Marked for Patrick Baumgartner
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad28 Sep 2026
Nadiem Amiri 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 Mainz 05 this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad28 Sep 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Hirving Marquez, and the manager let it.
Match26 Sep 2026
0‑2 to Eintracht Frankfurt, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Patrick Baumgartner 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.
Squad28 Sep 2026
A smaller club would suit Grischa Prömel now
He has had enough of the noise. Whether Mainz 05 can be a quieter place for him, or whether the only cure is a move somewhere the phone-ins are gentler, is a question for the next few months.
Player ratings28 Sep 2026
Nobody could get near Silas
Successful dribbles: 11. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Player ratings21 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 35. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad21 Sep 2026
Nadiem Amiri 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
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Benedict Hollerbach. 1‑0 against Köln, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Squad21 Sep 2026
Words at Mainz 05 training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Patrick Baumgartner 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.
Player ratings21 Sep 2026
A performance of 8.09 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Squad21 Sep 2026
Paul Nebel 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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad24 Aug 2026
Nadiem Amiri 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.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Words at Mainz 05 training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Kaishu Sano 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.
Loan watch24 Aug 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 Mainz 05, and 0 appearances in 0 say he has earned the hearing.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market17 Aug 2026
RB Leipzig pay $9.2M, and the deal is done. The number reads well on a balance sheet; whether it reads well on the pitch is next season's question.
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
Kevin Arnautovic, 20, plays like he has been here for years — 7.65
A mark of 7.65 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 20-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
Market17 Aug 2026
Add another name to the list: Zurich have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Marco Meyer. The answer from Admira Wacker has not changed — yet.
Market17 Aug 2026
Mainz 05 paid $3.6M and Admira Wacker took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
Market17 Aug 2026
Rapid Wien come back empty-handed
The bid was some way short and Admira Wacker did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 23. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad17 Aug 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 Admira Wacker this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match15 Aug 2026
Beaten 1‑2, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market17 Aug 2026
Mainz 05 say no — this time
The offer from Köln for Anthony Caci 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.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Patrick Baumgartner has just signed for Mainz 05, and for once the answer mattered.
Market17 Aug 2026
The most awkward business a club does is signing tomorrow's answer while today's is still in the building. Patrick Baumgartner comes from Admira Wacker for exactly that purpose, and the handover will not be discussed publicly by anybody.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Nadiem Amiri 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 Mainz 05 this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Market17 Aug 2026
A squad is not eleven players and a wish. Michael Fuchs arrives from Mattersburg to make the number up properly, and the value of that will be argued about in March rather than today.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Patrick Baumgartner 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
Crisis
Player ratings3 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 44. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Market3 Aug 2026
The offer from Hull City for Patrick Baumgartner 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.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Martin Weiß 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 Admira Wacker this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match1 Aug 2026
Beaten 0‑1, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Market3 Aug 2026
Add another name to the list: Rapid Wien have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Julian Prass. The answer from Admira Wacker has not changed — yet.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Words at Admira Wacker training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Andreas Lienhart 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.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Martin Weiß 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 Martin Weiß trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Squad3 Aug 2026
The manager makes an example of Wolfgang Wimmer
“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.
Market3 Aug 2026
“They were honest with me, and I would rather know.” Lukas Lindner has been informed he is not in the manager's thinking at Admira Wacker.