and a ground that has begun to enjoy itself. Nobody will say the word out loud, which is the surest indication that everybody is thinking it.
“I have ambitions, and I would like the club to share them.” Nobody has asked to leave and nobody has been shown the door — but a player chooses that sentence carefully, and a boardroom hears it exactly as it was meant.
Mariano Gómez 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 ratings28 Dec 2026
Bersant Celina was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.59. 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.
There is a particular helplessness in conceding 2 times before the twentieth minute. Diosgyor tried to reorganise, Ferencvaros did not allow it, and the result was written long before it was confirmed.
Ujpest next, and the two sides the division is watching meet each other. Whoever wins will be told nothing is decided in the same breath as being congratulated.
Marked 8.16 — 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.
A 1‑0 win over Kazincbarcika, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Szilárd Lestál 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.
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Viktor Kleinheisler on a 1‑0 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Barnabás Nagy was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Veljko Birmančević signs something — a contract at Ferencvaros or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
0‑2 against Young Boys. 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.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Daniel Kuznetsov and Ferencvaros agree another 3 years.
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.
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.
In brief
The dugoutThe view from the dugout
SquadSzilárd Lestál falls out with a teammate over standards
SquadDefences have started doubling up on Callum O'Dowda
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.
Marked 8.03 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Bence Ötvös was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“53 caps was 53 more than the boy who started ever expected.” At 36 he has stepped away from the national side and has not stepped away from Ferencvaros.
MTK Budapest will want this one forgotten quickly: 3‑0, every duel lost, and a long ride home. Ferencvaros were ruthless in the way good sides are ruthless.
Two goals and a mark of 8.82 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Mariano Gómez wants continental football; whether Ferencvaros can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
Mariano Gómez 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.
2 goals inside twenty minutes with Veljko Birmančević in the middle of it, and MTK Budapest unable to get near the ball long enough to change anything. Some matches are won before the first drink.
1 for Endre Botka, marked 7.42, 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.
Bersant Celina 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.
Conceding is one thing; the response is what tells you about a dressing room. Endre Botka had Ferencvaros level again within 2 minutes, and ZTE never got to play with a lead at all.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
The dugout23 Nov 2026
The view from the dugout
“We did not lose. Some weeks that is all you get, and I would rather have the point than not.” Viktor Kleinheisler chose the glass-half-full version of 2‑2; the supporters left with the other one.
He is the name in every column and on every phone-in, which is a heavy thing to carry at any age. Some footballers thrive on it; others are quietly finished by it.
Squad23 Nov 2026
Words at Ferencvaros training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Szilárd Lestál 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
The dugoutAttila Osváth is still being punished for one mistake
Bersant Celina 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.
Squad16 Nov 2026
Bence Ötvös 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.
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 Veljko Birmančević is on it.
Nobody will confirm it and the team sheets confirm it every week. One error has bought him a spell as second choice that is already longer than the error deserved.
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 Barnabás Nagy has written the date down.
0‑0 against Raków Częstochowa, 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.
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Ferencvaros heard it as anything else.
Mariano Gómez 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.
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.
Squad9 Nov 2026
Bence Ötvös 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.
Marked 7.88 on an afternoon he ran from the first whistle to the last. Whatever else went wrong, Ferencvaros had the best player on the pitch.
The dugout9 Nov 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 1‑2 defeat, delivered by Viktor Kleinheisler to a room that had heard them before.
26 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.
The hardest thing about being 21 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Krisztián Lisztes did not need any: 8.12, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Marked 6.79 on 16 actions at both ends of the pitch. Midfielders like this get described as unspectacular by people who have never tried to play against one.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 21-year-old it feels ownership of. Krisztián Lisztes 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.
A midfielder is measured on whether the team functions when he is on the pitch, which is nearly impossible to see and completely obvious in retrospect. 9 actions, 7.04, and a manager who will not be substituting him again in a hurry.
Boardroom2 Nov 2026
Nobody left the Ferencvaros 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.
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.
“I have given this everything, but my family is not here and neither am I, not really.” A footballer can be coached out of bad form. Nobody has ever been coached out of this, and Ferencvaros know it.
One scored and one made, which is a different afternoon from scoring twice and an easier one to overlook. Marked 7.65, and involved in 2 of his side's goals.
8 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
Marked 8.20 — 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.
Player ratings26 Oct 2026
Bersant Celina was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.07. 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.
