Marked for Benjamin Hofmann
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Transfer targets19 Jul 2027
RB Leipzig asked and Bayern Munich said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Squad19 Jul 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 RB Leipzig this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad19 Jul 2027
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Benjamin Hofmann is 15, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Squad19 Jul 2027
Words at RB Leipzig training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Christoph 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.
Squad19 Jul 2027
Rocco Reitz has improved at 25, which nobody expected
Careers are supposed to plateau and then decline, and the players who ignore that are always the ones who were listening on the training ground. 3 points of it, over months, at an age where the direction normally only goes one way.
The dugout19 Jul 2027
The manager makes an example of Willi Orbán
“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.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad22 Mar 2027
The knee: Ørjan Nyland out for 118 days
118 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. RB Leipzig lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Match20 Mar 2027
4‑1, and Rômulo took the headlines on an afternoon when everything RB Leipzig tried came off. Days like this are retold all winter.
Player ratings22 Mar 2027
Both of them Rômulo's — 9.01
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 9.01, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
The dugout22 Mar 2027
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” RB Leipzig may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Squad22 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 RB Leipzig this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad22 Mar 2027
A row about effort at RB Leipzig
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Christopher Nkunku was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad22 Mar 2027
A quiet fortnight at RB Leipzig
With 8 players away on international duty the sessions are small and the manager can actually hear himself. It is the one break in the season, and it never quite feels like one.
The terraces22 Mar 2027
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 22-year-old it feels ownership of. Ezechiel Banzuzi 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.
Match20 Mar 2027
8 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 30. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
A defender's goal wins it for RB Leipzig — 7.96
1 for David Raum, marked 7.96, and a centre-half's name in the part of the report he normally only reaches by mistake. He will not be allowed to forget it in the dressing room for a month.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Victor Osimhen 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.
Market14 Sep 2026
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at RB Leipzig heard it as anything else.
Squad14 Sep 2026
A row about effort at RB Leipzig
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and David Raum was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout14 Sep 2026
Ørjan Nyland gets it from the manager
“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.
Market14 Sep 2026
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Benjamin Hofmann 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
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Markus Koch has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.
Market14 Sep 2026
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Ralf Otto has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.