From our football correspondent
Steady
Market12 Oct 2026
David Xuereb 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 Gzira United can pretend not to have heard.
Squad12 Oct 2026
Azriel Gonzalez 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 dugout12 Oct 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Azriel Gonzalez, and the manager let it.
Squad12 Oct 2026
Staša Bastić 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.
Squad12 Oct 2026
There is a level at which a footballer stops being tested and starts being contained, and he reached it some time ago. Gzira United know it, and so does everybody who watches him.
Boardroom12 Oct 2026
Wages eat 99% of everything Gzira United earn
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.
Squad12 Oct 2026
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Guus Joppen commits to Gzira United for another 1 years.
The dugout12 Oct 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.
Looking ahead12 Oct 2026
Floriana next, and one man in the Gzira United dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
Match30 Sep 2026
Gudja United are out and Gzira United go through, 1‑0 the final word. The bracket opens up a little, and everyone allows themselves a look at it.
Match3 Oct 2026
0‑4 against Hibernians, and no complaints that would survive the replay. The manager spoke about character afterwards; the terraces used shorter words.
Player ratings5 Oct 2026
Kian Leonardi, 21, steals the show — 7.87
Marked 7.87 at 21, in a side that makes no allowances for age. He did not need any, and he looked the least nervous man on the pitch.
Market5 Oct 2026
“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 Gzira United, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad5 Oct 2026
There were 6 saves in it, and at least three that had no business being saves at all. The ten outfield players owe him a drink and they know it.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Azriel Gonzalez 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 ratings5 Oct 2026
Successful dribbles: 21. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Gabriel Mentz was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The terraces5 Oct 2026
He is 21 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Player ratings28 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 34. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Match26 Sep 2026
André scored, and precious little else went right: 1‑3 to Sliema Wanderers, and a quiet walk to the dressing room.
Squad28 Sep 2026
“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 Gzira United know it.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Gabriel Mentz was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Luís Riascos 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 dugout28 Sep 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 dugout28 Sep 2026
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 1‑3 Owen Attard left the room before anybody could ask which.
Looking ahead28 Sep 2026
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Hibernians in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
The dugout28 Sep 2026
The shape wanted a different profile against this opponent, which is a real football answer and no comfort at all to the man it is about. He did nothing wrong and he did not play.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Match19 Sep 2026
Santiago Martínez wins it after the whistle should have gone
93 minutes played. Santiago Martínez found the finish in time that only existed because of earlier delays, and Mosta went from a point to nothing inside one movement.
Squad21 Sep 2026
Luís Riascos 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 terraces21 Sep 2026
He is 22 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.
Player ratings21 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 19. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Match19 Sep 2026
It finished 1‑0, and it was Santiago Martínez’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Gzira United.
The dugout21 Sep 2026
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Owen Attard on a 1‑0 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
The dugout21 Sep 2026
Deacon Abela 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.
The dugout21 Sep 2026
Chrisnovic N'sa 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 ratings21 Sep 2026
Not in the side at kick-off and the story of it by the end. Gzira United were going nowhere until he came on, and half an hour was all he needed.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad14 Sep 2026
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 6 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Words at Gzira United training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Gabriel Mentz 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.
Match12 Sep 2026
0‑1 to Marsaxlokk, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 16. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
The dugout14 Sep 2026
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Owen Attard after 0‑1, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
Looking ahead14 Sep 2026
Mosta next, and one man in the Gzira United dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
Market14 Sep 2026
Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with André’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.
The dugout14 Sep 2026
Ninety specific minutes wanted a different sort of player, and the manager picked one. He is not out of form and he is not in the side, and both are true.
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
Fouls conceded: 5. Some of it was commitment, some of it was temper, and the referee had stopped telling the difference well before the end.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market7 Sep 2026
Kian Leonardi 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 Gzira United can pretend not to have heard.
Boardroom7 Sep 2026
Window shuts: 6 in, 2 out at Gzira United
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 6 arrived, 2 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
Transfer targets7 Sep 2026
$3.0K was the most the club would pay and Mosta were asking for more. Deals like this are revived in the last week of a window roughly half the time, and everybody involved knows it.
