Marked for Nelson Alom
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad4 Jan 2027
Kevin López breaks a bone — 84 days out
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 84 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Market4 Jan 2027
Iqbal Hadi 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 PSBS Biak can pretend not to have heard.
Transfer targets4 Jan 2027
The paperwork begins on Yuda Editya
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. PSBS Biak have done the hard part with Madura United, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Squad4 Jan 2027
“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; PSBS Biak are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Squad4 Jan 2027
At 36, 3 points below where he was, and a body that has started charging interest. It happens to all of them and it is still the hardest paragraph on this page.
Squad4 Jan 2027
Kevin López 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.
The dugout4 Jan 2027
The manager makes an example of Raja Siregar
“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.
Transfer targets4 Jan 2027
Persija have been asked whether they would lend him. Loans are agreed quickly or not at all, and this one will be one or the other by the weekend.
Transfer targets4 Jan 2027
A loan enquiry to Persita: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad14 Dec 2026
A knee injury of the worst kind for Claudio Olivera
18 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. PSBS Biak lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Market14 Dec 2026
“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.
Squad14 Dec 2026
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at PSBS Biak this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The dugout14 Dec 2026
Nobody will confirm this and nothing else explains the last month of selections. A costly error buys a player a period of being second choice that is always longer than the error was.
The dugout14 Dec 2026
Lucky Oktavianto has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at PSBS Biak will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
The dugout14 Dec 2026
Nelson Alom knocks on the manager’s door
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Nelson Alom trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
The dugout14 Dec 2026
He asked about his future and was given an answer with minutes in it. The manager has now made a promise in a building where promises are remembered, and the clock on it has started.
Market14 Dec 2026
Kevin López linked with a move away
The name of Kevin López keeps appearing in other people's back pages. PSBS Biak say nothing, which says plenty.
Market14 Dec 2026
PSBS Biak have made Raheem Nugraha available for transfer. A career at this club is over in all but paperwork.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad7 Dec 2026
Claudio Olivera damages knee ligaments — 25 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 25 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.
Squad7 Dec 2026
Kevin López 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.
Squad7 Dec 2026
Words at PSBS Biak training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Raja Siregar 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.
Squad7 Dec 2026
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Taufany Muslihuddin commits to PSBS Biak for another 2 years.
The dugout7 Dec 2026
The manager makes an example of Iqbal Hadi
“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.
The dugout7 Dec 2026
When it matters, Kevin López 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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market26 Oct 2026
“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.
Squad26 Oct 2026
Make Aldo Maulidino and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad26 Oct 2026
A row about effort at PSBS Biak
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Raja Siregar was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout26 Oct 2026
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. PSBS Biak told Sandro Embaló something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
The dugout26 Oct 2026
“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.
The dugout26 Oct 2026
Nobody at PSBS Biak will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Transfer targets7 Sep 2026
PSBS Biak and PSM have settled on $160.0K. The rest belongs to the player and his agent, and a supporter who has watched one of these before knows not to buy the shirt yet.
Market7 Sep 2026
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Boardroom7 Sep 2026
Deadline passes with 15 signed and 1 gone
That is the business done at PSBS Biak until the window opens again. Whether it was enough will be answered on Saturdays rather than in a column, and the first Saturday is close.
Transfer targets7 Sep 2026
The approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Words exchanged at PSBS Biak
Make Aldo Maulidino 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.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Words at PSBS Biak training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Raheem Nugraha 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.
The dugout7 Sep 2026
Nelson Alom 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.
Squad7 Sep 2026
The formation has left Abdul Aziz behind
Every shape has positions in it and this one does not have his. PSBS Biak will either change the shape, change his job, or change his club, and he is waiting to hear which.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Four or five weekends of consistency, measured against everybody else in the division. A quieter compliment than an award and a more reliable one.