Marked for Lars Jendal
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market4 Jan 2027
“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 The request is on a desk at Sogndal, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad4 Jan 2027
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Sebastian Pedersen and Sogndal agree another 4 years.
Squad4 Jan 2027
A falling-out at Sogndal
Lars Jendal 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
Words at Sogndal training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Atli Barkarson 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.
Market4 Jan 2027
“We are a long way apart, and pretending otherwise helps nobody.” Neither side is close, and the calendar is not on the club's side.
Squad4 Jan 2027
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Sogndal can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
The dugout4 Jan 2027
The manager makes an example of Marius Årøy
“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.
The dugout4 Jan 2027
Sander Granheim 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.
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.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad28 Dec 2026
A falling-out at Sogndal
Even Hovland and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad28 Dec 2026
At 18 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.
Squad28 Dec 2026
Kasper Skaanes 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.
Squad28 Dec 2026
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Mathias Øren commits to Sogndal for another 4 years.
The dugout28 Dec 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Atli Barkarson, and the manager let it.
The dugout28 Dec 2026
Kasper Skaanes 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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market30 Nov 2026
Vegard Hagen has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Sogndal they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad30 Nov 2026
“Some mornings you wake up and you are still a long way from everything you know.” It is not the football and it never was; Sogndal are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Squad30 Nov 2026
Words at Sogndal training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Kasper Skaanes 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.
Squad30 Nov 2026
Diogo Brás 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 dugout30 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.
The dugout30 Nov 2026
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Sogndal told Tuomas Pippola something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
Market30 Nov 2026
Lars Jendal linked with a move away
The name of Lars Jendal keeps appearing in other people's back pages. Sogndal say nothing, which says plenty.
The dugout30 Nov 2026
When it matters, Marius Årøy plays
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.
Market30 Nov 2026
The clock does Fábio Sturgeon’s negotiating for him
1 months left, and both sides know what that means: every week without a signature, the fee Sogndal could ask drops and the wages Fábio Sturgeon can ask rise.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market23 Nov 2026
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Sogndal is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
The dugout23 Nov 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.
Squad23 Nov 2026
Lars Jendal 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.
Match21 Nov 2026
A 2‑0 win over Mjondalen, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
The dugout23 Nov 2026
The manager makes an example of Even Hovland
“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.
Player ratings23 Nov 2026
A performance of 8.28 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Player ratings23 Nov 2026
A midfielder is measured on whether the team functions when he is on the pitch, which is nearly impossible to see and completely obvious in retrospect. 10 actions, 7.40, and a manager who will not be substituting him again in a hurry.
Squad23 Nov 2026
Words at Sogndal training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Atli Barkarson 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
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Morten Ajer on a 2‑0 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Match17 Oct 2026
Kasper Skaanes had done his part in building a 2-goal cushion. What happened after that was collective, and Åsane were allowed back into a match that had been finished with.
Market19 Oct 2026
Only the photograph left for Diogo Brás
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Diogo Brás will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Sogndal the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 18 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.
Squad19 Oct 2026
A row about effort at Sogndal
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Kasper Skaanes was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout19 Oct 2026
Lars Jendal 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.
Player ratings19 Oct 2026
A performance of 8.21 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Player ratings19 Oct 2026
A performance of 8.03 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Squad19 Oct 2026
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Khadar Abdi Ibrahim and Sogndal agree another 4 years.
Squad19 Oct 2026
8 new faces, and Sogndal are still learning each other
A squad rebuilt inside one window pays for it in a currency nobody budgets for. The football is not worse than the sum of the players; it is worse than the sum of the players who have played together before.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market12 Oct 2026
Only the photograph left for Fábio Sturgeon
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Fábio Sturgeon will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Sogndal the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Boardroom12 Oct 2026
There is no worse way to lose a footballer. Diogo Brás has pre-agreed a move away, which means every appearance between now and June is made by a man the club can no longer sell, and somebody upstairs will be asked why the contract was allowed to get here.
Squad12 Oct 2026
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Preben Asp and Sogndal agree another 3 years.
Squad12 Oct 2026
Ard Ragnar Sundal is a better footballer than he was
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 18 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.
Squad12 Oct 2026
Words exchanged at Sogndal
Diogo Brás 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.
Squad12 Oct 2026
“Some mornings you wake up and you are still a long way from everything you know.” It is not the football and it never was; Sogndal are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
The dugout12 Oct 2026
Kasper Skaanes 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.
The dugout12 Oct 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 Atli Barkarson is on it.
Looking ahead12 Oct 2026
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Åsane in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market5 Oct 2026
Only the photograph left for Vegard Hagen
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Vegard Hagen will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Sogndal the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad5 Oct 2026
At 19 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.
Boardroom5 Oct 2026
The rules permit it and it stings anyway. Vegard Hagen has agreed terms with Stromsgodset for the summer, and until then he pulls on this shirt as a player who has already chosen his next one.
Squad5 Oct 2026
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Lars Jendal and Sogndal agree another 4 years.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Lars Jendal 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 Sogndal this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Kasper Skaanes 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 dugout5 Oct 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Martin Høyland, and the manager let it.
Player ratings5 Oct 2026
Marked 7.28. Ask anyone leaving the ground what settled it and you will get one name, which is the only award that has ever really counted.
The dugout5 Oct 2026
Kasper Skaanes 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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market21 Sep 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 Sogndal, and it is not being withdrawn.
