Marked for Romaric Yapi
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market8 Feb 2027
FC Lahti say no — this time
The offer from VPS for Topias Inkinen 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.
Market8 Feb 2027
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Paulus Hradecky 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.
Market8 Feb 2027
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Atte Taylor 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.
Squad8 Feb 2027
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Leo Di Martino and FC Lahti agree another 3 years.
Squad8 Feb 2027
Words exchanged at FC Lahti
Martim Ferreira 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.
Squad8 Feb 2027
José Müller 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.
Transfer targets8 Feb 2027
A loan move for Mark Engel is in the works
FC Lahti have made the call to Ajax. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
Transfer targets8 Feb 2027
A loan move for Tarik Karic is in the works
FC Lahti have made the call to Malmo FF. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
The dugout8 Feb 2027
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad11 Jan 2027
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 17 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Market11 Jan 2027
The interest is real enough to have reached print. FC Lahti have said nothing, which in a transfer window is its own kind of answer.
Squad11 Jan 2027
Words exchanged at FC Lahti
Aatu Hakala 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.
Market11 Jan 2027
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Urho Toivio is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Market11 Jan 2027
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Jaakko Arajuuri 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.
Squad11 Jan 2027
Words at FC Lahti training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Armend Kabashi 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.
The dugout11 Jan 2027
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
Market11 Jan 2027
Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Aatu Hakala’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.
The dugout11 Jan 2027
Momodou Sarr has been promised minutes
A conversation in the manager’s office, and a commitment that came out of it. Promises like that are cheap to make and expensive to break, and Momodou Sarr has written the date down.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad4 Jan 2027
25 days out for Väinö Vehkonen after a fracture
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. FC Lahti will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Squad4 Jan 2027
A falling-out at FC Lahti
Aatu Hakala and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad4 Jan 2027
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Otso Koskinen and FC Lahti agree another 3 years.
The dugout4 Jan 2027
The manager makes an example of Aleksi Paananen
“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.
Squad4 Jan 2027
Martim Ferreira in trouble away from the ground
Every paper's favourite story and every manager's least. What happened is being dealt with internally, which is the phrase clubs use when they would rather nobody asked again.
The dugout4 Jan 2027
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad14 Dec 2026
A fracture rules Väinö Vehkonen out for 46 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason FC Lahti will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Squad14 Dec 2026
Words exchanged at FC Lahti
Tòfol Montiel 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.
Market14 Dec 2026
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Mikael Hakola 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.
The dugout14 Dec 2026
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at FC Lahti, and both men came out saying it was fine.
The dugout14 Dec 2026
Romaric Yapi has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at FC Lahti 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.
Market14 Dec 2026
Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Aatu Hakala’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad23 Nov 2026
Aatu Hakala 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 dugout23 Nov 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Aleksi Paananen, and the manager let it.
Squad23 Nov 2026
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Justus Ojanen commits to FC Lahti for another 4 years.
The dugout23 Nov 2026
Aatu Hakala has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at FC Lahti 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.
Market23 Nov 2026
The name of Yohan Cassubie keeps appearing in other people's back pages. FC Lahti say nothing, which says plenty.
The dugout23 Nov 2026
A conversation in the manager’s office, and a commitment that came out of it. Promises like that are cheap to make and expensive to break, and Armend Kabashi has written the date down.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad16 Nov 2026
Words exchanged at FC Lahti
Aatu Hakala 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.
Squad16 Nov 2026
A row about effort at FC Lahti
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Armend Kabashi was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout16 Nov 2026
Romaric Yapi has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at FC Lahti 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.
Market16 Nov 2026
Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Aatu Hakala’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.
The dugout16 Nov 2026
A conversation in the manager’s office, and a commitment that came out of it. Promises like that are cheap to make and expensive to break, and Matias Vainionpää has written the date down.
The dugout16 Nov 2026
The manager plants his flag on Yohan Cassubie
“Judge me on him.” Managers do not say that kind of thing by accident — it moves the pressure from Yohan Cassubie’s shoulders onto his own, and both of them know it.
In brief
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Squad
The training reports on José Müller are not good
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Squad
Romaric Yapi is training like a man with a point to make
From our football correspondent
Steady
The dugout19 Oct 2026
“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Words exchanged at FC Lahti
Tòfol Montiel 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.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Armend Kabashi 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 dugout19 Oct 2026
Romaric Yapi has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at FC Lahti 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.
The dugout19 Oct 2026
Momodou Sarr knocks on the manager’s door
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Momodou Sarr trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Market19 Oct 2026
Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Romain Sans’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad21 Sep 2026
Words exchanged at FC Lahti
Aatu Hakala 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.
The dugout21 Sep 2026
Romaric Yapi gets picked when it counts
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Romaric Yapi is on it.
The dugout21 Sep 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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad14 Sep 2026
A falling-out at FC Lahti
Martim Ferreira and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Words at FC Lahti training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Armend Kabashi 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.
The dugout14 Sep 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Aaron Lindholm, and the manager let it.
The dugout14 Sep 2026
Tòfol Montiel gets picked when it counts
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Tòfol Montiel is on it.
Squad14 Sep 2026
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 FC Lahti would admit. It shows on Saturdays.
The dugout14 Sep 2026
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at FC Lahti. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.