Ryan

Right Back - Balzan
23 Feb 2027
Tuesday
Process
Overview Personal Contract News 2 Transfers Relations Events 19 Awards Matches History

Marked for Ryan

30 Edition

The Balzan Post

22 Feb 2027
From our football correspondent Upbeat

Player ratings22 Feb 2027

Luciano Junior, 20, plays like he has been here for years — 8.26

A mark of 8.26 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.

The dugout22 Feb 2027

Jake Grech says Balzan went back on their word

“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.

Player ratings22 Feb 2027

Oluwatobiloba Dimeji Awosanya beats them one at a time

Successful dribbles: 23. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.

Squad22 Feb 2027

Tempers go at Balzan

Luis Gabriel 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 Feb 2027

A row about effort at Balzan

Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Ryan was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.

Boardroom22 Feb 2027

Wages swallow 151% of the Balzan income

Every club 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 it has been tried.

The terraces22 Feb 2027

Balzan supporters have found a favourite in Luciano Junior

There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 20-year-old it feels ownership of. Luciano Junior 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.

Match20 Feb 2027

Luciano Junior sends Balzan past Sirens

It finished 2‑0, and it was Luciano Junior’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Balzan.

Player ratings22 Feb 2027

Leandrinho was on a different afternoon to everybody else

8.14. 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

Back issues
28 Edition

The Balzan Post

8 Feb 2027
From our football correspondent Steady

Player ratings8 Feb 2027

Luciano Junior was unplayable

Successful dribbles: 33. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.

Match8 Feb 2027

Balzan up to position 2

43 points on the board and a place in the leading group. Nobody at the ground is saying the word out loud yet.

Market8 Feb 2027

Michael asks to leave Balzan

“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.

Market8 Feb 2027

Yousuf Toure has one foot out of the door

Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Balzan they have already started talking about him in the past tense.

Squad8 Feb 2027

Chiemezie Gabriel is the real thing at 21

A season average of 7.32 at an age when most of his year group are still in the youth team. Balzan know what they have, and so, by now, does everybody else.

Squad8 Feb 2027

Ryan stays put

“The easiest signature of my career.” Ryan and Balzan agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.

Squad8 Feb 2027

Luciano Junior 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 Balzan this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.

Transfer targets8 Feb 2027

Too dear: Balzan walk away from Dunstan Vella

$120.0K was the most the club would pay and Floriana were asking for more. Deals like this are revived in the last week of a window roughly half the time, and everybody involved knows it.

Squad8 Feb 2027

A row about effort at Balzan

Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Ryan was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.

In brief