“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Union Berlin heard it as anything else.
A 1‑0 win over VfL Wolfsburg, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
16 times he got in the way of something. Centre-halves get written about when they make mistakes and ignored when they do not, so an afternoon like this needs saying out loud: he is the reason the scoreline reads as it does.
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.
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Oliver Wagner on a 1‑0 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Union Berlin know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Mikkel Kaufmann provided it, and the 8.37 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
“I have ambitions, and I would like the club to share them.” Nobody has asked to leave and nobody has been shown the door — but a player chooses that sentence carefully, and a boardroom hears it exactly as it was meant.
Clubs make promises constantly and the page usually only hears about them when they are broken. This one was honoured, and the dressing room noticed that faster than any supporter did.
The manager has re-ordered his thinking and Piet Scobel has come out of it lower. He will be told it is temporary, and the players who have heard that before will avoid his eye.
There were 86 minutes on the clock and Borussia Dortmund had all but banked the point. Football rarely reads the room, and Union Berlin did not stop to explain themselves.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Mikkel Kaufmann provided it, and the 8.25 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
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.
It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether Union Berlin can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
Marked 6.47 on 14 actions at both ends of the pitch. Midfielders like this get described as unspectacular by people who have never tried to play against one.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Mikkel Kaufmann. 2‑1 against Borussia Dortmund, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Everybody saw it before anybody said it. At 33 the numbers say 3 points down on what he was, and the question for Union Berlin is how to handle a man they owe a great deal.
A shoot-out is remembered by its ending, and this one ends with Elias Bethke: 2 kept out, and a set of supporters who will describe every one of them for the next twenty years.
The hardest thing about being 21 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Magnus Dalpiaz did not need any: 7.67, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
The general version of this complaint is that a player wants more. The specific version names the thing: he wants to walk out under floodlights against clubs from other countries, and he has stopped pretending otherwise.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Frederik Rønnow and Union Berlin agree another 2 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
The chances are being made and something is happening between the making and the finishing. 3 matches now, and the anxiety in the ground arrives a little earlier every week.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 21-year-old it feels ownership of. Magnus Dalpiaz 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.
Successful dribbles: 16. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
The dugout30 Oct 2028
The view from the dugout
“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 0‑1 defeat, delivered by Oliver Wagner to a room that had heard them before.
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.
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.
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Eintracht Frankfurt in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
At 29 he has taken a place rather than been given one, and somebody else has to find something to say about it. Union Berlin have a decision that made itself.
8 without a win is the sort of run that changes how a town talks about its club, and SC Freiburg were the afternoon it stopped. Nothing is fixed by one result and everything feels different by one.
He is 22 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.
A mark of 7.81, and nobody in the ground would argue with it. He was involved in everything that mattered and most of what did not.
The dugout23 Oct 2028
Somebody else is better right now than Derrick Köhn
The team sheet says it in public every week until it changes. The only version of being dropped a footballer cannot argue with, and the one he takes hardest.
The dugout23 Oct 2028
The view from the dugout
“We controlled it. There were spells I did not like and we will look at them, but the group showed me something.” Oliver Wagner, on a 1‑0 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Union Berlin can pretend not to have heard.
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Union Berlin heard it as anything else.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Mahmoud Dahoud and Union Berlin agree another 3 years.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Oliver Wagner after 0‑1, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Mainz 05 have kept their man, and Union Berlin go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
5 games without scoring. Strikers stop looking up, midfielders take the extra touch, and every shot that clears the bar is followed by a groan that has been building since the last goal.
8 signings in three months. Every one of them may be an upgrade and the team can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild that never appears in the transfer-window verdicts.
Union Berlin have gone to Mainz 05 with a bid, and the supporters have gone to the internet with an opinion about it. Whether either changes anything is up to the selling club.
Senior shirt numbers handed to boys the coaches have known since they were twelve. Most will not make it and all of them have already done the hard part.
The chances are being made and something is happening between the making and the finishing. 3 matches now, and the anxiety in the ground arrives a little earlier every week.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. David Weiß is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Christoph Mayer 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.
