It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at SC Freiburg this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“I have ambitions, and I would like the club to share them.” Nobody has asked to leave and nobody has been shown the door — but a player chooses that sentence carefully, and a boardroom hears it exactly as it was meant.
“I am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at SC Freiburg, and 0 appearances in 13 say he has earned the hearing.
He is the name in every column and on every phone-in, which is a heavy thing to carry at any age. Some footballers thrive on it; others are quietly finished by it.
In brief
Player ratingsThe chances came and went for Rômulo
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.
“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 The request is on a desk at SC Freiburg, and it is not being withdrawn.
“I want to win things, and I would like to do it here.” Nothing has been demanded and nothing has been threatened — but a boardroom at SC Freiburg hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
Jean-Mattéo Bahoya 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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Jean-Mattéo Bahoya. 2‑1 against St. Pauli, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
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.
Player ratings4 Sep 2028
Rômulo was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.05. 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at SC Freiburg this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Tommaso Vitali has just signed for SC Freiburg, and for once the answer mattered.
Squad28 Aug 2028
Words at SC Freiburg training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Igor Matanović 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.
Boardroom28 Aug 2028
5 academy players handed senior numbers at SC Freiburg
The morning the pathway stops being a brochure and becomes a team sheet. Most of them will not be here in three years; all of them have already done the hard part, which was getting to today.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Marco König has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Klaus Schreiber has been at this club since he was a boy and is now, formally, one of the first-team squad — which for a local readership beats any signing of any size.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 85 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Philipp Lienhart 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.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Jean-Mattéo Bahoya is 23, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Squad21 Aug 2028
Matteo Dagasso has improved at 24, which nobody expected
Careers are supposed to plateau and then decline, and the players who ignore that are always the ones who were listening on the training ground. 5 points of it, over months, at an age where the direction normally only goes one way.
It is the least glamorous business a club does and the reason seasons do not collapse in February. Yannick Gerritsen is here for the weeks when three men are injured and somebody still has to play.
The fee is $42.1M, the contract is signed, and the argument about whether he is worth it can begin. Eintracht Frankfurt drove a hard bargain; time will say who won it.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason SC Freiburg will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
303 appearances across 8 seasons in one shirt. Nobody builds a career like that on purpose any more; it happens to a certain kind of footballer at a certain kind of club.
“I have ambitions, and I would like the club to share them.” Nobody has asked to leave and nobody has been shown the door — but a player chooses that sentence carefully, and a boardroom hears it exactly as it was meant.
Vincenzo Grifo 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.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Nilo Neuendorff is 20, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
The terraces7 Aug 2028
SC Freiburg spend $42.1M on the signing the town wanted
It is the rarest sequence in football: supporters ask for something, and the club goes and does it. $42.1M for Jean-Mattéo Bahoya, and for one week nobody is complaining about anything.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. SC Freiburg know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
The best deals are the ones the accountants never notice. Tony Rölke arrives at SC Freiburg with his wages the only cost and something to prove the only clause.
In brief
The terracesEverybody has an opinion about Tony Rölke
BoardroomThe SC Freiburg production line keeps running
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason SC Freiburg will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
The general version of this complaint is that a player wants more. The specific version names the thing: he wants to walk out under floodlights against clubs from other countries, and he has stopped pretending otherwise.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at SC Freiburg this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
In brief
SquadWords at SC Freiburg training over how hard people work
31 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. SC Freiburg lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason SC Freiburg will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at SC Freiburg is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
The words a physio says slowly. 66 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 87 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around SC Freiburg they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
“I have ambitions, and I would like the club to share them.” Nobody has asked to leave and nobody has been shown the door — but a player chooses that sentence carefully, and a boardroom hears it exactly as it was meant.
Vincenzo Grifo 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.
88 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. SC Freiburg lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
The 88th minute, half the ground already edging towards the exits, and Rômulo decided nobody was going anywhere. Union Berlin had no time left to answer.
Two goals and a mark of 8.72 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” SC Freiburg have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
4 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at SC Freiburg this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad10 Apr 2028
Words at SC Freiburg training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Yuito Suzuki 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.
Lukas Kübler damages knee ligaments — 105 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 105 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Some goals win a match and some take one off somebody else. Matthias Ginter scored in the 87th minute, Borussia Dortmund had already begun thinking about the journey home, and SC Freiburg took the lot.
