Marked for Niklas Schmidt
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market19 Jun 2028
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Le Puy Foot 43 waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Toulouse FC is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Transfer targets19 Jun 2028
Clermont Foot have accepted the money. What Toulouse FC do not yet have is the man, and between here and the photograph is a conversation about wages that both sides are dreading.
Transfer targets19 Jun 2028
$11.0M was the most the club would pay and Red Star were asking for more. Deals like this are revived in the last week of a window roughly half the time, and everybody involved knows it.
Market19 Jun 2028
“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 The request is on a desk at Toulouse FC, and it is not being withdrawn.
Market19 Jun 2028
Business is business: Kjetil Haug goes
USL Dunkerque paid $2.7M and Toulouse FC took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
Transfer targets19 Jun 2028
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.
Squad19 Jun 2028
“The easiest signature of my career.” Casper Tengstedt and Toulouse FC agree another 5 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad19 Jun 2028
Jakub Kiwior 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 Jun 2028
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.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
Boardroom29 May 2028
Qualification is done, and next season the floodlights come on for something bigger. A stage for the players, oxygen for the accounts and a passport for everybody else.
Squad29 May 2028
The kind of year that ends with a name being read out in a hall. Toulouse FC had the benefit of it every week and now have the problem of everybody else knowing.
Squad29 May 2028
20 clean sheets across a season, and the one award on the pitch nobody else is eligible for. Most keepers get through a whole career without a year like it.
Squad29 May 2028
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Alexis Claude-Maurice was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad29 May 2028
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Toulouse FC this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Market29 May 2028
Abu Francis comes back from a loan that worked
31 appearances and 0 goals away from here, and a player the manager did not have in August. Loans are sent out hoping for exactly this and most of them do not deliver it.
The dugout29 May 2028
The manager makes an example of Ousmane Diakité
“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.
Market29 May 2028
Niklas Schmidt is free to find somewhere else
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Toulouse FC has been clear about where Niklas Schmidt stands, which is more than many ever get.
The dugout29 May 2028
Sikou Niakaté has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Toulouse FC 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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Match8 May 2028
The season ends: position 5 for Toulouse FC
The last league game has been played and the table has stopped moving: 57 points. The summer begins on Monday, and so does the argument about what it all meant.
Match6 May 2028
14 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
Market8 May 2028
“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 Toulouse FC, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad8 May 2028
“The easiest signature of my career.” Djibril Sidibé and Toulouse FC agree another 2 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad8 May 2028
“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; Toulouse FC are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Squad8 May 2028
Dro 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 Toulouse FC this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The dugout8 May 2028
“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.
Squad8 May 2028
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Allan Tchaptchet was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout8 May 2028
Nobody at Toulouse FC 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.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market3 Apr 2028
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Toulouse FC can pretend not to have heard.
Match1 Apr 2028
Toulouse FC make home a hard place to visit
11 without defeat on their own grass. The pitch has not changed; the crowd has — louder earlier, and quicker to sense when the opposition would rather be somewhere else.
Loan watch3 Apr 2028
The goals keep arriving from Santiago Hidalgo’s exile
17 goals in 28 games at Clermont Foot — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Toulouse FC updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
Squad3 Apr 2028
Rasmus Nicolaisen 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.
Match1 Apr 2028
It finished 1‑0, and it was Yann Gboho’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Toulouse FC.
Squad3 Apr 2028
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Toulouse FC can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Player ratings3 Apr 2028
Successful dribbles: 18. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Player ratings3 Apr 2028
A performance of 8.04 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
The dugout3 Apr 2028
No hiding place for Dro
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Dro, and the manager let it.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad27 Mar 2028
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Yann Gboho was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout27 Mar 2028
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Ousmane Diakité, and the manager let it.
The dugout27 Mar 2028
Jakub Kiwior 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 Jakub Kiwior is on it.
Squad27 Mar 2028
“I respect the manager and I am not going to sit here and pretend I am happy.” It is the most common sentence in football and it has never once been the end of a story.
Market27 Mar 2028
Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Jakub Kiwior’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.
Looking ahead27 Mar 2028
FC Lorient next, and one man in the Toulouse FC dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
The dugout27 Mar 2028
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Toulouse FC. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
Loan watch27 Mar 2028
25 appearances away from home and 5 goals to show for them. Every one of them makes next summer's conversation a little more expensive.
The dugout27 Mar 2028
Niklas Schmidt 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 Feb 2028
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Toulouse FC can pretend not to have heard.
