Marked for Callum Marshall
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad15 Feb 2027
Tom Rothe and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad15 Feb 2027
Dani Ceballos 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.
Transfer targets15 Feb 2027
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Monterrey have kept their man, and VfL Bochum go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Player ratings15 Feb 2027
Marked 7.89. Ask anyone leaving the ground what settled it and you will get one name, which is the only award that has ever really counted.
The dugout15 Feb 2027
The view from the dugout
“We controlled it. There were spells I did not like and we will look at them, but the group showed me something.” Christoph Roth, on a 1‑0 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
The dugout15 Feb 2027
Somebody else is better right now than Timo Horn
The team sheet says it in public every week until it changes. The only version of being dropped a footballer cannot argue with, and the one he takes hardest.
Looking ahead15 Feb 2027
A test against the best for VfL Bochum
The team at the top of the table next, and the honest measure of where this side actually is. Anybody can beat the club below them; the question is what happens against Fortuna Düsseldorf.
The dugout15 Feb 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Hugo Rölleke, and the manager let it.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
Match6 Feb 2027
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.
Player ratings8 Feb 2027
Two goals and a mark of 8.16 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Squad8 Feb 2027
Tom Rothe 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 VfL Bochum this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad8 Feb 2027
Dani Ceballos 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.
Transfer targets8 Feb 2027
VfL Bochum asked and Lazio said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
The terraces8 Feb 2027
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 22-year-old it feels ownership of. Callum Marshall 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 Feb 2027
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.05, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
The dugout8 Feb 2027
“The players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 3‑0, Christoph Roth could afford to be generous.
Squad8 Feb 2027
The formation has left Eric Dier behind
Every shape has positions in it and this one does not have his. VfL Bochum will either change the shape, change his job, or change his club, and he is waiting to hear which.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market11 Jan 2027
“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 VfL Bochum, and it is not being withdrawn.
Market11 Jan 2027
Schalke 04 come back empty-handed
The bid was some way short and VfL Bochum did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Transfer targets11 Jan 2027
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Bayern Munich is saying, and nobody at VfL Bochum is enjoying the guessing.
Squad11 Jan 2027
At 20 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.
Squad11 Jan 2027
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Maximilian Wittek and VfL Bochum agree another 4 years.
Transfer targets11 Jan 2027
The approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.
The terraces11 Jan 2027
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 22-year-old it feels ownership of. Callum Marshall 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.
Squad11 Jan 2027
Words at VfL Bochum training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Moritz-Broni Kwarteng 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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match12 Dec 2026
0‑3 against Preußen Münster, and no complaints that would survive the replay. The manager spoke about character afterwards; the terraces used shorter words.
Squad14 Dec 2026
Tom Rothe 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 VfL Bochum this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad14 Dec 2026
A row about effort at VfL Bochum
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Dani Ceballos was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Boardroom14 Dec 2026
The music was off and the showers ran late. What was said in that dressing room stays there, but Saturday will publish the minutes.
The dugout14 Dec 2026
The view from the dugout
“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 0‑3 defeat, delivered by Christoph Roth to a room that had heard them before.
The dugout14 Dec 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Mikkel Rakneberg, and the manager let it.
Squad14 Dec 2026
One weekend, judged against everybody else's. Callum Marshall has come out on top of it, and for most footballers a weekly award is the only silverware a career ever produces.
Looking ahead14 Dec 2026
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Hannover 96 in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
Player ratings14 Dec 2026
Successful dribbles: 11. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Player ratings7 Dec 2026
A brace, and Callum Marshall takes the afternoon — 8.89
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Callum Marshall provided it, and the 8.89 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Player ratings7 Dec 2026
Farid Alfa-Ruprecht, 20, plays like he has been here for years — 7.68
A mark of 7.68 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.
Squad7 Dec 2026
Tom Rothe was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Squad7 Dec 2026
Dani Ceballos 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.
Match5 Dec 2026
A 2‑1 win over Magdeburg, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
The terraces7 Dec 2026
At 22 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
The dugout7 Dec 2026
No hiding place for Timo Horn
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Timo Horn, and the manager let it.
Squad7 Dec 2026
A place in the month's best eleven for Tom Rothe
Four or five weekends of consistency, judged against everybody in the division doing his job. Tom Rothe has come out of that comparison in the side, and VfL Bochum have had the benefit of every one of those afternoons.
The dugout7 Dec 2026
“The players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 2‑1, Christoph Roth could afford to be generous.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match31 Oct 2026
Rarely has this fixture seen a display like it: 3‑0 against Arminia Bielefeld, and it could have been more.
Player ratings2 Nov 2026
Callum Marshall, 21, plays like he has been here for years — 7.66
A mark of 7.66 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.
Squad2 Nov 2026
Tom Rothe 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.
Player ratings2 Nov 2026
Successful dribbles: 21. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Squad2 Nov 2026
Dani Ceballos 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 terraces2 Nov 2026
He is 21 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.
Squad2 Nov 2026
200 games in these colours. Service of that kind gets rarer every season, and the crowd knows it.
Player ratings2 Nov 2026
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.21, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Squad2 Nov 2026
“The easiest signature of my career.” Mats Pannewig and VfL Bochum agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Player ratings5 Oct 2026
Successful dribbles: 23. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Kacper Kościerski is 19, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Squad5 Oct 2026
A row about effort at VfL Bochum
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Dani Ceballos was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The terraces5 Oct 2026
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.
Player ratings5 Oct 2026
Marked 8.08 — 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 dugout5 Oct 2026
Daniel Heber 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.
Squad5 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 VfL Bochum this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad5 Oct 2026
A mistake Timo Horn will not forget
Goalkeepers do not get to make mistakes; they get to make goals. He made one, he knew it instantly, and there was nobody behind him to make it anything else.