Ruben Rey

Defensive Midfielder - Valletta
9 Jul 2028
Sunday
Process
Overview Personal Contract News 5 Transfers 1 Relations Events 77 Awards Matches History

Marked for Ruben Rey

101 Edition

The Valletta Chronicle

3 Jul 2028
From our football correspondent Crisis

Market3 Jul 2028

Bryn Deeley agrees terms with Zabbar St. Patrick

The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Valletta people have started saying his name in the past tense.

Boardroom3 Jul 2028

Valletta spell it out for William Pisani

The board’s statement ran to three sentences and one of them mentioned results. William Pisani has managed long enough to translate: win soon, or the next statement is shorter.

Boardroom3 Jul 2028

The Valletta board call everybody in

Nothing has been announced and everybody understands what it means. A board that summons the whole football department on a Tuesday morning is a board that has stopped believing the problem will fix itself.

Market3 Jul 2028

Andrea Zammit 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 Valletta can pretend not to have heard.

Market3 Jul 2028

Birzebbuga St. Peter's come back empty-handed

The bid was some way short and Valletta did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.

Market3 Jul 2028

Mpendulo Ntuli is on his way

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

The dugout3 Jul 2028

Shaft Brewer frozen out at Valletta

This is not rotation. Shaft Brewer has not been in the manager's plans for some time, and nobody at Valletta is pretending otherwise.

Squad3 Jul 2028

Tempers go at Valletta

Victor Oliveira 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.

Squad3 Jul 2028

Sava Radić 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.

In brief

Back issues
99 Edition

The Valletta Chronicle

19 Jun 2028
From our football correspondent Crisis

Market19 Jun 2028

Bryn Deeley 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 Valletta can pretend not to have heard.

Market19 Jun 2028

Ruben Rey agrees terms with Birzebbuga St. Peter's

The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Valletta people have started saying his name in the past tense.

Squad19 Jun 2028

Words at Valletta training over how hard people work

Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Bruno Gomes 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.

Market19 Jun 2028

Fgura United join the queue for David Silva

Add another name to the list: Fgura United have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about David Silva. The answer from Valletta has not changed — yet.

Squad19 Jun 2028

Words exchanged at Valletta

Jordan Konango Mbon 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 dugout19 Jun 2028

When it matters, Bruno Gomes plays

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.

Market19 Jun 2028

The shop window has Thaylor in it

Valletta have let the market know Thaylor can be had. No price in the advert, but everyone in the trade knows roughly what it says.

The dugout19 Jun 2028

Andrea Zammit 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 Valletta, and both men came out saying it was fine.

The dugout19 Jun 2028

The manager makes Allen Rozum a promise

Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Valletta. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.

In brief

97 Edition

The Valletta Chronicle

5 Jun 2028
From our football correspondent Crisis

Boardroom5 Jun 2028

Valletta spell it out for William Pisani

The board’s statement ran to three sentences and one of them mentioned results. William Pisani has managed long enough to translate: win soon, or the next statement is shorter.

Market5 Jun 2028

Harvey Higgins asks to leave Valletta

“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 dugout5 Jun 2028

Shaft Brewer frozen out at Valletta

This is not rotation. Shaft Brewer has not been in the manager's plans for some time, and nobody at Valletta is pretending otherwise.

Squad5 Jun 2028

Abdoulaye Cissé 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 Valletta this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.

Squad5 Jun 2028

A row about effort at Valletta

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

Market5 Jun 2028

Birzebbuga St. Peter's watching Ruben Rey

The interest is real enough to have reached print. Valletta have said nothing, which in a transfer window is its own kind of answer.

Market5 Jun 2028

Santa Lucia expected to open talks for Enzo

Both sides expect a conversation in the coming days. Valletta will name a price, and everything after that is arithmetic.

Squad5 Jun 2028

Home is on Juninho Piancó's mind

“Some mornings you wake up and you are still a long way from everything you know.” It is not the football and it never was; Valletta are dealing with a man who wants a different country.

Market5 Jun 2028

No place for Andrea Zammit in the plan

“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Andrea Zammit has his answer from Valletta; what he does with it is the next window’s story.

In brief

  • The dugout When it matters, Victor Oliveira plays
  • The dugout Enzo loses the manager who believed in him
  • Boardroom The window opens at Valletta
84 Edition

The Valletta Chronicle

6 Mar 2028
From our football correspondent Crisis

The terraces6 Mar 2028

Anger at Valletta spills outside the ground

It has stopped being a mood in the stands and started being something organised. Boards can ignore a bad atmosphere for a long time; they cannot ignore this stage of it for very long at all.

Squad6 Mar 2028

93 days out for Shaft Brewer after a fracture

A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Valletta will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.

Boardroom6 Mar 2028

The scrutiny sharpens at Valletta

Nobody upstairs has said anything, which is the loudest thing they could do. Results buy silence in this game; the account at Valletta is running low.

Boardroom6 Mar 2028

William Pisani has until the next board meeting

What was said behind closed doors has now been said in front of a microphone. Everybody at Valletta can do the arithmetic, including the man it is aimed at.

Match1 Mar 2028

The small margins put Valletta out

Out, 1‑2 to Balzan, and the long argument about which of the small moments decided it. The league is all there is now, and everybody knows it.

Market6 Mar 2028

Bryn Deeley asks to leave Valletta

“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 ratings6 Mar 2028

Ruben Rey goes up and wins it — 7.44

A defender on the scoresheet, which happens rarely enough that everybody in the ground remembers who took the corner. 1 for him, and a mark of 7.44 for the rest of it.

The dugout6 Mar 2028

Jordan Konango Mbon says Valletta 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.

Market6 Mar 2028

David Silva is on his way

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

In brief

31 Edition

The Valletta Chronicle

1 Mar 2027
From our football correspondent Steady

Squad1 Mar 2027

Jordan Konango Mbon breaks a bone — 58 days out

Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 58 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.

Market1 Mar 2027

Manuel Morello 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 Valletta can pretend not to have heard.

Squad1 Mar 2027

Roko Prša wants to go home

“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Valletta can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.

Squad1 Mar 2027

Maringá wants one last season at home

Every long career reaches the week the last one is thought about. He would like it to be where he started, and Valletta know now that the thought has arrived.

Squad1 Mar 2027

Tempers go at Valletta

Victor Oliveira 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.

Market1 Mar 2027

Valletta sign Ruben Rey, one for the future

Ruben Rey is 17, and Valletta have signed him for the player he will be rather than the one he is. The first team can wait; the point of a deal like this is the years it buys.

The dugout1 Mar 2027

The manager makes an example of Yannick Yankam

“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.

Market1 Mar 2027

The Bruno Gomes question follows Valletta around

Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Bruno Gomes’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.

Market1 Mar 2027

Talks stall between Valletta and Enzo

“We are a long way apart, and pretending otherwise helps nobody.” Neither side is close, and the calendar is not on the club's side.

In brief