The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at SC Freiburg is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at SC Freiburg this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Marked 10.00 — 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.
6 goals in one match, Johan Manzambi on the scoresheet, and a scoreline that will look like a misprint. Neutrals could not have asked more of SC Freiburg and Mainz 05.
Squad13 Sep 2038
Words at SC Freiburg training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Noah Atubolu 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.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 15 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Karim Konaté 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.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around SC Freiburg they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad6 Sep 2038
Noah Atubolu 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.
Shots: 14. Goals: none. The chances were there and they were good ones, and they went into the stand, the goalkeeper's arms and the side netting in roughly that order.
Boardroom6 Sep 2038
Nobody left the SC Freiburg dressing room in a hurry
The door stayed shut a long time after the final whistle. What was said in there is between them; whether it worked is between them and Saturday.
16 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. SC Freiburg lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 22 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 6 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.17 at 34, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around SC Freiburg they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Boardroom30 Aug 2038
14 academy players handed senior numbers at SC Freiburg
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.
23 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. SC Freiburg lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 29 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Romeo Aigbekaen will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around SC Freiburg the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Karim Konaté 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.
Squad23 Aug 2038
Noah Atubolu 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.
30 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. SC Freiburg lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 36 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at SC Freiburg is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what SC Freiburg can pretend not to have heard.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at SC Freiburg this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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.
In brief
SquadWords at SC Freiburg training over how hard people work
37 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. SC Freiburg lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 43 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Karim Konaté 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 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 SC Freiburg hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
44 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. SC Freiburg lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 50 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
182 appearances across 9 seasons in one shirt. Nobody builds a career like that on purpose any more; it happens to a certain kind of footballer at a certain kind of club.
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at SC Freiburg heard it as anything else.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at SC Freiburg is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at SC Freiburg this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
51 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. SC Freiburg lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 57 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around SC Freiburg they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Yannik Wagner wants continental football; whether SC Freiburg can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
Karim Konaté 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.
Squad26 Jul 2038
Noah Atubolu 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.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 64 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at SC Freiburg is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
“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 SC Freiburg, and it is not being withdrawn.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at SC Freiburg this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad19 Jul 2038
Philipp Treu 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.
Losing a final is a specific injury and it does not show up on any scan. 0 caps, a tournament that went further than anybody expected and stopped one game short, and a man who now has a domestic season to start from a standing position.
The words a physio says slowly. 20 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 71 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Karim Konaté signs something — a contract at SC Freiburg or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
27 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. SC Freiburg lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason SC Freiburg will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at SC Freiburg is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Karim Konaté 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 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.
34 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. SC Freiburg lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason SC Freiburg will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what SC Freiburg can pretend not to have heard.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at SC Freiburg is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at SC Freiburg this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Add another name to the list: Mainz 05 have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Kparobo Arierhi. The answer from SC Freiburg has not changed — yet.
In brief
SquadPhilipp Treu falls out with a teammate over standards
41 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. SC Freiburg lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason SC Freiburg will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what SC Freiburg can pretend not to have heard.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at SC Freiburg is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Karim Konaté 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.
48 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. SC Freiburg lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason SC Freiburg will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at SC Freiburg this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad14 Jun 2038
Words at SC Freiburg training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Johan Manzambi 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.
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.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason SC Freiburg will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” SC Freiburg have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
The offer from Mainz 05 for Kparobo Arierhi 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.
Karim Konaté 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 clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at SC Freiburg is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at SC Freiburg this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The rules permit it and it stings anyway. Antonio Imputato has agreed terms with Eintracht Frankfurt for the summer, and until then he pulls on this shirt as a player who has already chosen his next one.
Squad31 May 2038
Words at SC Freiburg training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Johan Manzambi 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.
Nobody at SC Freiburg 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.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what SC Freiburg can pretend not to have heard.
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Yannik Wagner wants continental football; whether SC Freiburg can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around SC Freiburg they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Karim Konaté 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 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.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 15 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Kparobo Arierhi will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around SC Freiburg the goodbyes have quietly begun.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at SC Freiburg this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 22 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” SC Freiburg have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Karim Konaté 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.
