Marked for David Tufekçiç
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad4 Jan 2027
There are footballers who have a good season and footballers a season is remembered for, and the second kind get their names read out in a hall in the summer. Kristiansund will be quietly delighted and privately nervous.
Squad4 Jan 2027
At 21 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.
The dugout4 Jan 2027
Sander Rød: 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.” Kristiansund have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Squad4 Jan 2027
Birger Meling and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad4 Jan 2027
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” David Tufekçiç and Kristiansund agree another 4 years.
Boardroom4 Jan 2027
The board have answered with money instead of encouragement, which is the only answer a manager ever wants. Spending it well is now entirely his problem.
The dugout4 Jan 2027
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 Sævar Atli Magnússon is on it.
Market4 Jan 2027
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Kristiansund, another week without a signature from Jesper Isaksen.
The dugout4 Jan 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Júlíus Mar Júlíusson, and the manager let it.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
Match28 Dec 2026
27 points on the board and a place in the leading group. Nobody at the ground is saying the word out loud yet.
Squad28 Dec 2026
At 22 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.
Squad28 Dec 2026
Adrian Sæther 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.
Squad28 Dec 2026
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Sævar Atli Magnússon was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout28 Dec 2026
Adrian Sæther 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 Kristiansund, and both men came out saying it was fine.
The dugout28 Dec 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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Boardroom7 Dec 2026
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.
Market7 Dec 2026
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Kristiansund is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad7 Dec 2026
There are footballers who have a good season and footballers a season is remembered for, and the second kind get their names read out in a hall in the summer. Kristiansund will be quietly delighted and privately nervous.
Squad7 Dec 2026
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Kristiansund can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Squad7 Dec 2026
Words at Kristiansund training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Sævar Atli Magnússon 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.
Squad7 Dec 2026
Tobias Svendsen and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
The dugout7 Dec 2026
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.
Market7 Dec 2026
“We are a long way apart, and pretending otherwise helps nobody.” Neither side is close, and the calendar is not on the club's side.
The dugout7 Dec 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to David Tufekçiç, and the manager let it.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market12 Oct 2026
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Franklin Nyenetue will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Kristiansund the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Boardroom12 Oct 2026
The rules permit it and it stings anyway. Franklin Nyenetue has agreed terms with Brann for the summer, and until then he pulls on this shirt as a player who has already chosen his next one.
Squad12 Oct 2026
Birger Meling and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
The dugout12 Oct 2026
The manager makes an example of Max Williamsen
“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.
Squad12 Oct 2026
Haakon Haugen 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.
Market12 Oct 2026
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Birger Meling signs something — a contract at Kristiansund or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Looking ahead12 Oct 2026
HamKam next, and one man in the Kristiansund dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
The dugout12 Oct 2026
Frederik Flex 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 Kristiansund, and both men came out saying it was fine.
The dugout12 Oct 2026
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 David Tufekçiç is on it.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market7 Sep 2026
The offer from Asteras for Mustapha Isah 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.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Words at Kristiansund training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Sævar Atli Magnússon 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.
Squad7 Sep 2026
The young player of the month award goes to a 21-year-old at Kristiansund who has looked like the finished article for four weekends running. The next four are the ones that decide whether he is.
Squad7 Sep 2026
The manager has re-ordered his thinking and Hrannar Snær Magnússon has come out of it lower. He will be told it is temporary, and the players who have heard that before will avoid his eye.
Squad7 Sep 2026
A month is long enough that nobody gets in by accident. Alexander Munksgaard is in the division's best eleven for it, which is a quieter compliment than an award and a more reliable one.
Market7 Sep 2026
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Kristiansund, another week without a signature from Jesper Isaksen.
Market7 Sep 2026
The name of Birger Meling keeps appearing in other people's back pages. Kristiansund say nothing, which says plenty.
Looking ahead7 Sep 2026
Rosenborg next, and one man in the Kristiansund dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
The dugout7 Sep 2026
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.