Cup ties wait for somebody to seize them, and Ibrahim Tanko obliged against TSC. 1‑0 on the night, and the name in the next round’s hat is Javor-Matis.
Some goals win a match and some take one off somebody else. Ibrahim Tanko scored in the 89th minute, TSC had already begun thinking about the journey home, and Javor-Matis took the lot.
“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 The request is on a desk at Javor-Matis, and it is not being withdrawn.
Gentrit Salihu 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.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Gentrit Salihu has just signed for Javor-Matis, and for once the answer mattered.
At 33 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.33 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Javor-Matis this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Words at Javor-Matis training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Boubacari Doucouré 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.
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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Javor-Matis this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Benjamin Acquah and Javor-Matis agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
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.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Javor-Matis, another week without a signature from Ibrahim Tanko.
11 attempts, none of them in. He got into the right places all afternoon, which is the hard part, and did the easy part badly — and that is the version of a bad day a manager can live with.
Mass Sise 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.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Javor-Matis, another week without a signature from Dušan Pantelić.