A season average of 7.06 at an age when most of his year group are still in the youth team. First Vienna know what they have, and so, by now, does everybody else.
Amir Abdijanović 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 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.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Bernhard Zimmermann signs something — a contract at First Vienna or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at First Vienna. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
Amir Abdijanović 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.
Squad26 Apr 2027
Leon Robinson 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 watch every First Vienna game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at FC Lahti runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
Nobody at First Vienna 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.
He is 20, he is averaging 7.06, and older professionals have started passing to him in the difficult minutes. That last part is the real scouting report.
Amir Abdijanović 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Leon Robinson was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Frank Feller trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
In brief
The dugoutJoel Kitenge has become a man the manager trusts
At 22 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.
Marco Gantschnig and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad28 Dec 2026
Lucas Dantas 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 figure at which a wage bill stops being ambitious and becomes the reason nothing else is possible, and this club has reached it. Nothing is left over for a transfer, a stand or a rainy afternoon.
The dugout28 Dec 2026
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Marco Laimer was not hiding it after 0‑0, and nobody in the First Vienna dressing room was either.
21 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. First Vienna lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Leon Robinson was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Position 2, 28 points, and every result so far reduced to one line. The second half of the season starts with the same squad and a different set of expectations.
Successful dribbles: 16. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
The dugout30 Nov 2026
The manager’s verdict
“That is on me. I pick the team and I picked wrong.” Managers say that when they mean it and when they need to be seen to, and after 0‑1 Marco Laimer left the room before anybody could ask which.
Every club pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time it has been tried.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 19 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.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Leon Robinson 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.
Marco Gantschnig 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.
He is 19 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.
A mark of 7.59, and nobody in the ground would argue with it. He was involved in everything that mattered and most of what did not.
The dugout28 Sep 2026
The manager’s verdict
“I am not going to get carried away and I will not let them either. It was a good day. There will be harder ones.” Marco Laimer kept it short after the 1‑0 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against FAC Wien in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
In brief
The dugoutThe plan did not have a place for Bernhard Unger
“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 First Vienna, and it is not being withdrawn.
The offer from Étoile Carouge for Bernhard Zimmermann 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.
First Vienna asked and Austria Lustenau said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Joel Kitenge 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.
Benjamin Rosenberger 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.