The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: another club keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Ruben Asoka is living that version at Persijap, and it tends to show in the first month.
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.
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Persija in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Sendri Johansyah trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
“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 The request is on a desk at Persijap, and it is not being withdrawn.
Tiri 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. Persik have kept their man, and Persijap go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Aly Ndom. 1‑0 against Borneo, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Marked 8.05. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Persijap.
Squad31 Jul 2028
Words at Persijap training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Zanadin Fariz 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.
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Fachri Putra on a 1‑0 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
44 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Persijap lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Persijap they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
At 35 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 7.87 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
1 for Aly Ndom, marked 7.65, and a centre-half's name in the part of the report he normally only reaches by mistake. He will not be allowed to forget it in the dressing room for a month.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Persijap this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Player ratings12 Jun 2028
Alexis Gómez was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.26. 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.
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.
Squad12 Jun 2028
Zanadin Fariz 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.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Persijap have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
“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; Persijap are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
The demotion a club never announces and a dressing room always notices. Sendri Johansyah is further from the side than he was, and the reason will not be given until he asks.
Every club 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 it has been tried.
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 Alexis Gómez is on it.
The dugout1 May 2028
The view from the dugout
“We did not lose. Some weeks that is all you get, and I would rather have the point than not.” Fachri Putra chose the glass-half-full version of 0‑0; the supporters left with the other one.
18 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Persijap lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Persijap have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Persijap this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“I watch every Persijap game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Persija runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Persijap, another week without a signature from Rendy Oscario.
The dugout3 Apr 2028
The manager’s verdict
“That is on me. I pick the team and I picked wrong.” Managers say that when they mean it and when they need to be seen to, and after 0‑1 Fachri Putra left the room before anybody could ask which.
26 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Persijap lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Persijap have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Nobody at Persijap 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.
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Borneo 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 Aly Ndom signs something — a contract at Persijap or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Diogo Brito trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
The list is a quiet document with a loud meaning. Ambrizal Umanailo may talk to anybody who asks, and everybody at the club understands what that means.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager makes Ahmad Rusadi a promise
34 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Persijap lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Bhayangkara Presisi will want this one forgotten quickly: 3‑0, every duel lost, and a long ride home. Persijap were ruthless in the way good sides are ruthless.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Aly Ndom provided it, and the 8.29 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Persijap this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Fachri Putra on a 3‑0 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
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.
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.
Tiri 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.
Everybody at Persijap saw it before anybody said it, which is how this always goes. At 35 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.
Semen Padang 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.
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Tiago, and the manager let it.
Squad17 Jan 2028
Rendi Saepul 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.
Nobody makes a documentary about a hamstring and everybody in the game fears one. Persijap will be careful with the return date, because the second one is always worse than the first.
“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; Persijap are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Persijap this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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.
Muhammad Ridwan is 36 and has run out of things to prove. What he has left is where to stand, when to slow it down and what to say at half-time, and none of that is on a fitness chart.
Borja Martínez 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.
Squad22 Nov 2027
Rendi Saepul 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.
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 Rakhmatsho Rakhmatzoda is on it.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Persijap, and both men came out saying it was fine.
The standards have slipped, and in a building where everybody watches everybody it has not gone unremarked. This is how a player loses a place before he loses one.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Persijap this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Persijap can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Squad25 Oct 2027
Words at Persijap training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Rendi Saepul 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.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Persijap, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Nobody at Persijap 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.
A manager forgives a bad Saturday far more readily than a bad Tuesday, because one of them he can explain and the other one he chose. The reports this week have not been good.
The mood at Persijap has turned into something else
Supporters who sing when it goes badly are supporters. Supporters who gather afterwards are a problem, and everybody inside the building knows which of the two this now is.
Something was said to Ambrizal Umanailo and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Fachri Putra after the 0‑0 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Rendi Saepul was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Sendri Johansyah trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Ninety minutes, no goals, and the argument started before the car park emptied: a point gained, or two thrown away against Madura United? Both sides of it will still be going on Thursday.
The dugout31 May 2027
The manager has not finished forgetting Zahran Alamsah's mistake
Publicly it is behind everybody. It is not behind the man who picks the team, and the only place that shows is a team sheet. He will get another chance; he will get it in a match that matters less.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 6 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Persijap have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
“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 Persijap know 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 Persijap this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Everybody at Persijap saw it before anybody said it, which is how this always goes. At 34 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.
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 1‑3, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
Nobody will confirm it and the team sheets confirm it every week. One error has bought him a spell as second choice that is already longer than the error deserved.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Rahmat Hidayat will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Persijap the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Akbar Arjunsyah was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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.
The dugout29 Mar 2027
The manager has not finished forgetting Zahran Alamsah's mistake
Publicly it is behind everybody. It is not behind the man who picks the team, and the only place that shows is a team sheet. He will get another chance; he will get it in a match that matters less.
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Ambrizal Umanailo’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Persijap needing him to play as if none of it matters.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Persijap know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Akbar Arjunsyah trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
At 35 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.11 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
9 matches without a win, and then this, against Maluku Utara United. Relief is a strange noise in a football ground and it was the only noise at the end.
7.55, 1 on the scoresheet, and the specific comedy of a back-four player celebrating like somebody who does this every week. He does not, and that is exactly why the ground reacted the way it did.
Marked 8.34. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Persijap.
Squad15 Mar 2027
Words at Persijap training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Adzikry Fadlillah 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 dugout15 Mar 2027
The view from the dugout
“We controlled it. There were spells I did not like and we will look at them, but the group showed me something.” Fachri Putra, on a 2‑0 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
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 Alexis Gómez is on it.
“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 Persijap know it.
Tiri 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 demotion a club never announces and a dressing room always notices. Raia Irvanza is further from the side than he was, and the reason will not be given until he asks.
Squad4 Jan 2027
Rendi Saepul 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.
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.
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.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Persijap can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Tiri 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.
“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.
Squad7 Dec 2026
Words at Persijap training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Akbar Arjunsyah 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.
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.
Tiri 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.
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 Muhammad Ardiansyah is on it.
Squad9 Nov 2026
Words at Persijap training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Felix Marcelino 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 dugout9 Nov 2026
The manager has not finished forgetting Dicky Kurniawan's mistake
Publicly it is behind everybody. It is not behind the man who picks the team, and the only place that shows is a team sheet. He will get another chance; he will get it in a match that matters less.
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.
Borja Martínez 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 dugout26 Oct 2026
The manager has not finished forgetting Iker Guarrotxena's mistake
Publicly it is behind everybody. It is not behind the man who picks the team, and the only place that shows is a team sheet. He will get another chance; he will get it in a match that matters less.
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 Alexis Gómez is on it.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Akbar Arjunsyah was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.