Randers U20

8 Nov 2026
Sunday
Process
14 Edition

The Randers Post

2 Nov 2026
From our football correspondent Steady

Squad

A knee injury of the worst kind for Frederik Lauenborg

49 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Randers lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.

Market

Lucas Lissens puts it in writing

“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 The request is on a desk at Randers, and it is not being withdrawn.

Player ratings

Nothing got past Wessel Dammers

Headers, blocks, tackles, interceptions — 28 of them, and not one goal behind him. The sort of performance that never makes a highlight reel and wins football matches.

Player ratings

No sign of nerves from Mike Themsen at 20 — 7.65

The hardest thing about being 20 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Mike Themsen did not need any: 7.65, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.

Player ratings

Warren Caddy runs at them all day

Successful dribbles: 21. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.

Match

6 unbeaten for Randers

Hard to beat is not the same as winning, but 6 matches without defeat is a foundation Randers did not have in the autumn.

Squad

Mike Themsen in a row with a teammate

It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Randers this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.

Squad

The manager makes an example of Thibault Klidjé

“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.

Boardroom

Wages eat 106% of everything Randers earn

There is a figure at which a wage bill stops being ambitious and becomes the reason nothing else is possible, and this club has reached it. Nothing is left over for a transfer, a stand or a rainy afternoon.

In brief

Back issues
13 Edition

The Randers Post

26 Oct 2026
From our football correspondent Upbeat

Squad

A knee injury of the worst kind for Frederik Lauenborg

56 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Randers lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.

Player ratings

Wessel Dammers was immovable

35 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.

Match

Musa Touré settles it late for Randers

The 85th minute, half the ground already edging towards the exits, and Musa Touré decided nobody was going anywhere. OB had no time left to answer.

Player ratings

No sign of nerves from Mike Themsen at 20 — 7.75

The hardest thing about being 20 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Mike Themsen did not need any: 7.75, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.

Squad

Ernest Agyiri keeps the receipts

“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Randers may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.

Squad

Mike Themsen signs a new deal

“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Mike Themsen commits to Randers for another 5 years.

Squad

Mathias Greve 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 terraces

Randers supporters have found a favourite in Musa Touré

There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 20-year-old it feels ownership of. Musa Touré has it now, and everything he does for the rest of his time here will be measured against the goodwill he was handed for free.

Match

Randers get the job done against OB

A 1‑0 win over OB, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.

In brief

12 Edition

The Randers Post

19 Oct 2026
From our football correspondent Steady

Squad

A knee injury of the worst kind for Frederik Lauenborg

63 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Randers lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.

Player ratings

No sign of nerves from Mike Themsen at 20 — 9.62

The hardest thing about being 20 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Mike Themsen did not need any: 9.62, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.

Player ratings

A defender's afternoon for Daniel Høegh

Defensive actions: 27. He was first to everything and second to nothing, and the goalkeeper had an easy day because of it.

Player ratings

A defender's afternoon for Wessel Dammers

Defensive actions: 26. He was first to everything and second to nothing, and the goalkeeper had an easy day because of it.

Squad

Wessel Dammers in a row with a teammate

It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Randers this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.

Squad

Real improvement from Victor Gustafsen at Randers

Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Victor Gustafsen is 18, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.

Player ratings

Lucas Lissens was on a different afternoon to everybody else

9.20. 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.

The terraces

The crowd has taken to Mike Themsen

At 20 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.

Match

Lucas Lissens sends Randers past SonderjyskE

It finished 2‑0, and it was Lucas Lissens’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Randers.

In brief

11 Edition

The Randers Post

12 Oct 2026
From our football correspondent Steady

Squad

Frederik Lauenborg damages knee ligaments — 71 days out

The words a physio says slowly. 71 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.

Player ratings

No sign of nerves from Mike Themsen at 20 — 7.60

The hardest thing about being 20 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Mike Themsen did not need any: 7.60, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.

Squad

Victor Gustafsen keeps the receipts

“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Randers may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.

Squad

Remember the name: Mike Themsen

He is 20, he is averaging 7.16, and older professionals have started passing to him in the difficult minutes. That last part is the real scouting report.

Player ratings

Nobody could get near Warren Caddy

Successful dribbles: 23. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.

Squad

Paul Izzo in a row with a teammate

It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Randers this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.

Player ratings

Wessel Dammers shuts the door

Defensive actions: 21, and a clean sheet at the end of it. A centre-half's best afternoons look like nothing happening, which is precisely the point.

Loan watch

Sebastian Bangshof has seen enough of OB

“I am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at Randers, and 0 appearances in 9 say he has earned the hearing.

Player ratings

A defender's afternoon for Lucas Lissens

Defensive actions: 16. He was first to everything and second to nothing, and the goalkeeper had an easy day because of it.

In brief

10 Edition

The Randers Post

5 Oct 2026
From our football correspondent Steady

Squad

Frederik Lauenborg damages knee ligaments — 78 days out

The words a physio says slowly. 78 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.

