From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad24 Aug 2026
2 kept out from twelve yards, and a stadium that will describe each of them for twenty years. A goalkeeper needs one night like this in a career, and this was it.
Match19 Aug 2026
Fratria go through and Slavia Sofia go home, 1‑1 the scoreline that did it. The dressing room will call the league the priority now, because that is what dressing rooms say.
Market24 Aug 2026
The interest is real enough to have reached print. Slavia Sofia have said nothing, which in a transfer window is its own kind of answer.
Market24 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.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Lévi Ntumba 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 Slavia Sofia this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Transfer targets24 Aug 2026
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. CSKA Sofia have kept their man, and Slavia Sofia go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Match22 Aug 2026
CSKA 1948 left with the points after a 1‑2 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
The game went through Emil Stoev — 7.03
Marked 7.03 on 11 actions at both ends of the pitch. Midfielders like this get described as unspectacular by people who have never tried to play against one.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Úmaro Baldé was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
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.
Transfer targets17 Aug 2026
$2.9M was the most the club would pay and CSKA Sofia 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.
Transfer targets17 Aug 2026
Slavia Sofia asked and Ludogorets said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Transfer targets17 Aug 2026
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: PAOK keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Lévi Ntumba 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 ratings17 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 17. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Dimitar Burov 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.
Match15 Aug 2026
A 1‑1 draw with Lokomotiv Plovdiv leaves the dressing room somewhere between relief and regret.
The dugout17 Aug 2026
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Simeon Popov was not hiding it after 1‑1, and nobody in the Slavia Sofia dressing room was either.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market10 Aug 2026
The offer from Septemvri for Lévi Ntumba 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.
Transfer targets10 Aug 2026
The offer went to CSKA Sofia this week and it is theirs to answer. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loud the door closes.
Player ratings10 Aug 2026
Age has not caught Ivan Minchev yet — 8.29
At 35 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.29 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Player ratings10 Aug 2026
7.61, 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.
Transfer targets10 Aug 2026
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Ludogorets have kept their man, and Slavia Sofia go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Boardroom10 Aug 2026
The number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $3.1M — a club that wants Pastor enough to be asked twice.
Squad10 Aug 2026
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Vladimir Nikolov commits to Slavia Sofia for another 4 years.
Squad10 Aug 2026
Lévi Ntumba and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
The terraces10 Aug 2026
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Kristiyan Stoyanov 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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market3 Aug 2026
The offer from Kozármisleny for Yoan Bornosuzov 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.
Player ratings3 Aug 2026
Up for the corner, and Kristiyan Stoyanov delivers — 7.66
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Kristiyan Stoyanov scored, was marked 7.66, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
Squad3 Aug 2026
“The easiest signature of my career.” Ivan Minchev and Slavia Sofia agree another 2 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Ivan Minchev 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.
Match1 Aug 2026
Beaten 1‑2, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
The dugout3 Aug 2026
Lévi Ntumba 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.
Market3 Aug 2026
The name of Lyubomir Kostov has come up in conversations Slavia Sofia were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Úmaro Baldé was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Market3 Aug 2026
The clock runs on Emil Stoev's contract
36 months left and silence from upstairs — no offer, no talks, nothing for his people to answer. Clubs that let a calendar do their negotiating usually end up negotiating with the calendar.
In brief
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The dugout
The view from the dugout
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Squad
Slavia Sofia are still strangers to each other
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The dugout
Vladimir Nikolov knocks on the manager’s door