Marked for Amir Jama
From our football correspondent
Steady
Match8 Jul 2028
3‑0, and Mohamed Ofkir took the headlines on an afternoon when everything Valerenga tried came off. Days like this are retold all winter.
Player ratings10 Jul 2028
A brace, and Mohamed Ofkir takes the afternoon — 8.45
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Mohamed Ofkir provided it, and the 8.45 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
The dugout10 Jul 2028
This is not rotation. Ghayas Zahid has not been in the manager's plans for some time, and nobody at Valerenga is pretending otherwise.
Market10 Jul 2028
Amir Jama puts it in writing
“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 The request is on a desk at Valerenga, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad10 Jul 2028
Words at Valerenga training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ghayas Zahid 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.
Boardroom10 Jul 2028
Haugesund will keep picking him until June and will get nothing for him after it. Fabian André Jakobsen has pre-agreed a move to Valerenga, and the only people who lose in that arrangement are the ones who let the contract run down.
Squad10 Jul 2028
Taha Usman 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 Valerenga this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The dugout10 Jul 2028
The manager makes an example of Sebastian Jarl
“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 ratings10 Jul 2028
Successful dribbles: 15. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Player ratings29 May 2028
Age has not caught Ghayas Zahid yet — 8.13
At 33 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.13 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
The dugout29 May 2028
This is not rotation. Aaron Kiil Olsen has not been in the manager's plans for some time, and nobody at Valerenga is pretending otherwise.
The dugout29 May 2028
Amir Jama: that is not what I was promised
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Valerenga have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Squad29 May 2028
A row about effort at Valerenga
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Ghayas Zahid was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad29 May 2028
Words exchanged at Valerenga
Taha Usman 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 ratings29 May 2028
Successful dribbles: 19. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
Match27 May 2028
A 1‑0 win over Brann, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Market29 May 2028
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Valerenga, another week without a signature from Dennis Gjengaar.
The dugout29 May 2028
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.” Ole Bohinen kept it short after the 1‑0 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
The dugout20 Mar 2028
This is not rotation. Ghayas Zahid has not been in the manager's plans for some time, and nobody at Valerenga is pretending otherwise.
Market20 Mar 2028
“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.
Market20 Mar 2028
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Valerenga heard it as anything else.
Squad20 Mar 2028
Henrik Skogvold 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.
Squad20 Mar 2028
Ghayas Zahid 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 targets20 Mar 2028
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 dugout20 Mar 2028
Clubs make promises constantly and the page usually only hears about them when they are broken. This one was honoured, and the dressing room noticed that faster than any supporter did.
Squad20 Mar 2028
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Alan Cole commits to Valerenga for another 4 years.
The dugout20 Mar 2028
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Dennis Gjengaar is on it.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market28 Feb 2028
“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 Valerenga, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad28 Feb 2028
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Brice Ambina commits to Valerenga for another 4 years.
Squad28 Feb 2028
Amir Jama is a better footballer than he was
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 21 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.
The dugout28 Feb 2028
This is not rotation. Lucas Ravn-Haren has not been in the manager's plans for some time, and nobody at Valerenga is pretending otherwise.
Squad28 Feb 2028
A row about effort at Valerenga
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Ghayas Zahid was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad28 Feb 2028
Words exchanged at Valerenga
Henrik Skogvold 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.
The dugout28 Feb 2028
When it matters, Eskil Edh plays
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.
Market28 Feb 2028
Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Eskil Edh’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.
The dugout28 Feb 2028
Kevin Tshiembe knocks on the manager’s door
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Kevin Tshiembe trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad6 Sep 2027
Words exchanged at Valerenga
Elias Hagen 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.
Squad6 Sep 2027
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Amir Jama commits to Valerenga for another 4 years.
Squad6 Sep 2027
Valerenga are still strangers to each other
8 new signings in one window. Every one may be an upgrade and the side can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild the verdicts never mention.
Squad6 Sep 2027
“I have done everything asked of me in training and it has not changed a thing on a Saturday.” The most familiar complaint in football, and one Valerenga will have to answer with minutes or with a transfer.
The dugout6 Sep 2027
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.
Looking ahead6 Sep 2027
Brann next, and one man in the Valerenga dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
Market6 Sep 2027
Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Mohamed Ofkir’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.
Market6 Sep 2027
Valerenga have let the market know Petter Strand can be had. No price in the advert, but everyone in the trade knows roughly what it says.
Loan watch6 Sep 2027
The goals keep arriving from Carl Lange’s exile
3 goals in 21 games at Trelleborg — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Valerenga updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.