Marked for Hakim Sulemana
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad1 Mar 2027
Mathias Jørgensen damages knee ligaments — 55 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 55 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.
Squad1 Mar 2027
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Middelfart can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Squad1 Mar 2027
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Middelfart this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
The dugout15 Feb 2027
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Middelfart may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Squad15 Feb 2027
Mathias Jørgensen 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.
Squad15 Feb 2027
Words at Middelfart training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Lasse Flø 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.
Transfer targets15 Feb 2027
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.
Market15 Feb 2027
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Middelfart has been clear about where August Strömberg stands, which is more than many ever get.
The dugout15 Feb 2027
The manager makes an example of Jacob Vetter
“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 dugout15 Feb 2027
Oier Olazabal 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.
Squad15 Feb 2027
A year in and the city has not opened up, the language has not come, and lunch is eaten alone more often than anybody at Middelfart would admit. It shows on Saturdays.
Squad15 Feb 2027
Where he used to play does most of his talking for him at Middelfart. The room defers to it, the kids study it, and the only thing that can puncture it is a bad month.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match28 Dec 2026
Middelfart are in real trouble now
Position 12, 17 points, and a fixture list with fewer games left in it than excuses. The arithmetic is not cruel yet, but it has stopped being kind.
Market28 Dec 2026
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Middelfart can pretend not to have heard.
Match26 Dec 2026
4 matches without a win for Middelfart
The run now stands at 4, and the questions being asked around Middelfart are no longer polite ones.
The dugout28 Dec 2026
The manager makes an example of André Rømer
“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.
Match26 Dec 2026
0‑1 to Hvidovre, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Squad28 Dec 2026
Jacob Vetter 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 Middelfart this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad28 Dec 2026
Words at Middelfart training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Nikolaj Juul-Sandberg 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.
The dugout28 Dec 2026
The view from the dugout
“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 0‑1 defeat, delivered by Joachim Poulsen to a room that had heard them before.
The dugout28 Dec 2026
Oier Olazabal knocks on the manager’s door
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Oier Olazabal trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad21 Dec 2026
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.
Squad21 Dec 2026
Mathias Jørgensen 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.
Match19 Dec 2026
1‑3 to Kolding IF, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Squad21 Dec 2026
Lasse Flø 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.
The dugout21 Dec 2026
The manager makes an example of Oier Olazabal
“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.
Looking ahead21 Dec 2026
Everything rides on Hvidovre
Both clubs in the mire, one fixture between them, and a ground that will be louder and more frightened than at any point in the season. Middelfart know what is at stake and so does everybody in the away end.
Squad21 Dec 2026
Too much change too quickly at Middelfart
7 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.
The dugout21 Dec 2026
The view from the dugout
“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 1‑3 defeat, delivered by Joachim Poulsen to a room that had heard them before.
The dugout21 Dec 2026
He found out with everybody else, an hour before kick-off, from a sheet of paper on a wall. Nobody at Middelfart pretended it was anything other than a decision about him.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Player ratings14 Dec 2026
No sign of nerves from Hakim Sulemana at 21 — 7.69
The hardest thing about being 21 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Hakim Sulemana did not need any: 7.69, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Squad14 Dec 2026
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Mathias Jørgensen and Middelfart agree another 1 years.
Squad14 Dec 2026
Mathias Jørgensen 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.
Match12 Dec 2026
6 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about Middelfart and Hobro in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
Match12 Dec 2026
Hobro left with the points after a 2‑4 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Squad14 Dec 2026
A row about effort at Middelfart
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Lasse Flø was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout14 Dec 2026
The team sheet said everything about August Strömberg
Warm-up bib, ninety minutes of watching, and a handshake at the end that fooled nobody. Big matches tell you who a manager trusts; this one told August Strömberg.
The dugout14 Dec 2026
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Joachim Poulsen after 2‑4, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
The dugout14 Dec 2026
Alexander Bundgaard 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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad7 Dec 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 Middelfart this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad7 Dec 2026
“The easiest signature of my career.” Milan Berenschot and Middelfart agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad7 Dec 2026
A row about effort at Middelfart
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Nikolaj Juul-Sandberg was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad7 Dec 2026
A place in the month's best eleven for Oier Olazabal
Four or five weekends of consistency, judged against everybody in the division doing his job. Oier Olazabal has come out of that comparison in the side, and Middelfart have had the benefit of every one of those afternoons.
