Malik Pimpong

Striker - Waasland-Beveren
2 Dec 2027
Thursday
Process

Marked for Malik Pimpong

67 Edition

The Waasland-Beveren Herald

8 Nov 2027
From our football correspondent Upbeat

Match

Waasland-Beveren do the business in Europe

2‑1. Continental football is where a club finds out what it actually is, and Waasland-Beveren came through the finding-out well against Koper.

Market

Viktor Boone hands in a written request

“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Waasland-Beveren can pretend not to have heard.

Player ratings

No sign of nerves from Malik Pimpong at 19 — 8.02

The hardest thing about being 19 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Malik Pimpong did not need any: 8.02, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.

Squad

Words exchanged at Waasland-Beveren

Emam Ashour 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 ratings

Jearl Margaritha was unplayable

Successful dribbles: 22. 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.

Player ratings

Ninety minutes of Ilyes Najim at his very best

Marked 8.12. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Waasland-Beveren.

Player ratings

A masterclass from Emam Ashour

Marked 8.06 — 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.

Match

Halfway: Waasland-Beveren sit in position 7

24 points at the turn. The first half of a season is a promise; the second is a bill, and the town is about to find out which of the two this one was.

Loan watch

Hüseyin Ertürk has seen enough of Gaziantep

“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 Waasland-Beveren, and 3 appearances in 14 say he has earned the hearing.

In brief

  • The dugout The team sheet said everything about Jearl Margaritha
  • Squad Emam Ashour named in the team of the month
  • The dugout The view from the dugout
Back issues
66 Edition

The Waasland-Beveren Herald

1 Nov 2027
From our football correspondent Upbeat

Squad

Guillaume De Schryver damages knee ligaments — 18 days out

The words a physio says slowly. 18 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.

Squad

Beau Reus stands alone

9 saves, and a scoreline the ten men in front of him had no right to. Goalkeepers only get noticed on the bad days; this was one of the other ones.

Player ratings

No sign of nerves from Malik Pimpong at 19 — 7.82

The hardest thing about being 19 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Malik Pimpong did not need any: 7.82, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.

Market

Emam Ashour wants European nights

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.

Squad

Tempers go at Waasland-Beveren

Emam Ashour 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.

Squad

A row about effort at Waasland-Beveren

Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Beau Reus was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.

Match

Standard Liege take the points off Waasland-Beveren

Beaten 1‑2, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.

Player ratings

Nobody could get near Jearl Margaritha

Successful dribbles: 19. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.

Match

Waasland-Beveren hit back inside 2 minutes

Standard Liege held the lead for 2 minutes, which is not long enough to enjoy it. Waasland-Beveren answered before the celebration had properly finished, and the shape of the afternoon changed with it.

In brief

62 Edition

The Waasland-Beveren Herald

4 Oct 2027
From our football correspondent Upbeat

Squad

The knee: Guillaume De Schryver out for 50 days

50 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Waasland-Beveren lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.

Match

A European lesson for Waasland-Beveren

0‑1 against Shakhtar. Continental football is unforgiving about the things a domestic league lets a side get away with, and this was a night spent finding out which of those the club still has.

Player ratings

Malik Pimpong, 19, steals the show — 7.66

Marked 7.66 at 19, in a side that makes no allowances for age. He did not need any, and he looked the least nervous man on the pitch.

The dugout

Pape Paye: 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.” Waasland-Beveren have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.

Player ratings

Chris Lokesa runs at them all day

Successful dribbles: 25. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.

Market

Emam Ashour wants more than Waasland-Beveren are offering

“I have ambitions, and I would like the club to share them.” Nobody has asked to leave and nobody has been shown the door — but a player chooses that sentence carefully, and a boardroom hears it exactly as it was meant.

Squad

Emam Ashour wants to go home

“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Waasland-Beveren can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.

Squad

Tempers go at Waasland-Beveren

Emam Ashour 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.

Match

Dante Rigo among the goals in a wild afternoon

6 goals in one match, Dante Rigo on the scoresheet, and a scoreline that will look like a misprint. Neutrals could not have asked more of Waasland-Beveren and Zulte Waregem.

In brief

61 Edition

The Waasland-Beveren Herald

27 Sep 2027
From our football correspondent Upbeat

Squad

Guillaume De Schryver damages knee ligaments — 57 days out

The words a physio says slowly. 57 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.

Squad

Beau Reus stands alone

12 saves, and a scoreline the ten men in front of him had no right to. Goalkeepers only get noticed on the bad days; this was one of the other ones.

Player ratings

Malik Pimpong, 19, steals the show — 7.93

Marked 7.93 at 19, in a side that makes no allowances for age. He did not need any, and he looked the least nervous man on the pitch.

Match

Nobody wants to play Waasland-Beveren right now

4 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.

Player ratings

Up for the corner, and Emam Ashour delivers — 7.97

Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Emam Ashour scored, was marked 7.97, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.

