Marked for Mathijs Tielemans
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match14 Sep 2026
Aalborg are in among the leaders
Position 3 and 11 points on the board. Nobody at the ground will say the word out loud yet, and everybody at the ground is thinking it.
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
A defender on the scoresheet, which happens rarely enough that everybody in the ground remembers who took the corner. 1 for him, and a mark of 7.94 for the rest of it.
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 25. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Transfer targets14 Sep 2026
Viborg wanted more than $30.0K and the board would not go there. Walked away, for now, which in a transfer window means until somebody blinks.
Squad14 Sep 2026
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Transfer targets14 Sep 2026
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. BK Hacken have kept their man, and Aalborg go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
The terraces14 Sep 2026
He is 23 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.
Match12 Sep 2026
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Mathijs Tielemans. 2‑0 against FC Midtjylland, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
The dugout14 Sep 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Lucas Lissens, and the manager let it.
In brief
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Squad
A falling-out at Aalborg
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The dugout
The manager’s verdict
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The dugout
Muamer Brajanac knocks on the manager’s door
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad7 Sep 2026
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 8 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
Transfer targets7 Sep 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.
Market7 Sep 2026
“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 Aalborg, and it is not being withdrawn.
Boardroom7 Sep 2026
Window shuts: 9 in, 2 out at Aalborg
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 9 arrived, 2 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
Market7 Sep 2026
Hobro come back empty-handed
The bid was some way short and Aalborg did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Benjamin Tiedemann Hansen 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.
Transfer targets7 Sep 2026
FC Nordsjaelland wanted more than $36.0K and the board would not go there. Walked away, for now, which in a transfer window means until somebody blinks.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Words at Aalborg training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. André Rømer 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.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Somebody has moved past him. It is not a dropping and it is worse than one, because a dropping is about a Saturday and this is about where he stands.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad17 Aug 2026
Elison Makolli damages knee ligaments — 35 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 35 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.
Transfer targets17 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.
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 24. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Words exchanged at Aalborg
Benjamin Tiedemann Hansen 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 targets17 Aug 2026
An offer of $33.0K for Hjalte Boe
Aalborg have gone to FC Nordsjaelland 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.
The terraces17 Aug 2026
Boards get told what they have done wrong for years and hear nothing on the days they get it right. This is one of those days: Muamer Brajanac from Esbjerg for $1.6M, and a ticket office having a very good morning.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Mathijs Tielemans falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Market17 Aug 2026
The shape has not worked since the summer and the reason was never a mystery. Muamer Brajanac comes in from Esbjerg to be the missing piece, which is a flattering description and a heavy one.
Match15 Aug 2026
It finished 2‑0, and it was Kelvin John’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Aalborg.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad10 Aug 2026
A knee injury of the worst kind for Elison Makolli
42 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Aalborg lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Match8 Aug 2026
Chastening afternoon for Aalborg
A 0‑3 beating by FC Copenhagen was the sort of result that empties a stadium long before the final whistle.
Transfer targets10 Aug 2026
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Astra have kept their man, and Aalborg go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Transfer targets10 Aug 2026
$1.6M settles it between the clubs for Muamer Brajanac
Esbjerg have accepted the money. What Aalborg do not yet have is the man, and between here and the photograph is a conversation about wages that both sides are dreading.
Market10 Aug 2026
Aalborg say no — this time
The offer from Brondby for Mikkel Kallesøe 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
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Aalborg this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad10 Aug 2026
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
The dugout10 Aug 2026
“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.