Marked for Bendegúz Bolla
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad5 Oct 2026
Paul Gartler: 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.” Rapid Wien have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Toby Alderweireld 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.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Alexander Grillitsch is 20, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Words at Rapid Wien training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Serge-Philippe Raux-Yao 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.
Player ratings5 Oct 2026
Successful dribbles: 19. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Match3 Oct 2026
A 1‑0 win over Mattersburg, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
Player ratings28 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 30. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad28 Sep 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 Rapid Wien this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Kevin Kalajdzic is a better footballer than he was
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 22 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
Match26 Sep 2026
It finished 1‑0, and it was Ercan Kara’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Rapid Wien.
Player ratings28 Sep 2026
A mark of 7.75, and nobody in the ground would argue with it. He was involved in everything that mattered and most of what did not.
Squad28 Sep 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Claudy M'Buyi, and the manager let it.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Player ratings10 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 31. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad10 Aug 2026
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Serge-Philippe Raux-Yao and Rapid Wien agree another 4 years.
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 Rapid Wien this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad10 Aug 2026
Bendegúz Bolla 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.
Market10 Aug 2026
The phone has started ringing about Amīn-Elias Gröller again, and this time the name on the line is Altach. Rapid Wien are listening politely and promising nothing.
Match8 Aug 2026
Three points for Rapid Wien, 1‑0 the final word against SV Ried in a contest settled by the finer margins.
Player ratings10 Aug 2026
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.03, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Squad10 Aug 2026
He is doing things on a Saturday afternoon that nobody around him can answer, which is flattering for about one season and a problem after that. Rapid Wien will not keep him by pretending otherwise.
Market10 Aug 2026
Still no offer on the table, and Bendegúz Bolla’s deal keeps shrinking. In boardroom language, silence this long stops being an oversight and starts being an answer.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad3 Aug 2026
“The easiest signature of my career.” Matthias Seidl and Rapid Wien agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad3 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 Rapid Wien this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Words at Rapid Wien training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Bendegúz Bolla 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.
Market3 Aug 2026
The name of Marco Tilio has come up in conversations Rapid Wien were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
The terraces3 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.
Squad3 Aug 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Ange Ahoussou, and the manager let it.
Player ratings3 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 17. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Market3 Aug 2026
49 months to run and not a word offered. A club that lets the calendar negotiate for it usually ends up losing to the calendar.
Player ratings3 Aug 2026
Marked 7.31. Ask anyone leaving the ground what settled it and you will get one name, which is the only award that has ever really counted.