Market

Lucas Lissens asks to leave Randers

“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.

Player ratings

Mike Themsen, 20, plays like he has been here for years — 7.64

A mark of 7.64 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 20-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.

Squad

Miguel Paul gets the move he always wanted

Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Miguel Paul has just signed for Randers, and for once the answer mattered.

Squad

Tempers go at Randers

Paul Izzo 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.

Squad

Words at Randers training over how hard people work

Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mathias Greve 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.

Player ratings

Nobody could get near Elies Mahmoud

Successful dribbles: 20. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.

Boardroom

163% of the income goes out in wages at Randers

Every club in football pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time somebody has tried it.

Player ratings

Nothing got past Daniel Høegh

Headers, blocks, tackles, interceptions — 18 of them, and not one goal behind him. The sort of performance that never makes a highlight reel and wins football matches.

In brief

9 Edition

The Randers Post

28 Sep 2026
From our football correspondent Upbeat

Squad

Frederik Lauenborg damages knee ligaments — 85 days out

The words a physio says slowly. 85 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.

Squad

A one-man rearguard from Paul Izzo

There were 11 saves in it, and at least three that had no business being saves at all. The ten outfield players owe him a drink and they know it.

Match

Mike Themsen leads the rout of Esbjerg

3‑0, and Mike Themsen took the headlines on an afternoon when everything Randers tried came off. Days like this are retold all winter.

Player ratings

Mike Themsen, 20, plays like he has been here for years — 8.74

A mark of 8.74 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 20-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.

Player ratings

Wessel Dammers shuts the door

Defensive actions: 23, and a clean sheet at the end of it. A centre-half's best afternoons look like nothing happening, which is precisely the point.

Squad

Paul Izzo in a row with a teammate

It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Randers this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.

Player ratings

Mathias Greve in the eights

A performance of 9.00 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.

Player ratings

Warren Caddy in the eights

A performance of 9.02 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.

Match

Mike Themsen at the heart of a fast Randers start

2 goals inside twenty minutes with Mike Themsen in the middle of it, and Esbjerg unable to get near the ball long enough to change anything. Some matches are won before the first drink.

In brief

8 Edition

The Randers Post

21 Sep 2026
From our football correspondent Steady

Squad

Frederik Lauenborg damages knee ligaments — 92 days out

The words a physio says slowly. 92 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.

Squad

Paul Izzo keeps Randers in it on his own

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.

Player ratings

Nobody could get near Mike Themsen

Successful dribbles: 25. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.

Squad

Tempers go at Randers

Paul Izzo 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.

Match

A bad afternoon for Randers against FC Midtjylland

0‑1 to FC Midtjylland, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.

Squad

The manager has not finished forgetting Wessel Dammers'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.

In brief

7 Edition

The Randers Post

14 Sep 2026
From our football correspondent Steady

Squad

Frederik Lauenborg damages knee ligaments — 99 days out

The words a physio says slowly. 99 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.

Match

Randers throw away a 3-goal lead

3 in front and in complete control, and it finished with Viborg the happier side. There is no version of this afternoon that Randers will enjoy reviewing.

Player ratings

No sign of nerves from Mike Themsen at 20 — 9.29

The hardest thing about being 20 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Mike Themsen did not need any: 9.29, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.

Market

Randers turn down SonderjyskE for Musa Touré

The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.

Squad

At 20, Mike Themsen is already the best thing here

An average of 7.01 in a first team he is several years too young for. Randers have something, and by now the whole division has noticed.

Squad

Mathias Greve 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.

Squad

Tempers go at Randers

Mike Themsen 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.

Player ratings

A masterclass from Lucas Lissens

Marked 8.92 — 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.

Player ratings

Warren Caddy in the eights

A performance of 8.76 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.

In brief

6 Edition

The Randers Post

7 Sep 2026
From our football correspondent Upbeat

Squad

Frederik Lauenborg damages knee ligaments — 106 days out

The words a physio says slowly. 106 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.

Player ratings

A brace, and Mike Themsen takes the afternoon — 8.84

There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Mike Themsen provided it, and the 8.84 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.

Market

Lucas Lissens asks to leave Randers

“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.

Market

Randers say no — this time

The offer from AGF for Mike Themsen 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.

Squad

Words at Randers training over how hard people work

Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mathias Greve 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.

Match

Mike Themsen sends Randers past Hobro

It finished 3‑1, and it was Mike Themsen’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Randers.

Market

Business is business: Ousseynou Seck goes

SonderjyskE paid $74.0K and Randers took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.

Squad

Mike Themsen in a row with a teammate

It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Randers this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.

Boardroom

Wages eat 160% of everything Randers earn

There is a figure at which a wage bill stops being ambitious and becomes the reason nothing else is possible, and this club has reached it. Nothing is left over for a transfer, a stand or a rainy afternoon.