Union Berlin asked and Mainz 05 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 chase for Ben Bobzien ended with $5.1M changing hands and Mainz 05 out of reasons to say no. The supporters will judge the fee the only way that matters: on Saturdays.
Squad21 Aug 2028
10 new faces, and Union Berlin 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.
Nobody at Union Berlin 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.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Union Berlin, and both men came out saying it was fine.
The system has changed and his position has not. A footballer can improve his form; he cannot improve the manager’s formation, and that is the whole of the problem.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until András Schäfer signs something — a contract at Union Berlin or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
A new face in his position, and Leopold Querfeld suddenly has to win back what he thought he owned. Union Berlin have promised nothing — clubs rarely do at this stage.
A season-long audition: Fortuna Düsseldorf still own him, but the shirt and the minutes are Union Berlin's to give. A loan is a bet both clubs believe they are winning.
The general version of this complaint is that a player wants more. The specific version names the thing: he wants to walk out under floodlights against clubs from other countries, and he has stopped pretending otherwise.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Union Berlin can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Successful dribbles: 16. 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.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Union Berlin have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Player ratings24 Apr 2028
Up for the corner, and Diogo Leite delivers — 7.92
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Diogo Leite scored, was marked 7.92, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Union Berlin this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
A player who expected to start watched it instead. The manager will call it a decision for the team; Michel Aebischer will call it something else in private.
The dugout24 Apr 2028
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.” Oliver Wagner kept it short after the 1‑0 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Leopold Querfeld signs something — a contract at Union Berlin or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
The chances are being made and something is happening between the making and the finishing. 3 matches now, and the anxiety in the ground arrives a little earlier every week.
Nobody at Union Berlin 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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Nathan Tella trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Oliver Wagner after the 0‑0 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
Frederik Rønnow 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.
5 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.
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Oliver Wagner after the 0‑0 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
The crowd waited for a goal that never came. TSG Hoffenheim defended in numbers and left with what they came for, and the two sides could be playing still without troubling a scorer.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Union Berlin have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 7 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
“I watch every Union Berlin game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Mirassol runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
The dugout3 Apr 2028
The view from the dugout
“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 0‑1 defeat, delivered by Oliver Wagner to a room that had heard them before.
A month is long enough that nobody gets in by accident. Andrej Ilić is in the division's best eleven for it, which is a quieter compliment than an award and a more reliable one.
A defender on the scoresheet, which happens rarely enough that everybody in the ground remembers who took the corner. 1 for him, and a mark of 7.97 for the rest of it.
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Leopold Querfeld wants continental football; whether Union Berlin can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
Warm-up bib, ninety minutes of watching, and a handshake at the end that fooled nobody. Big matches tell you who a manager trusts; this one told Mikkel Kaufmann.
Nobody at Union Berlin 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.
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Oliver Wagner on a 2‑0 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
Successful dribbles: 13. 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.
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.
“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 Union Berlin hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
Something was said to Bryan Zaragoza and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
The dugout13 Mar 2028
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 Oliver Wagner left the room before anybody could ask which.
A player who expected to start watched it instead. The manager will call it a decision for the team; Michel Aebischer will call it something else in private.
6 signings in three months. Every one of them may be an upgrade and the team can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild that never appears in the transfer-window verdicts.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Union Berlin can pretend not to have heard.
Two goals and a mark of 8.39 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Union Berlin heard it as anything else.
Rani Khedira 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.
“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 Union Berlin know it.
“I watch every Union Berlin game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Mirassol runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Mehmet Avlayici has, at Union Berlin, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Union Berlin this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Union Berlin, and both men came out saying it was fine.
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.
“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.
Nobody at Union Berlin 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.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Leopold Querfeld signs something — a contract at Union Berlin or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
The crowd waited for a goal that never came. St. Pauli defended in numbers and left with what they came for, and the two sides could be playing still without troubling a scorer.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Union Berlin have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Union Berlin this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Nothing happens for months and then he simply arrives, at no cost, having signed a pre-contract while still turning out for somebody else. It is the least dramatic way to sign a footballer and frequently the shrewdest.
