Marked for Mathias Rasmussen
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match18 Nov 2026
The cup run ends for St. Pauli
0‑1 against Hamburger SV, and the road stops here. Cup exits are quick deaths — no second leg, no next week, just the league from now until May.
Match21 Nov 2026
The wait goes on for St. Pauli
5 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
Match21 Nov 2026
The goals have deserted St. Pauli
5 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at St. Pauli can tell you which week it ends in.
Squad23 Nov 2026
Karol Mets in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at St. Pauli this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The dugout23 Nov 2026
Tomoya Ando gets it from the manager
“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.
Squad23 Nov 2026
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at St. Pauli can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Squad23 Nov 2026
Words at St. Pauli training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mathias Rasmussen 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 dugout23 Nov 2026
Eric Smith asks for a word with the manager
“I would rather say it to his face than read about it.” The meeting was requested by the player, which tells you most of what you need to know.
Player ratings23 Nov 2026
Successful dribbles: 14. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad2 Nov 2026
A fracture rules Markus Seidel out for 30 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason St. Pauli will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
The dugout2 Nov 2026
Karol Mets: 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.” St. Pauli have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Player ratings2 Nov 2026
Successful dribbles: 25. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Match31 Oct 2026
0‑1 to VfL Wolfsburg, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Squad2 Nov 2026
Words at St. Pauli training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Karol Mets 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.
Squad2 Nov 2026
“The easiest signature of my career.” Vágner and St. Pauli agree another 1 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad2 Nov 2026
Tim Dietrich and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
The dugout2 Nov 2026
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 0‑1, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
The dugout2 Nov 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
Uneasy
Squad26 Oct 2026
37 days out for Markus Seidel after a fracture
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. St. Pauli will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Squad26 Oct 2026
Eric Smith and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad26 Oct 2026
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Marwin Schmitz commits to St. Pauli for another 5 years.
Squad26 Oct 2026
A row about effort at St. Pauli
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Rainey Breinburg was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout26 Oct 2026
Half-satisfied: Karl Dietrich on the draw
“There are things I liked and things we will be doing on Tuesday until they are right.” 0‑0, and a manager who had already decided what Tuesday looked like.
The dugout26 Oct 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Rony Jansson, and the manager let it.
Match24 Oct 2026
Ninety minutes, two goalkeepers with clean gloves, and not one finish worth keeping. Union Berlin will be the happier side with the point.
Market26 Oct 2026
Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Martijn Kaars’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.
Player ratings26 Oct 2026
Shots: 8, not one of them in. A centre forward is paid for one thing, and on this evidence he has forgotten which thing it is.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market7 Sep 2026
St. Pauli spend $5.8M to raise the standard
This is not cover and nobody is pretending it is. $5.8M has been paid because Sirlord Conteh is straightforwardly better than what was already here, and the club has decided to stop waiting.
Transfer targets7 Sep 2026
The offer went to Heidenheim this week and it is theirs to answer. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loud the door closes.
Market7 Sep 2026
Ben Voll 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 St. Pauli can pretend not to have heard.
Transfer targets7 Sep 2026
Everything agreed with Hertha BSC, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
Boardroom7 Sep 2026
St. Pauli close the window on a squad of their own making
17 in and 4 out, and no more changes for months. The manager has what he has, the supporters have their opinion of it, and the table will have the last word.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Rainey Breinburg arrives at the club he grew up with
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Rainey Breinburg has, at St. Pauli, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Words exchanged at St. Pauli
Eric Smith 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 targets7 Sep 2026
A deal that was a phone call from completion at lunchtime was dead by midnight. St. Pauli will try again when the window opens; Greuther Fürth may not be selling by then.
The terraces7 Sep 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: Sirlord Conteh from Heidenheim for $5.8M, and a ticket office having a very good morning.