Marked for Nicolas Binder
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match18 Jan 2027
The view from the top for Cambuur
49 points, and the rest of the division looking up. Every side that finishes first spends the season pretending it is not thinking about it, and this one has started pretending.
Player ratings18 Jan 2027
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 8.00, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
Player ratings18 Jan 2027
Skye Vink, 20, plays like he has been here for years — 7.88
A mark of 7.88 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 20-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
Match16 Jan 2027
Nobody wins at Cambuur
11 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
Squad18 Jan 2027
Words exchanged at Cambuur
Mathieu Maertens 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.
Market18 Jan 2027
The interest is real enough to have reached print. Cambuur have said nothing, which in a transfer window is its own kind of answer.
Squad18 Jan 2027
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Nicolas Binder and Cambuur agree another 4 years.
Squad18 Jan 2027
Words at Cambuur training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ismaël Baouf 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.
Match16 Jan 2027
Cambuur get the job done against Roda
A 3‑1 win over Roda, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
Match11 Jan 2027
Cambuur up to position 2
46 points on the board and a place in the leading group. Nobody at the ground is saying the word out loud yet.
Market11 Jan 2027
“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.
The dugout11 Jan 2027
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Cambuur may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Player ratings11 Jan 2027
Up for the corner, and Jamal Amofa delivers — 7.74
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Jamal Amofa scored, was marked 7.74, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
Squad11 Jan 2027
Skye Vink is a better footballer than he was
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 20 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.
Squad11 Jan 2027
Mathieu Maertens 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.
Market11 Jan 2027
Add another name to the list: Telstar have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Iwan Henstra. The answer from Cambuur has not changed — yet.
Match9 Jan 2027
VVV-Venlo left with the points after a 2‑3 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Squad11 Jan 2027
“Some mornings you wake up and you are still a long way from everything you know.” It is not the football and it never was; Cambuur are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match21 Nov 2026
Whatever happens, Cambuur do not lose
13 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 ratings23 Nov 2026
Two goals and a mark of 8.57 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Match23 Nov 2026
32 points and nobody above them. The word is not being said around the ground yet, and it is being thought in every seat.
Squad23 Nov 2026
Words exchanged at Cambuur
Mathieu Maertens 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.
The dugout23 Nov 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Thijs Jansen, and the manager let it.
Player ratings23 Nov 2026
Nicky Souren beats them one at a time
Successful dribbles: 17. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Match21 Nov 2026
A goal on 93 minutes turned three points into one and a good afternoon into an argument about game management that will run until Saturday.
Loan watch23 Nov 2026
“I did not go to Vitesse to sit and watch. I want to come back to Cambuur and fight for my place.” 2 appearances in 14 matches say the rest.
Match21 Nov 2026
A 2‑2 draw with RKC Waalwijk leaves the dressing room somewhere between relief and regret.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Match28 Oct 2026
Cambuur through in the cup
A 1‑0 win over Twente, and the draw for the next round can be watched with some interest for once.
Match31 Oct 2026
Rarely has this fixture seen a display like it: 3‑0 against Vitesse, and it could have been more.
Squad2 Nov 2026
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 8 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
Player ratings2 Nov 2026
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 8.72, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
Match31 Oct 2026
Still nobody has beaten Cambuur
The unbeaten run reaches 11. Some of them were wins and some were escapes, but a side that refuses to lose is a side other dressing rooms talk about.
Player ratings2 Nov 2026
Marked 8.13 at 20, in a side that makes no allowances for age. He did not need any, and he looked the least nervous man on the pitch.
The terraces2 Nov 2026
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 20-year-old it feels ownership of. Iwan Henstra 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 ratings2 Nov 2026
Marked 8.06 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
Squad2 Nov 2026
Roshon van Eijma 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.
In brief
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Squad
A place in the month's best eleven for Ismaël Baouf
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The dugout
The manager’s verdict
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The dugout
When it matters, Thijs Jansen plays
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Squad19 Oct 2026
The match ball belongs to Nicolas Binder, whose 5 goals turned a difficult afternoon into a procession.
Match17 Oct 2026
11‑0, and Nicolas Binder took the headlines on an afternoon when everything Cambuur tried came off. Days like this are retold all winter.
Match17 Oct 2026
Nobody wants to play Cambuur right now
8 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.
Squad19 Oct 2026
A fracture rules Nathan Nicolai out for 19 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Cambuur will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Player ratings19 Oct 2026
Both of them Tony Rölke's — 9.27
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 9.27, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
Player ratings19 Oct 2026
Two goals and a mark of 8.46 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Player ratings19 Oct 2026
Two goals and a mark of 8.28 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Player ratings19 Oct 2026
Marked 7.75 at 20, in a side that makes no allowances for age. He did not need any, and he looked the least nervous man on the pitch.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 20 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.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad12 Oct 2026
27 days out for Nathan Nicolai after a fracture
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Cambuur will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Squad12 Oct 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 Cambuur this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad12 Oct 2026
At 19 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.
Squad12 Oct 2026
Diyae Jermoumi 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.
The dugout12 Oct 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.
Looking ahead12 Oct 2026
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Lucas Jetten’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Cambuur needing him to play as if none of it matters.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Match3 Oct 2026
3‑0, and the margin flattered nobody — it could have carried another goal or two without complaint. Afternoons like this are why people keep coming.
Match3 Oct 2026
Nobody wants to play Cambuur right now
7 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.
Player ratings5 Oct 2026
A brace, and Magnus Mattsson takes the afternoon — 7.97
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Magnus Mattsson provided it, and the 7.97 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Squad5 Oct 2026
A falling-out at Cambuur
Mathieu Maertens and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Skye Vink is a better footballer than he was
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 20 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.
Squad5 Oct 2026
“I have given this everything, but my family is not here and neither am I, not really.” A footballer can be coached out of bad form. Nobody has ever been coached out of this, and Cambuur know it.
Squad5 Oct 2026
A row about effort at Cambuur
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Ismaël Baouf was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Player ratings5 Oct 2026
A performance of 8.19 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
The dugout5 Oct 2026
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Ryan Weghorst on a 3‑0 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.