At 34 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 9.36 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
The general version of this complaint is that a player wants more. The specific version names the thing: he wants to walk out under floodlights against clubs from other countries, and he has stopped pretending otherwise.
25 times he got in the way of something. Centre-halves get written about when they make mistakes and ignored when they do not, so an afternoon like this needs saying out loud: he is the reason the scoreline reads as it does.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at SC Freiburg this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad27 Mar 2028
Words at SC Freiburg training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Igor Matanović 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.
21 times he got in the way of something. Centre-halves get written about when they make mistakes and ignored when they do not, so an afternoon like this needs saying out loud: he is the reason the scoreline reads as it does.
Lukas Kübler damages knee ligaments — 114 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 114 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
0‑2 away to the standard of Crvena Zvezda. Nobody will pretend this was a scandal; the gap is real, it is measurable, and closing it is a project rather than a team talk.
Vincenzo Grifo 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.
Squad20 Mar 2028
Yuito Suzuki 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.
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.48, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Player ratings20 Mar 2028
Yuito Suzuki was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.29. 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.
Lukas Kübler damages knee ligaments — 123 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 123 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at SC Freiburg this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad13 Mar 2028
Words at SC Freiburg training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Igor Matanović 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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Yuito Suzuki. 3‑2 against Köln, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Rômulo, and the manager let it.
Player ratings13 Mar 2028
Rômulo was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.65. 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.
He is the name in every column and on every phone-in, which is a heavy thing to carry at any age. Some footballers thrive on it; others are quietly finished by it.
Lukas Kübler damages knee ligaments — 141 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 141 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 24 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at SC Freiburg this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The general version of this complaint is that a player wants more. The specific version names the thing: he wants to walk out under floodlights against clubs from other countries, and he has stopped pretending otherwise.
Squad28 Feb 2028
Words at SC Freiburg training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Yuito Suzuki 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.
Shots: 10. Goals: none. The chances were there and they were good ones, and they went into the stand, the goalkeeper's arms and the side netting in roughly that order.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. SC Freiburg know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason SC Freiburg will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
6 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.
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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at SC Freiburg this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The chances are being made and something is happening between the making and the finishing. 4 matches now, and the anxiety in the ground arrives a little earlier every week.
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at SC Freiburg heard it as anything else.
Squad14 Feb 2028
Words at SC Freiburg training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Igor Matanović 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.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason SC Freiburg will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around SC Freiburg they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
“I have ambitions, and I would like the club to share them.” Nobody has asked to leave and nobody has been shown the door — but a player chooses that sentence carefully, and a boardroom hears it exactly as it was meant.
There is no worse way to lose a footballer. Lukas Kübler has pre-agreed a move away, which means every appearance between now and June is made by a man the club can no longer sell, and somebody upstairs will be asked why the contract was allowed to get here.
Eren Dinkçi 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.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Yoram Boerhout has just signed for SC Freiburg, and for once the answer mattered.
The chances are being made and something is happening between the making and the finishing. 3 matches now, and the anxiety in the ground arrives a little earlier every week.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason SC Freiburg will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
The offer from TSG Hoffenheim for Noah Atubolu 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.
The general version of this complaint is that a player wants more. The specific version names the thing: he wants to walk out under floodlights against clubs from other countries, and he has stopped pretending otherwise.
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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at SC Freiburg this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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.
He is the name in every column and on every phone-in, which is a heavy thing to carry at any age. Some footballers thrive on it; others are quietly finished by it.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at RB Leipzig this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad10 Jan 2028
At 21, Yan Diomandé is already the best thing here
An average of 7.18 in a first team he is several years too young for. RB Leipzig have something, and by now the whole division has noticed.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Tom Bischof. 3‑1 against FC Augsburg, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Nothing happens for months and then he simply arrives, at no cost, having signed a pre-contract while still turning out for somebody else. It is the least dramatic way to sign a footballer and frequently the shrewdest.
Squad10 Jan 2028
Words at RB Leipzig training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Nicolas Seiwald 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.
Everyone has stopped pretending: FC Augsburg will make the call about Andrija Maksimović this week. RB Leipzig have a number in mind, and the number is not shy.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason SC Freiburg will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
The chase for Rômulo ended with $37.1M changing hands and RB Leipzig out of reasons to say no. The supporters will judge the fee the only way that matters: on Saturdays.
