Marked for Mathijs Tielemans
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad7 Dec 2026
André Rømer breaks a bone — 121 days out
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 121 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Player ratings7 Dec 2026
Successful dribbles: 27. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
The dugout7 Dec 2026
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Aalborg may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Squad7 Dec 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.
Squad7 Dec 2026
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Mikkel Kallesøe commits to Aalborg for another 3 years.
Match5 Dec 2026
Esbjerg made Aalborg work for it, but the scoreboard read 2‑1 at the end and the table does not ask how.
Player ratings7 Dec 2026
A performance of 8.51 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Squad7 Dec 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.
The dugout7 Dec 2026
A player who expected to start watched it instead. The manager will call it a decision for the team; Lucas Lissens will call it something else in private.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad30 Nov 2026
André Rømer breaks a bone — 129 days out
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 129 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
The dugout30 Nov 2026
Rody de Boer: that is not what I was promised
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Aalborg have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Squad30 Nov 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.
Player ratings30 Nov 2026
Successful dribbles: 20. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
The dugout30 Nov 2026
The manager makes an example of André Rømer
“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.
Squad30 Nov 2026
A row about effort at Aalborg
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Mathijs Tielemans was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout30 Nov 2026
Clubs make promises constantly and the page usually only hears about them when they are broken. This one was honoured, and the dressing room noticed that faster than any supporter did.
Player ratings30 Nov 2026
Marked 7.64 on an afternoon he ran from the first whistle to the last. Whatever else went wrong, Aalborg had the best player on the pitch.
Match28 Nov 2026
A 1‑1 draw with FC Midtjylland leaves the dressing room somewhere between relief and regret.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad16 Nov 2026
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Aalborg will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Match14 Nov 2026
Hobro will want this one forgotten quickly: 3‑0, every duel lost, and a long ride home. Aalborg were ruthless in the way good sides are ruthless.
Market16 Nov 2026
Lucas Lissens hands in a written request
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Aalborg can pretend not to have heard.
Match14 Nov 2026
The drought breaks for Aalborg
8 without a win is the sort of run that changes how a town talks about its club, and Hobro were the afternoon it stopped. Nothing is fixed by one result and everything feels different by one.
Player ratings16 Nov 2026
One scored and one made, which is a different afternoon from scoring twice and an easier one to overlook. Marked 7.97, and involved in 2 of his side's goals.
Squad16 Nov 2026
A falling-out at Aalborg
Benjamin Tiedemann Hansen and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
The terraces16 Nov 2026
The crowd has taken to Kelvin John
At 23 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.
Squad16 Nov 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.
Player ratings16 Nov 2026
Marked 8.17 — 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.
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
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.