In brief
SquadNoah Atubolu falls out with a teammate over standards
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 29 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Romeo Aigbekaen will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around SC Freiburg the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 36 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what SC Freiburg can pretend not to have heard.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at SC Freiburg is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Karim Konaté 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.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 43 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 6 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at SC Freiburg is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at SC Freiburg this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
He will play here until the summer and then walk out of the door for free, having already signed elsewhere. Supporters will manage the first part of that sentence; it is the second they will struggle with.
10 attempts, none of them in. He got into the right places all afternoon, which is the hard part, and did the easy part badly — and that is the version of a bad day a manager can live with.
In brief
Player ratingsThe chances came and went for Igor Matanović
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 50 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
At 33 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.71 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
26 defensive actions and a clean sheet at the end of them. A defender's afternoon can only be told by what did not happen, which is why nobody makes a highlights package out of one and every manager in the division would take it.
There is no worse way to lose a footballer. Romeo Aigbekaen 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.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 57 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
At 36 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 9.00 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what SC Freiburg can pretend not to have heard.
198 appearances across 12 seasons in one shirt. Nobody builds a career like that on purpose any more; it happens to a certain kind of footballer at a certain kind of club.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at SC Freiburg is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at SC Freiburg heard it as anything else.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 64 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 6 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Karim Konaté 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.
Squad29 Mar 2038
Noah Atubolu 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.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 13 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
The board had gone up, the arguing had started, and then the ball was in the net in the 104th minute. Basel will replay every second of the added time for a week.
At 35 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 9.38 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around SC Freiburg they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at SC Freiburg this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
3 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.
In brief
SquadWords at SC Freiburg training over how hard people work
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 12 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
At 2 goals adrift this was a formality, and the formality lasted right up until it did not. SC Freiburg found something the first half had given no notice of, and Köln could not hold what they had.
Two goals and a mark of 8.76 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.92 at 33, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Karim Konaté 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.
It finished 3‑2, and it was Kparobo Arierhi’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to SC Freiburg.
Squad15 Mar 2038
Words at SC Freiburg training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Philipp Treu 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.
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.
469 appearances across 14 seasons in one shirt. Nobody builds a career like that on purpose any more; it happens to a certain kind of footballer at a certain kind of club.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at SC Freiburg this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
VfL Wolfsburg will keep picking him until June and will get nothing for him after it. Alessandro Fontanarosa has pre-agreed a move to SC Freiburg, and the only people who lose in that arrangement are the ones who let the contract run down.
Nobody at the club will say out loud who this signing is for, which is how you know exactly who it is for. Maximilian König has been brought in to take a shirt somebody is still wearing.
Every touch is being weighed now, in print and everywhere else. Some players grow into that and some are quietly ruined by it, and nobody knows which in advance.
0‑1 against Basel. Continental football is unforgiving about the things a domestic league lets a side get away with, and this was a night spent finding out which of those the club still has.
There were 88 minutes on the clock and Hamburger SV had all but banked the point. Football rarely reads the room, and SC Freiburg did not stop to explain themselves.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 20 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
468 appearances across 14 seasons in one shirt. Nobody builds a career like that on purpose any more; it happens to a certain kind of footballer at a certain kind of club.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.49 at 33, and nobody on the pitch was better.
2 goals to the good, and then a slow surrender of everything that had been earned. Yannik Wagner will not be the one blamed for it, but nobody at SC Freiburg escapes the conversation that follows a collapse like this.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 27 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
At 36 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.62 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around SC Freiburg they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at SC Freiburg this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The board had gone up, the arguing had started, and then the ball was in the net in the 91th minute. FC Augsburg will replay every second of the added time for a week.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 9.07 at 35, and nobody on the pitch was better.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” SC Freiburg have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Karim Konaté 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.
Squad15 Feb 2038
Noah Atubolu 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.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.97 at 33, and nobody on the pitch was better.
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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at SC Freiburg this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
He is the name in every column and on every phone-in, which is a heavy thing to carry at any age. Some footballers thrive on it; others are quietly finished by it.
