Marked for Malick Traoré
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad15 Feb 2027
Barou Sanogo and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad15 Feb 2027
Words at Onze Createurs training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Moussa Mariko 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 ratings15 Feb 2027
Successful dribbles: 18. 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.
Player ratings15 Feb 2027
Some games turn on a moment; this one turned on a man. 7.24 on the card, and the Onze Createurs support went home talking about one name.
The dugout15 Feb 2027
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Moussa Malle after the 0‑0 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
The dugout15 Feb 2027
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.
Match13 Feb 2027
Ninety minutes, two goalkeepers with clean gloves, and not one finish worth keeping. Etoiles du Mande will be the happier side with the point.
Looking ahead15 Feb 2027
Stade Malien next, and one man in the Onze Createurs dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
The dugout15 Feb 2027
Mady Dembélé knocks on the manager's door
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Onze Createurs, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Player ratings8 Feb 2027
Mamadou Diallo, 35, rolls back the years — 8.23
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.23 at 35, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Squad8 Feb 2027
Barou Sanogo 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 Onze Createurs this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match6 Feb 2027
It had gone 6 games. The players did not celebrate like men who had won a match; they celebrated like men who had been let out of something.
Match6 Feb 2027
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Malick Traoré. 2‑0 against US Bougouba, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Player ratings8 Feb 2027
A performance of 8.11 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
The dugout8 Feb 2027
“The players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 2‑0, Moussa Malle could afford to be generous.
Player ratings8 Feb 2027
14 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.
The dugout8 Feb 2027
Mamadou Diallo has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Onze Createurs 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 dugout8 Feb 2027
“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
Uneasy
Match30 Jan 2027
6 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.
Boardroom1 Feb 2027
Onze Createurs close the window on a squad of their own making
3 in and 0 out, and no more changes for months. The manager has what he has, the supporters have their opinion of it, and the table will have the last word.
Match30 Jan 2027
4 games without scoring. Strikers stop looking up, midfielders take the extra touch, and every shot that clears the bar is followed by a groan that has been building since the last goal.
Squad1 Feb 2027
Barou Sanogo 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.
Transfer targets1 Feb 2027
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Stade Malien have kept their man, and Onze Createurs go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Player ratings1 Feb 2027
Successful dribbles: 18. 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.
Player ratings1 Feb 2027
Some games turn on a moment; this one turned on a man. 7.31 on the card, and the Onze Createurs support went home talking about one name.
The dugout1 Feb 2027
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.” Moussa Malle chose the glass-half-full version of 0‑0; the supporters left with the other one.
The dugout1 Feb 2027
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 Lassana Samaké is on it.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad18 Jan 2027
Barou Sanogo and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Transfer targets18 Jan 2027
Onze Createurs asked and Djoliba said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Player ratings18 Jan 2027
Successful dribbles: 19. 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.
Transfer targets18 Jan 2027
A loan move for Louis Pahama is in the works
Onze Createurs have made the call to Birkirkara. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
Player ratings18 Jan 2027
Nobody on the pitch touched Samou Sidibé
7.41, and no serious argument from anybody who was there. Onze Createurs had eleven men on the pitch and one of them decided how it went.
The dugout18 Jan 2027
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.” Moussa Malle chose the glass-half-full version of 0‑0; the supporters left with the other one.
Looking ahead18 Jan 2027
Onze Createurs take on the side everybody is chasing
Djoliba arrive as leaders. A side at the top is beaten roughly once a month, and the club that does it gets a week it remembers for a year.
The dugout18 Jan 2027
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.
Match16 Jan 2027
Nil-nil, and few chances worth the name. US Forces Armees came to defend and left with exactly what they came for.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Player ratings11 Jan 2027
Successful dribbles: 23. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad11 Jan 2027
Barou Sanogo 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 Onze Createurs this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Transfer targets11 Jan 2027
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.
Market11 Jan 2027
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Bakary Tamboura is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
The dugout11 Jan 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Barou Sanogo, and the manager let it.
Player ratings11 Jan 2027
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.09, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Match9 Jan 2027
A point taken on 86 minutes is worth exactly one point and considerably more than that to a dressing room. This side does not stop, which is a reputation worth more than the result.
Match9 Jan 2027
1‑1, and both dressing rooms will call it two points lost. A draw that asked plenty of questions and answered none of them.
The dugout11 Jan 2027
“It is not the end of the world and it is not good enough. Both of those are true.” The manager, after a 1‑1 draw, said the honest thing and then went to say it again inside.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad4 Jan 2027
Barou Sanogo 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.