Match19 Feb 2028
Hard to beat is not the same as winning, but 7 matches without defeat is a foundation Toulouse FC did not have in the autumn.
Squad21 Feb 2028
Ousmane Diakité 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 targets21 Feb 2028
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.
Squad21 Feb 2028
Words at Toulouse FC training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Allan Tchaptchet 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.
Squad21 Feb 2028
Toulouse FC are still strangers to each other
6 new signings in one window. Every one may be an upgrade and the side can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild the verdicts never mention.
Market21 Feb 2028
The shop window has Aron Dønnum in it
Toulouse FC have let the market know Aron Dønnum can be had. No price in the advert, but everyone in the trade knows roughly what it says.
The dugout21 Feb 2028
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.
Player ratings21 Feb 2028
Successful dribbles: 14. 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.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Transfer targets24 Jan 2028
Toulouse FC offered $11.3M; RC Strasbourg said it was not close. The manager will be told the money is still there for the right player, which is what managers are told.
Market24 Jan 2028
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Toulouse FC can pretend not to have heard.
Transfer targets24 Jan 2028
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.
Transfer targets24 Jan 2028
Everything agreed with AS Saint-Etienne, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
Match22 Jan 2028
Momentum is a hard thing to buy and an easy thing to lose, and right now Toulouse FC have 3 straight wins of it.
Squad24 Jan 2028
Charlie Cresswell 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.
Loan watch24 Jan 2028
The goals keep arriving from Santiago Hidalgo’s exile
14 goals in 19 games at Clermont Foot — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Toulouse FC updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
Squad24 Jan 2028
“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; Toulouse FC are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad27 Dec 2027
Aron Dønnum 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.
Match25 Dec 2027
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Frank Magri. 1‑0 against Olympique Lyonnais, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Player ratings27 Dec 2027
A performance of 8.08 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Squad27 Dec 2027
Words at Toulouse FC training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Allan Tchaptchet 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.
Loan watch27 Dec 2027
The goals keep arriving from Santiago Hidalgo’s exile
10 goals in 15 games at Clermont Foot — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Toulouse FC updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
The dugout27 Dec 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Niklas Schmidt, and the manager let it.
The dugout27 Dec 2027
Sikou Niakaté 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 Sikou Niakaté is on it.
The dugout27 Dec 2027
The manager’s verdict
“I am not going to get carried away and I will not let them either. It was a good day. There will be harder ones.” Julien Renaud kept it short after the 1‑0 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
The dugout27 Dec 2027
The manager wanted a different profile for this opponent, which is a real football reason and no consolation. He did nothing wrong and he did not play.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match9 Dec 2027
3‑0. Nights like this are why clubs spend decades trying to qualify for this competition, and they arrive perhaps twice in that time. Everybody who was in the ground will describe it badly for years.
Market13 Dec 2027
Aron Dønnum wants to know where this is going
“I want to win things, and I would like to do it here.” Nothing has been demanded and nothing has been threatened — but a boardroom at Toulouse FC hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
The dugout13 Dec 2027
“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 ratings13 Dec 2027
A performance of 8.49 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Player ratings13 Dec 2027
Alexis Claude-Maurice was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.44. 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.
Player ratings13 Dec 2027
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.36, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Squad13 Dec 2027
200 times in these colours, in all weathers and under four or five different managers. That kind of service is quietly disappearing from the game.
Squad13 Dec 2027
Kjetil Haug and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad13 Dec 2027
Words at Toulouse FC training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Allan Tchaptchet 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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad1 Nov 2027
2 kept out from twelve yards, and a stadium that will describe each of them for twenty years. A goalkeeper needs one night like this in a career, and this was it.
Match30 Oct 2027
17 matches without defeat, and then FC Nantes. Nobody at the ground pretended it would go on forever; nobody expected it to stop here either.
Match27 Oct 2027
1‑1 against Paris FC, and the road stops here. Cup exits are quick deaths — no second leg, no next week, just the league from now until May.
The dugout1 Nov 2027
Dro: 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.” Toulouse FC have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Match30 Oct 2027
Beaten 0‑1, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Player ratings1 Nov 2027
Successful dribbles: 18. 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.
Squad1 Nov 2027
Thomas Jørgensen 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.
Match27 Oct 2027
Toulouse FC rescue it on 119 minutes
Behind, and beaten by any honest reading, until minute 119. Paris FC had the points in their pocket and a corner of the ground still believed, which is generally when it happens.
