Marked for Aliou Baldé
From our football correspondent
Steady
Player ratings21 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 64. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Match19 Sep 2026
Still nobody has beaten St. Gallen
The unbeaten run reaches 8. Some of them were wins and some were escapes, but a side that refuses to lose is a side other dressing rooms talk about.
Match19 Sep 2026
4 matches without a win for St. Gallen
The run now stands at 4, and the questions being asked around St. Gallen are no longer polite ones.
Squad21 Sep 2026
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at St. Gallen this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match19 Sep 2026
4 matches without a goal for St. Gallen
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.
Squad21 Sep 2026
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
Squad21 Sep 2026
Behar Neziri dropped after a run of poor form
The one version of being left out a player cannot argue with, and the one he takes worst. Somebody else has been better and the team sheet says so, in public, every week until it changes.
Squad21 Sep 2026
Nobody at St. Gallen is suggesting he is out of form. The manager simply wanted somebody with a different set of qualities for ninety specific minutes, and there is nothing a player can train to fix that.
Match19 Sep 2026
Point won or two lost for St. Gallen?
Ninety minutes, no goals, and the argument started before the car park emptied: a point gained, or two thrown away against Sion? Both sides of it will still be going on Thursday.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 24. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Match12 Sep 2026
Still nobody has beaten St. Gallen
The unbeaten run reaches 7. Some of them were wins and some were escapes, but a side that refuses to lose is a side other dressing rooms talk about.
Match12 Sep 2026
3 games without scoring. Strikers stop looking up, midfielders take the extra touch, and every shot that clears the bar is followed by a groan that has been building since the last goal.
The terraces14 Sep 2026
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Aliou Baldé 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.
Squad14 Sep 2026
The manager makes an example of Carlo Boukhalfa
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
Marked 7.08. Ask anyone leaving the ground what settled it and you will get one name, which is the only award that has ever really counted.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Nils de Mol dropped after a run of poor form
The one version of being left out a player cannot argue with, and the one he takes worst. Somebody else has been better and the team sheet says so, in public, every week until it changes.
Squad14 Sep 2026
A booking nobody needed, on a night the game was already won. St. Gallen lose a player for the most avoidable reason there is.
Match12 Sep 2026
Nil-nil, and few chances worth the name. Zurich came to defend and left with exactly what they came for.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Match7 Sep 2026
St. Gallen refuse to drop out of the race
Position 2, 10 points, and the result everyone checks first is now theirs. The word is still not being said around the ground, which is how you know everyone is thinking it.
Player ratings7 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 29. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Match5 Sep 2026
Hard to beat is not the same as winning, but 6 matches without defeat is a foundation St. Gallen did not have in the autumn.
Squad7 Sep 2026
A month that belonged to Moctar Diop
The young player of the month award goes to a 21-year-old at St. Gallen who has looked like the finished article for four weekends running. The next four are the ones that decide whether he is.
Squad7 Sep 2026
A place in the month's best eleven for Lawrence Ati-Zigi
Four or five weekends of consistency, judged against everybody in the division doing his job. Lawrence Ati-Zigi has come out of that comparison in the side, and St. Gallen have had the benefit of every one of those afternoons.
Squad7 Sep 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Behar Neziri, and the manager let it.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Player ratings31 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 31. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad31 Aug 2026
Nils de Mol 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 St. Gallen this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad31 Aug 2026
The shape wanted a different profile against this opponent, which is a real football answer and no comfort at all to the man it is about. He did nothing wrong and he did not play.
Match29 Aug 2026
Ninety minutes, two goalkeepers with clean gloves, and not one finish worth keeping. Basel will be the happier side with the point.
Squad31 Aug 2026
The shirt belongs to Jozo Stanić now
At 27 he has made the position his own, and the man he took it from has to find something to say about it. St. Gallen have a decision that made itself.
Market31 Aug 2026
A season-long look at somebody else’s player: Tiago Caballero arrives from Olimpia with something to prove and a return ticket in the drawer. Good loans make everybody richer; this one starts Saturday.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 46. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Market24 Aug 2026
“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.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Christian Witzig 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.
Match22 Aug 2026
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Lukas Daschner. 1‑0 against Luzern, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
Marked 7.83. Ask anyone leaving the ground what settled it and you will get one name, which is the only award that has ever really counted.
Squad24 Aug 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Kevin Csoboth, and the manager let it.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market17 Aug 2026
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Market17 Aug 2026
Business is business: Betim Fazliji goes
Thun paid $1.7M and St. Gallen took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
Market17 Aug 2026
Luzern paid $1.6M and St. Gallen took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Lukas Görtler 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.
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 22. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
The terraces17 Aug 2026
The crowd has taken to Moctar Diop
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.
Match15 Aug 2026
It finished 1‑0, and it was Moctar Diop’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to St. Gallen.
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
The afternoon belonged to Moctar Diop
7.52, and no serious argument from anybody who was there. St. Gallen had eleven men on the pitch and one of them decided how it went.
Squad17 Aug 2026
The one version of being left out a player cannot argue with, and the one he takes worst. Somebody else has been better and the team sheet says so, in public, every week until it changes.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Player ratings3 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 63. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad3 Aug 2026
“The easiest signature of my career.” Lawrence Ati-Zigi and St. Gallen agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Lawrence Ati-Zigi 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.
Market3 Aug 2026
49 months left and silence from upstairs — no offer, no talks, nothing for his people to answer. Clubs that let a calendar do their negotiating usually end up negotiating with the calendar.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Lukas Görtler asks for a word with the manager
“I would rather say it to his face than read about it.” The meeting was requested by the player, which tells you most of what you need to know.
Market3 Aug 2026
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Yannick Bujard has his answer from St. Gallen; what he does with it is the next window’s story.