A 1‑0 win over Werder Bremen, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
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.
The dugout21 Feb 2028
The view from the dugout
“We controlled it. There were spells I did not like and we will look at them, but the group showed me something.” Oliver Wagner, on a 1‑0 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Union Berlin, and both men came out saying it was fine.
“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 Union Berlin, and it is not being withdrawn.
Dynamo Dresden have accepted the money. What Union Berlin do not yet have is the man, and between here and the photograph is a conversation about wages that both sides are dreading.
Stanley Nsoki 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.
Union Berlin asked and Werder Bremen said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
200 games in the shirt. Nobody sets out to build a record like that; it happens to a certain kind of player at a certain kind of club, and this town knows what it has.
Marked 8.02 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
Minute 89, against Köln, and a goal that felt like a win to everybody who had stayed. It was a draw. Nobody leaving the ground will describe it as one.
1‑4 to Hamburger SV, and it was every bit as bad as the number suggests. There are defeats you argue about and defeats you apologise for; this was the second kind.
A defender on the scoresheet, which happens rarely enough that everybody in the ground remembers who took the corner. 1 for him, and a mark of 7.80 for the rest of it.
Hamburger SV held the lead for 3 minutes, which is not long enough to enjoy it. Union Berlin answered before the celebration had properly finished, and the shape of the afternoon changed with it.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Union Berlin told Woo-Yeong Jeong something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Oliver Wagner after 1‑4, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Union Berlin can pretend not to have heard.
Beaten 0‑1, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
The dugout20 Dec 2027
The view from the dugout
“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 0‑1 defeat, delivered by Oliver Wagner to a room that had heard them before.
Nobody at Union Berlin 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.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Union Berlin, and both men came out saying it was fine.
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Hamburger SV in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
7.93, 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.
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Union Berlin heard it as anything else.
Successful dribbles: 21. 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.
Level with 90 minutes on the clock, after an afternoon Union Berlin had all but put away. Hertha BSC will call it a point earned; the home dressing room will call it two given away, and both of them are right.
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Oliver Wagner after the 1‑1 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
Clubs make promises constantly and the page usually only hears about them when they are broken. This one was honoured, and the dressing room noticed that faster than any supporter did.
“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 Union Berlin, and it is not being withdrawn.
Clubs make promises constantly and the page usually only hears about them when they are broken. This one was honoured, and the dressing room noticed that faster than any supporter did.
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 Josip Juranović is on it.
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 Union Berlin would admit. It shows on Saturdays.
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Marvin Friedrich’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Union Berlin needing him to play as if none of it matters.
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 Tom Rothe is on it.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Marin Ljubičić trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until András Schäfer signs something — a contract at Union Berlin or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Werder Bremen next, and one man in the Union Berlin dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
“I did not come here to warm up in front of people.” He is out of contract eventually, he is old enough to count the weeks, and Union Berlin will have to give him a reason to stay or an exit.
Numbers do not stay secret in a dressing room and never have. He is not asking for more than he is worth; he is asking why somebody beside him is worth more, and at Union Berlin that is a harder question to answer.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Union Berlin this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad27 Sep 2027
Tim Skarke 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 supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 1‑2, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Derrick Köhn trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Every touch weighed, every quote parsed, every mistake replayed. Some players grow into that; some are quietly finished by it; nobody knows which until afterwards.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Union Berlin have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
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.
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.
Leopold Querfeld and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad20 Sep 2027
Tim Skarke 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.
200 games in this shirt, through managers and relegations and everything else. Service like it is disappearing from the game and the crowd knows what it is watching.
A point taken on 89 minutes is worth exactly one point and considerably more than that to a dressing room. This side does not stop, which is a reputation worth more than the result.
0‑3 to Borussia Dortmund, and it was every bit as bad as the number suggests. There are defeats you argue about and defeats you apologise for; this was the second kind.
Union Berlin offered $2.9M; Dynamo Dresden 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.
