Stefan Smarkalev

Goalkeeper - Heidenheim
6 Dec 2026
Sunday
Process

Marked for Stefan Smarkalev

16 Edition

The Werder Bremen Courier

16 Nov 2026
From our football correspondent Uneasy

Squad

Felix Agu breaks a bone — 51 days out

Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 51 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.

The dugout

Maxime Lestienne: 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.” Werder Bremen have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.

Squad

Victor Boniface 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 Werder Bremen this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.

Squad

Words at Werder Bremen training over how hard people work

Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Senne Lynen 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 watch

Stefan Smarkalev has seen enough of Heidenheim

“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 Werder Bremen, and 0 appearances in 14 say he has earned the hearing.

The dugout

No hiding place for Alexander Schlager

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

Squad

Lennart Karl, 18, is the weekend’s best young player

Measured against every other kid in the division and first among them. The senior award is where Werder Bremen would like this to lead.

The dugout

Eren Dinkçi asks for a word with the manager

“I would rather say it to his face than read about it.” The meeting was requested by the player, which tells you most of what you need to know.

The dugout

Felix Agu has been promised minutes

A conversation in the manager’s office, and a commitment that came out of it. Promises like that are cheap to make and expensive to break, and Felix Agu has written the date down.

In brief

Back issues
15 Edition

The Heidenheim Chronicle

9 Nov 2026
From our football correspondent Crisis

Squad

A knee injury of the worst kind for Adrian Beck

97 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.

Match

Heidenheim cannot find the net

3 games without scoring. Strikers stop looking up, midfielders take the extra touch, and every shot that clears the bar is followed by a groan that has been building since the last goal.

Match

Borussia Mönchengladbach take the points off Heidenheim

Beaten 0‑2, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.

Player ratings

Nobody could get near Sirlord Conteh

Successful dribbles: 18. 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 Heidenheim

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

The dugout

Marc Friedrich: “No excuses”

“I could talk about decisions and I could talk about luck. I will not. We lost.” The manager, 0‑2, and a press conference that lasted four minutes.

The dugout

Luca Kerber is still being punished for one mistake

Nobody will confirm it and the team sheets confirm it every week. One error has bought him a spell as second choice that is already longer than the error deserved.

Squad

A falling-out at Heidenheim

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

The dugout

Tim Siersleben 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 Heidenheim, and both men came out saying it was fine.

In brief

12 Edition

The Heidenheim Chronicle

19 Oct 2026
From our football correspondent Uneasy

Squad

Adrian Beck damages knee ligaments — 122 days out

The words a physio says slowly. 122 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 ratings

Mathias Honsak runs at them all day

Successful dribbles: 29. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.

Squad

Lúkas Petersson keeps Heidenheim in it on his own

Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 6 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.

Squad

Real improvement from Stefan Smarkalev at Heidenheim

Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Stefan Smarkalev is 19, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.

Squad

Words exchanged at Heidenheim

Lúkas Petersson 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 drought breaks for Heidenheim

6 without a win is the sort of run that changes how a town talks about its club, and St. Pauli were the afternoon it stopped. Nothing is fixed by one result and everything feels different by one.

The terraces

The crowd has taken to Lúkas Petersson

At 22 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.

Match

Mikkel Kaufmann sends Heidenheim past St. Pauli

It finished 1‑0, and it was Mikkel Kaufmann’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Heidenheim.

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.” Marc Friedrich, on a 1‑0 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.

In brief

11 Edition

The Heidenheim Chronicle

12 Oct 2026
From our football correspondent Uneasy

Squad

Tempers go at Heidenheim

Patrick Mainka 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

Paul Tschernuth has improved at 24, 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.

Market

Adrian Beck is free to find somewhere else

“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Heidenheim has been clear about where Adrian Beck stands, which is more than many ever get.

The dugout

No hiding place for Kévin Malcuit

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

Squad

Paolo Yrizar is a square peg at Heidenheim

The system has changed and his position has not. A footballer can improve his form; he cannot improve the manager’s formation, and that is the whole of the problem.

The dugout

Adrian Beck 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 Heidenheim, and both men came out saying it was fine.

