Ivan Grima

Central Defender - Balzan
21 Oct 2029
Sunday
Process
Overview Personal Contract News 3 Transfers Relations Events 53 Awards Matches History

Marked for Ivan Grima

166 Edition

The Balzan Post

1 Oct 2029
From our football correspondent Upbeat

Match29 Sep 2029

The run at home goes on for Balzan

20 matches unbeaten here. Every visiting manager is asked about it in the week before, which is precisely why it keeps going.

Match26 Sep 2029

Ivan Grima sends Balzan through

Cup ties wait for somebody to seize them, and Ivan Grima obliged against St. Andrews. 1‑0 on the night, and the name in the next round’s hat is Balzan.

Player ratings1 Oct 2029

What a way to start for Alfred Bajada — 7.24

0 on the scoresheet on his first appearance and a mark of 7.24 beside it. Most debuts are got through; this one was enjoyed, by him and by everybody watching it.

Player ratings1 Oct 2029

Ivan Grima, 18, plays like he has been here for years — 7.75

A mark of 7.75 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 18-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.

Squad1 Oct 2029

A falling-out at Balzan

Meykson and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.

Squad1 Oct 2029

Alfie Marriott 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.

Boardroom1 Oct 2029

Wages eat 184% of everything Balzan 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.

The terraces1 Oct 2029

Balzan supporters have found a favourite in Ivan Grima

There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 18-year-old it feels ownership of. Ivan Grima 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.

Match29 Sep 2029

James Butterworth the difference as Balzan beat Marsa

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

In brief

Back issues
159 Edition

The Balzan Post

13 Aug 2029
From our football correspondent Upbeat

Squad13 Aug 2029

Ivan Grima damages knee ligaments — 15 days out

The words a physio says slowly. 15 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.

Market13 Aug 2029

Chiemezie Gabriel 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 Balzan people have started saying his name in the past tense.

Squad13 Aug 2029

A fracture rules Neil Pace Cocks out for 22 days

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

Transfer targets13 Aug 2029

The paperwork begins on Werner Oosthuizen

A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Balzan have done the hard part with Valletta, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.

Transfer targets13 Aug 2029

Door shut on Fatjon Bunjaku

Balzan asked and Birkirkara said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.

Squad13 Aug 2029

Tempers go at Balzan

James Scicluna 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.

Squad13 Aug 2029

A row about effort at Balzan

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

The dugout13 Aug 2029

James Butterworth 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.

Transfer targets13 Aug 2029

A loan move for Franklin Sasere is in the works

Balzan have made the call to Birkirkara. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.

In brief

158 Edition

The Balzan Post

6 Aug 2029
From our football correspondent Upbeat

Squad6 Aug 2029

A knee injury of the worst kind for Ivan Grima

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

Market6 Aug 2029

Yousuf Toure agrees terms with Sliema Wanderers

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

Squad6 Aug 2029

A fracture rules Neil Pace Cocks out for 29 days

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

Market6 Aug 2029

Balzan say no — this time

The offer from Hibernians for Hernanny was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.

Squad6 Aug 2029

12 seasons of Samir Arab

307 appearances across 12 seasons in these colours. Careers like that are not built any more, and Balzan know what they have.

Market6 Aug 2029

Martín Dedes 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 Balzan can pretend not to have heard.

Transfer targets6 Aug 2029

Emmanuel Ugwu will not be coming to Balzan

Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Mosta is saying, and nobody at Balzan is enjoying the guessing.

Squad6 Aug 2029

Lucas Straub signs on for more

“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Lucas Straub and Balzan agree another 2 years.

Boardroom6 Aug 2029

The owner puts $198.9K into Balzan

This is money that keeps the lights on rather than money that buys a centre-half, and the difference is the whole story. A club funded by its owner rather than by its football has exactly one conversation left ahead of it.

In brief