Marked for Nils Donat
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market31 Aug 2026
The offer from Kaiserslautern for Dominik Kother 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.
Player ratings31 Aug 2026
The hardest thing about being 19 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Andrija Maksimović did not need any: 7.77, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Transfer targets31 Aug 2026
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Borussia Dortmund have kept their man, and Dynamo Dresden go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Market31 Aug 2026
“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 The request is on a desk at Dynamo Dresden, and it is not being withdrawn.
Market31 Aug 2026
He is 19, and the scouting reports agree on the only line that matters: the ceiling. Signings like this are lottery tickets written by professionals.
Market31 Aug 2026
The deal that would have taken Kofi Amoako to VfL Wolfsburg has collapsed at the last stage, and he reports back to Dynamo Dresden with a summer to forget and a season still to play. Nobody is saying which side walked away.
Player ratings31 Aug 2026
Marked 6.94 on 14 actions at both ends of the pitch. Midfielders like this get described as unspectacular by people who have never tried to play against one.
Squad31 Aug 2026
Lars Ritzka 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.
Player ratings31 Aug 2026
7.82, and no serious argument from anybody who was there. Dynamo Dresden had eleven men on the pitch and one of them decided how it went.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
Transfer targets24 Aug 2026
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Mainz 05 have kept their man, and Dynamo Dresden go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Transfer targets24 Aug 2026
$9.9M on the table at Sturm Graz. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
Market24 Aug 2026
“I listened, I thought about it, and I am staying. That is the whole story.” The clubs had agreed a fee. Marlon Faß had not agreed to go, which turned out to be the part that mattered.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Lars Ritzka 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.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Words at Dynamo Dresden training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Robert Wagner 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 dugout24 Aug 2026
“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.
Looking ahead24 Aug 2026
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Greuther Fürth in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
Squad24 Aug 2026
He trains hard, says the right things and goes home to an empty flat. Nobody at Dynamo Dresden has done anything wrong, which is exactly what makes it so difficult to fix.
The terraces24 Aug 2026
Supporters make their feelings known about Dominik Kother
The speculation has reached the stands, and the stands have answered. Dynamo Dresden would like this settled before it becomes the only thing anybody asks about.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 8.43, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
A defender on the scoresheet, which happens rarely enough that everybody in the ground remembers who took the corner. 1 for him, and a mark of 7.57 for the rest of it.
Match22 Aug 2026
No end in sight to Sturm Graz II's wait for a win
4 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Sturm Graz II has to find a result from somewhere.
Match22 Aug 2026
Beaten 3‑5, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Match22 Aug 2026
8 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about Sturm Graz II and First Vienna in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
Market24 Aug 2026
The name of Nils Donat has come up in conversations Sturm Graz II were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
The terraces24 Aug 2026
At 21 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.
Squad24 Aug 2026
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Sturm Graz II this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The dugout24 Aug 2026
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 3‑5, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
Youba Koïta did the work nobody counts — 6.82
10 combined actions and 6.82. The job he did is the one that shows up as other people looking good, and the only reliable way to notice it is to watch what happens on the afternoons he is missing.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Belmin Beganović 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 dugout17 Aug 2026
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” David Arnautovic after 1‑2, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
Market17 Aug 2026
Austria Wien are about to pick up the phone
A conversation is coming this week. Sturm Graz II will put a number on him, and from there it stops being football and becomes arithmetic.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Timothy Obi was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout17 Aug 2026
The manager makes an example of Jonas Löcker
“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 ratings17 Aug 2026
Not in the side at kick-off and the story of it by the end. Sturm Graz II were going nowhere until he came on, and half an hour was all he needed.
The dugout17 Aug 2026
No place in the plan for Nils Donat
The manager wanted a different profile for this opponent, which is a real football reason and no consolation. He did nothing wrong and he did not play.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad10 Aug 2026
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Belmin Beganović and Sturm Graz II agree another 4 years.
Squad10 Aug 2026
Belmin Beganović and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
The dugout10 Aug 2026
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” David Arnautovic was not hiding it after 0‑0, and nobody in the Sturm Graz II dressing room was either.
The dugout10 Aug 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Belmin Beganović, and the manager let it.
Match8 Aug 2026
Nil-nil, and few chances worth the name. Amstetten came to defend and left with exactly what they came for.
Market10 Aug 2026
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Sturm Graz II, another week without a signature from Senad Mustafić.
The dugout10 Aug 2026
The shape wanted a different profile against this opponent, which is a real football answer and no comfort at all to the man it is about. He did nothing wrong and he did not play.
Player ratings10 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 9. 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.
Squad10 Aug 2026
“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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match1 Aug 2026
Beaten 1‑3, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Squad3 Aug 2026
“The easiest signature of my career.” Nils Donat and Sturm Graz II agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad3 Aug 2026
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Sturm Graz II this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad3 Aug 2026
A goalkeeper’s error has no defender behind it to tidy it away. He knew before the ball crossed the line, the crowd knew a second later, and there is nothing anybody can say tonight.
The dugout3 Aug 2026
The view from the dugout
“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 1‑3 defeat, delivered by David Arnautovic to a room that had heard them before.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Belmin Beganović 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.
The dugout3 Aug 2026
The manager has not finished forgetting Christoph Wiener-Pucher's mistake
Publicly it is behind everybody. It is not behind the man who picks the team, and the only place that shows is a team sheet. He will get another chance; he will get it in a match that matters less.
Market3 Aug 2026
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Sturm Graz II, another week without a signature from Nils Donat.
Player ratings3 Aug 2026
Off the bench and decisive: Jakob Ploner
The substitution nobody applauded turned out to be the whole story. Sturm Graz II were going nowhere until he came on.