Marked for Ousmane Camara
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
The dugout11 Oct 2027
news_b_frozen_out_of_the_side
Squad11 Oct 2027
Words exchanged at Borneo
Kei Hirose 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.
The dugout11 Oct 2027
Nobody at Borneo 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.
The dugout11 Oct 2027
A promise honoured at Borneo
Something was said to Teguh Trisnanda and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
The dugout11 Oct 2027
“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.
Market11 Oct 2027
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Marcos Astina signs something — a contract at Borneo or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad4 Oct 2027
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Borneo this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad4 Oct 2027
The award is a small thing with a heavy meaning: for four weeks nobody in this division did his job better. Borneo have the trophy on a shelf and the player in the side.
Squad4 Oct 2027
A place in the month's best eleven for Marcos Astina
Four or five weekends of consistency, judged against everybody in the division doing his job. Marcos Astina has come out of that comparison in the side, and Borneo have had the benefit of every one of those afternoons.
The dugout4 Oct 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Teguh Trisnanda, and the manager let it.
Squad4 Oct 2027
The captaincy has been taken off Mohamad Anez. Borneo will call it a decision about the team; a dressing room reads it as a verdict on a man.
The dugout4 Oct 2027
Ousmane Camara 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.
In brief
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The dugout
The manager plants his flag on Kaio Nunes
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Match
Mid-table, and Borneo know it
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Squad27 Sep 2027
Defences have started doubling up on Marcos Astina
31 goals and a season average of 7.65 will do that. The space he used to find has gone; he keeps scoring anyway, which is the mark of the real thing.
Player ratings27 Sep 2027
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 9.41, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
Match27 Sep 2027
The season ends: position 7 for Borneo
The last league game has been played and the table has stopped moving: 59 points. The summer begins on Monday, and so does the argument about what it all meant.
Market27 Sep 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.
Squad27 Sep 2027
Tempers go at Borneo
Marcos Astina 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.
Match25 Sep 2027
Arema made Borneo work for it, but the scoreboard read 3‑2 at the end and the table does not ask how.
The terraces27 Sep 2027
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 19-year-old it feels ownership of. Ousmane Camara 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.
Match25 Sep 2027
Nobody wins at Borneo
8 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
Player ratings27 Sep 2027
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.32, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
In brief
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Boardroom
Wages swallow 125% of the Borneo income
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Squad
Too much change too quickly at Borneo
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The dugout
Stefano Arhan: “That is the standard”
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Squad13 Sep 2027
Marcos Astina is in the form of his life
A season average of 7.63 with 29 goals behind it. Opponents have started planning around him, which is the sincerest compliment football pays.
Player ratings13 Sep 2027
Koldo Obieta, 33, rolls back the years — 8.54
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.54 at 33, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Match11 Sep 2027
Nobody wants to play Borneo right now
4 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.
Market13 Sep 2027
The deal that would have taken Habibi Jusuf to Arema has collapsed at the last stage, and he reports back to Borneo with a summer to forget and a season still to play. Nobody is saying which side walked away.
The dugout13 Sep 2027
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Borneo may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Squad13 Sep 2027
Words exchanged at Borneo
Chris Nduwarugira 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.
Match11 Sep 2027
Borneo get the job done against Persik
A 2‑1 win over Persik, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
The dugout13 Sep 2027
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Player ratings13 Sep 2027
Marked 8.22 — 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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Transfer targets16 Aug 2027
The clubs have shaken hands with Persita; the player has not yet. Personal terms are next, and personal terms are where more deals die than anybody prints.
Player ratings16 Aug 2027
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.
Squad16 Aug 2027
A falling-out at Borneo
Marcos Astina and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Transfer targets16 Aug 2027
The approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.
The dugout16 Aug 2027
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Match14 Aug 2027
Level with 95 minutes on the clock, after an afternoon Borneo had all but put away. Persija will call it a point earned; the home dressing room will call it two given away, and both of them are right.
Match14 Aug 2027
1‑1, and both dressing rooms will call it two points lost. A draw that asked plenty of questions and answered none of them.
The dugout16 Aug 2027
The view from the dugout
“We did not lose. Some weeks that is all you get, and I would rather have the point than not.” Stefano Arhan chose the glass-half-full version of 1‑1; the supporters left with the other one.
The dugout16 Aug 2027
Nobody at Borneo 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
Steady
Squad19 Jul 2027
23 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Borneo lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Squad19 Jul 2027
Kei Hirose breaks a bone — 24 days out
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 24 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Market19 Jul 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.
Transfer targets19 Jul 2027
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Sarmiento keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Squad19 Jul 2027
A falling-out at Borneo
Marcos Astina and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Match17 Jul 2027
Beaten 1‑3, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Transfer targets19 Jul 2027
The approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.
The dugout19 Jul 2027
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The dugout19 Jul 2027
Mohamad Anez 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.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad21 Jun 2027
Diego Michiels damages knee ligaments — 60 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 60 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.
Squad21 Jun 2027
A fracture rules Kei Hirose out for 54 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Borneo will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Player ratings21 Jun 2027
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.
Player ratings21 Jun 2027
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 8.28, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
Squad21 Jun 2027
16 goals and a season average of 7.37. Form like that gets noticed well beyond this town.
Squad21 Jun 2027
A falling-out at Borneo
Marcos Astina and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Market21 Jun 2027
The name of Teguh Trisnanda has come up in conversations Borneo were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Match19 Jun 2027
It finished 3‑1, and it was Juan Felipe Villa’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Borneo.
