From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad28 Dec 2026
The manager makes an example of Irfan Hadžić
“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.
Match26 Dec 2026
Napredak left with the points after a 0-1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Boardroom28 Dec 2026
115% of the income goes out in wages at Mladost Lucani
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.
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From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad21 Dec 2026
12 shut-outs and counting. Goalkeepers are only noticed when they fail, and Nehemías Almaraz has given nobody the chance.
Squad21 Dec 2026
“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.
Squad21 Dec 2026
Petar Bojić knocks on the manager's door
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Mladost Lucani, and both men came out saying it was fine.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Match12 Dec 2026
A 1-4 beating by Fenerbahce was the sort of result that empties a stadium long before the final whistle.
Match14 Dec 2026
Position 3 and 36 points on the board. Nobody at the ground will say the word out loud yet, and everybody at the ground is thinking it.
Squad14 Dec 2026
“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.
Squad14 Dec 2026
The manager makes an example of Alejo Ayoso
“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.
Match12 Dec 2026
A 1-0 win over Novi Pazar, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Squad14 Dec 2026
11 clean sheets and counting. Strikers leave this ground muttering his name, which is exactly how a goalkeeper measures a good season.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad7 Dec 2026
53 days, the medical staff say, and medical staff are optimists by profession. The team sheet will look wrong without him.
Match5 Dec 2026
A 1-0 win over Spartak Subotica, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Squad7 Dec 2026
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Nemanja Žunić commits to Mladost Lucani for another 4 years.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match28 Nov 2026
Beaten 0-4 by Viktoria Plzen, and beaten everywhere it matters. The inquest starts on the training pitch on Monday morning.
Squad30 Nov 2026
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
Boardroom30 Nov 2026
Wages eat 136% of everything Mladost Lucani earn
There is a figure at which a wage bill stops being ambitious and becomes the reason nothing else is possible, and this club has reached it. Nothing is left over for a transfer, a stand or a rainy afternoon.
Squad30 Nov 2026
Damián Gómez left out for the big one
A player who expected to start watched it instead. The manager will call it a decision for the team; Damián Gómez will call it something else in private.
Boardroom30 Nov 2026
The manager kept them in and said what needed saying. A response is expected on Saturday, and if it does not come the questions move upstairs.
Squad30 Nov 2026
Beaten 4 times, with 3 saves for company. Goalkeepers carry these scorelines on their record whoever actually caused them, which is the quiet injustice of the job.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match18 Nov 2026
0-1 against Vojvodina, and the road stops here. Cup exits are quick deaths — no second leg, no next week, just the league from now until May.
Squad23 Nov 2026
There were 7 saves in it, and at least three that had no business being saves at all. The ten outfield players owe him a drink and they know it.
Match21 Nov 2026
Three points for Mladost Lucani, 2-0 the final word against Radnicki Nis in a contest settled by the finer margins.
Squad23 Nov 2026
“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.
Squad23 Nov 2026
Damián Gómez knocks on the manager's door
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Mladost Lucani, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Squad23 Nov 2026
The competition arrived without a word said to him about it. Žarko Udovičić keeps the shirt for now, at Mladost Lucani's convenience rather than his own.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match14 Nov 2026
10 matches without a win for Mladost Lucani
The run now stands at 10, and the questions being asked around Mladost Lucani are no longer polite ones.
Match14 Nov 2026
1-2 to Vojvodina, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Squad16 Nov 2026
Damián Gómez gets it from the manager
“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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match7 Nov 2026
The run now stands at 9, and the questions being asked around Mladost Lucani are no longer polite ones.
Squad9 Nov 2026
There were 7 saves in it, and at least three that had no business being saves at all. The ten outfield players owe him a drink and they know it.
Squad9 Nov 2026
The medical room confirms 82 days on the sidelines for Saša Stamenković, and a plan built around him now has to be rebuilt.
Squad9 Nov 2026
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
Match7 Nov 2026
0-1 to Santa Clara, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Squad9 Nov 2026
“The easiest signature of my career.” Jhonnatha and Mladost Lucani agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match31 Oct 2026
No end in sight to Mladost Lucani's wait for a win
7 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Mladost Lucani has to find a result from somewhere.
Squad2 Nov 2026
“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.
Boardroom2 Nov 2026
Wages eat 136% of everything Mladost Lucani earn
There is a figure at which a wage bill stops being ambitious and becomes the reason nothing else is possible, and this club has reached it. Nothing is left over for a transfer, a stand or a rainy afternoon.