Squad

Emam Ashour 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 Waasland-Beveren this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.

Match

Malik Pimpong sends Waasland-Beveren past Mouscron

It finished 3‑2, and it was Malik Pimpong’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Waasland-Beveren.

Match

Waasland-Beveren settle it inside twenty minutes

2 goals before the ground had finished arriving. Mouscron spent the rest of the afternoon playing a match that had already been decided, and everybody in the stadium knew it.

Player ratings

One of those days for Chris Lokesa

There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.40, and no argument anywhere in the ground.

In brief

59 Edition

The Waasland-Beveren Herald

13 Sep 2027
From our football correspondent Steady

Squad

Guillaume De Schryver damages knee ligaments — 72 days out

The words a physio says slowly. 72 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.

The dugout

Emam Ashour says Waasland-Beveren went back on their word

“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.

Player ratings

A brace, and Emam Ashour takes the afternoon — 8.21

There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Emam Ashour provided it, and the 8.21 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.

Player ratings

Up for the corner, and Dante Rigo delivers — 7.98

Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Dante Rigo scored, was marked 7.98, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.

Squad

Words exchanged at Waasland-Beveren

Emam Ashour 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.

Market

Guillaume De Schryver comes home

The shirt still fits. Guillaume De Schryver is back at Waasland-Beveren, and half the ground remembers him in these colours already. Some signings need selling to the town; this one sold itself.

Match

Waasland-Beveren find a way past KV Oostende

KV Oostende made Waasland-Beveren work for it, but the scoreboard read 3‑2 at the end and the table does not ask how.

Match

Waasland-Beveren leaking at the back

4 matches, two or more conceded in every one of them. Sides that create as much as this can live with it for a while. Nobody lives with it forever.

The dugout

The manager makes an example of Malik Pimpong

“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.

In brief

51 Edition

The Waasland-Beveren Herald

19 Jul 2027
From our football correspondent Uneasy

Squad

Pape Paye damages knee ligaments — 61 days out

The words a physio says slowly. 61 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.

Market

Waasland-Beveren turn down KAA Gent for Léandre Kuavita

The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.

Market

Bayanda Zulu hands in a written request

“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Waasland-Beveren can pretend not to have heard.

Squad

Words exchanged at Waasland-Beveren

Emam Ashour 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.

Transfer targets

Waasland-Beveren baulk at the price for Joachim Imbrechts

Anderlecht wanted more than $190.0K and the board would not go there. Walked away, for now, which in a transfer window means until somebody blinks.

Transfer targets

Racing Genk tell Waasland-Beveren: Aaron Bibout is not for sale

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 dugout

Karim Azamoum gets it from the manager

“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.

Market

Hans Vertonghen steps up from the Waasland-Beveren academy

There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Hans Vertonghen has been at this club since he was a boy and is now, formally, one of the first-team squad — which for a local readership beats any signing of any size.

Market

Timothy Chadli steps up from the Waasland-Beveren academy

There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Timothy Chadli has been at this club since he was a boy and is now, formally, one of the first-team squad — which for a local readership beats any signing of any size.

In brief

50 Edition

The Eintracht Frankfurt Gazette

12 Jul 2027
From our football correspondent Upbeat

Market

Eintracht Frankfurt say no — this time

The offer from VfB Stuttgart for Ansgar Knauff 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.

Market

Timothy Chandler asks to leave Eintracht Frankfurt

“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.

Squad

Arthur Theate signs on for more

“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Arthur Theate and Eintracht Frankfurt agree another 5 years.

Boardroom

Jens Grahl has agreed to leave Eintracht Frankfurt for nothing

He will play here until the summer and then walk out of the door for free, having already signed elsewhere. Supporters will manage the first part of that sentence; it is the second they will struggle with.

Squad

Words exchanged at Eintracht Frankfurt

Arthur Theate 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.

Market

Hugo Larsson raises the bar for Eintracht Frankfurt

“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Eintracht Frankfurt heard it as anything else.

Transfer targets

Door shut on Gabriel Brazão

Eintracht Frankfurt asked and TSG Hoffenheim said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.

The dugout

Elye Wahi gets it from the manager

“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.

Squad

Eintracht Frankfurt are still strangers to each other

12 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.

In brief

50 Edition

The Waasland-Beveren Herald

12 Jul 2027
From our football correspondent Uneasy

Squad

A knee injury of the worst kind for Pape Paye

68 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Waasland-Beveren lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.

Boardroom

Waasland-Beveren go back to the board over Joachim Imbrechts

The number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $204.8K — a club that wants Joachim Imbrechts enough to be asked twice.

Squad

Tempers go at Waasland-Beveren

Emam Ashour 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.

Transfer targets

Waasland-Beveren make their move for Joachim Imbrechts

$190.0K on the table at Anderlecht. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.

