Marked for Ousmane Diao
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Player ratings13 Nov 2028
Successful dribbles: 45. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad13 Nov 2028
Ovie Ejeheri 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 FC Midtjylland this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad13 Nov 2028
A move Eyal Inbrum would have made for nothing
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Eyal Inbrum is living that version at FC Midtjylland, and it tends to show in the first month.
Squad13 Nov 2028
Philip Billing 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.
Market13 Nov 2028
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Júnior Brumado wants continental football; whether FC Midtjylland can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
Squad13 Nov 2028
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Eduardo Henrique, and the manager let it.
Match11 Nov 2028
Nil-nil, and few chances worth the name. Viborg came to defend and left with exactly what they came for.
Market13 Nov 2028
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. FC Midtjylland know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Player ratings13 Nov 2028
A defender's afternoon for Ousmane Diao
Defensive actions: 12. He was first to everything and second to nothing, and the goalkeeper had an easy day because of it.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad25 Sep 2028
Thomas Delaney damages knee ligaments — 33 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 33 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Player ratings25 Sep 2028
Successful dribbles: 26. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad25 Sep 2028
Ovie Ejeheri 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.
Squad25 Sep 2028
Words at FC Midtjylland training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Darío Osorio 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.
Match23 Sep 2028
Whatever happens, FC Midtjylland do not lose
6 games unbeaten now. Some were earned and some were survived, but a habit is forming — and habits are the hardest thing in football to play against.
Squad25 Sep 2028
The manager makes an example of Enzo Arreguín
“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.
Market25 Sep 2028
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. FC Midtjylland know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Match23 Sep 2028
The crowd waited for a goal that never came. Randers defended in numbers and left with what they came for, and the two sides could be playing still without troubling a scorer.
Player ratings25 Sep 2028
10 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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad31 Jul 2028
A knee injury of the worst kind for Thomas Delaney
103 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. FC Midtjylland lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Squad31 Jul 2028
Ovie Ejeheri: 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.” FC Midtjylland have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Squad31 Jul 2028
Ovie Ejeheri 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 FC Midtjylland this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad31 Jul 2028
Ovie Ejeheri has improved at 25, which nobody expected
Careers are supposed to plateau and then decline, and the players who ignore that are always the ones who were listening on the training ground. 3 points of it, over months, at an age where the direction normally only goes one way.
Market31 Jul 2028
The name of Kjell Wätjen has come up in conversations FC Midtjylland were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Market31 Jul 2028
The general version of this complaint is that a player wants more. The specific version names the thing: he wants to walk out under floodlights against clubs from other countries, and he has stopped pretending otherwise.
Player ratings31 Jul 2028
Successful dribbles: 16. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Player ratings31 Jul 2028
The afternoon belonged to Ousmane Diao
A mark of 7.56, and nobody in the ground would argue with it. He was involved in everything that mattered and most of what did not.
Market31 Jul 2028
Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Rasmus Kristensen’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Match13 Mar 2028
A European night to remember for FC Midtjylland
0‑0 against Monaco, under lights, against people who do not speak the same language as the crowd. These are the evenings a club measures its decade in, and there are never as many of them as anybody expects.
Market20 Mar 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 FC Midtjylland, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad20 Mar 2028
Rody de Boer decides it from twelve yards
1 kept out in the shoot-out, and a stadium that will still be describing them in twenty years. A goalkeeper only needs one of these to be remembered forever.
Squad20 Mar 2028
Pedro Bravo 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.
Boardroom20 Mar 2028
FC Copenhagen will keep picking him until June and will get nothing for him after it. Juan Carlos Ortíz has pre-agreed a move to FC Midtjylland, and the only people who lose in that arrangement are the ones who let the contract run down.
Squad20 Mar 2028
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Albert Lodberg commits to FC Midtjylland for another 3 years.
Player ratings20 Mar 2028
Twelve yards, a goalkeeper guessing, and it still did not go in. He will take the next one, and every soul in the ground will hold their breath.
Squad20 Mar 2028
Words at FC Midtjylland training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Juho Lähteenmäki 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.
Loan watch20 Mar 2028
“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 FC Midtjylland, and 1 appearances in 33 say he has earned the hearing.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market6 Mar 2028
BK Hacken come back empty-handed
The bid was some way short and FC Midtjylland did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Squad6 Mar 2028
“The easiest signature of my career.” Philip Billing and FC Midtjylland agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad6 Mar 2028
Pedro Bravo 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.
Market6 Mar 2028
The general version of this complaint is that a player wants more. The specific version names the thing: he wants to walk out under floodlights against clubs from other countries, and he has stopped pretending otherwise.
Squad6 Mar 2028
“Some mornings you wake up and you are still a long way from everything you know.” It is not the football and it never was; FC Midtjylland are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Boardroom6 Mar 2028
FC Midtjylland release $16.0M for the manager
The board have put money on the table rather than an encouraging word. What happens to it now is somebody else's problem, and somebody else's job.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Player ratings22 Nov 2027
Successful dribbles: 34. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Match22 Nov 2027
Position 2 and 38 points on the board. Nobody at the ground will say the word out loud yet, and everybody at the ground is thinking it.
Market22 Nov 2027
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at FC Midtjylland heard it as anything else.
Squad22 Nov 2027
Yonis Njoh 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 terraces22 Nov 2027
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Ousmane Diao 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.
Match20 Nov 2027
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Tomás Ángel. 2‑0 against Esbjerg, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Player ratings22 Nov 2027
Marked 8.45 — 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.
Player ratings22 Nov 2027
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.22, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Player ratings22 Nov 2027
Marked 8.00 — 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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market11 Oct 2027
The general version of this complaint is that a player wants more. The specific version names the thing: he wants to walk out under floodlights against clubs from other countries, and he has stopped pretending otherwise.
The terraces11 Oct 2027
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 22-year-old it feels ownership of. Plamen Andreev 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.
Squad11 Oct 2027
The manager makes an example of Yonis Njoh
“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 ratings11 Oct 2027
Successful dribbles: 16. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad11 Oct 2027
Gui Silva 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.
Squad11 Oct 2027
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.
Squad11 Oct 2027
Edward Chilufya has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at FC Midtjylland 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.
Market11 Oct 2027
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. FC Midtjylland know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Match9 Oct 2027
The crowd waited for a goal that never came. FC Copenhagen defended in numbers and left with what they came for, and the two sides could be playing still without troubling a scorer.