Transfer targets21 Jun 2027
The approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad17 May 2027
96 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Borneo lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Squad17 May 2027
89 days out for Kei Hirose after a fracture
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Borneo will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Match15 May 2027
0‑4 to Persik, and it was every bit as bad as the number suggests. There are defeats you argue about and defeats you apologise for; this was the second kind.
Match12 May 2027
Borneo bow out of the cup
Persis go through and Borneo go home, 1‑4 the scoreline that did it. The dressing room will call the league the priority now, because that is what dressing rooms say.
Squad17 May 2027
A one-man rearguard from Kadú
There were 7 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.
The terraces17 May 2027
A cup hiding at Persis leaves Borneo explaining themselves
1-4, and long before the end the away end had switched from encouragement to something considerably more pointed. Nobody rings a phone-in about losing narrowly.
Player ratings17 May 2027
Successful dribbles: 23. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad17 May 2027
Tempers go at Borneo
Kei Hirose 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 dugout17 May 2027
No hiding place for Kadú
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Kadú, and the manager let it.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad19 Apr 2027
Diego Michiels damages knee ligaments — 124 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 124 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.
Squad19 Apr 2027
A falling-out at Borneo
Marcos Astina and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad19 Apr 2027
13 goals and a season average of 7.27. Form like that gets noticed well beyond this town.
Match17 Apr 2027
The run at home goes on for Borneo
8 matches unbeaten here. Every visiting manager is asked about it in the week before, which is precisely why it keeps going.
The dugout19 Apr 2027
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Player ratings19 Apr 2027
Some games turn on a moment; this one turned on a man. 7.95 on the card, and the Borneo support went home talking about one name.
Squad19 Apr 2027
A row about effort at Borneo
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Mohammad Khanafi was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Match17 Apr 2027
It needed Marcos Astina to find the net to bring anything home at all: 1‑1 against Persija, and half the dressing room will call it a point won.
The dugout19 Apr 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Reva Adi Utama, and the manager let it.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad15 Mar 2027
Words exchanged at Borneo
Marcos Astina 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.
Squad15 Mar 2027
Words at Borneo training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mohamad Anez 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 dugout15 Mar 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Mohammad Al-Husseini, and the manager let it.
The dugout15 Mar 2027
The manager’s verdict
“That is on me. I pick the team and I picked wrong.” Managers say that when they mean it and when they need to be seen to, and after 1‑3 Stefano Arhan left the room before anybody could ask which.
Market15 Mar 2027
“They were honest with me, and I would rather know.” Rivaldo Enero has been informed he is not in the manager's thinking at Borneo.
The dugout15 Mar 2027
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 Mohammad Al-Husseini is on it.
The dugout15 Mar 2027
Diego Michiels dropped after a run of poor form
The one version of being left out a player cannot argue with, and the one he takes worst. Somebody else has been better and the team sheet says so, in public, every week until it changes.
Looking ahead15 Mar 2027
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Persis in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad28 Dec 2026
41 days out for Dika Nurdiansyah after a fracture
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Borneo will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Squad28 Dec 2026
A falling-out at Borneo
Marcos Astina and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Boardroom28 Dec 2026
140% of the income goes out in wages at Borneo
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.
Squad28 Dec 2026
Words at Borneo training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mohamad Anez 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.
Market28 Dec 2026
The name of Koldo Obieta keeps appearing in other people's back pages. Borneo say nothing, which says plenty.
The dugout28 Dec 2026
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Borneo, and both men came out saying it was fine.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad14 Dec 2026
Tempers go at Borneo
Marcos Astina 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.
Market14 Dec 2026
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Rachmat Beckham 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.
Market14 Dec 2026
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Bagas Sucipto is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Squad14 Dec 2026
Mohammad Khanafi 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 dugout14 Dec 2026
Iago Mendonça knocks on the manager's door
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Borneo, and both men came out saying it was fine.
The dugout14 Dec 2026
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
The dugout14 Dec 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Syahrul Trisna, and the manager let it.
Market14 Dec 2026
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Borneo know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
The dugout14 Dec 2026
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Borneo. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad5 Oct 2026
A falling-out at Borneo
Marcos Astina and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Boardroom5 Oct 2026
Wages eat 216% of everything Borneo 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.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Words at Borneo training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mohamad Anez 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.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Ousmane Camara is the month’s best young player
At 19 he was better than everybody his age in the division for four weeks running, which is harder than one good afternoon. Borneo will try not to make too much of it.
Squad5 Oct 2026
A month is long enough that nobody gets in by accident. Juan Felipe Villa is in the division's best eleven for it, which is a quieter compliment than an award and a more reliable one.
The dugout5 Oct 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Teguh Trisnanda, and the manager let it.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad21 Sep 2026
Tempers go at Borneo
Marcos Astina 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 targets21 Sep 2026
The approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.
Match19 Sep 2026
A bad afternoon for Borneo against Persita
1‑2 to Persita, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Player ratings21 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 16. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
The dugout21 Sep 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.
Squad21 Sep 2026
Words at Borneo training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mohammad Khanafi 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 dugout21 Sep 2026
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
The dugout21 Sep 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Syahrul Trisna, and the manager let it.
Squad21 Sep 2026
At 18 he was the best of everybody his age in the division for one weekend. Nobody should build a career on it and everybody quietly does.