“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 Union Berlin hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Boca Juniors have kept their man, and Union Berlin go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Successful dribbles: 16. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad13 Sep 2027
Words at Union Berlin training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Fraser Hornby 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 clubs have shaken hands with Atalanta; the player has not yet. Personal terms are next, and personal terms are where more deals die than anybody prints.
“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 Union Berlin, and it is not being withdrawn.
Derrick Köhn 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.
Boardroom30 Aug 2027
5 academy players handed senior numbers at Union Berlin
The morning the pathway stops being a brochure and becomes a team sheet. Most of them will not be here in three years; all of them have already done the hard part, which was getting to today.
Squad30 Aug 2027
Words at Union Berlin training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Tim Skarke 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.
Union Berlin asked and Dynamo Dresden said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Thomas Martin 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.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Klaus Müller 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.
The general version of this complaint is that a player wants more. The specific version names the thing: he wants to walk out under floodlights against clubs from other countries, and he has stopped pretending otherwise.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Tim Skarke was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Union Berlin this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Nobody at Union Berlin 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.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until András Schäfer signs something — a contract at Union Berlin or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
“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 Union Berlin, and it is not being withdrawn.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Tim Skarke was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Fraser Hornby 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.
34 games, 18 goals, and a squad option that has arrived without a fee attached. The interesting question at Union Berlin now is not whether he plays but who he displaces.
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Stanley Nsoki has his answer from Union Berlin; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
In brief
BoardroomUnion Berlin sign 6 boys into the academy
The dugoutAndrej Ilić knocks on the manager's door
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Union Berlin can pretend not to have heard.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Union Berlin have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
The most awkward business a club does is signing tomorrow's answer while today's is still in the building. Mio Backhaus comes from SC Freiburg for exactly that purpose, and the handover will not be discussed publicly by anybody.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 19 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.
Squad28 Jun 2027
Tim Skarke 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.
Oliver Burke 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.
6 signings in three months. Every one of them may be an upgrade and the team can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild that never appears in the transfer-window verdicts.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Derrick Köhn trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
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 Josip Juranović is on it.
It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether Union Berlin can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
He is 22 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.
He found out with everybody else, an hour before kick-off, from a sheet of paper on a wall. Nobody at Union Berlin pretended it was anything other than a decision about him.
Marked 7.61. 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 dugout10 May 2027
Somebody else is better right now than Andrej Ilić
The team sheet says it in public every week until it changes. The only version of being dropped a footballer cannot argue with, and the one he takes hardest.
The chances are being made and something is happening between the making and the finishing. 5 matches now, and the anxiety in the ground arrives a little earlier every week.
The demotion a club never announces and a dressing room always notices. Livan Burcu is further from the side than he was, and the reason will not be given until he asks.
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.
“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.
Clubs make promises constantly and the page usually only hears about them when they are broken. This one was honoured, and the dressing room noticed that faster than any supporter did.
18 goals in 31 games at Fortuna Düsseldorf — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Union Berlin updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
The chances are being made and something is happening between the making and the finishing. 4 matches now, and the anxiety in the ground arrives a little earlier every week.
Stanley Nsoki 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 dugout26 Apr 2027
The view from the dugout
“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 0‑2 defeat, delivered by Oliver Wagner to a room that had heard them before.
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.
Nobody at Union Berlin 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.
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Tom Rothe wants continental football; whether Union Berlin can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Union Berlin this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“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 Apr 2027
Somebody else is better right now than Livan Burcu
The team sheet says it in public every week until it changes. The only version of being dropped a footballer cannot argue with, and the one he takes hardest.
The dugout12 Apr 2027
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Oliver Wagner was not hiding it after 0‑0, and nobody in the Union Berlin dressing room was either.
8 shots, and a count that reads like a good afternoon until you check the other column. Strikers survive weeks like this on the understanding that the chances keep arriving; the day they stop is the day it becomes a problem.
At 22 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.
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 0‑2, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Union Berlin, and both men came out saying it was fine.
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Union Berlin has been clear about where Carl Klaus stands, which is more than many ever get.