Bayer Leverkusen pay $9.2M, and the deal is done. The number reads well on a balance sheet; whether it reads well on the pitch is next season's question.
Borussia Dortmund pay $5.7M, and the deal is done. The number reads well on a balance sheet; whether it reads well on the pitch is next season's question.
Vincenzo Grifo 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 Jan 2028
Words at SC Freiburg training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Philipp Lienhart 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.
Boards get told what they have done wrong for years and hear nothing on the days they get it right. This is one of those days: Rômulo from RB Leipzig for $37.1M, and a ticket office having a very good morning.
Two goals and a mark of 8.26 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
An individual honour is a strange thing in a team game, and the best of them are never argued with. He has had the sort of year that ends with his name being read out, and RB Leipzig have had the benefit of it.
The hardest thing about being 21 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Yan Diomandé did not need any: 8.23, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
“I have ambitions, and I would like the club to share them.” Nobody has asked to leave and nobody has been shown the door — but a player chooses that sentence carefully, and a boardroom hears it exactly as it was meant.
Castello Lukeba 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 name of Maxime Estève has come up in conversations RB Leipzig were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Tom Bischof. 3‑1 against TSG Hoffenheim, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at RB Leipzig this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Successful dribbles: 19. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad20 Dec 2027
Words at RB Leipzig training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Nicolas Seiwald 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.
“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.
Squad20 Dec 2027
The manager has not finished forgetting Tom Bischof's mistake
Publicly it is behind everybody. It is not behind the man who picks the team, and the only place that shows is a team sheet. He will get another chance; he will get it in a match that matters less.
Ninety minutes, no goals, and the argument started before the car park emptied: a point gained, or two thrown away against Borussia Mönchengladbach? Both sides of it will still be going on Thursday.
1‑0. Continental football is where a club finds out what it actually is, and RB Leipzig came through the finding-out well against Olympique de Marseille.
Defensive actions: 29. He was first to everything and second to nothing, and the goalkeeper had an easy day because of it.
Player ratings13 Dec 2027
Yan Diomandé, 21, plays like he has been here for years — 8.15
A mark of 8.15 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 21-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” RB Leipzig have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
“I have ambitions, and I would like the club to share them.” Nobody has asked to leave and nobody has been shown the door — but a player chooses that sentence carefully, and a boardroom hears it exactly as it was meant.
Yan Diomandé 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.
Squad13 Dec 2027
At 21, Yan Diomandé is already the best thing here
An average of 7.16 in a first team he is several years too young for. RB Leipzig have something, and by now the whole division has noticed.
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.
Player ratings6 Dec 2027
Yan Diomandé, 21, plays like he has been here for years — 8.38
A mark of 8.38 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 21-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
“I want to win things, and I would like to do it here.” Nothing has been demanded and nothing has been threatened — but a boardroom at RB Leipzig hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at RB Leipzig this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“I watch every RB Leipzig game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Elche runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
Squad6 Dec 2027
Words at RB Leipzig training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Nicolas Seiwald 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.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what RB Leipzig can pretend not to have heard.
The hardest thing about being 21 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Yan Diomandé did not need any: 8.99, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at RB Leipzig this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 21-year-old it feels ownership of. Yan Diomandé 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.
The hardest thing about being 21 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Yan Diomandé did not need any: 8.14, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Yan Diomandé 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.
A season average of 7.00 at an age when most of his year group are still in the youth team. RB Leipzig know what they have, and so, by now, does everybody else.
Squad15 Nov 2027
Words at RB Leipzig training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Benjamin Henrichs 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.
It needed Christoph Baumgartner to find the net to bring anything home at all: 1‑1 against VfL Wolfsburg, and half the dressing room will call it a point won.
Marked 5.57. Nothing he attempted worked and by the hour mark he had stopped attempting much, which is the part a manager notices rather than the mistakes.
2‑1 against Zaglebie, under lights, against people who do not speak the same language as the crowd. These are the evenings a club measures its decade in, and there are never as many of them as anybody expects.
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.
Player ratings8 Nov 2027
Yan Diomandé, 20, plays like he has been here for years — 8.45
A mark of 8.45 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.
Headers, blocks, tackles, interceptions — 25 of them, and not one goal behind him. The sort of performance that never makes a highlight reel and wins football matches.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at RB Leipzig this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The deal fell over and took everything it was going to pay for with it. The club wakes up with the same owner, the same budget and rather less goodwill.
