Marked for Stefan Smarkalev
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad24 Aug 2026
A knee injury of the worst kind for Mathias Honsak
58 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Heidenheim lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Market24 Aug 2026
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
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 Heidenheim go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Transfer targets24 Aug 2026
The offer went to Rapid Wien this week and it is theirs to answer. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loud the door closes.
Transfer targets24 Aug 2026
VfB Stuttgart wanted more than $1.8M and the board would not go there. Walked away, for now, which in a transfer window means until somebody blinks.
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 Heidenheim this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Transfer targets24 Aug 2026
A loan enquiry to Sparta Prague: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.
Market24 Aug 2026
A season-long look at somebody else’s player: Stefan Smarkalev arrives from Werder Bremen with something to prove and a return ticket in the drawer. Good loans make everybody richer; this one starts Saturday.
Squad24 Aug 2026
He trains hard, says the right things and goes home to an empty flat. Nobody at Heidenheim has done anything wrong, which is exactly what makes it so difficult to fix.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad24 Aug 2026
98 days out for Niclas Füllkrug after a fracture
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Werder Bremen will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Market24 Aug 2026
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Transfer targets24 Aug 2026
The offer went to Heidenheim this week and it is theirs to answer. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loud the door closes.
Transfer targets24 Aug 2026
Werder Bremen asked and Bayer Leverkusen said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Market24 Aug 2026
“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.
Boardroom24 Aug 2026
The number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $11.1M — a club that wants Paul Hennrich enough to be asked twice.
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 Werder Bremen this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Boardroom24 Aug 2026
Werder Bremen say no to the training-ground money
The plan went upstairs and came back down. Nothing about that will make a headline anywhere else, and everybody who works at the training ground will remember it for years.
Looking ahead24 Aug 2026
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Eren Dinkçi’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Werder Bremen needing him to play as if none of it matters.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market17 Aug 2026
The offer from FC Augsburg for Budu Zivzivadze 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.
Transfer targets17 Aug 2026
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. TSG Hoffenheim have kept their man, and Heidenheim go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Transfer targets17 Aug 2026
$1.7M on the table at VfB Stuttgart. 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 targets17 Aug 2026
$1.2M on the table at Bayern Munich. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
Boardroom17 Aug 2026
The number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $2.0M — a club that wants Dan-Axel Zagadou enough to be asked twice.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Michael Heule 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 targets17 Aug 2026
A loan enquiry to Werder Bremen: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.
Squad17 Aug 2026
5 new faces, and Heidenheim 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.
Market17 Aug 2026
The list is a quiet document with a loud meaning. Budu Zivzivadze may talk to anybody who asks, and everybody at the club understands what that means.