0‑4 against Bayern Munich, and no complaints that would survive the replay. The manager spoke about character afterwards; the terraces used shorter words.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Union Berlin can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Clubs make promises constantly and the page usually only hears about them when they are broken. This one was honoured, and the dressing room noticed that faster than any supporter did.
He found out with everybody else, an hour before kick-off, from a sheet of paper on a wall. Nobody at Union Berlin pretended it was anything other than a decision about him.
The ambition story running the other way, and the one nobody tells: a footballer asking for a smaller stage, fewer cameras and a crowd that does not turn. It is not weakness and it is very rarely reported as anything else.
The general version of this complaint is that a player wants more. The specific version names the thing: he wants to walk out under floodlights against clubs from other countries, and he has stopped pretending otherwise.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Union Berlin can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Successful dribbles: 15. 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.
There is no complaint available here and everybody involved knows it, which does not make the walk to the bench any shorter. Form is the only currency in football that cannot be borrowed against.
The chances are being made and something is happening between the making and the finishing. 7 matches now, and the anxiety in the ground arrives a little earlier every week.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Union Berlin can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Every long career reaches the week the last one is thought about. He would like it to be where he started, and Union Berlin know now that the thought has arrived.
Something was said to Andrej Ilić and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
“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.
6 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.
6 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Union Berlin can tell you which week it ends in.
13 goals in 23 games at Fortuna Düsseldorf — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Union Berlin updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
Stanley Nsoki 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.
Successful dribbles: 15. 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.
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.
In brief
The dugoutDerrick Köhn knocks on the manager’s door
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.
5 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Union Berlin can tell you which week it ends in.
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Union Berlin heard it as anything else.
At 22 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
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.
200 games in this shirt, through managers and relegations and everything else. Service like it is disappearing from the game and the crowd knows what it is watching.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Union Berlin this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
A deal that was a phone call from completion at lunchtime was dead by midnight. Union Berlin will try again when the window opens; Hamburger SV may not be selling by then.
“I have ambitions, and I would like the club to share them.” Nobody has asked to leave and nobody has been shown the door — but a player chooses that sentence carefully, and a boardroom hears it exactly as it was meant.
The deal that would have taken David Preu to Hertha BSC has collapsed at the last stage, and he reports back to Union Berlin with a summer to forget and a season still to play. Nobody is saying which side walked away.
Match6 Feb 2027
After 8 games, Union Berlin finally taste it again
The first defeat in 8 matches. The manager will say it had to come; the dressing room will say it did not have to come against Bayer Leverkusen; the supporters will say both, in that order, all week.
The general version of this complaint is that a player wants more. The specific version names the thing: he wants to walk out under floodlights against clubs from other countries, and he has stopped pretending otherwise.
The chances are being made and something is happening between the making and the finishing. 3 matches now, and the anxiety in the ground arrives a little earlier every week.
Stripfing did not want to sell and the number is why they did. $11.2M for Lukas Schlager, and the expectation that arrives with him is the kind no amount of settling-in period softens.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Union Berlin can pretend not to have heard.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Union Berlin have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Union Berlin asked and Hamburger SV 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 most awkward business a club does is signing tomorrow's answer while today's is still in the building. Sander Tangvik comes from Hamburger SV for exactly that purpose, and the handover will not be discussed publicly by anybody.
Union Berlin had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Toronto FC, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Union Berlin have done the hard part with Stripfing, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
VfB Stuttgart paid $9.4M and Union Berlin took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
Union Berlin have gone to Hamburger SV with a bid, and the supporters have gone to the internet with an opinion about it. Whether either changes anything is up to the selling club.
Successful dribbles: 26. 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.
4 wins in a row changes how opponents warm up: quieter, more glances across. Runs end, everybody knows that — but nobody in this dressing room is planning for it.
1 for Derrick Köhn, marked 7.84, and a centre-half's name in the part of the report he normally only reaches by mistake. He will not be allowed to forget it in the dressing room for a month.
Every dressing room knows how to read a signing like this one. Elias Bethke is not here to sit and wait indefinitely, and the man whose place he has been bought to take knows it better than anyone.