Marked for Alexander Schlager
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market15 Feb 2027
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Altach is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad15 Feb 2027
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Alexander Schlager commits to Altach for another 3 years.
Squad15 Feb 2027
A falling-out at Altach
Benedikt Zech and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Market15 Feb 2027
Hammarby pay $750.0K, 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.
The dugout15 Feb 2027
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.
The dugout15 Feb 2027
“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.
The dugout15 Feb 2027
“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.
Squad15 Feb 2027
Where he used to play does most of his talking for him at Altach. The room defers to it, the kids study it, and the only thing that can puncture it is a bad month.
Squad15 Feb 2027
A wage question at Altach
Luca Kronberger has done the arithmetic and does not like the answer. Nothing corrodes a squad faster, and no club has ever solved it by explaining the wage structure to a footballer.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market18 Jan 2027
“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 The request is on a desk at Altach, and it is not being withdrawn.
Market18 Jan 2027
Vesel Demaku has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Altach they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Market18 Jan 2027
The fee is $1.7M, the contract is signed, and the argument about whether he is worth it can begin. Mattersburg drove a hard bargain; time will say who won it.
Market18 Jan 2027
Mattersburg come back empty-handed
The bid was some way short and Altach did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Squad18 Jan 2027
A falling-out at Altach
Anrie Chase and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
The terraces18 Jan 2027
Boards get told what they have done wrong for years and hear nothing on the days they get it right. This is one of those days: Alexander Schlager from Mattersburg for $1.7M, and a ticket office having a very good morning.
Squad18 Jan 2027
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Anteo Fetahu commits to Altach for another 4 years.
Transfer targets18 Jan 2027
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Venezia have kept their man, and Altach go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
The dugout18 Jan 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Srđan Hrstić, and the manager let it.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market18 Jan 2027
“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 Mattersburg, and it is not being withdrawn.
The dugout18 Jan 2027
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Mattersburg may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Market18 Jan 2027
The interest is real enough to have reached print. Mattersburg have said nothing, which in a transfer window is its own kind of answer.
Market18 Jan 2027
Altach paid $1.7M and Mattersburg took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
Squad18 Jan 2027
Luis Engelns 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.
Transfer targets18 Jan 2027
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Altach have kept their man, and Mattersburg go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad18 Jan 2027
Marcel Kalajdzic 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.
Squad18 Jan 2027
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Julián Vilchez and Mattersburg agree another 4 years.
The dugout18 Jan 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Martin Hinteregger, and the manager let it.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market11 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.
Market11 Jan 2027
“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 Altach, and it is not being withdrawn.
Transfer targets11 Jan 2027
Altach have gone to Mattersburg with a bid, and the supporters have gone to the internet with an opinion about it. Whether either changes anything is up to the selling club.
Boardroom11 Jan 2027
The rules permit it and it stings anyway. Vesel Demaku has agreed terms with Sturm Graz for the summer, and until then he pulls on this shirt as a player who has already chosen his next one.
Squad11 Jan 2027
Words exchanged at Altach
Akaki Gogia 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.
Transfer targets11 Jan 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.
Loan watch11 Jan 2027
“I did not go to Wolfsberger AC to sit and watch. I want to come back to Altach and fight for my place.” 5 appearances in 22 matches say the rest.
Squad11 Jan 2027
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Benjamin Böckle and Altach agree another 4 years.
Squad11 Jan 2027
Vesel Demaku 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
Steady
Market11 Jan 2027
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Mattersburg can pretend not to have heard.
Squad11 Jan 2027
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Mauro Muhlethaler has just signed for Mattersburg, and for once the answer mattered.
Market11 Jan 2027
The phone has started ringing about Alexander Schlager again, and this time the name on the line is Altach. Mattersburg are listening politely and promising nothing.
Squad11 Jan 2027
Luis Engelns 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.
Transfer targets11 Jan 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.
Squad11 Jan 2027
“The easiest signature of my career.” Mauro Muhlethaler and Mattersburg agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad11 Jan 2027
The medical room confirms 48 days on the sidelines for a squad player, and a plan built around him now has to be rebuilt.
The dugout11 Jan 2027
The manager makes an example of Philipp Erhardt
“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 dugout11 Jan 2027
Alexander Posch has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Mattersburg will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad4 Jan 2027
A knee injury of the worst kind for Wolfgang Wober
16 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Mattersburg lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Match4 Jan 2027
31 points on the board and a place in the leading group. Nobody at the ground is saying the word out loud yet.
Market4 Jan 2027
“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 Mattersburg, and it is not being withdrawn.
Market4 Jan 2027
Rapid Wien come back empty-handed
The bid was some way short and Mattersburg did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Squad4 Jan 2027
There are footballers who have a good season and footballers a season is remembered for, and the second kind get their names read out in a hall in the summer. Mattersburg will be quietly delighted and privately nervous.
Squad4 Jan 2027
Luis Engelns and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad4 Jan 2027
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Sebastián Valenzuela and Mattersburg agree another 3 years.
