The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Birkirkara have lost him in all but the paperwork.
“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 The request is on a desk at Birkirkara, and it is not being withdrawn.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Tokollo Makgolane will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Birkirkara the goodbyes have quietly begun.
$96.0K on the table at Zabbar St. Patrick. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Birkirkara this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Donovan Makoma was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Clubs make promises constantly and the page usually only hears about them when they are broken. This one was honoured, and the dressing room noticed that faster than any supporter did.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Tokollo Makgolane will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Birkirkara the goodbyes have quietly begun.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Birkirkara this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Hunter Olson trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Position 2 on 41 points. Every season is a story and this is the last line of it, and now the club has three months to decide what the next one is about.
Position 2, 41 points, and the result everyone checks first is now theirs. The word is still not being said around the ground, which is how you know everyone is thinking it.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Allesandro Du Plessis will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Birkirkara the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Hunter Olson 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.
0‑1 to Floriana, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Squad14 Feb 2028
Words at Birkirkara training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Donovan Makoma 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.
He found out with everybody else, an hour before kick-off, from a sheet of paper on a wall. Nobody at Birkirkara pretended it was anything other than a decision about him.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Birkirkara this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Successful dribbles: 18. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Player ratings20 Dec 2027
Franklin Sasere was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.00. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
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.
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Luca Sultana after the 1‑1 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
The one version of being left out a player cannot argue with, and the one he takes worst. Somebody else has been better and the team sheet says so, in public, every week until it changes.
In brief
SquadThe division's best last weekend was a Birkirkara man
Zabbar St. Patrick will want this one forgotten quickly: 4‑1, every duel lost, and a long ride home. Birkirkara were ruthless in the way good sides are ruthless.
Player ratings13 Dec 2027
A brace, and Jere Vrcić takes the afternoon — 8.37
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Jere Vrcić provided it, and the 8.37 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
At 34 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.06 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Louis Pahama will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Birkirkara the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Everybody at Birkirkara saw it before anybody said it, which is how this always goes. At 36 the decline is real and measurable — 3 points — and the only question left is how the club handles somebody it owes a great deal to.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Louis Pahama will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Birkirkara the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Two sides from the top of the table, one afternoon, and a month of talk decided in ninety minutes. Birkirkara will not use the word title this week and will not stop thinking it.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Donovan Makoma was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“I did not come here to warm up in front of people.” He is out of contract eventually, he is old enough to count the weeks, and Birkirkara will have to give him a reason to stay or an exit.
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Rashed Al-Tumi is on it.
Somebody watched every match in the division at the weekend and decided he was the best thing in any of them. A small honour, and most careers end without one.
Hamrun Spartans next, and one man in the Birkirkara dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
The board had gone up, the arguing had started, and then the ball was in the net in the 91th minute. Sliema Wanderers will replay every second of the added time for a week.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Birkirkara this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Words at Birkirkara training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Donovan Makoma 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.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Louis Pahama will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Birkirkara the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Successful dribbles: 24. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Rashed Al-Tumi is on it.
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Luca Sultana after the 0‑0 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
Ninety minutes, no goals, and the argument started before the car park emptied: a point gained, or two thrown away against Valletta? Both sides of it will still be going on Thursday.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Birkirkara have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Hunter Olson 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.
“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.
Squad11 Oct 2027
Words at Birkirkara training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Donovan Makoma 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.
Every club in football pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time somebody has tried it.
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Rafa Santos is on it.
“I respect the manager and I am not going to sit here and pretend I am happy.” It is the most common sentence in football and it has never once been the end of a story.
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Valletta in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Franklin Sasere signs something — a contract at Birkirkara or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
In brief
The dugoutShaun Dimech asks for a word with the manager
Zach Muscat 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.
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.
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.
There is a level at which a footballer stops being tested and starts being contained, and he reached it some time ago. Birkirkara know it, and so does everybody who watches him.
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Luca Sultana after the 0‑0 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
“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.
Boardroom6 Sep 2027
Deadline passes with 9 signed and 7 gone
That is the business done at Birkirkara 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.
The deal that would have taken Shaun Dimech to Naxxar Lions has collapsed at the last stage, and he reports back to Birkirkara with a summer to forget and a season still to play. Nobody is saying which side walked away.
Zach Muscat 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Slovan Liberec have kept their man, and Birkirkara go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
“91 caps was 91 more than the boy who started ever expected.” At 34 he has stepped away from the national side and has not stepped away from Birkirkara.
He is doing things on a Saturday afternoon that nobody around him can answer, which is flattering for about one season and a problem after that. Birkirkara will not keep him by pretending otherwise.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Jake Vassallo will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Birkirkara the goodbyes have quietly begun.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Birkirkara this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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.