In brief
Player ratingsThe chances came and went for Karim Konaté
56 defensive actions and a clean sheet at the end of them. A defender's afternoon can only be told by what did not happen, which is why nobody makes a highlights package out of one and every manager in the division would take it.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 6 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
At 35 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 7.88 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Karim Konaté 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.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 10 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
2 kept out in the shoot-out, and a stadium that will still be describing them in twenty years. A goalkeeper only needs one of these to be remembered forever.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 9.37 at 34, and nobody on the pitch was better.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at SC Freiburg this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The run now stands at 4, and the questions being asked around SC Freiburg are no longer polite ones.
Squad25 Jan 2038
Words at SC Freiburg training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Noah Atubolu 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.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason SC Freiburg will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” SC Freiburg have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Yannik Wagner wants continental football; whether SC Freiburg can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
Karim Konaté 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.
Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 7 goals between SC Freiburg and Bayern Munich, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.
VfL Wolfsburg will keep picking him until June and will get nothing for him after it. Iker Muñoz has pre-agreed a move to SC Freiburg, and the only people who lose in that arrangement are the ones who let the contract run down.
Marked 8.73 — 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.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason SC Freiburg will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.51 at 34, and nobody on the pitch was better.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” SC Freiburg 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 SC Freiburg this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad11 Jan 2038
Words at SC Freiburg training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Johan Manzambi 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.
Marked 8.70 — 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.
Boardroom11 Jan 2038
Nobody left the SC Freiburg dressing room in a hurry
The door stayed shut a long time after the final whistle. What was said in there is between them; whether it worked is between them and Saturday.
In brief
Player ratingsThe one thing Karim Konaté could not do
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason SC Freiburg will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
385 appearances across 12 seasons in one shirt. Nobody builds a career like that on purpose any more; it happens to a certain kind of footballer at a certain kind of club.
At 33 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.54 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Karim Konaté 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.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around SC Freiburg they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
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.
He will play here until the summer and then walk out of the door for free, having already signed elsewhere. Supporters will manage the first part of that sentence; it is the second they will struggle with.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason SC Freiburg will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Philipp Schulz will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around SC Freiburg the goodbyes have quietly begun.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at SC Freiburg this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad28 Dec 2037
Words at SC Freiburg training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Noah Atubolu 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.
20 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.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason SC Freiburg will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” SC Freiburg have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
At 36 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.17 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around SC Freiburg they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Karim Konaté 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 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.
Marked 9.40 — 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.
1‑1 against Radnicki Nis, under lights, against people who do not speak the same language as the crowd. These are the evenings a club measures its decade in, and there are never as many of them as anybody expects.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason SC Freiburg will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at SC Freiburg this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason SC Freiburg will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.54 at 36, and nobody on the pitch was better.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” SC Freiburg have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Karim Konaté 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.
He left as a boy and has come back still knowing where the away end is. Most signings have to be explained to a town; this one needed a photograph and nothing else.
Squad7 Dec 2037
Noah Atubolu 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.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason SC Freiburg will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
0‑2 away to the standard of Porto. Nobody will pretend this was a scandal; the gap is real, it is measurable, and closing it is a project rather than a team talk.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 7.85 at 36, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Philipp Schulz will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around SC Freiburg the goodbyes have quietly begun.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at SC Freiburg this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 6 goals between SC Freiburg and Borussia Dortmund, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason SC Freiburg will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
1 kept out in the shoot-out, and a stadium that will still be describing them in twenty years. A goalkeeper only needs one of these to be remembered forever.
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.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.15 at 33, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Kparobo Arierhi will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around SC Freiburg the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Karim Konaté 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.
He will play here until the summer and then walk out of the door for free, having already signed elsewhere. Supporters will manage the first part of that sentence; it is the second they will struggle with.
Squad23 Nov 2037
Noah Atubolu 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.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason SC Freiburg will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” SC Freiburg have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.27 at 36, and nobody on the pitch was better.
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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at SC Freiburg this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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.
Squad16 Nov 2037
Words at SC Freiburg training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Noah Atubolu 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.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason SC Freiburg will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 9 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.88 at 33, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Some transfers need a press campaign. This one needed a shirt with the old number on it. Morris Duggan is a SC Freiburg player again, and the town has its story of the summer.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason SC Freiburg will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at SC Freiburg this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Marked 8.77 — 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.