Transfer targets

Waasland-Beveren rebuffed over Borislav Rupanov

Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Gornik Zabrze have kept their man, and Waasland-Beveren go back to a list with one name crossed off it.

Squad

A late step up for Maxim Deman

At 25 the improving is meant to be over. It is not: 3 points better than the mark taken at the start of the year, which is the sort of thing that happens to players who take the boring parts of the job seriously.

The dugout

The manager makes an example of Kévin Hoggas

“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.

Squad

7 new faces, and Waasland-Beveren are still learning each other

A squad rebuilt inside one window pays for it in a currency nobody budgets for. The football is not worse than the sum of the players; it is worse than the sum of the players who have played together before.

Transfer targets

A loan move for Malik Pimpong is in the works

Waasland-Beveren have made the call to Eintracht Frankfurt. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.

In brief

47 Edition

The Eintracht Frankfurt Gazette

21 Jun 2027
From our football correspondent Upbeat

Transfer targets

Door shut on Michael Olise

Eintracht Frankfurt asked and Bayern Munich said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.

Squad

Eintracht Frankfurt lose Jonathan Burkardt

17 days, the medical staff say, and medical staff are optimists by profession. The team sheet will look wrong without him.

Squad

The step up is real for Nnamdi Collins

At 23 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.

Market

Septemvri come back empty-handed

The bid was some way short and Eintracht Frankfurt did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.

Market

Only the photograph left for Timothy Chandler

Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Timothy Chandler will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Eintracht Frankfurt the goodbyes have quietly begun.

Squad

At 21, Can Uzun is already the best thing here

An average of 7.19 in a first team he is several years too young for. Eintracht Frankfurt have something, and by now the whole division has noticed.

Market

Eintracht Frankfurt sell Amil Siljevic for $1.1M

Amil Siljevic has left for Köln in a $1.1M deal. The accountants are pleased; the supporters are less certain.

Squad

Wouter Burger has improved at 26, 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.

The dugout

Arnaud Kalimuendo gets picked when it counts

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 Arnaud Kalimuendo is on it.

In brief

44 Edition

The Eintracht Frankfurt Gazette

31 May 2027
From our football correspondent Upbeat

Squad

The knee: Arnaud Kalimuendo out for 23 days

23 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Eintracht Frankfurt lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.

The dugout

Raphael Onyedika keeps the receipts

“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Eintracht Frankfurt may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.

Loan watch

The goals keep arriving from Jessic Ngankam’s exile

18 goals in 16 games at Wolfsberger AC — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Eintracht Frankfurt updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.

Squad

Words exchanged at Eintracht Frankfurt

Jonathan Burkardt 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.

Squad

A late step up for Noah Atubolu

At 25 the improving is meant to be over. It is not: 3 points better than the mark taken at the start of the year, which is the sort of thing that happens to players who take the boring parts of the job seriously.

Squad

A row about effort at Eintracht Frankfurt

Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Malik Pimpong was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.

Market

Michy Batshuayi returns a better player

23 games and 17 goals away from here, and a man the manager did not have last summer. The loan did what loans are supposed to do and almost never do.

Market

Eintracht Frankfurt may not be able to give Otávio what he wants

It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Otávio wants continental football; whether Eintracht Frankfurt can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.

The dugout

Malik Pimpong 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 Malik Pimpong trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.

In brief

43 Edition

The Eintracht Frankfurt Gazette

24 May 2027
From our football correspondent Upbeat

Squad

Arnaud Kalimuendo 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.

Boardroom

Eintracht Frankfurt are in Europe

Qualification is done, and next season the floodlights come on for something bigger. A stage for the players, oxygen for the accounts and a passport for everybody else.

Squad

A season's verdict on Can Uzun: the best of his age

Eintracht Frankfurt have a 21-year-old the division has just voted its finest young footballer. The club's next problem is that everybody else now knows it too.

Squad

A falling-out at Eintracht Frankfurt

Jonathan Burkardt and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.

The dugout

No hiding place for Younes Ebnoutalib

“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Younes Ebnoutalib, and the manager let it.

The dugout

Arnaud Kalimuendo gets picked when it counts

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 Arnaud Kalimuendo is on it.

Squad

Eintracht Frankfurt have changed shape — and kept it

Nothing was announced, because nothing ever is. The team sheet simply stopped looking the way it did, 2 matches ago, and it has not looked that way since. Every supporter noticed in the same week and none of them were told.

Market

The Can Uzun story refuses to die

It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Can Uzun signs something — a contract at Eintracht Frankfurt or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.

Loan watch

Malik Pimpong keeps scoring at Honved

14 appearances away from home and 4 goals to show for them. Every one of them makes next summer's conversation a little more expensive.

In brief

41 Edition

The Eintracht Frankfurt Gazette

10 May 2027
From our football correspondent Upbeat

Squad

A knee injury of the worst kind for Arnaud Kalimuendo

48 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Eintracht Frankfurt lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.

