From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad5 Oct 2026
Aleksa Todorović is a better footballer than he was
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 22 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
Match3 Oct 2026
4 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Tomáš Král in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at MFK Ruzomberok this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad5 Oct 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Marko Kelemen, and the manager let it.
Player ratings5 Oct 2026
A mark of 7.82, and nobody in the ground would argue with it. He was involved in everything that mattered and most of what did not.
Match3 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.
Market5 Oct 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.
Player ratings5 Oct 2026
7 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.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market28 Sep 2026
“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 The request is on a desk at MFK Ruzomberok, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Tomáš Král 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.
Match26 Sep 2026
FK Senica left with the points after a 0‑2 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Squad28 Sep 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Martin Chrien, and the manager let it.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Words at MFK Ruzomberok training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Vojtěch Novák 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.
Player ratings28 Sep 2026
9 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.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Martin Šulek 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.
Player ratings28 Sep 2026
Jan Hladík runs at them all day
Successful dribbles: 13. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Market28 Sep 2026
Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Martin Chrien’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market21 Sep 2026
“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 MFK Ruzomberok, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad21 Sep 2026
Tomáš Král in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at MFK Ruzomberok this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match19 Sep 2026
Beaten 1‑2, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Player ratings21 Sep 2026
A performance of 8.08 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Squad21 Sep 2026
Ján Murgaš 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.
Squad21 Sep 2026
There is no complaint available here and everybody involved knows it, which does not make the walk to the bench any shorter. Form is the only currency in football that cannot be borrowed against.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match14 Sep 2026
Every point is an argument now for MFK Ruzomberok
Position 11 and 5 points, and the table gets read bottom-up in this part of town. The calendar has stopped being a schedule and started being a countdown.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Tomáš Král 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.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Tomáš Král 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.
Match12 Sep 2026
Beaten 0‑1, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Marko Kelemen dropped after a run of poor form
The one version of being left out a player cannot argue with, and the one he takes worst. Somebody else has been better and the team sheet says so, in public, every week until it changes.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Marko Kelemen 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.
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 12. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Market14 Sep 2026
The Jan Hladík talk will not go away
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. MFK Ruzomberok know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Market14 Sep 2026
It is the least glamorous business a club does and the reason seasons do not collapse in February. Guillermo Martínez is here for the weeks when three men are injured and somebody still has to play.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market7 Sep 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 MFK Ruzomberok can pretend not to have heard.
Market7 Sep 2026
The deal that would have taken Branislav Sokol to FK Senica has collapsed at the last stage, and he reports back to MFK Ruzomberok with a summer to forget and a season still to play. Nobody is saying which side walked away.
The terraces7 Sep 2026
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.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Jan Hladík 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.
Match5 Sep 2026
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Ondřej Šašinka. 1‑0 against Spartak Trnava, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Player ratings7 Sep 2026
Ondřej Šašinka was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.14. 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.
Player ratings7 Sep 2026
Ninety minutes of Samuel Grygar at his very best
Marked 8.00. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at MFK Ruzomberok.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Dominik Mašek 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.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Tomáš Král named in the team of the month
A month is long enough that nobody gets in by accident. Tomáš Král is in the division's best eleven for it, which is a quieter compliment than an award and a more reliable one.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market31 Aug 2026
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Match29 Aug 2026
0‑2 to DAC Dunajska Streda, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Squad31 Aug 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Martin Chrien, and the manager let it.
Squad31 Aug 2026
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at MFK Ruzomberok this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad31 Aug 2026
Words at MFK Ruzomberok training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ján Murgaš 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.
Squad31 Aug 2026
Ondřej Šašinka dropped after a run of poor form
The one version of being left out a player cannot argue with, and the one he takes worst. Somebody else has been better and the team sheet says so, in public, every week until it changes.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match19 Aug 2026
A 1‑0 win over Spartak Myjava, 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 MFK Ruzomberok can pretend not to have heard.
Market24 Aug 2026
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Tomáš Král in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at MFK Ruzomberok this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match22 Aug 2026
Zlate Moravce left with the points after a 0‑1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Squad24 Aug 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Daniel Köstl, and the manager let it.
Squad24 Aug 2026
A first senior shirt for Anton Lekaj
Every debut is a small story about the future: Anton Lekaj, 19 years old, off the academy pitches and into the first team. The parents in the stand will keep the programme.
Market24 Aug 2026
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Marko Kelemen signs something — a contract at MFK Ruzomberok or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
Marked 5.44, and generously at that. Nothing came off, and by the end the crowd had stopped expecting it to.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market17 Aug 2026
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Tomáš Král 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.
Squad17 Aug 2026
The manager makes an example of Martin Šulek
“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.
Match15 Aug 2026
0‑1 to MFK Michalovce, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Market17 Aug 2026
The Jan Hladík talk will not go away
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. MFK Ruzomberok know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Squad17 Aug 2026
The plan did not have a place for Vojtěch Novák
Nobody at MFK Ruzomberok is suggesting he is out of form. The manager simply wanted somebody with a different set of qualities for ninety specific minutes, and there is nothing a player can train to fix that.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad10 Aug 2026
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Jan Hladík and MFK Ruzomberok agree another 2 years.
Squad10 Aug 2026
Tomáš Král 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.
Squad10 Aug 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Jan Hladík, and the manager let it.
Player ratings10 Aug 2026
18 defensive actions and a clean sheet at the end of them. A defender's afternoon can only be told by what did not happen, which is why nobody makes a highlights package out of one and every manager in the division would take it.
Market10 Aug 2026
48 months to run and not a word offered. A club that lets the calendar negotiate for it usually ends up losing to the calendar.
Squad10 Aug 2026
Words at MFK Ruzomberok training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ján Murgaš 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.
Player ratings10 Aug 2026
Nobody could get near Jan Hladík
Successful dribbles: 14. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Market10 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.
Player ratings10 Aug 2026
A defender's afternoon for Tomáš Král
Defensive actions: 14. He was first to everything and second to nothing, and the goalkeeper had an easy day because of it.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad3 Aug 2026
“The easiest signature of my career.” Martin Chrien and MFK Ruzomberok agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Tomáš Král in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at MFK Ruzomberok this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Player ratings3 Aug 2026
A performance of 8.13 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Squad3 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.
Market3 Aug 2026
49 months and counting on Martin Šulek
Still no offer on the table, and Martin Šulek’s deal keeps shrinking. In boardroom language, silence this long stops being an oversight and starts being an answer.
Match1 Aug 2026
A 2‑2 draw with Slovan Bratislava leaves the dressing room somewhere between relief and regret.
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.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Jan Hladík knocks on the manager’s door
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Jan Hladík trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Market3 Aug 2026
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Alexander Selecký has his answer from MFK Ruzomberok; what he does with it is the next window’s story.