Marked for Simon Hedlund
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match3 Oct 2026
11 matches without a win for IF Elfsborg
The run now stands at 11, and the questions being asked around IF Elfsborg are no longer polite ones.
Market5 Oct 2026
Simon Hedlund has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around IF Elfsborg they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Rasmus Wikström 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.
Match3 Oct 2026
The goals have deserted IF Elfsborg
4 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at IF Elfsborg can tell you which week it ends in.
Player ratings5 Oct 2026
Successful dribbles: 22. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad5 Oct 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Sebastian Holmén, and the manager let it.
Match3 Oct 2026
Atvidaberg left with the points after a 0‑2 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Thomas Isherwood 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 ratings5 Oct 2026
Shots: 10, enough of them from close enough that a striker in form scores two. He is not a striker in form.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match19 Sep 2026
No end in sight to IF Elfsborg's wait for a win
9 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at IF Elfsborg has to find a result from somewhere.
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 The request is on a desk at IF Elfsborg, and it is not being withdrawn.
Market21 Sep 2026
Only the photograph left for Ibrahim Buhari
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Ibrahim Buhari will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around IF Elfsborg the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Player ratings21 Sep 2026
Bo Hegland runs at them all day
Successful dribbles: 25. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Boardroom21 Sep 2026
There is no worse way to lose a footballer. Ibrahim Buhari 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.
Squad21 Sep 2026
Sebastian Holmén 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.
Squad21 Sep 2026
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Cristian Quiñónes has just signed for IF Elfsborg, and for once the answer mattered.
Match19 Sep 2026
Beaten 0‑1, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Squad21 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.
In brief
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Boardroom
Nobody left the IF Elfsborg dressing room in a hurry
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Squad
Words at IF Elfsborg training over how hard people work
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Player ratings
The chances came and went for Frederik Ihler
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match5 Sep 2026
7 matches without a win for IF Elfsborg
The run now stands at 7, and the questions being asked around IF Elfsborg are no longer polite ones.
Market7 Sep 2026
Simon Hedlund has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around IF Elfsborg they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Player ratings7 Sep 2026
Julius Beck, 21, plays like he has been here for years — 7.84
A mark of 7.84 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 21-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
Boardroom7 Sep 2026
There is no worse way to lose a footballer. Sebastian Holmén 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.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Allan Sousa 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 IF Elfsborg this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Player ratings7 Sep 2026
Bo Hegland runs at them all day
Successful dribbles: 21. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Boardroom7 Sep 2026
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.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Thomas Isherwood 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 ratings7 Sep 2026
Ninety minutes of Arbër Zeneli at his very best
Marked 8.15. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at IF Elfsborg.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad3 Aug 2026
267 appearances across 14 seasons in these colours. Careers like that are not built any more, and IF Elfsborg know what they have.
Market3 Aug 2026
Only the photograph left for Simon Hedlund
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Simon Hedlund will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around IF Elfsborg the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Boardroom3 Aug 2026
There is no worse way to lose a footballer. Simon Hedlund 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.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Sebastian Holmén 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.
Squad3 Aug 2026
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Niklas Hult commits to IF Elfsborg for another 2 years.
The terraces3 Aug 2026
At 23 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.
Squad3 Aug 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Isak Pettersson, and the manager let it.
Player ratings3 Aug 2026
Frederik Ihler was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.33. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
Market3 Aug 2026
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at IF Elfsborg, another week without a signature from Sebastian Holmén.