The dugout

Younes Ebnoutalib keeps the receipts

“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Eintracht Frankfurt may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.

Squad

Words exchanged at Eintracht Frankfurt

Wouter Burger 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 dugout

Mario Götze gets picked when it counts

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 Mario Götze is on it.

The dugout

The manager makes an example of Jens Grahl

“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.

Loan watch

The goals keep arriving from Elye Wahi’s exile

7 goals in 30 games at OGC Nice — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Eintracht Frankfurt updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.

Market

The Jonathan Burkardt talk will not go away

Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Eintracht Frankfurt know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.

The dugout

Jonathan Burkardt keeps his manager's vote

The message was aimed at the stands as much as the dressing room: Jonathan Burkardt plays, and the argument is closed until the manager decides otherwise.

Squad

Ayoube Amaimouni-Echghouyab is starting to belong

Somebody to talk to at the next peg, a few words of the language, and a training ground that has stopped being a foreign country. It never appears in a scouting report and it decides most signings.

In brief

41 Edition

The Honved Sentinel

10 May 2027
From our football correspondent Steady

Squad

Szilveszter Hangya breaks a bone — 105 days out

Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 105 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.

Squad

Tempers go at Honved

Joel Fameyeh 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 dugout

Malik Pimpong has become a man the manager trusts

Nobody at Honved 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.

In brief

39 Edition

The Eintracht Frankfurt Gazette

26 Apr 2027
From our football correspondent Upbeat

Squad

Arnaud Kalimuendo damages knee ligaments — 67 days out

The words a physio says slowly. 67 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.

The dugout

Kauã Santos says Eintracht Frankfurt went back on their word

“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.

Squad

Tempers go at Eintracht Frankfurt

Boubacar Kamara 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.

Market

No place for Mahmoud Dahoud in the plan

“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Mahmoud Dahoud has his answer from Eintracht Frankfurt; what he does with it is the next window’s story.

The dugout

Arnaud Kalimuendo has become a man the manager trusts

Nobody at Eintracht Frankfurt 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.

Squad

A new system beds in at Eintracht Frankfurt

2 games now in a shape the manager was not using a month ago. Changing a formation is easy and keeping one is not, which is why the second of those is the part that tells you something.

Market

The Can Uzun story refuses to die

It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Can Uzun signs something — a contract at Eintracht Frankfurt or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.

The dugout

Mahmoud Dahoud 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 Mahmoud Dahoud trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.

The dugout

No hiding place for David Aguy

“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to David Aguy, and the manager let it.

In brief

37 Edition

The Honved Sentinel

12 Apr 2027
From our football correspondent Steady

Squad

Tempers go at Honved

Ákos Baki 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.

Squad

Words at Honved training over how hard people work

Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Kevin Kántor 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.

The dugout

The manager makes an example of Kevin Kántor

“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.

The dugout

Malik Pimpong has become a man the manager trusts

Nobody at Honved 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.

Market

The Bence Gergényi question follows Honved around

Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Bence Gergényi’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.

The dugout

A door opens for Patrik Pinte

He asked about his future and was given an answer with minutes in it. The manager has now made a promise in a building where promises are remembered, and the clock on it has started.

The dugout

Csaba Bukta 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 Csaba Bukta trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.

Market

The shop window has Álex Sánchez in it

Honved have let the market know Álex Sánchez can be had. No price in the advert, but everyone in the trade knows roughly what it says.

Squad

Osman Hadžikić has started doing his badges

“I watch sessions differently now. I catch myself thinking about why we are doing the drill.” At 31 that is how nearly every man in a dugout started.

In brief

33 Edition

The Honved Sentinel

15 Mar 2027
From our football correspondent Steady

Squad

A knee injury of the worst kind for Ábel Krajcsovics

14 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Honved lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.

Squad

Words exchanged at Honved

Joel Fameyeh 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.

Squad

A row about effort at Honved

Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Kevin Kántor was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.

The dugout

When it matters, Malik Pimpong 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.

Squad

Petar Mićin still has not settled

A year in and the language has not come, the city has not opened up, and he eats alone more often than anybody at Honved would like to admit. It is showing on Saturdays.

Market

The Bence Gergényi question follows Honved around

Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Bence Gergényi’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.

In brief

29 Edition

The Honved Sentinel

15 Feb 2027
From our football correspondent Steady

Squad

Joel Fameyeh wants to go home

“I have given this everything, but my family is not here and neither am I, not really.” A footballer can be coached out of bad form. Nobody has ever been coached out of this, and Honved know it.

Transfer targets

Door shut on Oleksandr Saputin

Honved asked and Zorya said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.

Squad

Tempers go at Honved

Ákos Baki 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.

Squad

Álex Sánchez signs on for more

“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Álex Sánchez and Honved agree another 1 years.