In brief

5 Edition

The Randers Post

31 Aug 2026
From our football correspondent Crisis

Squad

A knee injury of the worst kind for Frederik Lauenborg

114 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Randers lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.

Market

Randers turn down FC Copenhagen for Daniel Høegh

The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.

Player ratings

Mike Themsen runs at them all day

Successful dribbles: 26. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.

Market

Oliver Jones hands in a written request

“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Randers can pretend not to have heard.

Squad

Tempers go at Randers

Wessel Dammers 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.

Market

Eyes on Benjamin Örn again

The phone has started ringing about Benjamin Örn again, and this time the name on the line is Aalborg. Randers are listening politely and promising nothing.

Market

Randers sell Mert Demirci for $160.0K

Mert Demirci has left for AGF in a $160.0K deal. The accountants are pleased; the supporters are less certain.

Match

Randers come up short against FC Nordsjaelland

FC Nordsjaelland left with the points after a 0‑2 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.

Squad

The manager makes an example of Warren Caddy

“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.

In brief

4 Edition

The Randers Post

24 Aug 2026
From our football correspondent Steady

Squad

A knee injury of the worst kind for Frederik Lauenborg

121 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Randers lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.

Match

Randers march on in the cup

Esbjerg are out and Randers go through, 1‑0 the final word. The bracket opens up a little, and everyone allows themselves a look at it.

Squad

Paul Izzo keeps Randers in it on his own

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.

Player ratings

Thibault Klidjé scores twice — 8.69

Two goals and a mark of 8.69 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.

Player ratings

A debut Max Albæk will not forget — 7.65

There is exactly one of these per career and it does not usually go like this. 0 on the scoresheet, 7.65 beside the name, and a crowd that had never seen him before chanting it by the end.

Player ratings

Musa Touré, 20, plays like he has been here for years — 8.71

A mark of 8.71 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 20-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.

Player ratings

Age has not caught Daniel Høegh yet — 8.87

At 35 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.87 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.

Market

Mert Demirci hands in a written request

“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Randers can pretend not to have heard.

Squad

Tempers go at Randers

Paul Izzo 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

3 Edition

The Randers Post

17 Aug 2026
From our football correspondent Crisis

Squad

Paul Izzo in a row with a teammate

It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Randers this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.

Market

Musa Touré attracts admirers

The name of Musa Touré has come up in conversations Randers were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.

Player ratings

Mike Themsen runs at them all day

Successful dribbles: 19. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.

Match

Randers come up short against FC Copenhagen

FC Copenhagen left with the points after a 0‑1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.

Squad

Words at Randers training over how hard people work

Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Lucas Lissens 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.

Squad

Lucas Lissens gets it from the manager

“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.

Squad

The manager has not finished forgetting John Björkengren'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.

Player ratings

Thibault Klidjé keeps on missing

Shots: 11, not one of them in. A centre forward is paid for one thing, and on this evidence he has forgotten which thing it is.

Market

Vincent Gaml told to find a new club

“They were honest with me, and I would rather know.” Vincent Gaml has been informed he is not in the manager's thinking at Randers.

In brief

2 Edition

The Randers Post

10 Aug 2026
From our football correspondent Uneasy

Market

Lucas Lissens puts it in writing

“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 Randers, and it is not being withdrawn.

Squad

Paul Izzo keeps Randers in it on his own

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.

Market

Randers turn down Esbjerg for Benjamin Örn

The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.

Squad

Mathias Greve stays put

“The easiest signature of my career.” Mathias Greve and Randers agree another 2 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.

Squad

Paul Izzo in a row with a teammate

It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Randers this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.

Player ratings

Nobody could get near Warren Caddy

Successful dribbles: 21. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.

Player ratings

Noah Shamoun was on a different afternoon to everybody else

8.92. 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.

The terraces

The crowd has taken to Noah Shamoun

At 23 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.

Player ratings

A masterclass from Elies Mahmoud

Marked 8.66 — 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

1 Edition

The Randers Post

3 Aug 2026
From our football correspondent Uneasy

Match

SonderjyskE punish Randers for switching off

2 goals to the good, and then a slow surrender of everything that had been earned. Daniel Høegh will not be the one blamed for it, but nobody at Randers escapes the conversation that follows a collapse like this.

Player ratings

Daniel Høegh scores twice — 8.21

Two goals and a mark of 8.21 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.

Market

Randers say no — this time

The offer from Sandefjord for Amin Al-Hamawi 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.

Squad

Paul Izzo signs a new deal

“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Paul Izzo commits to Randers for another 3 years.

Squad

Tempers go at Randers

Paul Izzo 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.

Market

Esbjerg join the queue for Martin Sjølstad

Add another name to the list: Esbjerg have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Martin Sjølstad. The answer from Randers has not changed — yet.

Squad

Words at Randers training over how hard people work

Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mathias Greve 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.

Squad

The manager makes an example of Thibault Klidjé

“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.

Player ratings

Elies Mahmoud was on a different afternoon to everybody else

8.23. 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.

In brief