From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad24 Aug 2026
24 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Persib lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Match22 Aug 2026
Persib bow out of the cup
Persijap go through and Persib go home, 1‑4 the scoreline that did it. The dressing room will call the league the priority now, because that is what dressing rooms say.
The terraces24 Aug 2026
Persib are taken apart by Persijap — and the town wants answers
It finished 1-4. A cup exit is a disappointment; this was a public dismantling, and the difference between the two is the number of people who will still be talking about it in August.
Market24 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.
Transfer targets24 Aug 2026
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Vasco da Gama keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Transfer targets24 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.
Boardroom24 Aug 2026
Doors closed at Persib
The music was off and the showers ran late. What was said in that dressing room stays there, but Saturday will publish the minutes.
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 16. 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.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Words at Persib training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Danijel Lončar 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.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad17 Aug 2026
A knee injury of the worst kind for Uilliam Barros
32 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Persib lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
Both of them Thom Haye's — 8.37
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 8.37, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
Transfer targets17 Aug 2026
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Persib have done the hard part with Vasco da Gama, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Match15 Aug 2026
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Thom Haye. 3‑2 against Persita, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Transfer targets17 Aug 2026
Persib asked and Zwolle 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
Frans Putros 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 Persib this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Market17 Aug 2026
The phone has started ringing about Alfeandra Dewangga again, and this time the name on the line is PSIM. Persib are listening politely and promising nothing.
The dugout17 Aug 2026
The manager makes an example of Teja Paku Alam
“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.
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
Ninety minutes of Andrew Jung at his very best
Marked 8.45. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Persib.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad10 Aug 2026
Words exchanged at Persib
Eliano Reijnders 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
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Persib can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Squad10 Aug 2026
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Beckham Putra and Persib agree another 3 years.
Boardroom10 Aug 2026
Madura United will keep picking him until June and will get nothing for him after it. Dimitar Mitkov has pre-agreed a move to Persib, and the only people who lose in that arrangement are the ones who let the contract run down.
Transfer targets10 Aug 2026
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Central have kept their man, and Persib go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad10 Aug 2026
A last season at home is what Patricio Matricardi is after
It is sentimental, it is completely genuine, and it is the beginning of a departure nobody has announced. The club can be gracious about it or it can pretend not to have heard.
Market10 Aug 2026
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Marinus Sucipto 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.
Market10 Aug 2026
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Ricky Hardiyanto has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.
Market10 Aug 2026
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Firman Wibowo has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Match1 Aug 2026
3‑0, and the margin flattered nobody — it could have carried another goal or two without complaint. Afternoons like this are why people keep coming.
Market3 Aug 2026
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Squad3 Aug 2026
“The easiest signature of my career.” Federico Barba and Persib agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad3 Aug 2026
“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; Persib are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Federico Barba wants to finish where he started
Every long career reaches the week the player starts thinking about the last one. He would like it to be at the club that first put him on a pitch, and Persib now know that too.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Thom Haye 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 Persib this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Player ratings3 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 18. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Player ratings3 Aug 2026
Ninety minutes of Berguinho at his very best
Marked 8.14. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Persib.
Player ratings3 Aug 2026
Ninety minutes of Thom Haye at his very best
Marked 8.10. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Persib.