Marked for Stefan Hierländer
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Match21 Nov 2026
Nobody wants to play Sturm Graz right now
5 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.
Squad23 Nov 2026
Words at Sturm Graz training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Maurice Malone 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.
Squad23 Nov 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 Sturm Graz this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The terraces23 Nov 2026
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Seedy Jatta 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.
Match21 Nov 2026
Another one collected away from home
3 on the bounce on the road for Sturm Graz. The coaches leave early, arrive at unlovely grounds in the dark, and keep coming home with three points.
Player ratings23 Nov 2026
Seedy Jatta was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.02. 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.
Squad23 Nov 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Nicolás López, and the manager let it.
Loan watch23 Nov 2026
14 appearances at Excelsior and the goals keep coming. Sturm Graz are watching this more closely than the borrowing club would like.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
Player ratings12 Oct 2026
Successful dribbles: 40. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Match10 Oct 2026
A 2-goal lead gone for Sturm Graz
It is a specific kind of quiet, a ground watching a winning position dissolve. Red Bull Salzburg kept coming because nothing stopped them, and Sturm Graz will be asked about the last half hour all week.
Match10 Oct 2026
Whatever happens, Sturm Graz do not lose
8 games unbeaten now. Some were earned and some were survived, but a habit is forming — and habits are the hardest thing in football to play against.
Squad12 Oct 2026
Words at Sturm Graz training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Maurice Malone 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.
Squad12 Oct 2026
Emanuel Aiwu 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 terraces12 Oct 2026
At 23 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.
Squad12 Oct 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.
Player ratings12 Oct 2026
Marked 7.95 on an afternoon he ran from the first whistle to the last. Whatever else went wrong, Sturm Graz had the best player on the pitch.
Squad12 Oct 2026
11 new faces, and Sturm Graz 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.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad28 Sep 2026
3 goals in one game. The first was taken well, the second was taken greedily, and by the third the crowd were simply waiting for him to get the ball.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Maurice Malone 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
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Divock Origi. 4‑3 against Admira Wacker, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Match26 Sep 2026
7 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about Sturm Graz and Admira Wacker in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
Match26 Sep 2026
Whatever happens, Sturm Graz do not lose
6 games unbeaten now. Some were earned and some were survived, but a habit is forming — and habits are the hardest thing in football to play against.
Player ratings28 Sep 2026
Divock Origi was on a different afternoon to everybody else
9.20. 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.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Paul Koller 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.
Player ratings28 Sep 2026
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.07, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Squad28 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
Steady
Squad21 Sep 2026
16 days, the scan says, and scans are kinder than reality. The fixtures in that window have just become somebody else’s job.
Squad21 Sep 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 Sturm Graz this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad21 Sep 2026
Jan Eicher gets the move he always wanted
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Jan Eicher has just signed for Sturm Graz, and for once the answer mattered.
Squad21 Sep 2026
Maurice Malone 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.
Player ratings21 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 17. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Match19 Sep 2026
It finished 2‑2, and it somehow always looked like it would. One of those afternoons where the table moves less than the tempers.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Player ratings10 Aug 2026
Two goals and a mark of 8.31 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Market10 Aug 2026
The offer from Red Bull Salzburg for Arjan Malić 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 ratings10 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 25. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad10 Aug 2026
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Maurice Malone and Sturm Graz agree another 4 years.
Squad10 Aug 2026
Words at Sturm Graz training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Maurice Malone 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.
Squad10 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 Sturm Graz this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match8 Aug 2026
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Gizo Mamageishvili. 2‑1 against Red Bull Salzburg, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Squad10 Aug 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Daniil Khudyakov, and the manager let it.
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
Match1 Aug 2026
Rarely has this fixture seen a display like it: 3‑0 against Altach, and it could have been more.
Player ratings3 Aug 2026
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 8.31, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
Squad3 Aug 2026
389 appearances across 9 seasons in these colours. Careers like that are not built any more, and Sturm Graz know what they have.
Squad3 Aug 2026
A move Marko Raguž would have made for nothing
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Marko Raguž is living that version at Sturm Graz, and it tends to show in the first month.
Squad3 Aug 2026
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Jon Gorenc Stankovič commits to Sturm Graz for another 3 years.
Squad3 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 Sturm Graz this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The terraces3 Aug 2026
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Gizo Mamageishvili 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.
Player ratings3 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 18. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
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.