Harel Levi

Goalkeeper - Omiya Ardija
17 Sep 2028
Sunday
Process

Marked for Harel Levi

108 Edition

The Omiya Ardija Chronicle

21 Aug 2028
From our football correspondent Crisis

Market

Omiya Ardija get their man

The chase for Agustin De Armas ended with $370.0K changing hands and Shonan Bellmare out of reasons to say no. The supporters will judge the fee the only way that matters: on Saturdays.

Squad

Harel Levi is a better footballer than he was

Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 21 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.

Squad

Valentín Viola 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 Omiya Ardija this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.

Market

Business is business: Alejandro Viniegra goes

Jubilo Iwata paid $300.0K and Omiya Ardija took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.

Squad

Words at Omiya Ardija training over how hard people work

Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Hijiri Kato 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.

Squad

No hiding place for Motoki Ohara

“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Motoki Ohara, and the manager let it.

Match

Omiya Ardija come up short against Kashima Antlers

Kashima Antlers left with the points after a 0‑1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.

Market

Experience through the door at Omiya Ardija

Romario Da Silva arrives at 38 with nothing left to prove and plenty left to pass on. Legs are a young man's currency; knowing where to stand never ages.

Player ratings

A day to forget for Yuta Toyokawa

Marked 5.63, and generously at that. Nothing came off, and by the end the crowd had stopped expecting it to.

In brief

Back issues
103 Edition

The Omiya Ardija Chronicle

17 Jul 2028
From our football correspondent Crisis

Match

14 matches without a win for Omiya Ardija

The run now stands at 14, and the questions being asked around Omiya Ardija are no longer polite ones.

Squad

Samy Mahour breaks a bone — 124 days out

Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 124 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.

Squad

Rodrigo Lugo keeps Omiya Ardija in it on his own

Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 6 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.

Squad

Bacari Djamanca: 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.” Omiya Ardija have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.

Match

Omiya Ardija cannot find the net

4 games without scoring. Strikers stop looking up, midfielders take the extra touch, and every shot that clears the bar is followed by a groan that has been building since the last goal.

Squad

Tempers go at Omiya Ardija

Valentín Viola 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

Omiya Ardija agree a free transfer for Ryuji Sugimoto

Nothing happens for months and then he simply arrives, at no cost, having signed a pre-contract while still turning out for somebody else. It is the least dramatic way to sign a footballer and frequently the shrewdest.

Player ratings

Nothing got past Masato Kojima

Headers, blocks, tackles, interceptions — 19 of them, and not one goal behind him. The sort of performance that never makes a highlight reel and wins football matches.

Player ratings

Kyota Tokiwa shuts the door

Defensive actions: 17, and a clean sheet at the end of it. A centre-half's best afternoons look like nothing happening, which is precisely the point.

In brief

49 Edition

The De Graafschap Post

5 Jul 2027
From our football correspondent Uneasy

Squad

A knee injury of the worst kind for Milan Smits

28 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. De Graafschap lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.

Boardroom

The caretaker keeps it: Cody Depay confirmed

A month of looking elsewhere ended where it started. He already knows every name in the building; the rest of it he now has to prove in public.

Market

Milan Smits puts it in writing

“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 De Graafschap, and it is not being withdrawn.

Market

Zwolle come back empty-handed

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

Squad

Nic Hartgers keeps the receipts

“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” De Graafschap may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.

Market

Only the photograph left for Justin Bakker

Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Justin Bakker will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around De Graafschap the goodbyes have quietly begun.

Squad

Tempers go at De Graafschap

Ibrahim El Kadiri 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.

Squad

Ties Wieggers has improved at 24, which nobody expected

Careers are supposed to plateau and then decline, and the players who ignore that are always the ones who were listening on the training ground. 3 points of it, over months, at an age where the direction normally only goes one way.

Market

De Graafschap buy the years ahead of Harel Levi

He is 20, and the scouting reports agree on the only line that matters: the ceiling. Signings like this are lottery tickets written by professionals.

In brief

19 Edition

The Felgueiras Gazette

7 Dec 2026
From our football correspondent Steady

Squad

Max Thompson 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 Felgueiras this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.

Squad

Words at Felgueiras training over how hard people work

Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. João Pedro 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.

Match

Felgueiras get the job done against Académico de Viseu

A 2‑1 win over Académico de Viseu, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.

Player ratings

Léo Teixeira in the eights

A performance of 8.27 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.

Squad

The manager makes an example of Leonardo

“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.

Market

Talks stall between Felgueiras and Tiago Leite

“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.

Squad

When it matters, Alfredo 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.

Player ratings

Nobody could get near Beni Souza

Successful dribbles: 11. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.

Market

The clock does Tiago Leite’s negotiating for him

7 months left, and both sides know what that means: every week without a signature, the fee Felgueiras could ask drops and the wages Tiago Leite can ask rise.

In brief