Nobody at Birkirkara 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.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Birkirkara know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
The offer from Naxxar Lions for Shaun Dimech 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.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Birkirkara is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Birkirkara asked and Hibernians said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Nobody at Birkirkara 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.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until JP Iseppe signs something — a contract at Birkirkara or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
The clubs have shaken hands with Hibernians; the player has not yet. Personal terms are next, and personal terms are where more deals die than anybody prints.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Birkirkara can pretend not to have heard.
Add another name to the list: Gzira United have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Louis Pahama. The answer from Birkirkara has not changed — yet.
Kandrin Naidoo 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.
Signed today, seen by nobody for years, and one of them may one day be the reason the club exists. That is the whole of the argument for an academy, and it is a good one.
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Rashed Al-Tumi is on it.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Birkirkara know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Position 3, 39 points, and the result everyone checks first is now theirs. The word is still not being said around the ground, which is how you know everyone is thinking it.
The deal with Hibernians is done in every sense but the one that puts him on the pitch. Nothing goes wrong at this stage, except on the occasions when it does.
Hunter Olson 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.
Nobody at Birkirkara 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.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Birkirkara know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
A call-up flatters the player and the club that produced him in the same breath. Birkirkara would like him back in one piece and know they will not be consulted.
17 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Birkirkara lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Birkirkara have lost him in all but the paperwork.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Birkirkara this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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.
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.
Nothing is announced when this happens and everybody knows. He is a bigger part of the plan at Birkirkara than he was a month ago, and the training ground worked that out before the team sheet said so.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Birkirkara know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
The registration window is open and the phone has started. Between now and the deadline this club will be linked with forty players and sign three, which is the usual ratio.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager makes Hunter Olson a promise
The dugoutJake Vassallo knocks on the manager’s door
46 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Birkirkara lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Birkirkara this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad10 May 2027
Words at Birkirkara training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Donovan Makoma 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.
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Rashed Al-Tumi is on it.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Hunter Olson trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
This is the season the town will measure the next twenty against. The trophy travels home with the squad, and the route through the streets was agreed days ago.
The words a physio says slowly. 53 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.
A shoot-out is remembered by its ending, and this one ends with Rashed Al-Tumi: 2 kept out, and a set of supporters who will describe every one of them for the next twenty years.
The kind of year that ends with a name being read out in a hall. Birkirkara had the benefit of it every week and now have the problem of everybody else knowing.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Birkirkara have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
The chances are being made and something is happening between the making and the finishing. 5 matches now, and the anxiety in the ground arrives a little earlier every week.
82 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Birkirkara lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Birkirkara this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
It happens to all of them and it is still the hardest paragraph a local paper has to write. 39 years old, 3 points down on where he was, and a body that has started charging interest on a career.
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.
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Rashed Al-Tumi is on it.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Birkirkara this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“I have given this everything, but my family is not here and neither am I, not really.” A footballer can be coached out of bad form. Nobody has ever been coached out of this, and Birkirkara know it.
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.
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.
3 kept out in the shoot-out, and a stadium that will still be describing them in twenty years. A goalkeeper only needs one of these to be remembered forever.
A 0‑0 win over Hamrun Spartans, a place in the next round, and the quiet arithmetic every supporter does on the walk home: how many more until a final?
Position 3, 39 points, and the result everyone checks first is now theirs. The word is still not being said around the ground, which is how you know everyone is thinking it.
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.
Zach Muscat 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.
9 without defeat on their own grass. The pitch has not changed; the crowd has — louder earlier, and quicker to sense when the opposition would rather be somewhere else.
In brief
SquadDonovan Makoma falls out with a teammate over standards
Player ratingsThe kick that got away from JP Iseppe
21 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Birkirkara lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Birkirkara can pretend not to have heard.
Hunter Olson 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.
At 22 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
51 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Birkirkara lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Zach Muscat 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.
Player ratings28 Dec 2026
Jere Vrcić was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.43. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
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.
128 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Birkirkara lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Birkirkara this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Everybody at Birkirkara saw it before anybody said it, which is how this always goes. At 38 the decline is real and measurable — 3 points — and the only question left is how the club handles somebody it owes a great deal to.
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Birkirkara has been clear about where Neil Micallef stands, which is more than many ever get.
Somebody else has been better, the manager has said so with a team sheet, and there is no argument to be had. He will get the shirt back the only way it can be got back.
Jan Busuttil damages knee ligaments — 135 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 135 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.
Hunter Olson 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.
He is doing things every Saturday that nobody around him can answer. It is flattering for a season and a problem after that, and Birkirkara know which stage they are at.
Squad12 Oct 2026
Words at Birkirkara training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Luis Mario Córdova 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.
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Valletta in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.