The dugout

Malik Pimpong gets picked when it counts

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 Malik Pimpong is on it.

The dugout

The manager makes an example of Balázs Rácz

“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.

In brief

25 Edition

The Honved Sentinel

18 Jan 2027
From our football correspondent Steady

Market

Bonifác Csonka 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 Honved, and it is not being withdrawn.

Market

Barnabás Németh is a Honved player

The fee is $610.0K, the contract is signed, and the argument about whether he is worth it can begin. Vasas drove a hard bargain; time will say who won it.

Transfer targets

Barnabás Simon will not be coming to Honved

Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Paksi is saying, and nobody at Honved is enjoying the guessing.

Squad

Kevin Kállai signs on for more

“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Kevin Kállai and Honved agree another 4 years.

Squad

Words exchanged at Honved

Petar Mićin 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.

Transfer targets

Door shut on Mikael Soisalo

Honved asked and Puskas Akademia said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.

The dugout

Patrik Pinte gets it from the manager

“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.

Squad

A row about effort at Honved

Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Kevin Kántor was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.

Transfer targets

Honved ask about Viktor Baier

A loan enquiry to Viktoria Plzen: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.

In brief

23 Edition

The Honved Sentinel

4 Jan 2027
From our football correspondent Steady

Market

Dominik Csontos 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 Honved, and it is not being withdrawn.

Squad

Bence Gergényi 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 Honved this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.

Transfer targets

Honved rebuffed over Muhamed Tijani

Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Ujpest have kept their man, and Honved go back to a list with one name crossed off it.

The dugout

No hiding place for Zoltán Medgyes

“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Zoltán Medgyes, and the manager let it.

Squad

A place in the month's best eleven for Petar Mićin

Four or five weekends of consistency, judged against everybody in the division doing his job. Petar Mićin has come out of that comparison in the side, and Honved have had the benefit of every one of those afternoons.

Squad

Honved take the armband off Ákos Baki

It will be explained as a change for the team and it may even be one. Nobody who has worn one believes that, and neither does the man who has just had it taken away.

Squad

Young player of the week: Malik Pimpong

At 19 he was the best of everybody his age in the division for one weekend. Nobody should build a career on it and everybody quietly does.

The dugout

Csaba Bukta gets picked when it counts

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 Csaba Bukta is on it.

Market

Joel Fameyeh linked with a move away

The name of Joel Fameyeh keeps appearing in other people's back pages. Honved say nothing, which says plenty.

In brief

  • Boardroom Open for business: Honved enter the window
  • The dugout The manager makes Ádám Gyurcsó a promise
  • Match Continental football is in reach for Honved
22 Edition

The Honved Sentinel

28 Dec 2026
From our football correspondent Crisis

Match

Full time on the season at Honved

Position 5 on 31 points. Every season is a story and this is the last line of it, and now the club has three months to decide what the next one is about.

Squad

Osman Hadžikić stands alone

6 saves, and a scoreline the ten men in front of him had no right to. Goalkeepers only get noticed on the bad days; this was one of the other ones.

Match

Honved come up short against Diosgyor

Diosgyor left with the points after a 2‑3 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.

Squad

Ákos Baki 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 Honved this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.

The dugout

The manager makes an example of Osman Hadžikić

“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 ratings

Kevin Kállai was unplayable

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.

Player ratings

Ninety minutes of Petar Mićin at his very best

Marked 8.04. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Honved.

The dugout

The team sheet said everything about Joel Fameyeh

Warm-up bib, ninety minutes of watching, and a handshake at the end that fooled nobody. Big matches tell you who a manager trusts; this one told Joel Fameyeh.

The dugout

Dominik Kleinheisler answers for it

“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 2‑3, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.

In brief

  • Boardroom Wages eat 94% of everything Honved earn
  • The dugout Somebody else is better right now than Alex Szabó
  • Squad Kevin Kállai has to sit this one out
21 Edition

The Honved Sentinel

21 Dec 2026
From our football correspondent Upbeat

Match

Malik Pimpong breaks Puskas Akademia hearts

Some goals win a match and some take one off somebody else. Malik Pimpong scored in the 87th minute, Puskas Akademia had already begun thinking about the journey home, and Honved took the lot.

Player ratings

No sign of nerves from Malik Pimpong at 18 — 8.15

The hardest thing about being 18 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Malik Pimpong did not need any: 8.15, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.

Player ratings

Petar Mićin runs at them all day

Successful dribbles: 19. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.

Match

Malik Pimpong sends Honved past Puskas Akademia

It finished 1‑0, and it was Malik Pimpong’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Honved.

The dugout

No hiding place for Ákos Baki

“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Ákos Baki, and the manager let it.

The dugout

Somebody else is better right now than Ádám Gyurcsó

The team sheet says it in public every week until it changes. The only version of being dropped a footballer cannot argue with, and the one he takes hardest.