Market21 Sep 2026
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Sogndal they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad21 Sep 2026
Even Hovland 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.
Match19 Sep 2026
It finished 1‑0, and it was Martin Høyland’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Sogndal.
Squad21 Sep 2026
A row about effort at Sogndal
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Atli Barkarson was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Player ratings21 Sep 2026
A mark of 7.80, and nobody in the ground would argue with it. He was involved in everything that mattered and most of what did not.
The dugout21 Sep 2026
Morten Ajer: “That is the standard”
“That is what I want every week. Not the result, the way they went about it.” The manager, after 1‑0, already talking about the next one.
The dugout21 Sep 2026
“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.
The dugout21 Sep 2026
Even Hovland 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 Even Hovland trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market14 Sep 2026
Only the photograph left for Lars Jendal
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Lars Jendal will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Sogndal the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 7 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
Boardroom14 Sep 2026
The rules permit it and it stings anyway. Lars Jendal has agreed terms with Brann for the summer, and until then he pulls on this shirt as a player who has already chosen his next one.
Squad14 Sep 2026
A row about effort at Sogndal
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Kasper Skaanes was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Match12 Sep 2026
Sogndal come up short against Moss
Moss left with the points after a 1‑2 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
The dugout14 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.
Market14 Sep 2026
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Sogndal, another week without a signature from Lars Jendal.
The dugout14 Sep 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 1‑2 Morten Ajer left the room before anybody could ask which.
The dugout14 Sep 2026
The manager has not finished forgetting Atli Barkarson's mistake
Publicly it is behind everybody. It is not behind the man who picks the team, and the only place that shows is a team sheet. He will get another chance; he will get it in a match that matters less.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market7 Sep 2026
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Market7 Sep 2026
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Kasper Skaanes 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.
Market7 Sep 2026
“There is a gap, and pretending there is not helps nobody.” Neither side has moved, and the calendar is working for exactly one of them.
Squad7 Sep 2026
8 new faces, and Sogndal are still learning each other
A squad rebuilt inside one window pays for it in a currency nobody budgets for. The football is not worse than the sum of the players; it is worse than the sum of the players who have played together before.
The dugout7 Sep 2026
Lars Jendal is still paying for one afternoon at Sogndal
Nobody will confirm this and nothing else explains the last month of selections. A costly error buys a player a period of being second choice that is always longer than the error was.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Lūkass Vapne makes the team of the month
Four or five weekends of consistency, measured against everybody else in the division. A quieter compliment than an award and a more reliable one.
Squad7 Sep 2026
The captaincy has been taken off Even Hovland. Sogndal will call it a decision about the team; a dressing room reads it as a verdict on a man.
The dugout7 Sep 2026
“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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Match29 Aug 2026
3‑0, and Lūkass Vapne took the headlines on an afternoon when everything Sogndal tried came off. Days like this are retold all winter.
Market31 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 Sogndal, and it is not being withdrawn.
Player ratings31 Aug 2026
A brace, and Lūkass Vapne takes the afternoon — 8.11
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Lūkass Vapne provided it, and the 8.11 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Market31 Aug 2026
Only the photograph left for Martin Høyland
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Martin Høyland will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Sogndal the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Market31 Aug 2026
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Transfer targets31 Aug 2026
Sogndal asked and KFUM Oslo said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
The terraces31 Aug 2026
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Lūkass Vapne 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.
The dugout31 Aug 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Lars Jendal, and the manager let it.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Match12 Aug 2026
Sogndal march on in the cup
Stabaek are out and Sogndal go through, 1‑0 the final word. The bracket opens up a little, and everyone allows themselves a look at it.
Squad17 Aug 2026
A one-man rearguard from Lars Jendal
There were 7 saves in it, and at least three that had no business being saves at all. The ten outfield players owe him a drink and they know it.
Transfer targets17 Aug 2026
Fee agreed, terms agreed, and a scan that said otherwise. He goes back to Egersund; Sogndal go back to the market; and both will insist there is no story here.
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
Marius Årøy pops up at the right end — 7.46
7.46, 1 on the scoresheet, and the specific comedy of a back-four player celebrating like somebody who does this every week. He does not, and that is exactly why the ground reacted the way it did.
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 25. 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.
Boardroom17 Aug 2026
Window shuts: 15 in, 20 out at Sogndal
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 15 arrived, 20 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
Squad17 Aug 2026
“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 Sogndal know it.
Squad17 Aug 2026
A falling-out at Sogndal
Lars Jendal and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Transfer targets17 Aug 2026
The approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market10 Aug 2026
Brann come back empty-handed
The bid was some way short and Sogndal did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Boardroom10 Aug 2026
He will play here until the summer and then walk out of the door for free, having already signed elsewhere. Supporters will manage the first part of that sentence; it is the second they will struggle with.
Transfer targets10 Aug 2026
$400.0K on the table at Egersund. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
Squad10 Aug 2026
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Even Hovland and Sogndal agree another 2 years.
Squad10 Aug 2026
Words exchanged at Sogndal
Even Hovland 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 targets10 Aug 2026
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Rosenborg have kept their man, and Sogndal go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
The dugout10 Aug 2026
Even Hovland 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.
Market10 Aug 2026
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Kristian Henriksen is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Market10 Aug 2026
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Alexander Riise is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.