Junior Anand

Striker - Lautoka
23 Sep 2026
Wednesday
Process

Marked for Junior Anand

8 Edition

The Lautoka Herald

21 Sep 2026
From our football correspondent Uneasy

Squad

Zibraaz Sahib breaks a bone — 62 days out

Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 62 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.

Market

Atunaisa Naucukidi is on his way

The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Lautoka is pretending he will be back in the shirt.

Squad

Words exchanged at Lautoka

Sairusi Nalaubu 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.

In brief

Back issues
7 Edition

The Lautoka Herald

14 Sep 2026
From our football correspondent Uneasy

Squad

A fracture rules Zibraaz Sahib out for 69 days

Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Lautoka will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.

Market

Atonio Tuivuna asks to leave Lautoka

“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.

Boardroom

Delon Shankar will join Lautoka for nothing

The paperwork is done long before the player is. Delon Shankar has agreed terms to come here when his current deal runs out, which means Lautoka have spent a summer's transfer budget on a phone call.

Market

One of our own: Beniamino Verevou joins the Lautoka first team

Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Beniamino Verevou is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.

Squad

Junior Anand 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.

Market

The Sairusi Nalaubu story refuses to die

It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Sairusi Nalaubu signs something — a contract at Lautoka or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.

In brief

5 Edition

The Lautoka Herald

31 Aug 2026
From our football correspondent Uneasy

Squad

A fracture rules Zibraaz Sahib out for 83 days

Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Lautoka will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.

Market

Terms done: Saula Waqa is going

Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Rewa waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Lautoka is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.

Market

Saula Waqa 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 Lautoka can pretend not to have heard.

Squad

Tempers go at Lautoka

Sairusi Nalaubu was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.

Transfer targets

Lautoka rebuffed over Gabriele Matanisiga

Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Rewa have kept their man, and Lautoka go back to a list with one name crossed off it.

Squad

8 new faces, and Lautoka are still learning each other

A squad rebuilt inside one window pays for it in a currency nobody budgets for. The football is not worse than the sum of the players; it is worse than the sum of the players who have played together before.

In brief

2 Edition

The Lautoka Herald

10 Aug 2026
From our football correspondent Steady

Market

Lautoka turn down Ba for Saula Waqa

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

Squad

Tempers go at Lautoka

Sairusi Nalaubu 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.

Boardroom

Lautoka beat the market to Zainal Ali from Navua

Navua will keep picking him until June and will get nothing for him after it. Zainal Ali has pre-agreed a move to Lautoka, and the only people who lose in that arrangement are the ones who let the contract run down.

Market

Josaia Goundar steps up from the Lautoka academy

There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Josaia Goundar has been at this club since he was a boy and is now, formally, one of the first-team squad — which for a local readership beats any signing of any size.

Market

Taniela Krishna steps up from the Lautoka academy

There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Taniela Krishna has been at this club since he was a boy and is now, formally, one of the first-team squad — which for a local readership beats any signing of any size.

Market

Josaia Qaraniqio steps up from the Lautoka academy

There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Josaia Qaraniqio has been at this club since he was a boy and is now, formally, one of the first-team squad — which for a local readership beats any signing of any size.

In brief