Marked for Francesco Ruberto
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
The dugout21 Feb 2028
“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.
Squad21 Feb 2028
Nicolò Casale 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.
Squad21 Feb 2028
A muscle injury sidelines Francesco Ruberto for 15 days
Nobody makes a documentary about a hamstring and everybody in the game fears one. Zurich will be careful with the return date, because the second one is always worse than the first.
Squad21 Feb 2028
A falling-out at Zurich
Hlynur Freyr Karlsson and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad21 Feb 2028
Too much change too quickly at Zurich
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.
The dugout21 Feb 2028
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 Bledian Krasniqi is on it.
The dugout21 Feb 2028
The manager makes an example of Leorat Bega
“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.
Market21 Feb 2028
“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 dugout21 Feb 2028
A door opens for Milson
He asked about his future and was given an answer with minutes in it. The manager has now made a promise in a building where promises are remembered, and the clock on it has started.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match24 Jul 2027
No end in sight to Sion's wait for a win
12 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Sion has to find a result from somewhere.
Squad26 Jul 2027
80 days out for Ali Kabacalman after a fracture
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Sion will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
The dugout26 Jul 2027
“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.
Market26 Jul 2027
Zurich paid $43.0K and Sion took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
Squad26 Jul 2027
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Sion this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Transfer targets26 Jul 2027
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Venezia have kept their man, and Sion go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad26 Jul 2027
100 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.
Player ratings26 Jul 2027
Marked 7.76 on an afternoon he ran from the first whistle to the last. Whatever else went wrong, Sion had the best player on the pitch.
Squad26 Jul 2027
Sion are still strangers to each other
13 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.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad19 Jul 2027
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Zurich will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Transfer targets19 Jul 2027
Zurich and Sion have settled on $43.0K. The rest belongs to the player and his agent, and a supporter who has watched one of these before knows not to buy the shirt yet.
Transfer targets19 Jul 2027
$1.2M on the table at Servette. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
Market19 Jul 2027
The paperwork is done: Théo Berdayes joins from Sion in a deal worth $1.1M. Now comes the harder part.
Transfer targets19 Jul 2027
$1.2M was the most the club would pay and Servette 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.
Squad19 Jul 2027
A falling-out at Zurich
Kilian Fischer and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Boardroom19 Jul 2027
5 academy graduates step up at Zurich
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.
Squad19 Jul 2027
A row about effort at Zurich
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Lindrit Kamberi was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Transfer targets19 Jul 2027
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Red Bull Salzburg have kept their man, and Zurich go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad12 Jul 2027
97 days out for Ali Kabacalman after a fracture
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Sion will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Transfer targets12 Jul 2027
The offer went to Étoile Carouge this week and it is theirs to answer. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loud the door closes.
Market12 Jul 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.
Boardroom12 Jul 2027
The number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $3.0M — a club that wants Théo Bouchlarhem enough to be asked twice.
Market12 Jul 2027
Kreshnik Hajrizi has left for Lugano in a $1.4M deal. The accountants are pleased; the supporters are less certain.
Squad12 Jul 2027
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Timothy Fayulu and Sion agree another 4 years.
Squad12 Jul 2027
Words exchanged at Sion
Nias Hefti 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 targets12 Jul 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 dugout12 Jul 2027
The manager makes an example of Timothy Fayulu
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad21 Jun 2027
The knee: Lamine Diack out for 27 days
27 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Sion lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Market21 Jun 2027
Rilind Nivokazi has left for Zurich in a $7.4M deal. The accountants are pleased; the supporters are less certain.
The terraces21 Jun 2027
Sion sell a favourite for $7.4M
The accountants will call it good business and they will be right, which is not the point anybody outside the boardroom is making. Rilind Nivokazi was one of the reasons people came, and $7.4M does not replace that by itself.
Transfer targets21 Jun 2027
Everything was agreed with Vaduz and then the doctor spoke. Sion have walked away from a signing on the advice of somebody who never saw him play, which is how it is supposed to work.
Squad21 Jun 2027
Tempers go at Sion
Nias Hefti 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.
Transfer targets21 Jun 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 dugout21 Jun 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Liam Chipperfield, and the manager let it.
Squad21 Jun 2027
“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.
Transfer targets21 Jun 2027
Sion have made the call to Inter. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad2 Nov 2026
A shoot-out is remembered by its ending, and this one ends with Francesco Ruberto: 2 kept out, and a set of supporters who will describe every one of them for the next twenty years.
Match28 Oct 2026
Cup progress for Sion
A 0‑0 win over Grasshopper, a place in the next round, and the quiet arithmetic every supporter does on the walk home: how many more until a final?
Match31 Oct 2026
Whatever happens, Sion 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.
Match31 Oct 2026
Nobody wins at Sion
9 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
Looking ahead2 Nov 2026
Top-of-the-table clash for Sion
Basel next, and the two sides the division is watching meet each other. Whoever wins will be told nothing is decided in the same breath as being congratulated.
Player ratings2 Nov 2026
Ninety minutes of Josias Lukembila at his very best
Marked 8.17. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Sion.
Squad2 Nov 2026
A muscle injury and 16 days out for Matteo Soncin
The most common injury in the game and the most rushed back from. Sion will quote 16 days and will be careful with it, because the second one is always worse than the first.
The dugout2 Nov 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Liam Chipperfield, and the manager let it.
Player ratings2 Nov 2026
Twelve yards and the whole ground holding its breath, and it did not go in. He will put his name down for the next one, which is the only thing to do.