Marked for Thadèe Kaleba
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Match19 Jun 2027
4‑0, and Lucas Pimentel took the headlines on an afternoon when everything Ekenäs IF tried came off. Days like this are retold all winter.
Player ratings21 Jun 2027
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 8.99, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
Player ratings21 Jun 2027
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.96 at 36, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Match19 Jun 2027
Ekenäs IF make it 3 in a row
Momentum is a hard thing to buy and an easy thing to lose, and right now Ekenäs IF have 3 straight wins of it.
Squad21 Jun 2027
Nils Veinbergs 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.
The terraces21 Jun 2027
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Saidou Bah has it now, and everything he does for the rest of his time here will be measured against the goodwill he was handed for free.
Match19 Jun 2027
2 goals inside twenty minutes with Lucas Pimentel in the middle of it, and Klubi 04 unable to get near the ball long enough to change anything. Some matches are won before the first drink.
Player ratings21 Jun 2027
A performance of 8.16 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Squad21 Jun 2027
Words at Ekenäs IF training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Asla Peltola 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.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
Boardroom12 Apr 2027
Joni Lod signs on for the long haul
Ekenäs IF moved before anybody else could: a new deal for Joni Lod, agreed quietly and announced loudly. Boards extend managers for many reasons; the good one is the one this looks like.
Player ratings12 Apr 2027
Successful dribbles: 22. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad12 Apr 2027
Lucas Forsten-Kaufmann and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Boardroom12 Apr 2027
3 boys move up, and somewhere in the building the people who coached them at twelve are quietly having the best morning of their working year. Nothing about this shows up in a result and it is why the academy exists.
Transfer targets12 Apr 2027
Ekenäs IF asked and Arezzo said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Market12 Apr 2027
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Lassi Pohjanpalo 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.
Market12 Apr 2027
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Daniel Hradecky is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Market12 Apr 2027
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Oliver Ojala 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.
The dugout12 Apr 2027
This is not rotation. Oliver Güneş has not been in the manager's plans for some time, and nobody at Ekenäs IF is pretending otherwise.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market8 Feb 2027
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Transfer targets8 Feb 2027
$290.0K settles it between the clubs for José Müller
FC Lahti have accepted the money. What Ekenäs IF do not yet have is the man, and between here and the photograph is a conversation about wages that both sides are dreading.
Transfer targets8 Feb 2027
Ekenäs IF have gone to IF Gnistan 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.
Squad8 Feb 2027
A row about effort at Ekenäs IF
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Nasiru Mohammed was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad8 Feb 2027
“The easiest signature of my career.” Juninho Piancó and Ekenäs IF agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Market8 Feb 2027
Jakob Gottberg is free to find somewhere else
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Ekenäs IF has been clear about where Jakob Gottberg stands, which is more than many ever get.
Squad8 Feb 2027
The system has changed and his position has not. A footballer can improve his form; he cannot improve the manager’s formation, and that is the whole of the problem.
The dugout8 Feb 2027
Nils Veinbergs has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Ekenäs IF will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
Squad8 Feb 2027
A year in and the city has not opened up, the language has not come, and lunch is eaten alone more often than anybody at Ekenäs IF would admit. It shows on Saturdays.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Market3 Aug 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 Ekenäs IF, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad3 Aug 2026
“The easiest signature of my career.” Thadèe Kaleba and Ekenäs IF agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Transfer targets3 Aug 2026
Ekenäs IF have gone to SJK 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.
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 Ekenäs IF this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Market3 Aug 2026
The phone has started ringing about Saidou Bah again, and this time the name on the line is Ilves. Ekenäs IF are listening politely and promising nothing.
Squad3 Aug 2026
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Ekenäs IF can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Transfer targets3 Aug 2026
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. HJK have kept their man, and Ekenäs IF go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
The terraces3 Aug 2026
The crowd has taken to Saidou Bah
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.
Match1 Aug 2026
It finished 1‑0, and it was Saidou Bah’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Ekenäs IF.