He is the name in every column and on every phone-in, which is a heavy thing to carry at any age. Some footballers thrive on it; others are quietly finished by it.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 100 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
It is a specific kind of quiet, a ground watching a winning position dissolve. VfB Stuttgart kept coming because nothing stopped them, and SC Freiburg will be asked about the last half hour all week.
Two goals and a mark of 9.31 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 8 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.77 at 36, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Kparobo Arierhi will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around SC Freiburg the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 107 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 6 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
At 36 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 7.91 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Karim Konaté 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 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.
Beaten 2‑3, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Player ratings19 Oct 2037
Maik Afri Akumu was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.60. 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.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 11 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 114 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.46 at 35, and nobody on the pitch was better.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at SC Freiburg this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“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 SC Freiburg hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
Squad12 Oct 2037
Words at SC Freiburg training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Johan Manzambi 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.
Bayer Leverkusen will keep picking him until June and will get nothing for him after it. Simone Iob has pre-agreed a move to SC Freiburg, and the only people who lose in that arrangement are the ones who let the contract run down.
1‑0 against Radnicki Nis, under lights, against people who do not speak the same language as the crowd. These are the evenings a club measures its decade in, and there are never as many of them as anybody expects.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 121 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
421 appearances across 13 seasons in one shirt. Nobody builds a career like that on purpose any more; it happens to a certain kind of footballer at a certain kind of club.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.49 at 33, and nobody on the pitch was better.
“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 SC Freiburg hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
Karim Konaté 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.
18 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. SC Freiburg lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 128 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
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.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 7.94 at 35, and nobody on the pitch was better.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at SC Freiburg is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at SC Freiburg this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
25 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. SC Freiburg lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason SC Freiburg will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
0‑1 away to the standard of Porto. Nobody will pretend this was a scandal; the gap is real, it is measurable, and closing it is a project rather than a team talk.
At 35 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.78 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Karim Konaté 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 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.
Hamburger SV will keep picking him until June and will get nothing for him after it. Thibault Barré has pre-agreed a move to SC Freiburg, and the only people who lose in that arrangement are the ones who let the contract run down.
32 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. SC Freiburg lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason SC Freiburg will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
3 goals to the good, and then a slow surrender of everything that had been earned. Yuito Suzuki will not be the one blamed for it, but nobody at SC Freiburg escapes the conversation that follows a collapse like this.
At 35 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.69 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
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.
Borussia Dortmund will keep picking him until June and will get nothing for him after it. Nikita Lobusov has pre-agreed a move to SC Freiburg, and the only people who lose in that arrangement are the ones who let the contract run down.
39 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. SC Freiburg lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 10 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason SC Freiburg will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
At 33 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 7.88 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Igor Matanović. 3‑1 against St. Pauli, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Everyone has stopped pretending: Heidenheim will make the call about Marcel Voigt this week. SC Freiburg have a number in mind, and the number is not shy.
46 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. SC Freiburg lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason SC Freiburg will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 9 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
At 33 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.01 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at SC Freiburg is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what SC Freiburg can pretend not to have heard.
53 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. SC Freiburg lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason SC Freiburg will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Squad24 Aug 2037
Words at SC Freiburg training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Karim Konaté 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.
10 boys move up, and somewhere in the building the people who coached them at twelve are quietly having the best morning of their working year. Nothing about this shows up in a result and it is why the academy exists.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Markus Günther has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Lukas Neumann has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.
60 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. SC Freiburg lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason SC Freiburg will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
67 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. SC Freiburg lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason SC Freiburg will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Karim Konaté 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.
74 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. SC Freiburg lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason SC Freiburg will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what SC Freiburg can pretend not to have heard.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at SC Freiburg is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at SC Freiburg this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
81 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. SC Freiburg lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason SC Freiburg will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Max Rosenfelder 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 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.
88 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. SC Freiburg lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at SC Freiburg this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around SC Freiburg they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad20 Jul 2037
Words at SC Freiburg training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Johan Manzambi 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.
95 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. SC Freiburg lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at SC Freiburg is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Max Rosenfelder 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.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 20 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.
102 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. SC Freiburg lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” SC Freiburg have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
“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.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what SC Freiburg can pretend not to have heard.
109 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. SC Freiburg lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
The offer from Heidenheim for Marcel Voigt 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.
Max Rosenfelder 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.
