Marked for Nicolas Sala
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match11 Nov 2026
Heracles bow out of the cup
Twente go through and Heracles go home, 0‑1 the scoreline that did it. The dressing room will call the league the priority now, because that is what dressing rooms say.
Player ratings16 Nov 2026
Headers, blocks, tackles, interceptions — 29 of them, and not one goal behind him. The sort of performance that never makes a highlight reel and wins football matches.
Match14 Nov 2026
4 matches without a win for Heracles
The run now stands at 4, and the questions being asked around Heracles are no longer polite ones.
Player ratings16 Nov 2026
Successful dribbles: 23. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad16 Nov 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 Heracles this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Market16 Nov 2026
The shirt still fits. Samy Kehli is back at Heracles, and half the ground remembers him in these colours already. Some signings need selling to the town; this one sold itself.
Squad16 Nov 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.
Player ratings16 Nov 2026
A mark of 7.83, and nobody in the ground would argue with it. He was involved in everything that mattered and most of what did not.
Player ratings16 Nov 2026
Defensive actions: 15. He was first to everything and second to nothing, and the goalkeeper had an easy day because of it.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market26 Oct 2026
“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.
Match26 Oct 2026
Feyenoord refuse to drop out of the race
Position 3, 21 points, and the result everyone checks first is now theirs. The word is still not being said around the ground, which is how you know everyone is thinking it.
Player ratings26 Oct 2026
Nobody could get near Leo Sauer
Successful dribbles: 29. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad26 Oct 2026
Hwang In-Beom 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
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Luciano Valente. 2‑1 against De Graafschap, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Squad26 Oct 2026
“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.
Player ratings26 Oct 2026
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.69, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Player ratings26 Oct 2026
Shots: 13, not one of them in. A centre forward is paid for one thing, and on this evidence he has forgotten which thing it is.
Loan watch26 Oct 2026
“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 Feyenoord, and 0 appearances in 10 say he has earned the hearing.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Squad21 Sep 2026
Sem Steijn 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.
Match19 Sep 2026
Hard to beat is not the same as winning, but 6 matches without defeat is a foundation Feyenoord did not have in the autumn.
Match19 Sep 2026
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Ayase Ueda. 2‑1 against Heerenveen, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Player ratings21 Sep 2026
A performance of 8.91 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Player ratings21 Sep 2026
A performance of 8.44 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Player ratings21 Sep 2026
Marked 8.33 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
Player ratings21 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 18. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad21 Sep 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Jakub Moder, and the manager let it.
Loan watch21 Sep 2026
“I watch every Feyenoord game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Heracles runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad17 Aug 2026
Jeff Reine-Adélaïde 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.
Market17 Aug 2026
The interest is real enough to have reached print. Heracles have said nothing, which in a transfer window is its own kind of answer.
Squad17 Aug 2026
The manager makes an example of Luka Kulenović
“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.
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 18. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Match15 Aug 2026
Honours even between Heracles and Ajax
1‑1, and both dressing rooms will call it two points lost. A draw that asked plenty of questions and answered none of them.
Squad17 Aug 2026
The first one is the one every signing is asked about until it arrives. It has arrived, and he can stop being asked.