Player ratings1 Nov 2027
A penalty is the one moment in football with nowhere to hide, and he did not score it. The walk back was long and the week will be longer.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match24 Oct 2027
Still nobody has beaten Toulouse FC
The unbeaten run reaches 16. Some of them were wins and some were escapes, but a side that refuses to lose is a side other dressing rooms talk about.
Match21 Oct 2027
1‑0 against MFK Ruzomberok, and a performance that will be described to people who were not there for the rest of the season. Casper Tengstedt was at the centre of the description.
Player ratings25 Oct 2027
Aron Dønnum beats them one at a time
Successful dribbles: 29. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Market25 Oct 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 Toulouse FC, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad25 Oct 2027
Aron Dønnum and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Match24 Oct 2027
The run at home goes on for Toulouse FC
9 matches unbeaten here. Every visiting manager is asked about it in the week before, which is precisely why it keeps going.
Squad25 Oct 2027
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Toulouse FC can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Player ratings25 Oct 2027
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.23, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Market25 Oct 2027
“They were honest with me, and I would rather know.” Thomas Jørgensen has been informed he is not in the manager's thinking at Toulouse FC.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Match16 Oct 2027
Whatever happens, Toulouse FC do not lose
14 games unbeaten now. Some were earned and some were survived, but a habit is forming — and habits are the hardest thing in football to play against.
Market18 Oct 2027
“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.
Player ratings18 Oct 2027
Successful dribbles: 19. 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.
Match16 Oct 2027
Toulouse FC make home a hard place to visit
8 without defeat on their own grass. The pitch has not changed; the crowd has — louder earlier, and quicker to sense when the opposition would rather be somewhere else.
Match16 Oct 2027
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Frank Magri. 1‑0 against Olympique de Marseille, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Match13 Oct 2027
AJ Auxerre made Toulouse FC work for it, but the scoreboard read 1‑0 at the end and the table does not ask how.
Player ratings18 Oct 2027
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.39, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Squad18 Oct 2027
Pizzi and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad18 Oct 2027
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Allan Tchaptchet was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
The dugout11 Oct 2027
Rafik Messali: 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.” Toulouse FC have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Market11 Oct 2027
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Toulouse FC is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad11 Oct 2027
Rasmus Nicolaisen 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.
Squad11 Oct 2027
Allan Tchaptchet 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 dugout11 Oct 2027
Aron Dønnum 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 Aron Dønnum is on it.
The dugout11 Oct 2027
Kjetil Haug 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.
Market11 Oct 2027
The Jakub Kiwior story refuses to die
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Jakub Kiwior signs something — a contract at Toulouse FC or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Looking ahead11 Oct 2027
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against AJ Auxerre in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
The dugout11 Oct 2027
Niklas Schmidt 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 Niklas Schmidt trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Transfer targets30 Aug 2027
The clubs have shaken hands with VfB Stuttgart; the player has not yet. Personal terms are next, and personal terms are where more deals die than anybody prints.
Transfer targets30 Aug 2027
Toulouse FC offered $38.4M; Benfica said it was not close. The manager will be told the money is still there for the right player, which is what managers are told.
Market30 Aug 2027
Terms done: Niko Sigur is going
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and FC Versailles waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Toulouse FC is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Market30 Aug 2027
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Squad30 Aug 2027
Aron Dønnum and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Match28 Aug 2027
Hard to beat is not the same as winning, but 6 matches without defeat is a foundation Toulouse FC did not have in the autumn.
Transfer targets30 Aug 2027
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.
The dugout30 Aug 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Guillaume Restes, and the manager let it.
Squad30 Aug 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 Toulouse FC know it.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market22 Mar 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 Darmstadt 98, and it is not being withdrawn.
Match20 Mar 2027
No end in sight to Darmstadt 98's wait for a win
4 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Darmstadt 98 has to find a result from somewhere.
Squad22 Mar 2027
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.
Squad22 Mar 2027
Sergio López 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.
Player ratings22 Mar 2027
Successful dribbles: 18. 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.
Match20 Mar 2027
A goal on 92 minutes turned three points into one and a good afternoon into an argument about game management that will run until Saturday.
Player ratings22 Mar 2027
Some games turn on a moment; this one turned on a man. 7.96 on the card, and the Darmstadt 98 support went home talking about one name.
The dugout22 Mar 2027
The manager makes an example of Yosuke Furukawa
“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.
Match20 Mar 2027
It needed Mojmír Chytil to find the net to bring anything home at all: 1‑1 against Arminia Bielefeld, and half the dressing room will call it a point won.
