Marked for Kike Barja
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad9 Nov 2026
A fracture rules Alejandro Catena out for 137 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Osasuna will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Match4 Nov 2026
Cup progress for Osasuna
A 1‑0 win over Valladolid, a place in the next round, and the quiet arithmetic every supporter does on the walk home: how many more until a final?
Player ratings9 Nov 2026
Successful dribbles: 33. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad9 Nov 2026
Ante Budimir 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 Osasuna this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad9 Nov 2026
Words at Osasuna training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Rubén García 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.
Player ratings9 Nov 2026
Some games turn on a moment; this one turned on a man. 7.86 on the card, and the Osasuna support went home talking about one name.
Squad9 Nov 2026
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.
Player ratings9 Nov 2026
13 defensive actions and a clean sheet at the end of them. A defender's afternoon can only be told by what did not happen, which is why nobody makes a highlights package out of one and every manager in the division would take it.
Match7 Nov 2026
Point won or two lost for Osasuna?
Ninety minutes, no goals, and the argument started before the car park emptied: a point gained, or two thrown away against Real Sociedad? Both sides of it will still be going on Thursday.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
Player ratings5 Oct 2026
Raúl Moro runs at them all day
Successful dribbles: 24. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Match3 Oct 2026
The wait goes on for Osasuna
4 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Rubén García 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 Osasuna this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Market5 Oct 2026
Abel Bretones wants to know where this is going
“I want to win things, and I would like to do it here.” Nothing has been demanded and nothing has been threatened — but a boardroom at Osasuna hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Words at Osasuna training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ante Budimir 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.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Kike Barja 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.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match29 Aug 2026
Some goals win a match and some take one off somebody else. Moi Gómez scored in the 86th minute, Sevilla had already begun thinking about the journey home, and Osasuna took the lot.
Market31 Aug 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.
Squad31 Aug 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 Osasuna this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad31 Aug 2026
Words at Osasuna training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Rubén García 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.
Match29 Aug 2026
Three points for Osasuna, 1‑0 the final word against Sevilla in a contest settled by the finer margins.
Player ratings31 Aug 2026
The afternoon belonged to Moi Gómez
7.44, and no serious argument from anybody who was there. Osasuna had eleven men on the pitch and one of them decided how it went.
Squad31 Aug 2026
The first one is the one every signing is asked about until it arrives. It has arrived, and he can stop being asked.
Squad31 Aug 2026
Kike Barja asks for a word with the manager
“I would rather say it to his face than read about it.” The meeting was requested by the player, which tells you most of what you need to know.
Player ratings31 Aug 2026
Nobody could get near Raúl Moro
Successful dribbles: 9. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market3 Aug 2026
Palermo come back empty-handed
The bid was some way short and Osasuna did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Kike Barja has been here 10 seasons
318 appearances across 10 seasons in one shirt. Nobody builds a career like that on purpose any more; it happens to a certain kind of footballer at a certain kind of club.
Market3 Aug 2026
Ante Budimir wants to know where this is going
“I want to win things, and I would like to do it here.” Nothing has been demanded and nothing has been threatened — but a boardroom at Osasuna hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
Squad3 Aug 2026
“The easiest signature of my career.” Ante Budimir and Osasuna agree another 2 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Rubén García 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 Osasuna this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Words at Osasuna training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ante Budimir 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.