Squad2 Nov 2026
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Jhonnatha commits to Mladost Lucani for another 4 years.
Match31 Oct 2026
1-1, and both dressing rooms will call it two points lost. A draw that asked plenty of questions and answered none of them.
Squad2 Nov 2026
Alejo Ayoso knocks on the manager's door
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Mladost Lucani, and both men came out saying it was fine.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad26 Oct 2026
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 7 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Match26 Oct 2026
24 points on the board and a place in the leading group. Nobody at the ground is saying the word out loud yet.
Match24 Oct 2026
No end in sight to Mladost Lucani's wait for a win
6 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Mladost Lucani has to find a result from somewhere.
Squad26 Oct 2026
Irfan Hadžić gets it from the manager
“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.
Squad26 Oct 2026
No place for Damián Gómez on the big day
He found out with everybody else, an hour before kick-off, from a sheet of paper on a wall. Nobody at Mladost Lucani pretended it was anything other than a decision about him.
Squad26 Oct 2026
Saša Stamenković asks for a word with the manager
“I would rather say it to his face than read about it.” The meeting was requested by the player, which tells you most of what you need to know.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad19 Oct 2026
Nikola Leković: that is not what I was promised
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Mladost Lucani have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Match17 Oct 2026
The run now stands at 4, and the questions being asked around Mladost Lucani are no longer polite ones.
Match17 Oct 2026
1-2 to IMT, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad12 Oct 2026
The medical room confirms 110 days on the sidelines for Saša Stamenković, and a plan built around him now has to be rebuilt.
Squad12 Oct 2026
The manager makes an example of Žarko Udovičić
“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.
Market12 Oct 2026
He is 20, and nobody at Mladost Lucani signed him for this season. Deals like this are judged in four years, by people who may not still be in the building.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Boardroom5 Oct 2026
Wages eat 226% of everything Mladost Lucani earn
There is a figure at which a wage bill stops being ambitious and becomes the reason nothing else is possible, and this club has reached it. Nothing is left over for a transfer, a stand or a rainy afternoon.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Damián Gómez gets it from the manager
“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.
Match3 Oct 2026
Partizan left with the points after a 0-1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Squad5 Oct 2026
No place for Irfan Hadžić on the big day
He found out with everybody else, an hour before kick-off, from a sheet of paper on a wall. Nobody at Mladost Lucani pretended it was anything other than a decision about him.
Match3 Oct 2026
Ninety minutes, two goalkeepers with clean gloves, and not one finish worth keeping. Fenerbahce will be the happier side with the point.
Market5 Oct 2026
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Mladost Lucani know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match28 Sep 2026
22 points on the board and a place in the leading group. Nobody at the ground is saying the word out loud yet.
Squad28 Sep 2026
There were 8 saves in it, and at least three that had no business being saves at all. The ten outfield players owe him a drink and they know it.
Match26 Sep 2026
The unbeaten run reaches 6. Some of them were wins and some were escapes, but a side that refuses to lose is a side other dressing rooms talk about.
Squad28 Sep 2026
“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.
Squad28 Sep 2026
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Mladost Lucani, and both men came out saying it was fine.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad21 Sep 2026
There were 9 saves in it, and at least three that had no business being saves at all. The ten outfield players owe him a drink and they know it.
Squad21 Sep 2026
26 days, the medical staff say, and medical staff are optimists by profession. The team sheet will look wrong without him.
Squad21 Sep 2026
The manager makes an example of Irfan Hadžić
“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.
Squad21 Sep 2026
A player who expected to start watched it instead. The manager will call it a decision for the team; Janko Tumbasević will call it something else in private.
Match19 Sep 2026
Ninety minutes, two goalkeepers with clean gloves, and not one finish worth keeping. Viktoria Plzen will be the happier side with the point.
Match19 Sep 2026
The crowd waited for a goal that never came. Radnicki 1923 defended in numbers and left with what they came for, and the two sides could be playing still without troubling a scorer.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad14 Sep 2026
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 7 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Market14 Sep 2026
The deal that would have taken Dušan Jovanović to Slovan Liberec has collapsed at the last stage, and he reports back to Mladost Lucani with a summer to forget and a season still to play. Nobody is saying which side walked away.
Squad14 Sep 2026
143 days, the medical staff say, and medical staff are optimists by profession. The team sheet will look wrong without him.
Match12 Sep 2026
Momentum is a hard thing to buy and an easy thing to lose, and right now Mladost Lucani have 3 straight wins of it.
