Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Dewa United they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
It happens to all of them and it is still the hardest paragraph a local paper has to write. 34 years old, 3 points down on where he was, and a body that has started charging interest on a career.
Alexis Messidoro 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.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Aditya Kurniawan is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Dewa United, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Dewa United know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Dewa United. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
A side in position 16 visits next. The result will not make anybody’s season and it could quietly break the shape of one, which is why the manager has been watching the video since Sunday.
“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.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Words at Dewa United training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Noah Sadaoui 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.
Nick Kuipers 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.
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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Alexis Messidoro. 1‑0 against Semen Padang, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
5 signings in three months. Every one of them may be an upgrade and the team can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild that never appears in the transfer-window verdicts.
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Aditya Lilipaly on a 1‑0 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Johnathan wants continental football; whether Dewa United can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 22-year-old it feels ownership of. Ivar Jenner 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.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Dewa United can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
“The players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 2‑0, Aditya Lilipaly could afford to be generous.
Noah Sadaoui 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.
Alexis Messidoro 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.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 22-year-old it feels ownership of. Ivar Jenner 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.
“It is not the end of the world and it is not good enough. Both of those are true.” The manager, after a 0‑0 draw, said the honest thing and then went to say it again inside.
Headers, blocks, tackles, interceptions — 13 of them, and not one goal behind him. The sort of performance that never makes a highlight reel and wins football matches.
It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether Dewa United can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Sonny Stevens and Dewa United agree another 2 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Noah Sadaoui 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Brasil de Pelotas have kept their man, and Dewa United go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Nick Kuipers 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.
Add another name to the list: Persijap have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Muhammad Natsir. The answer from Dewa United has not changed — yet.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Dewa United can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.