The dugout

The view from the dugout

“We controlled it. There were spells I did not like and we will look at them, but the group showed me something.” Dominik Kleinheisler, on a 1‑0 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.

The dugout

When it matters, Malik Pimpong 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.

Squad

A Honved teenager takes the young player award

Malik Pimpong is 18, and for one weekend he was the best of everybody his age in the division. Nobody should build a career on it and everybody quietly does.

In brief

20 Edition

The Honved Sentinel

14 Dec 2026
From our football correspondent Steady

Squad

Osman Hadžikić keeps Honved in it on his own

Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 10 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.

Match

A hiding for Honved

Beaten 0‑3 by Ferencvaros, and beaten everywhere it matters. The inquest starts on the training pitch on Monday morning.

Squad

Home is on Joel Fameyeh's mind

“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; Honved are dealing with a man who wants a different country.

Squad

Tempers go at Honved

Joel Fameyeh 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 dugout

Patrik Pinte gets it from the manager

“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.

Boardroom

Doors closed at Honved

The music was off and the showers ran late. What was said in that dressing room stays there, but Saturday will publish the minutes.

The dugout

Dominik Kleinheisler: “No excuses”

“I could talk about decisions and I could talk about luck. I will not. We lost.” The manager, 0‑3, and a press conference that lasted four minutes.

Player ratings

One moment undoes Benedek Varju

There was one mistake and it ended in the net. Defenders are judged on the worst thing they did rather than on the eighty-nine minutes either side of it, which is unfair and is also the job.

The dugout

Ádám Gyurcsó 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.

In brief

19 Edition

The Honved Sentinel

7 Dec 2026
From our football correspondent Upbeat

Match

Honved run riot against Bekescsaba

4‑1, and the margin flattered nobody — it could have carried another goal or two without complaint. Afternoons like this are why people keep coming.

Player ratings

Petar Mićin scores twice — 8.45

Two goals and a mark of 8.45 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.

Player ratings

Malik Pimpong, 18, plays like he has been here for years — 8.12

A mark of 8.12 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 18-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.

Squad

Joel Fameyeh 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 Honved this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.

The terraces

Honved supporters have found a favourite in Malik Pimpong

There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 18-year-old it feels ownership of. Malik Pimpong 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.

The dugout

The manager makes an example of Ádám Gyurcsó

“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 ratings

Ninety minutes of Joel Fameyeh at his very best

Marked 8.28. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Honved.

Player ratings

Ninety minutes of Kevin Kállai at his very best

Marked 8.06. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Honved.

The dugout

The team sheet said everything about Ákos Baki

Warm-up bib, ninety minutes of watching, and a handshake at the end that fooled nobody. Big matches tell you who a manager trusts; this one told Ákos Baki.

In brief

15 Edition

The Honved Sentinel

9 Nov 2026
From our football correspondent Uneasy

Match

No end in sight to Honved's wait for a win

5 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Honved has to find a result from somewhere.

Squad

A falling-out at Honved

Ákos Baki and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.

Player ratings

Kevin Kállai was unplayable

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.

Squad

Words at Honved training over how hard people work

Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Dominik Csontos 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.

The dugout

The manager makes an example of Dominik Csontos

“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.

Squad

Honved count the cost of losing Szabolcs Nikolic

18 days, the scan says, and scans are kinder than reality. The fixtures in that window have just become somebody else’s job.

Squad

Honved are still strangers to each other

6 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.

The dugout

Honved pick somebody else ahead of Ádám Gyurcsó

There is no complaint available here and everybody involved knows it, which does not make the walk to the bench any shorter. Form is the only currency in football that cannot be borrowed against.

Player ratings

Benedek Varju takes the honours

Marked 7.20 on an afternoon he ran from the first whistle to the last. Whatever else went wrong, Honved had the best player on the pitch.

In brief

14 Edition

The Honved Sentinel

2 Nov 2026
From our football correspondent Crisis

Match

Chastening afternoon for Honved

A 1‑4 beating by Haladas was the sort of result that empties a stadium long before the final whistle.

Match

No end in sight to Honved's wait for a win

4 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Honved has to find a result from somewhere.

Squad

Words at Honved training over how hard people work

Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Dominik Csontos 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.

Boardroom

Nobody left the Honved dressing room in a hurry

The door stayed shut a long time after the final whistle. What was said in there is between them; whether it worked is between them and Saturday.

The dugout

Dominik Kleinheisler faces the questions

“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Dominik Kleinheisler after 1‑4, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.

Player ratings

Nobody could get near Bence Gergényi

Successful dribbles: 15. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.

Boardroom

89% of the income goes out in wages at Honved

Every club in football 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 somebody has tried it.

The dugout

The form table has caught Ádám Gyurcsó

Somebody else has been better, the manager has said so with a team sheet, and there is no argument to be had. He will get the shirt back the only way it can be got back.