Match12 Sep 2026
Napredak made Mladost Lucani work for it, but the scoreboard read 2-0 at the end and the table does not ask how.
Squad14 Sep 2026
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Boardroom7 Sep 2026
157% of the income goes out in wages at Mladost Lucani
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.
Squad7 Sep 2026
“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.
Match5 Sep 2026
A 1-0 win over TSC, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Market7 Sep 2026
“There is a gap, and pretending there is not helps nobody.” Neither side has moved, and the calendar is working for exactly one of them.
Squad7 Sep 2026
“Ask me in the summer. I will know before anybody else does.” He is 36 with 117 appearances behind him, and Mladost Lucani have to plan for both answers.
Squad7 Sep 2026
At 34 he has made the position his own, and the man he took it from has to find something to say about it. Mladost Lucani have a decision that made itself.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market31 Aug 2026
The bid was some way short and Mladost Lucani did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Match29 Aug 2026
A 1-0 win over Novi Pazar, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Squad31 Aug 2026
“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.
Market31 Aug 2026
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Mladost Lucani has been clear about where Bogdan Matijašević stands, which is more than many ever get.
Squad31 Aug 2026
Nikola Leković asks for a word with the manager
“I would rather say it to his face than read about it.” The meeting was requested by the player, which tells you most of what you need to know.
Squad31 Aug 2026
A new face in his position, and Saša Stamenković suddenly has to win back what he thought he owned. Mladost Lucani have promised nothing — clubs rarely do at this stage.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad24 Aug 2026
A shoot-out is remembered by its ending, and this one ends with Bogdan Matijašević: 2 kept out, and a set of supporters who will describe every one of them for the next twenty years.
Match19 Aug 2026
A 1-1 win over Cukaricki, a place in the next round, and the quiet arithmetic every supporter does on the walk home: how many more until a final?
Market24 Aug 2026
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Mladost Lucani can pretend not to have heard.
Squad24 Aug 2026
54 days, the medical staff say, and medical staff are optimists by profession. The team sheet will look wrong without him.
Match22 Aug 2026
2-3 to Spartak Subotica, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Squad24 Aug 2026
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Squad17 Aug 2026
173 days, the medical staff say, and medical staff are optimists by profession. The team sheet will look wrong without him.
Match15 Aug 2026
Momentum is a hard thing to buy and an easy thing to lose, and right now Mladost Lucani have 3 straight wins of it.
Match15 Aug 2026
OFK Beograd made Mladost Lucani work for it, but the scoreboard read 2-1 at the end and the table does not ask how.
Squad17 Aug 2026
“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.
Squad17 Aug 2026
He wheeled away like a man who had been carrying it for months, because he had. Mladost Lucani have their signing off the mark and one press-conference question retired.
Market17 Aug 2026
Damián Gómez 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.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Petar Bojić finally opens his account
He wheeled away like a man who had been carrying it for months, because he had. Mladost Lucani have their signing off the mark and one press-conference question retired.
Market17 Aug 2026
The list is a quiet document with a loud meaning. Janko Tumbasević may talk to anybody who asks, and everybody at the club understands what that means.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Squad10 Aug 2026
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.
Match8 Aug 2026
A 1-0 win over Radnicki Nis, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Market10 Aug 2026
“We are a long way apart, and pretending otherwise helps nobody.” Neither side is close, and the calendar is not on the club's side.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Squad3 Aug 2026
“The easiest signature of my career.” Nikola Boranijašević and Mladost Lucani agree another 2 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Match1 Aug 2026
Vojvodina made Mladost Lucani work for it, but the scoreboard read 1-0 at the end and the table does not ask how.
Market3 Aug 2026
“There is a gap, and pretending there is not helps nobody.” Neither side has moved, and the calendar is working for exactly one of them.
Market3 Aug 2026
49 months to run and not a word offered. A club that lets the calendar negotiate for it usually ends up losing to the calendar.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Irfan Hadžić finally opens his account
He wheeled away like a man who had been carrying it for months, because he had. Mladost Lucani have their signing off the mark and one press-conference question retired.
Squad3 Aug 2026
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
Market3 Aug 2026
Abba Adam Oscar is free to find somewhere else
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Mladost Lucani has been clear about where Abba Adam Oscar stands, which is more than many ever get.
Squad3 Aug 2026
It is a strip of cloth and it decides nothing on a Saturday. It still tells the dressing room exactly whose opinion the manager values, which is the whole point of it.
Market3 Aug 2026
No fee, no negotiation, no argument: Mihailo Oreščanin moves on to another club with his contract settled and the wage bill a little lighter.