Marked for Joël Bakanda
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad26 Jul 2027
Joël Bakanda breaks a bone — 20 days out
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 20 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Market26 Jul 2027
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Canon Yaounde have lost him in all but the paperwork.
Market26 Jul 2027
“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 The request is on a desk at Canon Yaounde, and it is not being withdrawn.
Market26 Jul 2027
Only the photograph left for Franck Ipoua
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Franck Ipoua will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Canon Yaounde the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Transfer targets26 Jul 2027
The deal with Rivers United is done in every sense but the one that puts him on the pitch. Nothing goes wrong at this stage, except on the occasions when it does.
The dugout26 Jul 2027
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Squad26 Jul 2027
Bryan Nokoue 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 Canon Yaounde this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Transfer targets26 Jul 2027
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Stade Malien have kept their man, and Canon Yaounde go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad26 Jul 2027
Joël Paten 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.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad17 May 2027
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 79 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Squad17 May 2027
Bryan Nokoue 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.
Squad17 May 2027
Words at Canon Yaounde training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Joël Paten 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.
Loan watch17 May 2027
23 appearances at Gazelle Garoua and the goals keep coming. Canon Yaounde are watching this more closely than the borrowing club would like.
The dugout17 May 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.
The dugout17 May 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Joël Bakanda, and the manager let it.
The dugout17 May 2027
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Wilfried Bilongo trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Market17 May 2027
Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Karim Bello’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.
Squad17 May 2027
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.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match26 Dec 2026
Momentum is a hard thing to buy and an easy thing to lose, and right now Canon Yaounde have 4 straight wins of it.
Player ratings28 Dec 2026
Successful dribbles: 25. 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.
Squad28 Dec 2026
Junior Dande 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.
Match26 Dec 2026
It finished 2‑0, and it was Juste Koulou’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Canon Yaounde.
Player ratings28 Dec 2026
Marked 8.33. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Canon Yaounde.
Player ratings28 Dec 2026
Ninety minutes of Juste Koulou at his very best
Marked 8.28. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Canon Yaounde.
Squad28 Dec 2026
Words at Canon Yaounde training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Joël Paten 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 dugout28 Dec 2026
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.” Georges Etame, on a 2‑0 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
Player ratings28 Dec 2026
A defender's afternoon for Issa Bangfome
Defensive actions: 15. He was first to everything and second to nothing, and the goalkeeper had an easy day because of it.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Player ratings30 Nov 2026
Successful dribbles: 31. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Match28 Nov 2026
6 matches without a win for Canon Yaounde
The run now stands at 6, and the questions being asked around Canon Yaounde are no longer polite ones.
Squad30 Nov 2026
6 saves, and a scoreline the ten men in front of him had no right to. Goalkeepers only get noticed on the bad days; this was one of the other ones.
Squad30 Nov 2026
Bryan Nokoue 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.
Squad30 Nov 2026
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Issa Bangfome was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Match28 Nov 2026
Behind, and beaten by any honest reading, until minute 90. PWD Bamenda had the points in their pocket and a corner of the ground still believed, which is generally when it happens.
Match30 Nov 2026
Position 7, 19 points, and every result so far reduced to one line. The second half of the season starts with the same squad and a different set of expectations.
Match28 Nov 2026
A 1‑1 draw with PWD Bamenda leaves the dressing room somewhere between relief and regret.
The dugout30 Nov 2026
Joël Bakanda 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
Squad23 Nov 2026
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 9 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
The dugout23 Nov 2026
Joël Bakanda: 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.” Canon Yaounde have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Match21 Nov 2026
5 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.
Squad23 Nov 2026
Bryan Nokoue 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 Canon Yaounde this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match21 Nov 2026
1‑2 to Cotonsport Garoua, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Player ratings23 Nov 2026
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.
The dugout23 Nov 2026
The view from the dugout
“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 1‑2 defeat, delivered by Georges Etame to a room that had heard them before.
The dugout23 Nov 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.
Squad23 Nov 2026
Georges Mabouka 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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad2 Nov 2026
A fracture rules Alfred Meyong out for 31 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Canon Yaounde will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Match31 Oct 2026
A 0‑3 beating by Victoria United was the sort of result that empties a stadium long before the final whistle.
