The Heidenheim Chronicle
Squad4 Sep 2034
Mikkel Kaufmann breaks a bone — 110 days out
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 110 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Squad4 Sep 2034
A knee injury of the worst kind for Peter Lehmann
19 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Heidenheim lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Squad4 Sep 2034
Taylan Aydın says Heidenheim went back on their word
“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.
Market4 Sep 2034
Maik Afri Akumu puts it in writing
“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 The request is on a desk at Heidenheim, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad4 Sep 2034
Marvin Pieringer has been here 11 seasons
508 appearances across 11 seasons in one shirt. Nobody builds a career like that on purpose any more; it happens to a certain kind of footballer at a certain kind of club.
Market4 Sep 2034
Jannik Westphal has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Heidenheim they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Boardroom4 Sep 2034
Rocco Friel has agreed to leave Heidenheim for nothing
He will play here until the summer and then walk out of the door for free, having already signed elsewhere. Supporters will manage the first part of that sentence; it is the second they will struggle with.
Market4 Sep 2034
Christian Conteh raises the bar for Heidenheim
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Heidenheim heard it as anything else.
Match2 Sep 2034
A bad afternoon for Heidenheim against Bayer Leverkusen
0‑2 to Bayer Leverkusen, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
In brief
- Market Adrian Beck told to find a new club
- Player ratings Youssoupha Niang runs at them all day
- Boardroom The Heidenheim production line keeps running