Marked for Ramon Hendriks
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Transfer targets1 Feb 2027
$13.6M settles it between the clubs for Younes Ebnoutalib
Eintracht Frankfurt have accepted the money. What VfB Stuttgart do not yet have is the man, and between here and the photograph is a conversation about wages that both sides are dreading.
Market1 Feb 2027
There comes a point where a club either backs its own ambition or admits it does not have any. VfB Stuttgart have paid $36.9M for Josip Stanišić, which is the loudest way there is of saying which one it chose.
Market1 Feb 2027
Werder Bremen pay $44.2M, 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.
Squad1 Feb 2027
Defences have started doubling up on Ismaïla Sarr
22 goals and a season average of 7.58 will do that. The space he used to find has gone; he keeps scoring anyway, which is the mark of the real thing.
Player ratings1 Feb 2027
A brace, and Ismaïla Sarr takes the afternoon — 9.09
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Ismaïla Sarr provided it, and the 9.09 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Market1 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 The request is on a desk at VfB Stuttgart, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad1 Feb 2027
Josip Stanišić gets the move he always wanted
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Josip Stanišić has just signed for VfB Stuttgart, and for once the answer mattered.
Match30 Jan 2027
Momentum is a hard thing to buy and an easy thing to lose, and right now VfB Stuttgart have 5 straight wins of it.
The terraces1 Feb 2027
Supporters turn on the $44.2M sale of Ermedin Demirović
He is going to Werder Bremen, the club has $44.2M 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.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Match5 Dec 2026
Rarely has this fixture seen a display like it: 6‑1 against VfL Wolfsburg, and it could have been more.
Player ratings7 Dec 2026
Two goals and a mark of 9.19 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Match5 Dec 2026
6 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.
Market7 Dec 2026
“I have ambitions, and I would like the club to share them.” Nobody has asked to leave and nobody has been shown the door — but a player chooses that sentence carefully, and a boardroom hears it exactly as it was meant.
Match5 Dec 2026
Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 7 goals between VfB Stuttgart and VfL Wolfsburg, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.
Player ratings7 Dec 2026
Ninety minutes of Jamie Leweling at his very best
Marked 8.56. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at VfB Stuttgart.
Player ratings7 Dec 2026
A performance of 8.45 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Player ratings7 Dec 2026
Marked 8.24 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
Squad7 Dec 2026
The award is a small thing with a heavy meaning: for four weeks nobody in this division did his job better. VfB Stuttgart have the trophy on a shelf and the player in the side.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Match7 Nov 2026
Rarely has this fixture seen a display like it: 6‑0 against Eintracht Frankfurt, and it could have been more.
Player ratings9 Nov 2026
A brace, and Ermedin Demirović takes the afternoon — 9.42
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Ermedin Demirović provided it, and the 9.42 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Player ratings9 Nov 2026
A brace, and Ismaïla Sarr takes the afternoon — 8.60
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Ismaïla Sarr provided it, and the 8.60 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Player ratings9 Nov 2026
A brace, and Jamie Leweling takes the afternoon — 8.64
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Jamie Leweling provided it, and the 8.64 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Market9 Nov 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 VfB Stuttgart heard it as anything else.
Match7 Nov 2026
Hard to beat is not the same as winning, but 7 matches without defeat is a foundation VfB Stuttgart did not have in the autumn.
Squad9 Nov 2026
Defences have started doubling up on Ismaïla Sarr
9 goals and a season average of 7.28 will do that. The space he used to find has gone; he keeps scoring anyway, which is the mark of the real thing.
Squad9 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 VfB Stuttgart this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
In brief
-
The dugout
The manager’s verdict
-
Player ratings
A defender's afternoon for Ramon Hendriks
-
Squad
The division's best last weekend was a VfB Stuttgart man