In brief
SquadNoah Atubolu falls out with a teammate over standards
SquadThe manager has not finished forgetting Noah Atubolu's mistake
“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 SC Freiburg, and it is not being withdrawn.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at SC Freiburg this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at SC Freiburg is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad22 Jun 2037
Words at SC Freiburg training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Noah Atubolu 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.
Nobody at SC Freiburg 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.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” SC Freiburg have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Karim Konaté 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.
Add another name to the list: Heidenheim have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Kparobo Arierhi. The answer from SC Freiburg has not changed — yet.
The paperwork is done long before the player is. Vincent Müller has agreed terms to come here when his current deal runs out, which means SC Freiburg have spent a summer's transfer budget on a phone call.
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Igor Matanović commits to SC Freiburg for another 2 years.
Squad15 Jun 2037
Words at SC Freiburg training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Patrick Osterhage 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.
Everyone has stopped pretending: VfL Wolfsburg will make the call about Marcel Voigt this week. SC Freiburg have a number in mind, and the number is not shy.
Sergio Kalaj is 37 and has run out of things to prove. What he has left is where to stand, when to slow it down and what to say at half-time, and none of that is on a fitness chart.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what SC Freiburg can pretend not to have heard.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at SC Freiburg this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad8 Jun 2037
Words at SC Freiburg training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Noah Atubolu 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.
Borussia Mönchengladbach will keep picking him until June and will get nothing for him after it. Joe Rankin-Costello has pre-agreed a move to SC Freiburg, and the only people who lose in that arrangement are the ones who let the contract run down.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Nathan Moineau and SC Freiburg agree another 3 years.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what SC Freiburg can pretend not to have heard.
Karim Konaté 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.
Squad1 Jun 2037
Noah Atubolu 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.
Squad1 Jun 2037
The manager has not finished forgetting Noah Atubolu's mistake
Publicly it is behind everybody. It is not behind the man who picks the team, and the only place that shows is a team sheet. He will get another chance; he will get it in a match that matters less.
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Ryan Trevitt has his answer from SC Freiburg; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around SC Freiburg they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at SC Freiburg this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
In brief
SquadKarim Konaté falls out with a teammate over standards
SquadYuito Suzuki has become a man the manager trusts
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.
17 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. SC Freiburg lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Kparobo Arierhi will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around SC Freiburg the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Karim Konaté 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 injury that keeps coming back, keeps being rushed back from, and quietly costs more careers than the dramatic ones. 15 days is the estimate; the honest figure depends on whether anybody is patient.
24 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. SC Freiburg lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” SC Freiburg have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
“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 SC Freiburg, and it is not being withdrawn.
31 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. SC Freiburg lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
“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 SC Freiburg, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad4 May 2037
Words at SC Freiburg training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Karim Konaté 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.
38 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. SC Freiburg lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at SC Freiburg is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
45 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. SC Freiburg lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around SC Freiburg they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Max Rosenfelder 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.
In brief
SquadWords at SC Freiburg training over how hard people work
52 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. SC Freiburg lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what SC Freiburg can pretend not to have heard.
Squad13 Apr 2037
Karim Konaté 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at SC Freiburg this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
6 attempts, none of them in. He got into the right places all afternoon, which is the hard part, and did the easy part badly — and that is the version of a bad day a manager can live with.
59 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. SC Freiburg lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 9.00 at 34, and nobody on the pitch was better.
360 appearances across 11 seasons in one shirt. Nobody builds a career like that on purpose any more; it happens to a certain kind of footballer at a certain kind of club.
6 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about SC Freiburg and Union Berlin in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
Marked 9.11 — 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.
In brief
The terracesThe spotlight tightens on Noah Atubolu
66 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. SC Freiburg lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.74 at 34, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around SC Freiburg they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad30 Mar 2037
Karim Konaté 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at SC Freiburg this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
9 attempts, none of them in. He got into the right places all afternoon, which is the hard part, and did the easy part badly — and that is the version of a bad day a manager can live with.
14 attempts, none of them in. He got into the right places all afternoon, which is the hard part, and did the easy part badly — and that is the version of a bad day a manager can live with.
73 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. SC Freiburg lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.87 at 34, and nobody on the pitch was better.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at SC Freiburg is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Marco Scholz has just signed for SC Freiburg, and for once the answer mattered.
