Marked for Aimar Sher
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market7 Sep 2026
Aimar Sher hands in a written request
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Sarpsborg 08 can pretend not to have heard.
Squad7 Sep 2026
The manager has re-ordered his thinking and Sigurd Rosted 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.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Mamour N'Diaye named in the team of the month
A month is long enough that nobody gets in by accident. Mamour N'Diaye is in the division's best eleven for it, which is a quieter compliment than an award and a more reliable one.
Market7 Sep 2026
“There is a gap, and pretending there is not helps nobody.” Neither side has moved, and the calendar is working for exactly one of them.
Squad7 Sep 2026
“I have done everything asked of me in training and it has not changed a thing on a Saturday.” The most familiar complaint in football, and one Sarpsborg 08 will have to answer with minutes or with a transfer.
Squad7 Sep 2026
The division's best last weekend was a Sarpsborg 08 man
It is a small honour and it is not nothing: somebody watched every match in the division and decided that Daniel Karlsbakk was the best thing in any of them.
The dugout7 Sep 2026
Nobody at Sarpsborg 08 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.
Looking ahead7 Sep 2026
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Magnar Ødegaard’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Sarpsborg 08 needing him to play as if none of it matters.
Market7 Sep 2026
4 months remain and no agreement is close. Every week without a signature costs Sarpsborg 08 money.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market31 Aug 2026
Menno Koch hands in a written request
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Sarpsborg 08 can pretend not to have heard.
Player ratings31 Aug 2026
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 9.02, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
Player ratings31 Aug 2026
A defender's afternoon for Aimar Sher
Defensive actions: 21. He was first to everything and second to nothing, and the goalkeeper had an easy day because of it.
Boardroom31 Aug 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.
Transfer targets31 Aug 2026
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Haugesund have kept their man, and Sarpsborg 08 go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
The terraces31 Aug 2026
He is 23 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.
Match29 Aug 2026
Three points for Sarpsborg 08, 2‑0 the final word against Molde in a contest settled by the finer margins.
Squad31 Aug 2026
Too much change too quickly at Sarpsborg 08
12 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.
The dugout31 Aug 2026
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.” Vegard Thorsby kept it short after the 2‑0 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Match12 Aug 2026
Valerenga are out and Sarpsborg 08 go through, 1‑0 the final word. The bracket opens up a little, and everyone allows themselves a look at it.
Match15 Aug 2026
The 2-goal deficit was real and so was the recovery. Eirik Wichne was at the centre of it, Stabaek were at the end of it, and everybody who left early will hear about this one for years.
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 32. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Market17 Aug 2026
Stabaek come back empty-handed
The bid was some way short and Sarpsborg 08 did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
Eirik Wichne pops up at the right end — 7.81
7.81, 1 on the scoresheet, and the specific comedy of a back-four player celebrating like somebody who does this every week. He does not, and that is exactly why the ground reacted the way it did.
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
Aimar Sher goes up and wins it — 7.95
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 7.95 for the rest of it.
Boardroom17 Aug 2026
Sarpsborg 08 close the window on a squad of their own making
1 in and 4 out, and no more changes for months. The manager has what he has, the supporters have their opinion of it, and the table will have the last word.
Market17 Aug 2026
Business is business: Michael Opoku goes
Haugesund paid $2.0M and Sarpsborg 08 took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
Match15 Aug 2026
3 wins on the spin now, and the question has changed from whether the run ends to who ends it. Confidence like this cannot be bought; it has to be earned exactly this way.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market10 Aug 2026
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Haugesund waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Sarpsborg 08 is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Market10 Aug 2026
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Market10 Aug 2026
Add another name to the list: Stabaek have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Daniel Karlsbakk. The answer from Sarpsborg 08 has not changed — yet.
Player ratings10 Aug 2026
Aimar Sher goes up and wins it — 7.97
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.
Squad10 Aug 2026
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Daniel Karlsbakk and Sarpsborg 08 agree another 4 years.
Squad10 Aug 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 Sarpsborg 08 this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Player ratings10 Aug 2026
A midfielder is measured on whether the team functions when he is on the pitch, which is nearly impossible to see and completely obvious in retrospect. 13 actions, 7.30, and a manager who will not be substituting him again in a hurry.
Boardroom10 Aug 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.
Transfer targets10 Aug 2026
Sarpsborg 08 asked and FC Copenhagen said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.