Match5 Dec 2026
A 1‑1 draw with HB Køge leaves the dressing room somewhere between relief and regret.
The dugout7 Dec 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Mads Hansen, and the manager let it.
Player ratings7 Dec 2026
Successful dribbles: 14. 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.
The dugout7 Dec 2026
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Joachim Poulsen was not hiding it after 1‑1, and nobody in the Middelfart dressing room was either.
The dugout7 Dec 2026
A promise honoured at Middelfart
Something was said to Mads Hansen and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad30 Nov 2026
A knee injury of the worst kind for Ayo Simon Okosun
18 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Middelfart lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Match30 Nov 2026
Middelfart are in real trouble now
Position 11, 16 points, and a fixture list with fewer games left in it than excuses. The arithmetic is not cruel yet, but it has stopped being kind.
Match28 Nov 2026
Rarely has this fixture seen a display like it: 3‑0 against B.93, and it could have been more.
Market30 Nov 2026
“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 Middelfart, and it is not being withdrawn.
Player ratings30 Nov 2026
Hakim Sulemana, 21, plays like he has been here for years — 8.08
A mark of 8.08 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 21-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
The dugout30 Nov 2026
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Middelfart may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Squad30 Nov 2026
Mathias Jørgensen and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
The terraces30 Nov 2026
At 18 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.
Squad30 Nov 2026
Lasse Flø 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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad16 Nov 2026
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 23 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Squad16 Nov 2026
A knee injury of the worst kind for Ayo Simon Okosun
33 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Middelfart lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Squad16 Nov 2026
Yusuf Faghir 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.
Squad16 Nov 2026
Words at Middelfart training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Nikolaj Juul-Sandberg 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.
Looking ahead16 Nov 2026
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Hakim Sulemana’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Middelfart needing him to play as if none of it matters.
The dugout16 Nov 2026
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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad26 Oct 2026
A fracture rules Kasper Pedersen out for 46 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Middelfart will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Match24 Oct 2026
The wait goes on for Middelfart
6 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
Match24 Oct 2026
5 matches without a goal for Middelfart
The chances are being made and something is happening between the making and the finishing. 5 matches now, and the anxiety in the ground arrives a little earlier every week.
Squad26 Oct 2026
Justin Bakker 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.
Match24 Oct 2026
0‑2 to AC Horsens, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Player ratings26 Oct 2026
Successful dribbles: 18. 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.
Squad26 Oct 2026
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Middelfart can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Match26 Oct 2026
Halfway: Middelfart sit in position 12
9 points at the turn. The first half of a season is a promise; the second is a bill, and the town is about to find out which of the two this one was.
Squad26 Oct 2026
Words at Middelfart training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Nikolaj Juul-Sandberg 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
Crisis
Squad28 Sep 2026
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 11 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Yusuf Faghir 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.
Match26 Sep 2026
Hvidovre left with the points after a 0‑2 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Player ratings28 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 19. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
The dugout28 Sep 2026
The manager makes an example of Omar Jarju
“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.
Squad28 Sep 2026
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 dugout28 Sep 2026
The manager’s verdict
“That is on me. I pick the team and I picked wrong.” Managers say that when they mean it and when they need to be seen to, and after 0‑2 Joachim Poulsen left the room before anybody could ask which.
Squad28 Sep 2026
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Jakob Damsgaard commits to Middelfart for another 3 years.
The dugout28 Sep 2026
The manager has not finished forgetting Jerailly Wielzen's mistake
Publicly it is behind everybody. It is not behind the man who picks the team, and the only place that shows is a team sheet. He will get another chance; he will get it in a match that matters less.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market14 Sep 2026
“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 Middelfart, and it is not being withdrawn.
Transfer targets14 Sep 2026
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. AC Horsens have kept their man, and Middelfart go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Omar Jarju 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.
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 19. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Market14 Sep 2026
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Jakob Damsgaard has been at this club since he was a boy and is now, formally, one of the first-team squad — which for a local readership beats any signing of any size.
Market14 Sep 2026
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Christian Maehle has been at this club since he was a boy and is now, formally, one of the first-team squad — which for a local readership beats any signing of any size.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Words at Middelfart training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Nikolaj Juul-Sandberg 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.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Middelfart are still strangers to each other
12 new signings in one window. Every one may be an upgrade and the side can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild the verdicts never mention.
Squad14 Sep 2026
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.