Max Rosenfelder 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.
Every dressing room knows how to read a signing like this one. Marco Scholz is not here to sit and wait indefinitely, and the man whose place he has been bought to take knows it better than anyone.
Shots: 11. Goals: none. The chances were there and they were good ones, and they went into the stand, the goalkeeper's arms and the side netting in roughly that order.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 13 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
3 kept out in the shoot-out, and a stadium that will still be describing them in twenty years. A goalkeeper only needs one of these to be remembered forever.
80 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. SC Freiburg lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
1‑1 against Vojvodina, under lights, against people who do not speak the same language as the crowd. These are the evenings a club measures its decade in, and there are never as many of them as anybody expects.
Two goals and a mark of 8.79 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
87 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. SC Freiburg lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Two goals and a mark of 8.72 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
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.
At 35 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 9.04 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Yannik Wagner wants continental football; whether SC Freiburg can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
Max Rosenfelder 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.
94 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. SC Freiburg lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
At 35 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 7.93 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Julian Niehues will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around SC Freiburg the goodbyes have quietly begun.
2‑3 to Bayer Leverkusen, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Player ratings2 Mar 2037
Yannik Wagner was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.77. 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.
101 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. SC Freiburg lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
2‑1 against Vojvodina, under lights, against people who do not speak the same language as the crowd. These are the evenings a club measures its decade in, and there are never as many of them as anybody expects.
At 34 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 9.19 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Kparobo Arierhi will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around SC Freiburg the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Karim Konaté 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.
Squad23 Feb 2037
Noah Atubolu 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.
108 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. SC Freiburg lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
31 defensive actions and a clean sheet at the end of them. A defender's afternoon can only be told by what did not happen, which is why nobody makes a highlights package out of one and every manager in the division would take it.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” SC Freiburg have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 9.04 at 35, and nobody on the pitch was better.
The offer from Hamburger SV for Kparobo Arierhi 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.
Headers, blocks, tackles, interceptions — 25 of them, and not one goal behind him. The sort of performance that never makes a highlight reel and wins football matches.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at SC Freiburg this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The deal that would have taken Dedryck Lukaku to Werder Bremen has collapsed at the last stage, and he reports back to SC Freiburg with a summer to forget and a season still to play. Nobody is saying which side walked away.
The words a physio says slowly. 115 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 6 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” SC Freiburg have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Everything was agreed until it was not, and Jan Urbich reports back to SC Freiburg with a summer to forget. Neither club is saying who walked away from the table.
The rules permit it and it stings anyway. Dedryck Lukaku has agreed terms with Union Berlin for the summer, and until then he pulls on this shirt as a player who has already chosen his next one.
“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 paperwork is done long before the player is. Josh Landers has agreed terms to come here when his current deal runs out, which means SC Freiburg have spent a summer's transfer budget on a phone call.
The words a physio says slowly. 122 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Everything was agreed until it was not, and Kparobo Arierhi reports back to SC Freiburg with a summer to forget. Neither club is saying who walked away from the table.
“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.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around SC Freiburg they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
He will play here until the summer and then walk out of the door for free, having already signed elsewhere. Supporters will manage the first part of that sentence; it is the second they will struggle with.
At 35 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.79 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
10 goals and a season average of 7.54. Form like that gets noticed well beyond this town.
Squad26 Jan 2037
Karim Konaté 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 phone has started ringing about Kparobo Arierhi again, and this time the name on the line is Hamburger SV. SC Freiburg are listening politely and promising nothing.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at SC Freiburg this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Johan Manzambi signs something — a contract at SC Freiburg or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Kimi Løkkevik has just signed for SC Freiburg, and for once the answer mattered.
Max Rosenfelder 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.
Squad19 Jan 2037
Words at SC Freiburg training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Karim Konaté 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 paperwork is done long before the player is. Tiago Queiroz has agreed terms to come here when his current deal runs out, which means SC Freiburg have spent a summer's transfer budget on a phone call.
Player ratings19 Jan 2037
Karim Konaté was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.36. 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.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 11 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of 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 SC Freiburg this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
10 goals and a season average of 7.53. Form like that gets noticed well beyond this town.
Squad12 Jan 2037
Words at SC Freiburg training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Noah Atubolu 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.
