Marked for Thomas Amang
From our football correspondent
Steady
Transfer targets18 Jan 2027
$7.3M on the table at SuperSport United. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
Market18 Jan 2027
The fee is $490.0K, the contract is signed, and the argument about whether he is worth it can begin. Luzern drove a hard bargain; time will say who won it.
Squad18 Jan 2027
Rúben Dantas Fernandes 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 dugout18 Jan 2027
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 Edimilson Fernandes is on it.
Squad18 Jan 2027
A row about effort at Young Boys
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Thomas Amang was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Market18 Jan 2027
Young Boys have made Darian Maleš available for transfer. A career at this club is over in all but paperwork.
The dugout18 Jan 2027
Rayan Raveloson 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.
Squad18 Jan 2027
The competition arrived without a word said to him about it. Cédric Zesiger keeps the shirt for now, at Young Boys's convenience rather than his own.
Market18 Jan 2027
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Isaac Schmidt signs something — a contract at Young Boys or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
Match4 Jan 2027
36 points and nobody above them. The word is not being said around the ground yet, and it is being thought in every seat.
Transfer targets4 Jan 2027
The offer went to Bloemfontein Celtic 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.
Transfer targets4 Jan 2027
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Al-Ahli have kept their man, and Young Boys go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad4 Jan 2027
There are footballers who have a good season and footballers a season is remembered for, and the second kind get their names read out in a hall in the summer. Young Boys will be quietly delighted and privately nervous.
The dugout4 Jan 2027
Tanguy Zoukrou: 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.” Young Boys have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Transfer targets4 Jan 2027
$370.0K on the table at Luzern. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
Market4 Jan 2027
The name of Alan Virginius has come up in conversations Young Boys were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Squad4 Jan 2027
“I have given this everything, but my family is not here and neither am I, not really.” A footballer can be coached out of bad form. Nobody has ever been coached out of this, and Young Boys know it.
Market4 Jan 2027
Darian Maleš is free to find somewhere else
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Young Boys has been clear about where Darian Maleš stands, which is more than many ever get.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad28 Dec 2026
At 24 the improving is meant to be over. It is not: 3 points better than the mark taken at the start of the year, which is the sort of thing that happens to players who take the boring parts of the job seriously.
The dugout28 Dec 2026
The manager makes an example of Iván Santillán
“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.
Squad28 Dec 2026
Thomas Amang 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 dugout28 Dec 2026
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 Alessandro Schöpf is on it.
Market28 Dec 2026
The name of Darian Maleš keeps appearing in other people's back pages. Young Boys say nothing, which says plenty.
The dugout28 Dec 2026
Lewin Blum 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 Lewin Blum has written the date down.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Player ratings14 Dec 2026
Successful dribbles: 39. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
Match9 Dec 2026
Young Boys beaten on the continent
0‑1 against Paksi, and an evening that measured the gap rather than the ninety minutes. Nothing about it was a disgrace and nothing about it was close.
The dugout14 Dec 2026
The manager makes an example of Rayan Raveloson
“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.
Boardroom14 Dec 2026
The music was off and the showers ran late. What was said in that dressing room stays there, but Saturday will publish the minutes.
The dugout14 Dec 2026
The manager’s verdict
“That is on me. I pick the team and I picked wrong.” Managers say that when they mean it and when they need to be seen to, and after 0‑1 Albian Freuler left the room before anybody could ask which.
The dugout14 Dec 2026
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.
Squad14 Dec 2026
Words at Young Boys training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Thomas Amang 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 Dec 2026
Somebody else has been better, the manager has said so with a team sheet, and there is no argument to be had. He will get the shirt back the only way it can be got back.
Market14 Dec 2026
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Alvyn Sanches signs something — a contract at Young Boys or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Market24 Aug 2026
The offer from Grasshopper for Gregory Wüthrich 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.
Market24 Aug 2026
“I listened, I thought about it, and I am staying. That is the whole story.” The clubs had agreed a fee. Facinet Conté had not agreed to go, which turned out to be the part that mattered.
Transfer targets24 Aug 2026
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Lugano have kept their man, and Young Boys go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Match22 Aug 2026
4 wins on the spin now, and the question has changed from whether the run ends to who ends it. Confidence like this cannot be bought; it has to be earned exactly this way.
Market24 Aug 2026
Add another name to the list: Lugano have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Loris Benito. The answer from Young Boys has not changed — yet.
The terraces24 Aug 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.
Match22 Aug 2026
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Alvyn Sanches. 1‑0 against Sion, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
Ninety minutes of Alvyn Sanches at his very best
Marked 8.35. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Young Boys.
Squad24 Aug 2026
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Thomas Amang and Young Boys agree another 3 years.
In brief
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The dugout
The manager’s verdict
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Player ratings
Nobody could get near Alan Virginius
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Squad
The division's best last weekend was a Young Boys man
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Transfer targets17 Aug 2026
Young Boys asked and St. Gallen said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Market17 Aug 2026
The interest is real enough to have reached print. Young Boys have said nothing, which in a transfer window is its own kind of answer.
Market17 Aug 2026
The offer from Brentford for Facinet Conté 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.
Match15 Aug 2026
3 wins on the spin now, and the question has changed from whether the run ends to who ends it. Confidence like this cannot be bought; it has to be earned exactly this way.
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 21. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
The terraces17 Aug 2026
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Alan Virginius 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.
Match15 Aug 2026
Three points for Young Boys, 1‑0 the final word against St. Gallen in a contest settled by the finer margins.
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
Christian Fassnacht was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.33. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
The dugout17 Aug 2026
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Albian Freuler on a 1‑0 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.