Marked for Taha Usman
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market4 Jan 2027
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Squad4 Jan 2027
“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.
Squad4 Jan 2027
Ivan Näsberg 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 Valerenga this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad12 Oct 2026
There were 7 saves in it, and at least three that had no business being saves at all. The ten outfield players owe him a drink and they know it.
Market12 Oct 2026
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Valerenga is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad12 Oct 2026
Ivan Näsberg 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 Valerenga this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad12 Oct 2026
Abdullah Abdo gets the move he always wanted
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Abdullah Abdo has just signed for Valerenga, and for once the answer mattered.
Squad12 Oct 2026
Henrik Bjørdal 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 ratings12 Oct 2026
Successful dribbles: 17. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Match10 Oct 2026
A 1‑1 draw with Stabaek leaves the dressing room somewhere between relief and regret.
Market12 Oct 2026
Nobody sells a season ticket on a signing like this. Every manager who has been through a bad October wants one anyway, and Valerenga have gone and got theirs early.
Player ratings12 Oct 2026
Taha Usman changes it off the bench
He was not in the side at half past three and he had settled it before five. Half an hour, and Valerenga had a different afternoon.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match19 Aug 2026
Valerenga through in the cup
A 1‑0 win over Stabaek, and the draw for the next round can be watched with some interest for once.
Squad24 Aug 2026
There were 7 saves in it, and at least three that had no business being saves at all. The ten outfield players owe him a drink and they know it.
Market24 Aug 2026
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Valerenga they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Market24 Aug 2026
Valerenga say no — this time
The offer from Mjondalen for Taha Usman 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 ratings24 Aug 2026
Omar Bully runs at them all day
Successful dribbles: 24. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Boardroom24 Aug 2026
There is no worse way to lose a footballer. Magnus Westergaard has pre-agreed a move away, which means every appearance between now and June is made by a man the club can no longer sell, and somebody upstairs will be asked why the contract was allowed to get here.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Ivan Näsberg 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.
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
Headers, blocks, tackles, interceptions — 22 of them, and not one goal behind him. The sort of performance that never makes a highlight reel and wins football matches.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Words at Valerenga training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Henrik Bjørdal 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.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Match12 Aug 2026
Valerenga through in the cup
A 1‑0 win over Sarpsborg 08, and the draw for the next round can be watched with some interest for once.
Market17 Aug 2026
Valerenga say no — this time
The offer from Bodo/Glimt for Mathias Grundetjern 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 ratings17 Aug 2026
No sign of nerves from Filip Thorvaldsen at 20 — 7.66
The hardest thing about being 20 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Filip Thorvaldsen did not need any: 7.66, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Match15 Aug 2026
Valerenga cannot stop winning
3 wins on the spin now, and the question has changed from whether the run ends to who ends it. Confidence like this cannot be bought; it has to be earned exactly this way.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Ivan Näsberg 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 Valerenga this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Market17 Aug 2026
The name of Taha Usman has come up in conversations Valerenga were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
A midfielder is measured on whether the team functions when he is on the pitch, which is nearly impossible to see and completely obvious in retrospect. 12 actions, 6.89, and a manager who will not be substituting him again in a hurry.
Squad17 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.
The terraces17 Aug 2026
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 20-year-old it feels ownership of. Filip Thorvaldsen has it now, and everything he does for the rest of his time here will be measured against the goodwill he was handed for free.