16 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Persita lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Not a month, not a run of form — a whole season of being the best 21-year-old anybody in this division could put on a pitch. This is the honour that gets mentioned for the rest of his career.
Squad21 Dec 2026
Words at Persita training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Alexandre Ramalingom 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.
23 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Persita lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Javlon Guseynov 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Andrean Rindorindo was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Nobody at Persita 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.
30 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Persita lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
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.
37 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Persita 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 Persita 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.
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.
The words a physio says slowly. 44 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.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Persita have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Fairuz Ohorella will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Persita the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Javlon Guseynov 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 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 Zalnando is on it.
51 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Persita lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
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 Bae Sin-Yeong is on it.
58 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Persita lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Alexandre Ramalingom was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Nobody at Persita 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.
The words a physio says slowly. 66 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.
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.
At 35, 3 points below where he was, and a body that has started charging interest. It happens to all of them and it is still the hardest paragraph on this page.
Zalnando 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.
A month is long enough that nobody gets in by accident. Dion Markx is in the division's best eleven for it, which is a quieter compliment than an award and a more reliable one.
The words a physio says slowly. 73 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.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Fairuz Ohorella will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Persita the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad26 Oct 2026
Words at Persita training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Alexandre Ramalingom 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.
Andrean Rindorindo 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.
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.
“I have done everything asked of me in training and it has not changed a thing on a Saturday.” The most familiar complaint in football, and one Persita will have to answer with minutes or with a transfer.
The words a physio says slowly. 81 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.
At 35 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.01 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Javlon Guseynov 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.
Everybody saw it before anybody said it. At 35 the numbers say 3 points down on what he was, and the question for Persita is how to handle a man they owe a great deal.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Alexandre Ramalingom was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The words a physio says slowly. 89 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Andrean Rindorindo was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Something was said to Mario Jardel and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
Nobody at Persita 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.
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Éber Bessa’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Persita needing him to play as if none of it matters.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Ryuji Utomo trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
In brief
Looking aheadLooking ahead: the trip to Bali United
The words a physio says slowly. 96 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Alexandre Ramalingom was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Dejan Račić 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.
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.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Ricky Sulaeman after 1‑3, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer 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 Matheus Alves is on it.
The words a physio says slowly. 103 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.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Persita they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Javlon Guseynov 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.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Words at Persita training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Alexandre Ramalingom 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 players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 1‑0, Ricky Sulaeman could afford to be generous.
110 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Persita lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
At 35 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.07 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Pablo Ganet 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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Matheus Alves. 2‑1 against Maluku Utara United, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
200 games in the shirt. Nobody sets out to build a record like that; it happens to a certain kind of player at a certain kind of club, and this town knows what it has.
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Ricky Sulaeman on a 2‑1 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
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.
117 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Persita lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
8 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about Persita and Persebaya in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Words at Persita training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Alexandre Ramalingom 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.
Persita asked and Red Bull Salzburg said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Beaten 6 times, with 3 saves for company. Goalkeepers carry these scorelines on their record whoever actually caused them, which is the quiet injustice of the job.
125 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Persita lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
“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 Persita, and it is not being withdrawn.
Boardroom7 Sep 2026
Deadline passes with 12 signed and 1 gone
That is the business done at Persita 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.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Athletico Paranaense is saying, and nobody at Persita is enjoying the guessing.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Persita this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The medical room confirms 15 days on the sidelines for Irfan Septian, and a plan built around him now has to be rebuilt.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Words at Persita training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ryuji Utomo 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 Matheus Alves is on it.
133 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Persita lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Fairuz Ohorella will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Persita the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Javlon Guseynov 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 supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 0‑1, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
The dugout31 Aug 2026
Rayco is still paying for one afternoon at Persita
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.
The words a physio says slowly. 140 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.
The offer from Maluku Utara United for Ryuji Utomo 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 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.
Marked 8.36 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
148 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Persita lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and PSBS Biak waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Persita is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
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.
Successful dribbles: 20. 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.
He won it back and then made something of it, which is two jobs and the reason the scoreline looks the way it does. 10 combined actions and a mark of 6.55, and not one of them will make a highlights package.
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 2‑3, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
Javlon Guseynov 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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Alexandre Ramalingom. 2‑1 against Persik, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Evan Hidayat is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Stefano Pratama 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.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Rizky Kurniawan 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.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Fachri Riyadi 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.
Player ratings10 Aug 2026
Pablo Ganet was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.15. 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 an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.02 at 33, and nobody on the pitch was better.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Alexandre Ramalingom and Persita agree another 2 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than 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 Persita 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.
“The players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 2‑0, Ricky Sulaeman could afford to be generous.
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Persik in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.