Conceding is one thing; the response is what tells you about a dressing room. Veljko Birmančević had Ferencvaros level again within 2 minutes, and Raków Częstochowa never got to play with a lead at all.
A performance of 8.25 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
The dugout19 Oct 2026
The manager has not finished forgetting Cristhián Rivas's mistake
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.
Szilárd Lestál 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.
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 Mariano Gómez is on it.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Barnabás Nagy 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 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.
Mariano Gómez 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.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 17 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.
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.
Squad12 Oct 2026
Words at Ferencvaros training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Szilárd Lestál 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.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Ferencvaros know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Debrecen in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
2‑2 against Young Boys, and a performance that will be described to people who were not there for the rest of the season. Bersant Celina was at the centre of the description.
Position 2, 17 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.
Marked 8.07 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
Behind, and beaten by any honest reading, until minute 90. Young Boys had the points in their pocket and a corner of the ground still believed, which is generally when it happens.
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 Cristhián Rivas.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Bersant Celina provided it, and the 8.28 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Bersant Celina 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.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 18 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.
Marked 8.34 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
Two sides from the top of the table, one afternoon, and a month of talk decided in ninety minutes. Ferencvaros will not use the word title this week and will not stop thinking it.
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.
3‑0. Nights like this are why clubs spend decades trying to qualify for this competition, and they arrive perhaps twice in that time. Everybody who was in the ground will describe it badly for years.
7.95, 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.
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Ferencvaros heard it as anything else.
One scored and one made, which is a different afternoon from scoring twice and an easier one to overlook. Marked 7.87, and involved in 2 of his side's goals.
There is a particular helplessness in conceding 2 times before the twentieth minute. Dinamo Minsk tried to reorganise, Ferencvaros did not allow it, and the result was written long before it was confirmed.
Marked 8.19 — 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.
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Viktor Kleinheisler on a 2‑1 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Barnabás Nagy 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.
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Dániel Gyollai’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Ferencvaros needing him to play as if none of it matters.
The approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.
Boardroom7 Sep 2026
Ferencvaros close the window on a squad of their own making
14 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.
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. Ferencvaros will not keep him by pretending otherwise.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Ferencvaros this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Kisvárda in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
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.
There comes a point where a club either backs its own ambition or admits it does not have any. Ferencvaros have paid $5.8M for Cristhián Rivas, which is the loudest way there is of saying which one it chose.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. CSKA Sofia have kept their man, and Ferencvaros go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Ferencvaros this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The terraces31 Aug 2026
Ferencvaros spend $5.8M on the signing the town wanted
It is the rarest sequence in football: supporters ask for something, and the club goes and does it. $5.8M for Cristhián Rivas, and for one week nobody is complaining about anything.
Minute 86, against ETO Győr, 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.
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Barnabás Czéh was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The clubs have shaken hands with Estudiantes de Merida; the player has not yet. Personal terms are next, and personal terms are where more deals die than anybody prints.
$4.8M was the most the club would pay and Sabah 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Qarabag have kept their man, and Ferencvaros go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
“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 accountants will call it good business and they will be right, which is not the point anybody outside the boardroom is making. Franko Kovačević was one of the reasons people came, and $4.5M does not replace that by itself.
“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 Ferencvaros, and it is not being withdrawn.
Ferencvaros had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at FC Copenhagen, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
Two goals and a mark of 8.96 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Some goals win a match and some take one off somebody else. Lenny Joseph scored in the 87th minute, ZTE had already begun thinking about the journey home, and Ferencvaros took the lot.
“I know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” Szentlőrinc 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. Daniel Arzani was one of the reasons people came, and $3.6M does not replace that by itself.
The offer from Unirea Slobozia for Philippe Rommens 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.
Lecce wanted more than $21.9M and the board would not go there. Walked away, for now, which in a transfer window means until somebody blinks.
Player ratings10 Aug 2026
A brace, and Naby Keïta takes the afternoon — 8.36
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Naby Keïta provided it, and the 8.36 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
The number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $28.2M — a club that wants Santiago Pierotti enough to be asked twice.
The deal with FC Copenhagen 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.
Szeged-Csanád GA pay $1.3M, 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.
Ferencvaros asked and Debrecen said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Ferencvaros this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Ferencvaros asked and Basaksehir said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Mariano Gómez wants continental football; whether Ferencvaros can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Veljko Birmančević and Ferencvaros agree another 4 years.