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.
Marked 8.45 — 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.
Yan Diomandé, 20, plays like he has been here for years — 8.84
A mark of 8.84 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.
Willi Orbán 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.
Successful dribbles: 18. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad1 Nov 2027
Eljif Elmas 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.
Squad1 Nov 2027
The manager has not finished forgetting Rômulo's mistake
Publicly it is behind everybody. It is not behind the man who picks the team, and the only place that shows is a team sheet. He will get another chance; he will get it in a match that matters less.
The ambition story running the other way, and the one nobody tells: a footballer asking for a smaller stage, fewer cameras and a crowd that does not turn. It is not weakness and it is very rarely reported as anything else.
He is the name in every column and on every phone-in, which is a heavy thing to carry at any age. Some footballers thrive on it; others are quietly finished by it.
Shots: 6. Goals: none. The chances were there and they were good ones, and they went into the stand, the goalkeeper's arms and the side netting in roughly that order.
The hardest thing about being 20 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Yan Diomandé did not need any: 8.69, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
A defender on the scoresheet, which happens rarely enough that everybody in the ground remembers who took the corner. 1 for him, and a mark of 7.68 for the rest of it.
Willi Orbán 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.
Squad18 Oct 2027
Words at RB Leipzig training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Benjamin Henrichs 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.
“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.
Squad18 Oct 2027
The manager has not finished forgetting David Raum's mistake
Publicly it is behind everybody. It is not behind the man who picks the team, and the only place that shows is a team sheet. He will get another chance; he will get it in a match that matters less.
The board had gone up, the arguing had started, and then the ball was in the net in the 93th minute. Köln will replay every second of the added time for a week.
Player ratings11 Oct 2027
Yan Diomandé, 20, plays like he has been here for years — 9.03
A mark of 9.03 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.
1 for Nicolas Seiwald, marked 7.95, and a centre-half's name in the part of the report he normally only reaches by mistake. He will not be allowed to forget it in the dressing room for a month.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at RB Leipzig this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Yan Diomandé. 2‑1 against Köln, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Squad11 Oct 2027
Words at RB Leipzig training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Eljif Elmas 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.
“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; RB Leipzig are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Nobody will confirm this and nothing else explains the last month of selections. A costly error buys a player a period of being second choice that is always longer than the error was.
2‑3 against Olympique de Marseille. Continental football is unforgiving about the things a domestic league lets a side get away with, and this was a night spent finding out which of those the club still has.
Player ratings4 Oct 2027
Yan Diomandé, 20, plays like he has been here for years — 8.24
A mark of 8.24 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.
At 34 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 7.85 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at RB Leipzig heard it as anything else.
Yan Diomandé 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.
Squad4 Oct 2027
Words at RB Leipzig training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Benjamin Henrichs 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.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what RB Leipzig can pretend not to have heard.
The hardest thing about being 20 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Yan Diomandé did not need any: 8.28, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at RB Leipzig this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Johan Bakayoko and RB Leipzig agree another 5 years.
Squad27 Sep 2027
Rocco Reitz has improved at 25, which nobody expected
Careers are supposed to plateau and then decline, and the players who ignore that are always the ones who were listening on the training ground. 3 points of it, over months, at an age where the direction normally only goes one way.
At 20 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.
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.
Willi Orbán 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.
6 goals in one match, Rômulo on the scoresheet, and a scoreline that will look like a misprint. Neutrals could not have asked more of RB Leipzig and VfB Stuttgart.
8 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about RB Leipzig and Athletic Bilbao in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 22-year-old it feels ownership of. Antonio Nusa 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.
In brief
Player ratingsRômulo was on a different afternoon to everybody else
“We pay for this every fortnight. The least we want is somebody who looks like he cares.” 8 of the 31 senior players walked off into it; the rest were not playing.
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at RB Leipzig heard it as anything else.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at RB Leipzig this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Careers are supposed to plateau and then decline, and the players who ignore that are always the ones who were listening on the training ground. 3 points of it, over months, at an age where the direction normally only goes one way.
Rômulo had done his part in building a 2-goal cushion. What happened after that was collective, and TSG Hoffenheim were allowed back into a match that had been finished with.
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at RB Leipzig heard it as anything else.
Willi Orbán 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.
At 24 the improving is meant to be over. It is not: 3 points better than the mark taken at the start of the year, which is the sort of thing that happens to players who take the boring parts of the job seriously.
