Marked for Markus Baumgartner
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market8 Feb 2027
The fee was agreed and the flight was looked at — and then the phone stopped ringing. Altach moved on, Martin Lindner reports back to Mattersburg, and everybody pretends Monday is just Monday.
Market8 Feb 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 The request is on a desk at Mattersburg, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad8 Feb 2027
Paul Gartler 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.
Squad8 Feb 2027
“The easiest signature of my career.” Andreas Zimmermann and Mattersburg agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad8 Feb 2027
Words at Mattersburg training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Raphael Posch 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.
Squad8 Feb 2027
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.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market11 Jan 2027
The chase for Paul Gartler ended with $910.0K changing hands and Rapid Wien out of reasons to say no. The supporters will judge the fee the only way that matters: on Saturdays.
Squad11 Jan 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 Mattersburg this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad11 Jan 2027
“The easiest signature of my career.” Joher Ospina and Mattersburg agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad11 Jan 2027
At 24 the improving is meant to be over. It is not: 3 points better than the mark taken at the start of the year, which is the sort of thing that happens to players who take the boring parts of the job seriously.
Squad11 Jan 2027
Words at Mattersburg training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Joher Ospina 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
Steady
Market4 Jan 2027
The offer from Austria Wien for Valentino 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.
Squad4 Jan 2027
An individual honour is a strange thing in a team game, and the best of them are never argued with. He has had the sort of year that ends with his name being read out, and Mattersburg have had the benefit of it.
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.
Squad4 Jan 2027
Marko Lindner 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.
Squad4 Jan 2027
Words at Mattersburg training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Philipp Ilsanker 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.
Market4 Jan 2027
“They were honest with me, and I would rather know.” Martin Lindner has been informed he is not in the manager's thinking at Mattersburg.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad16 Nov 2026
4 goals in one game. The first was taken well, the second was taken greedily, and by the third the crowd were simply waiting for him to get the ball.
Match14 Nov 2026
Rarely has this fixture seen a display like it: 5‑1 against Admira Wacker, and it could have been more.
Squad16 Nov 2026
“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.
Player ratings16 Nov 2026
Tikhon Sapunov, 33, rolls back the years — 7.91
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 7.91 at 33, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Squad16 Nov 2026
16 goals and a season average of 7.27. Form like that gets noticed well beyond this town.
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 Mattersburg this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match14 Nov 2026
6 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about Mattersburg and Admira Wacker in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
Player ratings16 Nov 2026
A performance of 9.91 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
The terraces16 Nov 2026
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 20-year-old it feels ownership of. Maximilian Baumgartner 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.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
Two goals and a mark of 9.35 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 29. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Market24 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.
Squad24 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 Mattersburg this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match22 Aug 2026
It finished 3‑1, and it was Tikhon Sapunov’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Mattersburg.
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
Marked 8.82. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Mattersburg.
Match22 Aug 2026
SV Ried blown away early
There is a particular helplessness in conceding 2 times before the twentieth minute. SV Ried tried to reorganise, Mattersburg did not allow it, and the result was written long before it was confirmed.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Words at Mattersburg training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Raphael Posch 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.
Squad24 Aug 2026
6 new faces, and Mattersburg are still learning each other
A squad rebuilt inside one window pays for it in a currency nobody budgets for. The football is not worse than the sum of the players; it is worse than the sum of the players who have played together before.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Market10 Aug 2026
The unthinkable, invoiced: Florian Onisiwo sold
TSG Hoffenheim arrived with $13.8M and left with the best player in the building. The board will call it business; the queue at the ticket office will use other words.
The terraces10 Aug 2026
Supporters turn on the $13.8M sale of Florian Onisiwo
He is going to TSG Hoffenheim, the club has $13.8M it did not have on Friday, and the phone-ins have already decided how they feel about that. Selling well and selling somebody they loved are not the same skill.
Player ratings10 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 26. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Market10 Aug 2026
The offer from Triestina for Martin Lindner 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.
Squad10 Aug 2026
“The easiest signature of my career.” Philipp Ilsanker and Mattersburg agree another 5 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad10 Aug 2026
Marko Lindner 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.
Squad10 Aug 2026
Words at Mattersburg training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Philipp Ilsanker 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.
Match8 Aug 2026
Three points for Mattersburg, 2‑0 the final word against Grodig in a contest settled by the finer margins.
Market10 Aug 2026
Add another name to the list: Vaduz have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Andreas Zimmermann. The answer from Mattersburg has not changed — yet.