Marked for Maxwell Arthur
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match21 Nov 2026
4‑0, and the margin flattered nobody — it could have carried another goal or two without complaint. Afternoons like this are why people keep coming.
Player ratings23 Nov 2026
Two goals and a mark of 7.97 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Match23 Nov 2026
Aduana Stars are in among the leaders
Position 3 and 17 points on the board. Nobody at the ground will say the word out loud yet, and everybody at the ground is thinking it.
Squad23 Nov 2026
Stephen Badu 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 terraces23 Nov 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 ratings23 Nov 2026
20 times he got in the way of something. Centre-halves get written about when they make mistakes and ignored when they do not, so an afternoon like this needs saying out loud: he is the reason the scoreline reads as it does.
Looking ahead23 Nov 2026
Two sides from the top of the table, one afternoon, and a month of talk decided in ninety minutes. Aduana Stars will not use the word title this week and will not stop thinking it.
Player ratings23 Nov 2026
Marked 8.20. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Aduana Stars.
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.
In brief
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Squad
Samuel Kuffour falls out with a teammate over standards
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The dugout
The manager’s verdict
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Player ratings
Daniel Awuni runs at them all day
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Player ratings5 Oct 2026
Two goals and a mark of 8.86 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Player ratings5 Oct 2026
Daniel Awuni, 20, steals the show — 7.85
Marked 7.85 at 20, in a side that makes no allowances for age. He did not need any, and he looked the least nervous man on the pitch.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Stephen Badu 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 Aduana Stars this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match3 Oct 2026
It finished 3‑2, and it was Daouda Sidibé’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Aduana Stars.
The terraces5 Oct 2026
He is 20 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.
Match3 Oct 2026
3 goals inside twenty minutes with Daouda Sidibé in the middle of it, and WAFA unable to get near the ball long enough to change anything. Some matches are won before the first drink.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Words at Aduana Stars training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Daouda Sidibé 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 ratings5 Oct 2026
A performance of 8.03 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Player ratings5 Oct 2026
Ninety minutes of Alex Boakye at his very best
Marked 8.03. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Aduana Stars.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad28 Sep 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.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Stephen Badu 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 terraces28 Sep 2026
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 22-year-old it feels ownership of. Gregory Sekyere 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.
Match26 Sep 2026
It finished 1‑0, and it was Bright Adjei’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Aduana Stars.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Daniel Awuni 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.
Player ratings28 Sep 2026
Defensive actions: 16. He was first to everything and second to nothing, and the goalkeeper had an easy day because of it.
Squad28 Sep 2026
The system has changed and his position has not. A footballer can improve his form; he cannot improve the manager’s formation, and that is the whole of the problem.
Market28 Sep 2026
Tochukwu Ogbadibo is 19, and Aduana Stars have signed him for the player he will be rather than the one he is. The first team can wait; the point of a deal like this is the years it buys.
The dugout28 Sep 2026
Thomas Nuhu: “That is the standard”
“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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Transfer targets10 Aug 2026
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Aduana Stars have done the hard part with Ajax Cape Town, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Squad10 Aug 2026
Stephen Badu 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.
Market10 Aug 2026
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Patrick Paintsil 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
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Francis Djiku is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Market10 Aug 2026
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Osman Kyereh 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
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Jonathan Mensah 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
Squad3 Aug 2026
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Stephen Amankona and Aduana Stars agree another 4 years.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Stephen Badu 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 Aduana Stars this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad3 Aug 2026
22 days, the medical staff say, and medical staff are optimists by profession. The team sheet will look wrong without him.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Daouda Sidibé was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Market3 Aug 2026
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Aduana Stars, another week without a signature from Alex Boakye.
Market3 Aug 2026
Still no offer on the table, and Stephen Amankona’s deal keeps shrinking. In boardroom language, silence this long stops being an oversight and starts being an answer.
Transfer targets3 Aug 2026
A loan enquiry to Mamelodi Sundowns: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.
Transfer targets3 Aug 2026
Barau have been asked whether they would lend him. Loans are agreed quickly or not at all, and this one will be one or the other by the weekend.
Transfer targets3 Aug 2026
Ajax Cape Town have been asked whether they would lend him. Loans are agreed quickly or not at all, and this one will be one or the other by the weekend.