8 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.
At 35 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 9.04 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Yannik Wagner wants continental football; whether SC Freiburg can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about 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 SC Freiburg, and it is not being withdrawn.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around SC Freiburg they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
9 goals and a season average of 7.52 will do that. The space he used to find has gone; he keeps scoring anyway, which is the mark of the real thing.
Squad5 Jan 2037
Words at SC Freiburg training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Karim Konaté 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.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Benno Kaltefleiter provided it, and the 8.81 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
At 35 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.41 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at SC Freiburg this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at SC Freiburg is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad29 Dec 2036
Karim Konaté 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.
Position 3, 37 points, and the result everyone checks first is now theirs. The word is still not being said around the ground, which is how you know everyone is thinking it.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 9.07 at 35, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Kparobo Arierhi will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around SC Freiburg the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Karim Konaté 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.
Squad22 Dec 2036
Noah Atubolu 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.
1‑0 against Crvena Zvezda, and a performance that will be described to people who were not there for the rest of the season. Maik Afri Akumu was at the centre of the description.
5 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.
At 35 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.67 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at SC Freiburg this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad15 Dec 2036
Karim Konaté 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.
Marked 9.41 — 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.
Union Berlin will want this one forgotten quickly: 4‑1, every duel lost, and a long ride home. SC Freiburg were ruthless in the way good sides are ruthless.
At 35 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.58 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at SC Freiburg is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
3 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.
Squad8 Dec 2036
Words at SC Freiburg training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Karim Konaté 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.
Philipp Treu 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.
In brief
Player ratingsKarim Konaté was on a different afternoon to everybody else
3‑1 against Boavista, under lights, against people who do not speak the same language as the crowd. These are the evenings a club measures its decade in, and there are never as many of them as anybody expects.
At 35 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.81 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
185 appearances across 11 seasons in one shirt. Nobody builds a career like that on purpose any more; it happens to a certain kind of footballer at a certain kind of club.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what SC Freiburg can pretend not to have heard.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at SC Freiburg this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Raphael van Geelkerken will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around SC Freiburg the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad1 Dec 2036
Words at SC Freiburg training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Noah Atubolu 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.
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.
It finished 1-4. A cup exit is a disappointment; this was a public dismantling, and the difference between the two is the number of people who will still be talking about it in August.
At 37 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.50 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around SC Freiburg they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
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.
Max Rosenfelder 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 matches, two or more conceded in every one of them. Sides that create as much as this can live with it for a while. Nobody lives with it forever.
Squad24 Nov 2036
Words at SC Freiburg training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Karim Konaté 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.
Two goals and a mark of 9.12 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
10 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
Squad17 Nov 2036
Karim Konaté 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at SC Freiburg this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Nobody will confirm this and nothing else explains the last month of selections. A costly error buys a player a period of being second choice that is always longer than the error was.
2‑2 against Mlada Boleslav, and a performance that will be described to people who were not there for the rest of the season. Yuito Suzuki was at the centre of the description.
At 35 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.76 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around SC Freiburg they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Karim Konaté 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 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about SC Freiburg and Köln in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
Squad10 Nov 2036
Noah Atubolu 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.
Two goals and a mark of 9.23 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
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 nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what SC Freiburg can pretend not to have heard.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at SC Freiburg this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Raphael van Geelkerken will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around SC Freiburg the goodbyes have quietly begun.
“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.
Squad3 Nov 2036
Karim Konaté 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.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around SC Freiburg they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Max Rosenfelder 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.
Squad27 Oct 2036
Words at SC Freiburg training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Karim Konaté 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.
Marked 8.65 — 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at SC Freiburg this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Antonio Imputato is living that version at SC Freiburg, and it tends to show in the first month.
1‑3 to VfB Stuttgart, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Squad20 Oct 2036
Philipp Treu 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.
Marked 8.72 — 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.
8.34. 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.
Nobody will confirm this and nothing else explains the last month of selections. A costly error buys a player a period of being second choice that is always longer than the error was.
Shots: 12. Goals: none. The chances were there and they were good ones, and they went into the stand, the goalkeeper's arms and the side netting in roughly that order.
In brief
Player ratingsThe one thing Yuito Suzuki could not do