Marked 8.56 — 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.
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Lutsharel Geertruida has his answer from RB Leipzig; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
“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 RB Leipzig, and it is not being withdrawn.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Rômulo provided it, and the 8.30 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
At 34 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.86 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Player ratings30 Aug 2027
Yan Diomandé, 20, plays like he has been here for years — 8.05
A mark of 8.05 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.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Arthur Vermeeren is 22, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
A new deal for the man in the dugout, and the clearest thing a board can say without calling a press conference about it. Stability is cheap to promise and expensive to deliver.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at RB Leipzig this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Daniel Oyegoke has just signed for RB Leipzig, and for once the answer mattered.
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.
Yan Diomandé 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.
At 25 the improving is meant to be over. It is not: 3 points better than the mark taken at the start of the year, which is the sort of thing that happens to players who take the boring parts of the job seriously.
In brief
SquadNicolas Seiwald falls out with a teammate over standards
Nothing has been signed and nothing has been denied. Supporters who have lived through one of these before know the quiet part lasts months and the loud part lasts a week.
“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 RB Leipzig, and it is not being withdrawn.
“I want to win things, and I would like to do it here.” Nothing has been demanded and nothing has been threatened — but a boardroom at RB Leipzig hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at RB Leipzig this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Arthur Vermeeren is 22, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
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.
Willi Orbán 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.
Careers are supposed to plateau and then decline, and the players who ignore that are always the ones who were listening on the training ground. 4 points of it, over months, at an age where the direction normally only goes one way.
Squad12 Jul 2027
Words at RB Leipzig training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Benjamin Henrichs 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.
Yan Diomandé 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.
Careers are supposed to plateau and then decline, and the players who ignore that are always the ones who were listening on the training ground. 3 points of it, over months, at an age where the direction normally only goes one way.
Squad28 Jun 2027
Brajan Gruda 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.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what RB Leipzig can pretend not to have heard.
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.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Koki Machida has just signed for RB Leipzig, and for once the answer mattered.
“I have ambitions, and I would like the club to share them.” Nobody has asked to leave and nobody has been shown the door — but a player chooses that sentence carefully, and a boardroom hears it exactly as it was meant.
Willi Orbán 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
SquadJohan Bakayoko has improved at 24, which nobody expected
Qualification is done, and next season the floodlights come on for something bigger. A stage for the players, oxygen for the accounts and a passport for everybody else.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at RB Leipzig this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad17 May 2027
Brajan Gruda 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.
Nobody at RB Leipzig will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Ihlas Bebou trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
In brief
Loan watchThe goals keep arriving from Conrad Harder’s exile
Loan watchThe goals keep arriving from Eljif Elmas’s exile
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at RB Leipzig this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad19 Apr 2027
Words at RB Leipzig training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Brajan Gruda 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.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. RB Leipzig know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
4 goals in 28 games at VfL Wolfsburg — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at RB Leipzig updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
In brief
The terracesEverybody has an opinion about Taichi Hara
The words a physio says slowly. 32 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at RB Leipzig this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Successful dribbles: 19. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad29 Mar 2027
Brajan Gruda 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.
16 times he got in the way of something. Centre-halves get written about when they make mistakes and ignored when they do not, so an afternoon like this needs saying out loud: he is the reason the scoreline reads as it does.
6 shots, and a count that reads like a good afternoon until you check the other column. Strikers survive weeks like this on the understanding that the chances keep arriving; the day they stop is the day it becomes a problem.
40 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. RB Leipzig lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
4 wins on the spin now, and the question has changed from whether the run ends to who ends it. Confidence like this cannot be bought; it has to be earned exactly this way.
Castello Lukeba 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.
20 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.
At 25 the improving is meant to be over. It is not: 3 points better than the mark taken at the start of the year, which is the sort of thing that happens to players who take the boring parts of the job seriously.
At 34 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 9.27 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
26 times he got in the way of something. Centre-halves get written about when they make mistakes and ignored when they do not, so an afternoon like this needs saying out loud: he is the reason the scoreline reads as it does.
He is 21, he is averaging 7.19, and older professionals have started passing to him in the difficult minutes. That last part is the real scouting report.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at RB Leipzig this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Willi Orbán. 1‑0 against VfL Wolfsburg, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Headers, blocks, tackles, interceptions — 15 of them, and not one goal behind him. The sort of performance that never makes a highlight reel and wins football matches.