Market2 Nov 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 Canon Yaounde, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad2 Nov 2026
A one-man rearguard from Junior Dande
There were 7 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.
Player ratings2 Nov 2026
Successful dribbles: 23. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad2 Nov 2026
Bryan Nokoue 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 dugout2 Nov 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Junior Dande, and the manager let it.
Boardroom2 Nov 2026
Nobody left the Canon Yaounde dressing room in a hurry
The door stayed shut a long time after the final whistle. What was said in there is between them; whether it worked is between them and Saturday.
The dugout2 Nov 2026
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 0‑3, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Player ratings26 Oct 2026
Successful dribbles: 31. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Squad26 Oct 2026
Bryan Nokoue 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 Canon Yaounde this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad26 Oct 2026
Words at Canon Yaounde training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Joël Paten 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 dugout26 Oct 2026
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.” Georges Etame chose the glass-half-full version of 0‑0; the supporters left with the other one.
Squad26 Oct 2026
A Canon Yaounde teenager takes the young player award
Jean Ousama is 17, and for one weekend he was the best of everybody his age in the division. Nobody should build a career on it and everybody quietly does.
Match24 Oct 2026
The crowd waited for a goal that never came. Aigle Royal de la Menoua defended in numbers and left with what they came for, and the two sides could be playing still without troubling a scorer.
The dugout26 Oct 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.
The dugout26 Oct 2026
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.
The dugout26 Oct 2026
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Canon Yaounde, and both men came out saying it was fine.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match17 Oct 2026
The board had gone up, the arguing had started, and then the ball was in the net in the 91th minute. Panthere du Nde will replay every second of the added time for a week.
Player ratings19 Oct 2026
Successful dribbles: 29. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad19 Oct 2026
At 22 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Bryan Nokoue and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Match17 Oct 2026
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Juste Koulou. 2‑1 against Panthere du Nde, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
The terraces19 Oct 2026
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Franck Steve Belobo 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.
Player ratings19 Oct 2026
Marked 8.15 — 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.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Issa Bangfome was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout19 Oct 2026
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.” Georges Etame, on a 2‑1 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market5 Oct 2026
Yves Aimé Zoa 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 Canon Yaounde can pretend not to have heard.
Player ratings5 Oct 2026
Successful dribbles: 29. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Joël Paten is a better footballer than he was
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 22 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Bryan Nokoue 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.
Loan watch5 Oct 2026
“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 Canon Yaounde, and 0 appearances in 8 say he has earned the hearing.
Match3 Oct 2026
Beaten 0‑2, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
The dugout5 Oct 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Junior Dande, and the manager let it.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Joël Paten was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Match3 Oct 2026
Every run ends on an afternoon somebody had marked down as routine. This one went 4 matches, which is long enough that a town had stopped counting, and short enough that it will remember exactly who stopped it.
In brief
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The dugout
The manager’s verdict
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Squad
Junior Dande makes the team of the month
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The dugout
No place in the plan for Joël Bakanda
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Player ratings28 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 31. 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
4 wins on the spin now, and the question has changed from whether the run ends to who ends it. Confidence like this cannot be bought; it has to be earned exactly this way.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Karim Bello is a better footballer than he was
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 22 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Zacharie Ndongo Foé 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.
Squad28 Sep 2026
At 27 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.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Words at Canon Yaounde training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Issa Bangfome 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 ratings28 Sep 2026
Marked 7.92 on an afternoon he ran from the first whistle to the last. Whatever else went wrong, Canon Yaounde had the best player on the pitch.
The dugout28 Sep 2026
“The players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 1‑0, Georges Etame could afford to be generous.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Player ratings21 Sep 2026
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 9.22, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
Player ratings21 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 26. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Match19 Sep 2026
Momentum is a hard thing to buy and an easy thing to lose, and right now Canon Yaounde have 3 straight wins of it.
Squad21 Sep 2026
Junior Dande and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Player ratings21 Sep 2026
Juste Koulou was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.50. 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.
The dugout21 Sep 2026
“That is what I want every week. Not the result, the way they went about it.” The manager, after 3‑0, already talking about the next one.
The dugout21 Sep 2026
The manager makes an example of Pederson Ajong
“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.
Squad21 Sep 2026
Off the academy pitches and onto a senior team sheet at 19. The debut is the easy part; the second appearance is the one every young player has to earn.