In brief
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The dugout
The manager’s verdict
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The dugout
A promise honoured for Niklas Schmidt
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The dugout
Fraser Hornby knocks on the manager’s door
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match19 Dec 2026
Whatever happens, Darmstadt 98 do not lose
8 games unbeaten now. Some were earned and some were survived, but a habit is forming — and habits are the hardest thing in football to play against.
Match19 Dec 2026
4 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.
Squad21 Dec 2026
Lars Ritzka 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 Dec 2026
3 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Darmstadt 98 can tell you which week it ends in.
Squad21 Dec 2026
Sergio López 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.
Player ratings21 Dec 2026
Some games turn on a moment; this one turned on a man. 7.62 on the card, and the Darmstadt 98 support went home talking about one name.
The dugout21 Dec 2026
Half-satisfied: Kevin Wagner 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 dugout21 Dec 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.
Match19 Dec 2026
Nil-nil, and few chances worth the name. Magdeburg came to defend and left with exactly what they came for.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Match12 Dec 2026
Whatever happens, Darmstadt 98 do not lose
7 games unbeaten now. Some were earned and some were survived, but a habit is forming — and habits are the hardest thing in football to play against.
Squad14 Dec 2026
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Lars Ritzka was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad14 Dec 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 Darmstadt 98 this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Player ratings14 Dec 2026
The afternoon belonged to Sergio López
A mark of 7.46, and nobody in the ground would argue with it. He was involved in everything that mattered and most of what did not.
The dugout14 Dec 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Sergio López, and the manager let it.
The dugout14 Dec 2026
“It is not the end of the world and it is not good enough. Both of those are true.” The manager, after a 0‑0 draw, said the honest thing and then went to say it again inside.
Match12 Dec 2026
Point won or two lost for Darmstadt 98?
Ninety minutes, no goals, and the argument started before the car park emptied: a point gained, or two thrown away against Holstein Kiel? Both sides of it will still be going on Thursday.
Looking ahead14 Dec 2026
Magdeburg next, and one man in the Darmstadt 98 dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
Player ratings14 Dec 2026
Successful dribbles: 11. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad28 Sep 2026
The knee: Lukas Reich out for 36 days
36 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Darmstadt 98 lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Filippo Mané breaks a bone — 86 days out
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 86 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Match26 Sep 2026
No end in sight to Darmstadt 98's wait for a win
4 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Darmstadt 98 has to find a result from somewhere.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Hiroki Akiyama 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.
Player ratings28 Sep 2026
Nobody could get near Paul Will
Successful dribbles: 18. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
The dugout28 Sep 2026
Paul Will 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.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Niklas Schmidt 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 Sep 2026
“It is not the end of the world and it is not good enough. Both of those are true.” The manager, after a 0‑0 draw, said the honest thing and then went to say it again inside.
Market28 Sep 2026
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Darmstadt 98 has been clear about where Alexander Brunst stands, which is more than many ever get.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad14 Sep 2026
A fracture rules Filippo Mané out for 102 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Darmstadt 98 will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 29. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Market14 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.
Transfer targets14 Sep 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.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Words at Darmstadt 98 training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Lars Ritzka 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.
Squad14 Sep 2026
100 times in these colours, in all weathers and under four or five different managers. That kind of service is quietly disappearing from the game.
Squad14 Sep 2026
9 new faces, and Darmstadt 98 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.
Market14 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.
The dugout14 Sep 2026
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Kevin Wagner after the 0‑0 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad7 Sep 2026
A fracture rules Filippo Mané out for 110 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Darmstadt 98 will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
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.
Boardroom7 Sep 2026
Deadline passes with 20 signed and 3 gone
That is the business done at Darmstadt 98 until the window opens again. Whether it was enough will be answered on Saturdays rather than in a column, and the first Saturday is close.
Market7 Sep 2026
The offer from Hertha BSC for Matej Maglica 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.
Market7 Sep 2026
The deal that would have taken Luca Marseiler to Karlsruher SC has collapsed at the last stage, and he reports back to Darmstadt 98 with a summer to forget and a season still to play. Nobody is saying which side walked away.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Lars Ritzka 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 Darmstadt 98 this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Transfer targets7 Sep 2026
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. AC Milan have kept their man, and Darmstadt 98 go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Transfer targets7 Sep 2026
The clock did what Magdeburg would not, and ended it. Supporters who watched the countdown will spend the next window doing it again.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Niklas Schmidt was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.