In brief
The terracesEverybody has an opinion about Petar Musa
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Christoph Baumgartner provided it, and the 8.90 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
The hardest thing about being 21 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Antonio Nusa did not need any: 9.15, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at RB Leipzig this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Johan Bakayoko 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 ratings8 Mar 2027
Johan Bakayoko was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.03. 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.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what RB Leipzig can pretend not to have heard.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 7.98 at 34, and nobody on the pitch was better.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at RB Leipzig this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“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 RB Leipzig know it.
Castello Lukeba 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.
0‑2 to Borussia Dortmund, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Squad22 Feb 2027
Words at RB Leipzig training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Brajan Gruda 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.
“I watch every RB Leipzig game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Borussia Dortmund runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
There were 88 minutes on the clock and Eintracht Frankfurt had all but banked the point. Football rarely reads the room, and RB Leipzig did not stop to explain themselves.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 9.18 at 34, and nobody on the pitch was better.
4 wins on the spin now, and the question has changed from whether the run ends to who ends it. Confidence like this cannot be bought; it has to be earned exactly this way.
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at RB Leipzig heard it as anything else.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at RB Leipzig this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
He is 21, he is averaging 7.15, and older professionals have started passing to him in the difficult minutes. That last part is the real scouting report.
23 times he got in the way of something. Centre-halves get written about when they make mistakes and ignored when they do not, so an afternoon like this needs saying out loud: he is the reason the scoreline reads as it does.
Squad15 Feb 2027
Brajan Gruda 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.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 7.84 at 34, and nobody on the pitch was better.
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at RB Leipzig heard it as anything else.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at RB Leipzig this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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.
Three points for RB Leipzig, 2‑0 the final word against SC Freiburg in a contest settled by the finer margins.
Squad1 Feb 2027
Brajan Gruda 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.
A performance of 8.67 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Player ratings1 Feb 2027
Johan Bakayoko was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.43. 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.
The fee is $7.2M, the contract is signed, and the argument about whether he is worth it can begin. St. Pauli drove a hard bargain; time will say who won it.
The fee is $2.8M, the contract is signed, and the argument about whether he is worth it can begin. TSG Hoffenheim drove a hard bargain; time will say who won it.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Ihlas Bebou has just signed for RB Leipzig, and for once the answer mattered.
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at RB Leipzig heard it as anything else.
Castello Lukeba 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.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 21 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.
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.
Player ratings4 Jan 2027
Antonio Nusa, 21, plays like he has been here for years — 8.49
A mark of 8.49 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 21-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at RB Leipzig heard it as anything else.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at RB Leipzig this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
At 21 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.
Squad4 Jan 2027
Brajan Gruda 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.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Christoph Baumgartner provided it, and the 9.15 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Ninety minutes of very little, and then everything at once. The winner arrived in the 86th, and Bayer Leverkusen spent what remained of the match appealing to the referee rather than chasing the ball.
David Raum 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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Christoph Baumgartner. 3‑2 against Bayer Leverkusen, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at RB Leipzig this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Brajan Gruda 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.
Castello Lukeba 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.
Successful dribbles: 20. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad14 Dec 2026
Words at RB Leipzig training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Brajan Gruda 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.
“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 RB Leipzig know it.
The hardest thing about being 21 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Antonio Nusa did not need any: 8.62, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.86 at 34, and nobody on the pitch was better.
“I want to win things, and I would like to do it here.” Nothing has been demanded and nothing has been threatened — but a boardroom at RB Leipzig hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at RB Leipzig this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Antonio Nusa. 3‑1 against Mainz 05, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at RB Leipzig this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Ridle Baku, and the manager let it.
Squad26 Oct 2026
The manager has not finished forgetting Rômulo's mistake
Publicly it is behind everybody. It is not behind the man who picks the team, and the only place that shows is a team sheet. He will get another chance; he will get it in a match that matters less.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 21 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.
Castello Lukeba 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.
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to David Raum, and the manager let it.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Maxime Estève has improved at 24, which nobody expected
Careers are supposed to plateau and then decline, and the players who ignore that are always the ones who were listening on the training ground. 3 points of it, over months, at an age where the direction normally only goes one way.
He is the name in every column and on every phone-in, which is a heavy thing to carry at any age. Some footballers thrive on it; others are quietly finished by it.