Marked for Justin Mathieu
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad5 Oct 2026
The words a physio says slowly. 85 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.
Player ratings5 Oct 2026
Two goals and a mark of 9.18 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Player ratings5 Oct 2026
No sign of nerves from Tim Geypens at 21 — 7.74
The hardest thing about being 21 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Tim Geypens did not need any: 7.74, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Squad5 Oct 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 Emmen this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match3 Oct 2026
Three points for Emmen, 3‑2 the final word against Almere City in a contest settled by the finer margins.
Match3 Oct 2026
Emmen hit back inside 3 minutes
Almere City held the lead for 3 minutes, which is not long enough to enjoy it. Emmen answered before the celebration had properly finished, and the shape of the afternoon changed with it.
The dugout5 Oct 2026
The manager makes an example of Agon Sadiku
“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.
Squad5 Oct 2026
“I have given this everything, but my family is not here and neither am I, not really.” A footballer can be coached out of bad form. Nobody has ever been coached out of this, and Emmen know it.
Squad5 Oct 2026
The award is a small thing with a heavy meaning: for four weeks nobody in this division did his job better. Emmen have the trophy on a shelf and the player in the side.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad28 Sep 2026
54 goals in one afternoon from one man. The other players were also present, a witness confirmed.
Squad28 Sep 2026
17 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.
Match26 Sep 2026
No mercy from Emmen
Jong Ajax will want this one forgotten quickly: 93‑0, every duel lost, and a long ride home. Emmen were ruthless in the way good sides are ruthless.
Squad28 Sep 2026
The match ball belongs to Torben Rhein, whose 11 goals turned a difficult afternoon into a procession.
Squad28 Sep 2026
The match ball belongs to Jorrit Hendrix, whose 9 goals turned a difficult afternoon into a procession.
Player ratings28 Sep 2026
A brace, and Tim Geypens takes the afternoon — 8.06
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Tim Geypens provided it, and the 8.06 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Player ratings28 Sep 2026
Ninety minutes of Finn Stokkers at his very best
Marked 10.00. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Emmen.
Player ratings28 Sep 2026
A performance of 10.00 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Match26 Sep 2026
Justin Mathieu among the goals in a wild afternoon
93 goals in one match, Justin Mathieu on the scoresheet, and a scoreline that will look like a misprint. Neutrals could not have asked more of Emmen and Jong Ajax.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 30. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Transfer targets24 Aug 2026
$1.1M on the table at Vitesse. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
Boardroom24 Aug 2026
The number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $170.0K — a club that wants Tycho de Wit enough to be asked twice.
Transfer targets24 Aug 2026
Emmen have gone to AZ 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.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Words exchanged at Emmen
Jorrit Hendrix 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 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.
Squad24 Aug 2026
200 times in these colours, in all weathers and under four or five different managers. That kind of service is quietly disappearing from the game.
Match22 Aug 2026
Level with 90 minutes on the clock, after an afternoon Emmen had all but put away. Helmond Sport will call it a point earned; the home dressing room will call it two given away, and both of them are right.
Market24 Aug 2026
“We are a long way apart, and pretending otherwise helps nobody.” Neither side is close, and the calendar is not on the club's side.
In brief
-
Squad
Words at Emmen training over how hard people work
-
The dugout
Jorrit Hendrix is still paying for one afternoon at Emmen
-
Squad
Too much change too quickly at Emmen
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Match15 Aug 2026
5‑0, and Jorrit Hendrix took the headlines on an afternoon when everything Emmen tried came off. Days like this are retold all winter.
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
Two goals and a mark of 7.95 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Luca Everink arrives at the club he grew up with
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Luca Everink has, at Emmen, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 6.47, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
Transfer targets17 Aug 2026
Emmen asked and Ajax said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Transfer targets17 Aug 2026
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at AC Milan is saying, and nobody at Emmen is enjoying the guessing.
Squad17 Aug 2026
A falling-out at Emmen
Jorrit Hendrix and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad17 Aug 2026
A row about effort at Emmen
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Luca Everink was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The terraces17 Aug 2026
At 22 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
In brief
-
Match
Emmen settle it inside twenty minutes
-
Player ratings
Justin Mathieu did the work nobody counts — 6.46
-
Player ratings
Ninety minutes of Joshua Mukeh at his very best
From our football correspondent
Steady
Transfer targets10 Aug 2026
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Feyenoord have kept their man, and Emmen go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Transfer targets10 Aug 2026
No thanks: Ken Nkuba rejects the move
Emmen had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Racing Genk, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
Squad10 Aug 2026
Words exchanged at Emmen
Justin Mathieu 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.
Squad10 Aug 2026
Words at Emmen training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jorrit Hendrix 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.
Market10 Aug 2026
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Patrick Van de Beek 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.
Market10 Aug 2026
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Virgil Malen 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.
Market10 Aug 2026
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Steven Dumfries 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.
Market10 Aug 2026
One of our own: Owen Aké joins the Emmen first team
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Owen Aké is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Squad10 Aug 2026
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Joshua Mukeh and Emmen agree another 4 years.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad3 Aug 2026
A move Justin Mathieu would have made for nothing
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Justin Mathieu is living that version at Emmen, and it tends to show in the first month.
Squad3 Aug 2026
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Agon Sadiku and Emmen agree another 4 years.
Transfer targets3 Aug 2026
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.
Squad3 Aug 2026
A falling-out at Emmen
Agon Sadiku and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad3 Aug 2026
The formation has left Finn Stokkers behind
Every shape has positions in it and this one does not have his. Emmen will either change the shape, change his job, or change his club, and he is waiting to hear which.
Market3 Aug 2026
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Emmen, another week without a signature from Finn Stokkers.
Transfer targets3 Aug 2026
A loan enquiry to Racing Genk: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.
Transfer targets3 Aug 2026
Emmen have made the call to Borussia Dortmund. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
Transfer targets3 Aug 2026
Heracles have been asked whether they would lend him. Loans are agreed quickly or not at all, and this one will be one or the other by the weekend.