Transfer targets4 Jan 2027
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Djoliba have kept their man, and Onze Createurs go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Match2 Jan 2027
Beaten 0‑1, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Player ratings4 Jan 2027
Successful dribbles: 17. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Loan watch4 Jan 2027
“I am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at Onze Createurs, and 12 appearances in 19 say he has earned the hearing.
The dugout4 Jan 2027
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Moussa Malle after 0‑1, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
Transfer targets4 Jan 2027
A loan enquiry to Djoliba: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.
Transfer targets4 Jan 2027
A loan move for Bakary Kouma is in the works
Onze Createurs have made the call to Djoliba. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
Squad4 Jan 2027
A place in the month's best eleven for Alkalifa Coulibaly
Four or five weekends of consistency, judged against everybody in the division doing his job. Alkalifa Coulibaly has come out of that comparison in the side, and Onze Createurs have had the benefit of every one of those afternoons.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad28 Dec 2026
85 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Onze Createurs lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Squad28 Dec 2026
Barou Sanogo 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.
Match26 Dec 2026
It finished 1‑0, and it was Malick Traoré’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Onze Createurs.
Player ratings28 Dec 2026
Successful dribbles: 17. 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.
Match28 Dec 2026
Half the programme played, position 5, 18 on the board. Doubling it is the sum every supporter has done and the only one nobody at the club will do out loud.
Player ratings28 Dec 2026
Some games turn on a moment; this one turned on a man. 7.81 on the card, and the Onze Createurs support went home talking about one name.
The dugout28 Dec 2026
“That is what I want every week. Not the result, the way they went about it.” The manager, after 1‑0, already talking about the next one.
The dugout28 Dec 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.
The dugout28 Dec 2026
Mady Dembélé 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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad14 Dec 2026
A knee injury of the worst kind for Dramane Souabou
99 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Onze Createurs lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Match12 Dec 2026
3‑0, and Malick Traoré took the headlines on an afternoon when everything Onze Createurs tried came off. Days like this are retold all winter.
Squad14 Dec 2026
Barou Sanogo 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 Onze Createurs this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match12 Dec 2026
5 matches without a win, and then this, against FC Diarra. Relief is a strange noise in a football ground and it was the only noise at the end.
Market14 Dec 2026
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Adama Diarra is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Market14 Dec 2026
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Daouda Fofana is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Player ratings14 Dec 2026
A performance of 8.35 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
The dugout14 Dec 2026
“The players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 3‑0, Moussa Malle could afford to be generous.
Player ratings14 Dec 2026
Successful dribbles: 14. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad16 Nov 2026
A knee injury of the worst kind for Dramane Souabou
127 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Onze Createurs lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Player ratings16 Nov 2026
Successful dribbles: 22. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad16 Nov 2026
Barou Sanogo 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 Onze Createurs this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Player ratings16 Nov 2026
Marked 7.20. Ask anyone leaving the ground what settled it and you will get one name, which is the only award that has ever really counted.
The dugout16 Nov 2026
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Moussa Malle was not hiding it after 0‑0, and nobody in the Onze Createurs dressing room was either.
Looking ahead16 Nov 2026
Onze Createurs take on the side everybody is chasing
Stade Malien arrive as leaders. A side at the top is beaten roughly once a month, and the club that does it gets a week it remembers for a year.
The dugout16 Nov 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.
Match14 Nov 2026
The crowd waited for a goal that never came. Etoiles du Mande defended in numbers and left with what they came for, and the two sides could be playing still without troubling a scorer.
Looking ahead16 Nov 2026
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Méry Camara’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Onze Createurs needing him to play as if none of it matters.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad9 Nov 2026
A knee injury of the worst kind for Dramane Souabou
134 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Onze Createurs lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Match4 Nov 2026
A 3‑2 win over US Bougouni, and the draw for the next round can be watched with some interest for once.
Match4 Nov 2026
2 behind and going nowhere, until Malick Traoré decided otherwise. US Bougouni had done the hard part and then watched it come apart, and the noise at the final whistle was the sort a ground keeps.
Player ratings9 Nov 2026
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 9.05, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
Player ratings9 Nov 2026
At 35 every good afternoon gets called a throwback, and this one was: 8.61, and nobody on the pitch better.
Squad9 Nov 2026
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Bourama Fomba commits to Onze Createurs for another 3 years.
Player ratings9 Nov 2026
Successful dribbles: 22. 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.
Squad9 Nov 2026
Barou Sanogo 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 terraces9 Nov 2026
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 14-year-old it feels ownership of. Hamari Malle has it now, and everything he does for the rest of his time here will be measured against the goodwill he was handed for free.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad2 Nov 2026
A knee injury of the worst kind for Dramane Souabou
141 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Onze Createurs lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
The dugout2 Nov 2026
Mady Dembélé: that is not what I was promised
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Onze Createurs have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Squad2 Nov 2026
Barou Sanogo 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 ratings2 Nov 2026
Nobody on the pitch touched Malick Traoré
7.94, and no serious argument from anybody who was there. Onze Createurs had eleven men on the pitch and one of them decided how it went.
