“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 Red Bull Salzburg hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
Orlando Gill 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 Damir Redžić has come up in conversations Red Bull Salzburg were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
“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 Red Bull Salzburg, and 8 appearances in 25 say he has earned the hearing.
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.
“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 Red Bull Salzburg 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 Red Bull Salzburg 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.” Clement Bischoff and Red Bull Salzburg agree another 5 years.
3‑0. Nights like this are why clubs spend decades trying to qualify for this competition, and they arrive perhaps twice in that time. Everybody who was in the ground will describe it badly for years.
There is no crueller way to lose a football match. Red Bull Salzburg scored in the 107th minute, the restart barely happened, and the away end was still standing when the whistle went.
Player ratings30 Nov 2026
A brace, and Sota Kitano takes the afternoon — 8.24
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Sota Kitano provided it, and the 8.24 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
The hardest thing about being 20 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Clement Bischoff did not need any: 7.75, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
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.
Position 1, 34 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.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Red Bull Salzburg have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
“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 Red Bull Salzburg hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
3 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.
Orlando Gill 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.
8 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
2‑1 against Hajduk Split, and a performance that will be described to people who were not there for the rest of the season. Maurits Kjærgaard was at the centre of the description.
Two goals and a mark of 9.60 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Two goals and a mark of 8.13 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Position 1 with 31 on the board, and the queues outside the ticket office are the part of a promotion push that never shows up in a table. The town has decided this one is real.
Player ratings26 Oct 2026
Clement Bischoff, 20, plays like he has been here for years — 7.75
A mark of 7.75 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Red Bull Salzburg this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Ninety minutes of very little, and then everything at once. The winner arrived in the 87th, and Mattersburg spent what remained of the match appealing to the referee rather than chasing the ball.
Karim Konaté 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 am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at Red Bull Salzburg, and 0 appearances in 5 say he has earned the hearing.
Nobody at Red Bull Salzburg 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.
4‑1. Nights like this are why clubs spend decades trying to qualify for this competition, and they arrive perhaps twice in that time. Everybody who was in the ground will describe it badly for years.
Two goals and a mark of 8.50 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 7.88 at 38, 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 Red Bull Salzburg 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.
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Red Bull Salzburg 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 Red Bull Salzburg this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Clement Bischoff and Red Bull Salzburg agree another 5 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Nobody at Red Bull Salzburg 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.
Position 1, 16 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.
The offer from Portimonense for Clement Bischoff 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.
Orlando Gill 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 want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Red Bull Salzburg heard it as anything else.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 22-year-old it feels ownership of. Justin Omoregie 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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Yorbe Vertessen. 2‑0 against Austria Wien, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Marked 8.38. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Red Bull Salzburg.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Tim Drexler is the division's best young player this month
At 21 he has spent a month being better than everybody his age in the league, which is a different and harder thing than one good afternoon. Red Bull Salzburg will try very hard not to make too much of it.
In brief
Squad8 new faces, and Red Bull Salzburg are still learning each other
Some goals win a match and some take one off somebody else. Yorbe Vertessen scored in the 87th minute, Admira Wacker had already begun thinking about the journey home, and Red Bull Salzburg took the lot.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Yorbe Vertessen provided it, and the 8.48 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Dominik Schmid 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: Yorbe Vertessen. 3‑2 against Admira Wacker, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Nikolas Veratschnig 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.
Marked 8.03 — 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 fee was agreed and the flight was looked at — and then the phone stopped ringing. Borussia Dortmund moved on, Maurits Kjærgaard reports back to Red Bull Salzburg, and everybody pretends Monday is just Monday.
Union Berlin paid $2.2M and Red Bull Salzburg took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
The injury that keeps coming back, keeps being rushed back from, and quietly costs more careers than the dramatic ones. 14 days is the estimate; the honest figure depends on whether anybody is patient.
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Red Bull Salzburg 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 Red Bull Salzburg this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 22-year-old it feels ownership of. Sota Kitano 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.