Marked for Weder Silva
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad24 Jan 2028
22 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Aktobe lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Squad24 Jan 2028
A falling-out at Aktobe
Ivan Ordets and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad24 Jan 2028
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Weder Silva commits to Aktobe for another 1 years.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
The dugout27 Sep 2027
“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.
Squad27 Sep 2027
A falling-out at Aktobe
Pablo Álvarez and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad27 Sep 2027
A row about effort at Aktobe
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Dimitrije Stevanović was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad27 Sep 2027
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Yeldos Tagybergen commits to Aktobe for another 3 years.
The dugout27 Sep 2027
No hiding place for Liel
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Liel, and the manager let it.
The dugout27 Sep 2027
Daniel Sosah has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Aktobe 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.
Market27 Sep 2027
Aktobe have made Daniel Sosah available for transfer. A career at this club is over in all but paperwork.
Squad27 Sep 2027
He is not being dropped. There is simply nowhere in the formation Aktobe are playing to put a man who does what he does, which is a harder thing to be told than any team sheet.
The dugout27 Sep 2027
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Aktobe, and both men came out saying it was fine.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad30 Aug 2027
A falling-out at Aktobe
Ivan Ordets and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad30 Aug 2027
16 days, the scan says, and scans are kinder than reality. The fixtures in that window have just become somebody else’s job.
The dugout30 Aug 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Vitalii Laturnus, and the manager let it.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad18 Jan 2027
A fracture rules Oualid El Hasni out for 68 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Marsaxlokk will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Player ratings18 Jan 2027
Successful dribbles: 31. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Market18 Jan 2027
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Zabbar St. Patrick waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Marsaxlokk is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Squad18 Jan 2027
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.
Match16 Jan 2027
No end in sight to Marsaxlokk's wait for a win
6 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Marsaxlokk has to find a result from somewhere.
Market18 Jan 2027
Weder Silva 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 Marsaxlokk can pretend not to have heard.
Market18 Jan 2027
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Match16 Jan 2027
Marsaxlokk are shipping goals every week
Two or more conceded in each of the last 5 matches. It is not one mistake repeating itself, which would be the easier thing to fix; it is a different one every week.
Squad18 Jan 2027
Thuto Sesipi 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 Marsaxlokk this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad11 Jan 2027
75 days out for Oualid El Hasni after a fracture
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Marsaxlokk will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Market11 Jan 2027
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
The dugout11 Jan 2027
Weder Silva: that is not what I was promised
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Marsaxlokk have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Match9 Jan 2027
No end in sight to Marsaxlokk's wait for a win
5 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Marsaxlokk has to find a result from somewhere.
Squad11 Jan 2027
Domantas Šimkus and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Squad11 Jan 2027
A row about effort at Marsaxlokk
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Sifiso Mazibuko was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Match9 Jan 2027
No clean sheets in sight for Marsaxlokk
4 games now with at least two against. The back line has been rearranged, the goalkeeper has been backed publicly, and the goals keep going in anyway.
Match9 Jan 2027
Beaten 0‑2, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
The dugout11 Jan 2027
The team sheet said everything about Sifiso Mazibuko
Warm-up bib, ninety minutes of watching, and a handshake at the end that fooled nobody. Big matches tell you who a manager trusts; this one told Sifiso Mazibuko.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad7 Dec 2026
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 110 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Market7 Dec 2026
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Marsaxlokk, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad7 Dec 2026
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Joseph Minala commits to Marsaxlokk for another 2 years.
Squad7 Dec 2026
Thuto Sesipi and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Match5 Dec 2026
Beaten 1‑2, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Squad7 Dec 2026
A row about effort at Marsaxlokk
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Kamohelo Hoala was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout7 Dec 2026
“I could talk about decisions and I could talk about luck. I will not. We lost.” The manager, 1‑2, and a press conference that lasted four minutes.
The dugout7 Dec 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Weder Silva, and the manager let it.
Player ratings7 Dec 2026
Successful dribbles: 13. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad16 Nov 2026
131 days out for Oualid El Hasni after a fracture
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Marsaxlokk will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Transfer targets16 Nov 2026
Everything agreed with another club, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
Squad16 Nov 2026
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Thuto Sesipi and Marsaxlokk agree another 3 years.
Squad16 Nov 2026
Domantas Šimkus and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Squad16 Nov 2026
A move Thabang Molefe would have made for nothing
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Thabang Molefe is living that version at Marsaxlokk, and it tends to show in the first month.
The dugout16 Nov 2026
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
The dugout16 Nov 2026
Tumelo Shai gets picked when it counts
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Tumelo Shai is on it.
Looking ahead16 Nov 2026
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Valletta in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
Market16 Nov 2026
It is the least glamorous business a club does and the reason seasons do not collapse in February. Thabang Molefe is here for the weeks when three men are injured and somebody still has to play.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match26 Oct 2026
Every point is an argument now for Marsaxlokk
Position 10 and 6 points, and the table gets read bottom-up in this part of town. The calendar has stopped being a schedule and started being a countdown.
Player ratings26 Oct 2026
Successful dribbles: 28. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Match24 Oct 2026
1‑2 to Floriana, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Squad26 Oct 2026
Matías García and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Squad26 Oct 2026
200 games in this shirt, through managers and relegations and everything else. Service like it is disappearing from the game and the crowd knows what it is watching.
The dugout26 Oct 2026
The view from the dugout
“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 1‑2 defeat, delivered by George Bajada to a room that had heard them before.
The dugout26 Oct 2026
Joseph Minala asks for a word with the manager
“I would rather say it to his face than read about it.” The meeting was requested by the player, which tells you most of what you need to know.
Squad26 Oct 2026
He wheeled away like a man who had been carrying it for months, because he had. Marsaxlokk have their signing off the mark and one press-conference question retired.
The dugout26 Oct 2026
James Kirby has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Marsaxlokk 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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match17 Oct 2026
Beaten 0‑3 by Hibernians, and beaten everywhere it matters. The inquest starts on the training pitch on Monday morning.
Squad19 Oct 2026
There were 8 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.
Squad19 Oct 2026
It happens to all of them and it is still the hardest paragraph a local paper has to write. 37 years old, 3 points down on where he was, and a body that has started charging interest on a career.
Boardroom19 Oct 2026
Nobody left the Marsaxlokk 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.
The dugout19 Oct 2026
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 0‑3, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
Player ratings19 Oct 2026
Successful dribbles: 13. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
The dugout19 Oct 2026
Tumelo Shai has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Marsaxlokk will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
Looking ahead19 Oct 2026
Floriana next, and one man in the Marsaxlokk dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
The dugout19 Oct 2026
Ninety specific minutes wanted a different sort of player, and the manager picked one. He is not out of form and he is not in the side, and both are true.