Market7 Sep 2026
The interest is real enough to have reached print. Gzira United have said nothing, which in a transfer window is its own kind of answer.
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 at Gzira United training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Gabriel Mentz 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 Sep 2026
The manager has re-ordered his thinking and Mihajlo Stojanović has come out of it lower. He will be told it is temporary, and the players who have heard that before will avoid his eye.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Not a new contract, not a new number: a new place in the manager’s thinking, which is the only promotion in football that actually matters. Máxuell Maia has moved up it.
The dugout7 Sep 2026
Rafael Pace 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
Crisis
Match29 Aug 2026
Beaten 0‑3 by Birkirkara, and beaten everywhere it matters. The inquest starts on the training pitch on Monday morning.
Market31 Aug 2026
“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 Gzira United, and it is not being withdrawn.
Boardroom31 Aug 2026
5 academy players handed senior numbers at Gzira United
The morning the pathway stops being a brochure and becomes a team sheet. Most of them will not be here in three years; all of them have already done the hard part, which was getting to today.
Transfer targets31 Aug 2026
Gzira United offered $1.0K; Gudja United said it was not close. The manager will be told the money is still there for the right player, which is what managers are told.
Player ratings31 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 20. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Transfer targets31 Aug 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.
Market31 Aug 2026
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Luke Sultana is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Market31 Aug 2026
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Alan Barbara has been at this club since he was a boy and is now, formally, one of the first-team squad — which for a local readership beats any signing of any size.
Market31 Aug 2026
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Antonio Scerri has been at this club since he was a boy and is now, formally, one of the first-team squad — which for a local readership beats any signing of any size.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market24 Aug 2026
The offer from Pieta Hotspurs for Roh Sang-hyun 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.
Boardroom24 Aug 2026
The number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $1.0K — a club that wants César Germán Andrés Paiber enough to be asked twice.
Transfer targets24 Aug 2026
No deal for Im Young-Won at that price
Gzira United offered $4.0K; Zabbar St. Patrick said it was not close. The manager will be told the money is still there for the right player, which is what managers are told.
Transfer targets24 Aug 2026
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Naxxar Lions have kept their man, and Gzira United go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Words at Gzira United training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Gabriel Mentz 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.
Squad24 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 Gzira United this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market17 Aug 2026
Deyan Pace 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 Gzira United can pretend not to have heard.
Boardroom17 Aug 2026
The number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $5.0K — a club that wants Gianluca Sciberras enough to be asked twice.
Transfer targets17 Aug 2026
$4.0K was the most the club would pay and Mosta were asking for more. Deals like this are revived in the last week of a window roughly half the time, and everybody involved knows it.
Transfer targets17 Aug 2026
Gzira United asked and Naxxar Lions said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Gabriel Mentz 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.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Luís Riascos 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 Gzira United this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market10 Aug 2026
“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 Gzira United, and it is not being withdrawn.
Transfer targets10 Aug 2026
The offer went to Zabbar St. Patrick this week and it is theirs to answer. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loud the door closes.
Squad10 Aug 2026
Luís Riascos 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.
Squad10 Aug 2026
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Marc Van de Bovenkamp was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout10 Aug 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Chrisnovic N'sa, and the manager let it.
Market10 Aug 2026
The shape has not worked since the summer and the reason was never a mystery. Kian Leonardi comes in from Swieqi United to be the missing piece, which is a flattering description and a heavy one.
Squad10 Aug 2026
The formation has left Kian Leonardi behind
Every shape has positions in it and this one does not have his. Gzira United will either change the shape, change his job, or change his club, and he is waiting to hear which.
Market10 Aug 2026
“There is a gap, and pretending there is not helps nobody.” Neither side has moved, and the calendar is working for exactly one of them.
Market10 Aug 2026
48 months to run and not a word offered. A club that lets the calendar negotiate for it usually ends up losing to the calendar.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market3 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.
Squad3 Aug 2026
“The easiest signature of my career.” Johan Bonilla and Gzira United agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Transfer targets3 Aug 2026
Gzira United asked and Gimnasia y Esgrima said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Gabriel Mentz 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.
Squad3 Aug 2026
“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 Gzira United know it.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Santiago 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.