The hardest thing about being 20 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Elias Pihlström did not need any: 8.76, 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 Young Boys this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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.
Marked 8.11 — 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.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Young Boys have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Alvyn Sanches 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.
Defensive actions: 22, and a clean sheet at the end of it. A centre-half's best afternoons look like nothing happening, which is precisely the point.
Player ratings5 Oct 2026
Jaouen Hadjam was on a different afternoon to everybody else
9.42. 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.
8.54. 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.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Words at Young Boys training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Gregory Wüthrich 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.
In brief
Boardroom131% of the income goes out in wages at Young Boys
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Young Boys 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: Alan Virginius. 2‑1 against Thun, 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 ratings28 Sep 2026
Alan Virginius was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.79. 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 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.
1‑1 against Korona, and a performance that will be described to people who were not there for the rest of the season. Darian Maleš was at the centre of the description.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Cheveyo Tsawa is 19, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Jaouen Hadjam 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.
Squad21 Sep 2026
Words at Young Boys training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Uran Bislimi 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.
Player ratings21 Sep 2026
Darian Maleš 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.
Rayan Raveloson 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.
Darian Maleš wins it after the whistle should have gone
90 minutes played. Darian Maleš found the finish in time that only existed because of earlier delays, and Luzern went from a point to nothing inside one movement.
Two goals and a mark of 8.17 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
The fee is $5.4M, the contract is signed, and the argument about whether he is worth it can begin. Lugano drove a hard bargain; time will say who won 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 Young Boys 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: Darian Maleš. 3‑2 against Luzern, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Marked 8.67 — 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.
Alvyn Sanches 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 performance of 9.24 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Words at Young Boys training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Gregory Wüthrich 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.
Elias Pihlström is 19, and Young Boys have signed him for the player he will be rather than the one he is. The first team can wait; the point of a deal like this is the years it buys.
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.
A defender's mistake gets tidied up by somebody else; a goalkeeper's ends up in the net. He knew before the ball crossed the line, and so did everybody in the ground.
The fee is $1.2M, the contract is signed, and the argument about whether he is worth it can begin. Grasshopper drove a hard bargain; time will say who won it.
3 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Young Boys this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
Jaouen Hadjam was on a different afternoon to everybody else
9.63. 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.
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.
20 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.
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.
In brief
Player ratingsNinety minutes of Alan Virginius at his very best
The offer from St. Gallen for Ebrima Colley 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Young Boys this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Angelo Gattermayer is living that version at Young Boys, and it tends to show in the first month.
9.06. 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.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Alvyn Sanches 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 offer from Aston Villa for Marvin Keller 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.
31 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.
31 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.
Player ratings3 Aug 2026
Facinet Conté, 21, plays like he has been here for years — 7.72
A mark of 7.72 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.
Alvyn Sanches 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 Ebrima Colley has come up in conversations Young Boys were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 21-year-old it feels ownership of. Facinet Conté 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.