Transfer targets4 Jan 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.
Market4 Jan 2027
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Marcel Kalajdzic has his answer from Mattersburg; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad23 Nov 2026
Wolfgang Wober damages knee ligaments — 60 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 60 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.
Squad23 Nov 2026
7 saves, and a scoreline the ten men in front of him had no right to. Goalkeepers only get noticed on the bad days; this was one of the other ones.
Match21 Nov 2026
The drought breaks for Mattersburg
8 without a win is the sort of run that changes how a town talks about its club, and Sturm Graz were the afternoon it stopped. Nothing is fixed by one result and everything feels different by one.
Squad23 Nov 2026
Luis Engelns 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.
Squad23 Nov 2026
A muscle injury sidelines Žarko Udovičić for 18 days
Nobody makes a documentary about a hamstring and everybody in the game fears one. Mattersburg will be careful with the return date, because the second one is always worse than the first.
Match21 Nov 2026
Sturm Graz made Mattersburg work for it, but the scoreboard read 2‑1 at the end and the table does not ask how.
The terraces23 Nov 2026
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 22-year-old it feels ownership of. Konrad Lindner 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.
Player ratings23 Nov 2026
Alexander Schlager was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.57. 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.
Looking ahead23 Nov 2026
The fixture the rest of the division is looking forward to more than either of the sides in it. Both know a win changes the season and a defeat does not end it, which is what makes it hard to play.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match26 Aug 2026
0‑0 against Admira Wacker, and the road stops here. Cup exits are quick deaths — no second leg, no next week, just the league from now until May.
Market31 Aug 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.
Squad31 Aug 2026
1 kept out in the shoot-out, and a stadium that will still be describing them in twenty years. A goalkeeper only needs one of these to be remembered forever.
Squad31 Aug 2026
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 7 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
Market31 Aug 2026
The offer from Waasland-Beveren for Alexander Schlager 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.
Squad31 Aug 2026
Thomas Wober and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Transfer targets31 Aug 2026
Austria Wien wanted more than $63.0K and the board would not go there. Walked away, for now, which in a transfer window means until somebody blinks.
Match29 Aug 2026
Whatever happens, Mattersburg do not lose
6 games unbeaten now. Some were earned and some were survived, but a habit is forming — and habits are the hardest thing in football to play against.
Player ratings31 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 20. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Market24 Aug 2026
The offer from Altach for Sebastian Lienhart 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.
Market24 Aug 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 Mattersburg can pretend not to have heard.
Squad24 Aug 2026
There were 6 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.
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
Luis Engelns, 19, steals the show — 7.64
Marked 7.64 at 19, in a side that makes no allowances for age. He did not need any, and he looked the least nervous man on the pitch.
Match22 Aug 2026
4 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.
Boardroom24 Aug 2026
The number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $65.0K — a club that wants Dominik Nišandžić enough to be asked twice.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Alexander Posch 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.
Transfer targets24 Aug 2026
The offer went to Austria Wien this week and it is theirs to answer. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loud the door closes.
Transfer targets24 Aug 2026
$91.0K was the most the club would pay and Wolfsberger AC were asking for more. Deals like this are revived in the last week of a window roughly half the time, and everybody involved knows it.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Market17 Aug 2026
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Grodig waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Mattersburg is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
Luis Engelns, 19, steals the show — 7.75
Marked 7.75 at 19, in a side that makes no allowances for age. He did not need any, and he looked the least nervous man on the pitch.
Boardroom17 Aug 2026
The number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $95.0K — a club that wants Tobias Gruber enough to be asked twice.
Match15 Aug 2026
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
Alexander Posch and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Transfer targets17 Aug 2026
$88.0K on the table at Wolfsberger AC. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
Transfer targets17 Aug 2026
$130.0K was the most the club would pay and SV Ried were asking for more. Deals like this are revived in the last week of a window roughly half the time, and everybody involved knows it.
Transfer targets17 Aug 2026
Mattersburg asked and Wolfsberger AC said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Words at Mattersburg training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Konrad Lindner 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
Match8 Aug 2026
6‑0, and the margin flattered nobody — it could have carried another goal or two without complaint. Afternoons like this are why people keep coming.
Player ratings10 Aug 2026
A brace, and Sebastian Lienhart takes the afternoon — 8.95
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Sebastian Lienhart provided it, and the 8.95 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Market10 Aug 2026
Grodig come back empty-handed
The bid was some way short and Mattersburg did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
The terraces10 Aug 2026
Marcel Fuchs has gone, the accounts have $4.5M in them, and the supporters have the feeling of having been sold something themselves. Good business and a good decision are not always the same thing.
Market10 Aug 2026
Business is business: Marcel Fuchs goes
VfB Stuttgart paid $4.5M and Mattersburg took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
Squad10 Aug 2026
“The easiest signature of my career.” Marcel Kalajdzic and Mattersburg agree another 5 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Transfer targets10 Aug 2026
Mattersburg asked and Altach said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Player ratings10 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 22. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad10 Aug 2026
Alexander Posch 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.