Themba Manyama

Central Midfielder - Persijap
21 Nov 2027
Sunday
Process

Marked for Themba Manyama

66 Edition

The Persijap Gazette

1 Nov 2027
From our football correspondent Steady

Squad

A knee injury of the worst kind for Rintaro Yajima

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

Squad

Themba Manyama: 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.” Persijap have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.

Squad

Tempers go at Persijap

Tiri 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

No hiding place for Simphiwe Dumisa

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

Market

No place for Dicky Kurniawan in the plan

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

Market

Alexis Gómez linked with a move away

The name of Alexis Gómez keeps appearing in other people's back pages. Persijap say nothing, which says plenty.

In brief

Back issues
63 Edition

The Persijap Gazette

11 Oct 2027
From our football correspondent Steady

Squad

A knee injury of the worst kind for Rintaro Yajima

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

Squad

Tiri 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 Persijap this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.

Squad

Aly Ndom 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

21 Edition

The Persijap Gazette

21 Dec 2026
From our football correspondent Uneasy

Squad

A knee injury of the worst kind for Lucas Morelatto

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

Squad

Tempers go at Persijap

Tiri 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

Alexis Gómez 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

17 Edition

The Persijap Gazette

23 Nov 2026
From our football correspondent Uneasy

Squad

Lucas Morelatto damages knee ligaments — 114 days out

The words a physio says slowly. 114 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.

Squad

Tempers go at Persijap

Tiri 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

Persijap count the cost of losing Themba Manyama

49 days, the scan says, and scans are kinder than reality. The fixtures in that window have just become somebody else’s job.

In brief

11 Edition

The Persijap Gazette

12 Oct 2026
From our football correspondent Uneasy

Squad

Aly Ndom damages knee ligaments — 105 days out

The words a physio says slowly. 105 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.

Squad

Tempers go at Persijap

Tiri 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

5 new faces, and Persijap 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

10 Edition

The Persijap Gazette

5 Oct 2026
From our football correspondent Uneasy

Squad

Aly Ndom damages knee ligaments — 112 days out

The words a physio says slowly. 112 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.

Squad

Sendri Johansyah: 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.” Persijap have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.

Market

Indra Arya Wiguna 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 Persijap, and it is not being withdrawn.

In brief

  • Squad Tiri in a row with a teammate
  • Squad Words at Persijap training over how hard people work
  • Boardroom Wages eat 176% of everything Persijap earn
  • Market Themba Manyama joins Persijap to strengthen the squad
9 Edition

The Free State Stars Chronicle

28 Sep 2026
From our football correspondent Triumph

Player ratings

A brace, and Percy Tau takes the afternoon — 8.35

There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Percy Tau provided it, and the 8.35 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.

Player ratings

Age has not caught Lebogang Khune yet — 8.46

At 35 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.46 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.

Match

Free State Stars make it 3 in a row

Momentum is a hard thing to buy and an easy thing to lose, and right now Free State Stars have 3 straight wins of it.

Squad

Tempers go at Free State Stars

Lebogang Khune 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.

Match

Free State Stars see off Bidvest Wits

Three points for Free State Stars, 3‑1 the final word against Bidvest Wits in a contest settled by the finer margins.

Squad

Siphelo Baloni 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.

Squad

The manager makes an example of Keagan Lorch

“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.

Squad

Free State Stars pick somebody else ahead of Diego Rosa

There is no complaint available here and everybody involved knows it, which does not make the walk to the bench any shorter. Form is the only currency in football that cannot be borrowed against.

Player ratings

Nobody could get near Siyabonga Williams

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

In brief

5 Edition

The Free State Stars Chronicle

31 Aug 2026
From our football correspondent Upbeat

Player ratings

Kermit Grobler, 21, plays like he has been here for years — 7.85

A mark of 7.85 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 21-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.

Market

Themba Manyama asks to leave Free State Stars

“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.

Squad

Tempers go at Free State Stars

Lebogang Khune 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.

Match

Kermit Grobler the difference as Free State Stars beat Chippa United

Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Kermit Grobler. 1‑0 against Chippa United, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.

Squad

Keagan Lorch 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.

Squad

Free State Stars pick somebody else ahead of Diego Rosa

There is no complaint available here and everybody involved knows it, which does not make the walk to the bench any shorter. Form is the only currency in football that cannot be borrowed against.

In brief