Squad

Malik Pimpong makes the team of the month

Four or five weekends of consistency, measured against everybody else in the division. A quieter compliment than an award and a more reliable one.

In brief

13 Edition

The Honved Sentinel

26 Oct 2026
From our football correspondent Crisis

Squad

Words exchanged at Honved

Joel Fameyeh 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.

Match

The goals have deserted Honved

3 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Honved can tell you which week it ends in.

Player ratings

Nobody could get near Joel Fameyeh

Successful dribbles: 20. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.

Match

MTK Budapest take the points off Honved

Beaten 0‑1, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.

The dugout

The manager makes an example of Zoltán Medgyes

“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.

The dugout

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 Dominik Kleinheisler left the room before anybody could ask which.

The dugout

Honved keep their word to Malik Pimpong

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.

The dugout

Somebody else is better right now than Ádám Gyurcsó

The team sheet says it in public every week until it changes. The only version of being dropped a footballer cannot argue with, and the one he takes hardest.

Looking ahead

Kevin Kállai goes back to face Haladas

Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Kevin Kállai’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Honved needing him to play as if none of it matters.

In brief

11 Edition

The Honved Sentinel

12 Oct 2026
From our football correspondent Steady

Player ratings

Kevin Kállai beats them one at a time

Successful dribbles: 24. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.

Squad

Petar Mićin 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 Honved this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.

Match

Diosgyor take the points off Honved

Beaten 0‑1, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.

Squad

Dominik Csontos 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.

Squad

Szabolcs Nikolic out for 50 days

The medical room confirms 50 days on the sidelines for Szabolcs Nikolic, and a plan built around him now has to be rebuilt.

The dugout

The manager makes an example of Patrik Pinte

“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.

Match

Halfway: Honved sit in position 7

17 points at the turn. The first half of a season is a promise; the second is a bill, and the town is about to find out which of the two this one was.

Squad

13 new faces, and Honved are still learning each other

A squad rebuilt inside one window pays for it in a currency nobody budgets for. The football is not worse than the sum of the players; it is worse than the sum of the players who have played together before.

The dugout

Dominik Kleinheisler faces the questions

“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Dominik Kleinheisler after 0‑1, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.

In brief

9 Edition

The Honved Sentinel

28 Sep 2026
From our football correspondent Upbeat

Squad

Words exchanged at Honved

Bence Gergényi 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.

Match

A bad afternoon for Honved against Ferencvaros

1‑3 to Ferencvaros, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.

The dugout

No hiding place for Ádám Gyurcsó

“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Ádám Gyurcsó, and the manager let it.

The dugout

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 1‑3 Dominik Kleinheisler left the room before anybody could ask which.

The dugout

The form table has caught Branko Pauljević

Somebody else has been better, the manager has said so with a team sheet, and there is no argument to be had. He will get the shirt back the only way it can be got back.

Squad

A Honved teenager takes the young player award

Malik Pimpong is 18, and for one weekend he was the best of everybody his age in the division. Nobody should build a career on it and everybody quietly does.

The dugout

Csaba Bukta gets picked when it counts

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 Csaba Bukta is on it.

Looking ahead

Joel Fameyeh faces his old club

Puskas Akademia next, and one man in the Honved dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.

Market

The Joel Fameyeh question follows Honved around

Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Joel Fameyeh’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.

In brief

8 Edition

The Honved Sentinel

21 Sep 2026
From our football correspondent Triumph

Player ratings

Joel Fameyeh beats them one at a time

Successful dribbles: 28. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.

Player ratings

Malik Pimpong, 18, steals the show — 7.62

Marked 7.62 at 18, in a side that makes no allowances for age. He did not need any, and he looked the least nervous man on the pitch.

Match

6 unbeaten for Honved

Hard to beat is not the same as winning, but 6 matches without defeat is a foundation Honved did not have in the autumn.

Squad

Words exchanged at Honved

Ákos Baki 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.

Match

Honved see off Bekescsaba

Three points for Honved, 2‑1 the final word against Bekescsaba in a contest settled by the finer margins.

Player ratings

Ninety minutes of Petar Mićin at his very best

Marked 8.04. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Honved.

The dugout

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.” Dominik Kleinheisler kept it short after the 2‑1 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.

The dugout

Ádám Gyurcsó knocks on the manager's door

“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Honved, and both men came out saying it was fine.

The dugout

Honved pick somebody else ahead of Branko Pauljević

There is no complaint available here and everybody involved knows it, which does not make the walk to the bench any shorter. Form is the only currency in football that cannot be borrowed against.

In brief

7 Edition

The Honved Sentinel

14 Sep 2026
From our football correspondent Upbeat

Player ratings

Kevin Kállai was unplayable

Successful dribbles: 20. 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.

Squad

Malik Pimpong 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 targets

NK Domzale tell Honved: Rok Skubic is not for sale

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.