The dugout2 Nov 2026
“The players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 2‑0, Moussa Malle could afford to be generous.
Player ratings2 Nov 2026
Successful dribbles: 13. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad2 Nov 2026
Every signing waits for it and every press conference asks about it until it comes. It has come, Onze Createurs have their man off the mark, and the second one is always easier.
The dugout2 Nov 2026
Mama Dembélé 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
Steady
The dugout19 Oct 2026
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Onze Createurs may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Player ratings19 Oct 2026
Age has not caught Mamadou Diallo yet — 8.08
At 35 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.08 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Barou Sanogo 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 Onze Createurs this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad19 Oct 2026
At 32 the improving is meant to be over. It is not: 3 points better than the mark taken at the start of the year, which is the sort of thing that happens to players who take the boring parts of the job seriously.
Match17 Oct 2026
A 2‑1 win over US Forces Armees, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Squad19 Oct 2026
33 days, the medical staff say, and medical staff are optimists by profession. The team sheet will look wrong without him.
The dugout19 Oct 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.
Loan watch19 Oct 2026
“I did not go to AS Bakaridjan to sit and watch. I want to come back to Onze Createurs and fight for my place.” 3 appearances in 9 matches say the rest.
Player ratings19 Oct 2026
Successful dribbles: 15. 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.
In brief
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The dugout
The view from the dugout
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Squad
Moussa Mariko finally opens his account
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Looking ahead
Mady Dembélé faces his old club
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad12 Oct 2026
Barou Sanogo 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.
Squad12 Oct 2026
Mady Dembélé has improved at 26, which nobody expected
Careers are supposed to plateau and then decline, and the players who ignore that are always the ones who were listening on the training ground. 4 points of it, over months, at an age where the direction normally only goes one way.
Player ratings12 Oct 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.
Match10 Oct 2026
Conceding is one thing; the response is what tells you about a dressing room. Malick Traoré had Onze Createurs level again within 1 minutes, and AS Korofina never got to play with a lead at all.
Squad12 Oct 2026
8 new faces, and Onze Createurs are still learning each other
A squad rebuilt inside one window pays for it in a currency nobody budgets for. The football is not worse than the sum of the players; it is worse than the sum of the players who have played together before.
Squad12 Oct 2026
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Samou Sidibé and Onze Createurs agree another 2 years.
Match10 Oct 2026
A 1‑1 draw with AS Korofina leaves the dressing room somewhere between relief and regret.
The dugout12 Oct 2026
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Moussa Malle was not hiding it after 1‑1, and nobody in the Onze Createurs dressing room was either.
The dugout12 Oct 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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Transfer targets14 Sep 2026
Onze Createurs had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Djoliba, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
Squad14 Sep 2026
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Babé Diarra commits to Onze Createurs for another 4 years.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Barou Sanogo 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.
Squad14 Sep 2026
At 26 the improving is meant to be over, and it is not: 3 points better than a year ago. It happens to the ones who take the boring parts seriously.
Market14 Sep 2026
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Boubacar Coulibaly is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Market14 Sep 2026
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Lassana Dembele 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
Steady
Boardroom7 Sep 2026
Onze Createurs close the window on a squad of their own making
19 in and 5 out, and no more changes for months. The manager has what he has, the supporters have their opinion of it, and the table will have the last word.
Squad7 Sep 2026
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Babé Diarra commits to Onze Createurs for another 4 years.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Barou Sanogo 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.
Squad7 Sep 2026
He is doing things every Saturday that nobody around him can answer. It is flattering for a season and a problem after that, and Onze Createurs know which stage they are at.
Transfer targets7 Sep 2026
A loan enquiry to Djoliba: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.
Squad7 Sep 2026
The demotion a club never announces and a dressing room always notices. Youssouf Diarra is further from the side than he was, and the reason will not be given until he asks.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market17 Aug 2026
The offer from Stade Renard de Melong for Malick Traoré 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.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Barou Sanogo 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.
Transfer targets17 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.
Squad17 Aug 2026
5 new faces, and Onze Createurs are still learning each other
A squad rebuilt inside one window pays for it in a currency nobody budgets for. The football is not worse than the sum of the players; it is worse than the sum of the players who have played together before.
Market17 Aug 2026
AS Korofina are about to pick up the phone
A conversation is coming this week. Onze Createurs will put a number on him, and from there it stops being football and becomes arithmetic.