Looking ahead

Christian Conteh goes back to face St. Pauli

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

Squad

Stefan Smarkalev wants out of the dugout

“I did not sign to watch. Nobody does.” The oldest complaint in the game, and Heidenheim will have to answer it with minutes or with a move.

The dugout

A door opens for Marnon Busch

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.

In brief

  • Market Heidenheim shop where it costs nothing
  • The terraces Everybody has an opinion about Paolo Yrizar
  • Looking ahead Looking ahead: the trip to St. Pauli
11 Edition

The Werder Bremen Courier

12 Oct 2026
From our football correspondent Uneasy

Squad

A fracture rules Felix Agu out for 92 days

Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Werder Bremen will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.

Squad

Tempers go at Werder Bremen

Victor Boniface 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

Chuki is a better footballer than he was

Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 22 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.

Loan watch

Stefan Smarkalev has seen enough of Heidenheim

“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 Werder Bremen, and 0 appearances in 9 say he has earned the hearing.

Squad

Karl Hein stays put

“The easiest signature of my career.” Karl Hein and Werder Bremen agree another 5 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.

The dugout

The manager makes an example of Kenny Quetant

“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

Senne Lynen asks for a word with the manager

“I would rather say it to his face than read about it.” The meeting was requested by the player, which tells you most of what you need to know.

The dugout

A door opens for Maxime Lestienne

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.

Market

The Karl Hein talk will not go away

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

In brief

7 Edition

The Werder Bremen Courier

14 Sep 2026
From our football correspondent Uneasy

Player ratings

Justin Njinmah was unplayable

Successful dribbles: 36. 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.

Market

Jens Stage asks to leave Werder Bremen

“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.

Transfer targets

Door shut on Jahmai Simpson-Pusey

Werder Bremen asked and Köln 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

Werder Bremen caught on 91 minutes

The board was up, the win was priced in, and then Köln scored. There is no worse minute to concede in and the ground emptied in the silence that follows one.

Squad

Too much change too quickly at Werder Bremen

14 signings in three months. Every one of them may be an upgrade and the team can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild that never appears in the transfer-window verdicts.

Loan watch

Stefan Smarkalev wants to come home

“I did not go to Heidenheim to sit and watch. I want to come back to Werder Bremen and fight for my place.” 0 appearances in 5 matches say the rest.

Match

Honours even between Werder Bremen and Köln

1‑1, and both dressing rooms will call it two points lost. A draw that asked plenty of questions and answered none of them.

The dugout

Half-satisfied: Karl Brandt on the draw

“There are things I liked and things we will be doing on Tuesday until they are right.” 1‑1, and a manager who had already decided what Tuesday looked like.

The dugout

Senne Lynen does not fit this one

Ninety specific minutes wanted a different sort of player, and the manager picked one. He is not out of form and he is not in the side, and both are true.

In brief

1 Edition

The Heidenheim Chronicle

3 Aug 2026
From our football correspondent Steady

Market

Budu Zivzivadze 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 Heidenheim, and it is not being withdrawn.

Squad

Marvin Pieringer signs a new deal

“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Marvin Pieringer commits to Heidenheim for another 4 years.

Squad

Home is on Budu Zivzivadze'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; Heidenheim are dealing with a man who wants a different country.

Squad

Words exchanged at Heidenheim

Patrick Mainka 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

Venezia tell Heidenheim: Albion Rrahmani 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.

Market

The clock runs on Marvin Pieringer's contract

49 months left and silence from upstairs — no offer, no talks, nothing for his people to answer. Clubs that let a calendar do their negotiating usually end up negotiating with the calendar.

Transfer targets

Heidenheim try to borrow Obed Nkambadio

Paris FC have been asked whether they would lend him. Loans are agreed quickly or not at all, and this one will be one or the other by the weekend.

Transfer targets

A loan move for Stefan Smarkalev is in the works

Heidenheim have made the call to Werder Bremen. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.

Transfer targets

A loan move for Kacper Potulski is in the works

Heidenheim have made the call to Mainz 05. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.

In brief