Transfer targets

Deadline beats Honved to Gergő Szécsi

The clock did what Ferencvaros would not, and ended it. Supporters who watched the countdown will spend the next window doing it again.

Squad

200 appearances for Bence Gergényi

200 games in these colours. Service of that kind gets rarer every season, and the crowd knows it.

Match

The run is over for Honved

4 matches without defeat, and then Fehervar. Nobody at the ground pretended it would go on forever; nobody expected it to stop here either.

Squad

Honved are still strangers to each other

12 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.

Squad

“I want to play”: Malik Pimpong speaks

“I respect the manager and I am not going to sit here and pretend I am happy.” It is the most common sentence in football and it has never once been the end of a story.

The dugout

No hiding place for István Márk Pekár

“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to István Márk Pekár, and the manager let it.

In brief

6 Edition

The Honved Sentinel

7 Sep 2026
From our football correspondent Upbeat

Match

Sebestyén Ihrig-Farkas breaks Vasas hearts

Some goals win a match and some take one off somebody else. Sebestyén Ihrig-Farkas scored in the 88th minute, Vasas had already begun thinking about the journey home, and Honved took the lot.

Transfer targets

Door shut on Samuel Kalu

Honved asked and Botev Plovdiv said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.

Match

Honved make it 4 in a row

Momentum is a hard thing to buy and an easy thing to lose, and right now Honved have 4 straight wins of it.

Market

Ádám Somogyi 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 Honved, and it is not being withdrawn.

Boardroom

Window shuts: 21 in, 2 out at Honved

The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 21 arrived, 2 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.

Transfer targets

The paperwork begins on Gergő Szécsi

A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Honved have done the hard part with Ferencvaros, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.

Squad

A falling-out at Honved

Joel Fameyeh and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.

Player ratings

Nobody could get near Kevin Kállai

Successful dribbles: 20. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.

Squad

A row about effort at Honved

Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Malik Pimpong was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.

In brief

5 Edition

The Honved Sentinel

31 Aug 2026
From our football correspondent Upbeat

Match

Cup progress for Honved

A 3‑0 win over Bekescsaba, a place in the next round, and the quiet arithmetic every supporter does on the walk home: how many more until a final?

Squad

Gellért Dúzs keeps Honved in it on his own

Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 9 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.

Player ratings

Sebestyén Ihrig-Farkas scores twice — 8.17

Two goals and a mark of 8.17 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.

Player ratings

Malik Pimpong, 18, plays like he has been here for years — 8.00

A mark of 8.00 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 18-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.

Market

Benedek Varju arrives at Honved in a $2.6M statement of intent

There comes a point where a club either backs its own ambition or admits it does not have any. Honved have paid $2.6M for Benedek Varju, which is the loudest way there is of saying which one it chose.

Market

Gellért Dúzs hands in a written request

“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Honved can pretend not to have heard.

Player ratings

Dominik Csontos pops up at the right end — 7.66

7.66, 1 on the scoresheet, and the specific comedy of a back-four player celebrating like somebody who does this every week. He does not, and that is exactly why the ground reacted the way it did.

Match

Honved make it 3 in a row

Momentum is a hard thing to buy and an easy thing to lose, and right now Honved have 3 straight wins of it.

Market

Bence Varga moves on

Vasas pay $310.0K, and the deal is done. The number reads well on a balance sheet; whether it reads well on the pitch is next season's question.

In brief

4 Edition

The Eintracht Frankfurt Gazette

24 Aug 2026
From our football correspondent Steady

Transfer targets

Arsenal tell Eintracht Frankfurt: Martin Ødegaard is not for sale

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.

Transfer targets

An offer of $8.9M for Karl Hein

Eintracht Frankfurt have gone to Werder Bremen with a bid, and the supporters have gone to the internet with an opinion about it. Whether either changes anything is up to the selling club.

Squad

Lilian Brassier 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 Eintracht Frankfurt this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.

Boardroom

1 academy players handed senior numbers at Eintracht Frankfurt

The morning the pathway stops being a brochure and becomes a team sheet. Most of them will not be here in three years; all of them have already done the hard part, which was getting to today.

Market

Eintracht Frankfurt promote Matthias Martin from within

The academy exists for exactly this morning. Matthias Martin has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.

Boardroom

Eintracht Frankfurt sign off a bigger ground

A capacity of 80278 on the plans. A decision judged twenty years from now, by people who were not in the room and will have opinions anyway.

Squad

Sebastian Hoffmann stays put

“The easiest signature of my career.” Sebastian Hoffmann and Eintracht Frankfurt agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.

Squad

A season on the outside for Raphael Onyedika

He trains hard, says the right things and goes home to an empty flat. Nobody at Eintracht Frankfurt has done anything wrong, which is exactly what makes it so difficult to fix.

The dugout

Sebastian Hoffmann 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 Sebastian Hoffmann trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.

In brief