110 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. IFK Mariehamn lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at IFK Mariehamn is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at IFK Mariehamn this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“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 IFK Mariehamn, and 1 appearances in 9 say he has earned the hearing.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” IFK Mariehamn have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Václav Ondřejka 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 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 clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at IFK Mariehamn is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 19 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.
Václav Ondřejka 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 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.
In brief
Squad8 new faces, and IFK Mariehamn are still learning each other
Noah Nurmi 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.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Words at IFK Mariehamn training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Robert 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at IFK Mariehamn this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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.
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.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Pontus Lindgren will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around IFK Mariehamn the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Words at IFK Mariehamn training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Robert 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at IFK Mariehamn this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” IFK Mariehamn have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
The hardest thing about being 21 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Robert did not need any: 8.63, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
24 times he got in the way of something. Centre-halves get written about when they make mistakes and ignored when they do not, so an afternoon like this needs saying out loud: he is the reason the scoreline reads as it does.
Václav Ondřejka 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 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.
HJK go through and IFK Mariehamn go home, 1‑1 the scoreline that did it. The dressing room will call the league the priority now, because that is what dressing rooms say.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at IFK Mariehamn this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Nothing happens for months and then he simply arrives, at no cost, having signed a pre-contract while still turning out for somebody else. It is the least dramatic way to sign a footballer and frequently the shrewdest.
Player ratings31 Aug 2026
Noah Nurmi was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.88. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
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.
“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.
Squad31 Aug 2026
Words at IFK Mariehamn training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Robert 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.
In brief
Player ratingsNinety minutes of Luke Pearce at his very best
A shoot-out is remembered by its ending, and this one ends with Matias Riikonen: 2 kept out, and a set of supporters who will describe every one of them for the next twenty years.
Víctor Carbajal 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.
Nothing happens for months and then he simply arrives, at no cost, having signed a pre-contract while still turning out for somebody else. It is the least dramatic way to sign a footballer and frequently the shrewdest.
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.
In brief
Player ratingsAdam Larsson misses from twelve yards
Add another name to the list: Malmo FF have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Dominik Kotarski. The answer from FC Copenhagen has not changed — yet.
“I want to win things, and I would like to do it here.” Nothing has been demanded and nothing has been threatened — but a boardroom at FC Copenhagen hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Gabriel Pereira wants continental football; whether FC Copenhagen can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Felix Beijmo and FC Copenhagen agree another 4 years.
Mohamed Elyounoussi 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.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Words at FC Copenhagen training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Felix Beijmo 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.
9.00. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.