Marked for Heitor
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market25 Jan 2027
“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.
Squad25 Jan 2027
Kayne Razmovski 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.
Squad25 Jan 2027
The manager makes an example of Moussa Sissoko
“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 ratings25 Jan 2027
Successful dribbles: 18. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Player ratings25 Jan 2027
The afternoon belonged to Cleiton
7.66, and no serious argument from anybody who was there. Gazelle Garoua had eleven men on the pitch and one of them decided how it went.
Squad25 Jan 2027
Words at Gazelle Garoua training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Wanre Daikreo 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
Steady
Squad11 Jan 2027
Dimitri Mbele: 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.” Gazelle Garoua have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Match9 Jan 2027
10 matches unbeaten here. Every visiting manager is asked about it in the week before, which is precisely why it keeps going.
Squad11 Jan 2027
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Gazelle Garoua this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Boardroom11 Jan 2027
The paperwork is done long before the player is. Paul Ebongue Ebengue has agreed terms to come here when his current deal runs out, which means Gazelle Garoua have spent a summer's transfer budget on a phone call.
Player ratings11 Jan 2027
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 ratings11 Jan 2027
Some games turn on a moment; this one turned on a man. 7.71 on the card, and the Gazelle Garoua support went home talking about one name.
Squad11 Jan 2027
Words at Gazelle Garoua training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jean Simplice Mbang 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 ratings11 Jan 2027
Nothing got past Heitor
16 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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match26 Dec 2026
The unbeaten run reaches 16. Some of them were wins and some were escapes, but a side that refuses to lose is a side other dressing rooms talk about.
Market28 Dec 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.
Player ratings28 Dec 2026
Successful dribbles: 21. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Match26 Dec 2026
Gazelle Garoua make home a hard place to visit
9 without defeat on their own grass. The pitch has not changed; the crowd has — louder earlier, and quicker to sense when the opposition would rather be somewhere else.
Squad28 Dec 2026
Sthembiso Hlophe 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.
Squad28 Dec 2026
Dave Tessa 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 Dec 2026
The manager makes an example of Heitor
“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.
Squad28 Dec 2026
The injury that keeps coming back, keeps being rushed back from, and quietly costs more careers than the dramatic ones. 15 days is the estimate; the honest figure depends on whether anybody is patient.
Player ratings28 Dec 2026
Cleiton stands above it all
Some games turn on a moment; this one turned on a man. 7.49 on the card, and the Gazelle Garoua support went home talking about one name.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match12 Dec 2026
Whatever happens, Gazelle Garoua do not lose
14 games unbeaten now. Some were earned and some were survived, but a habit is forming — and habits are the hardest thing in football to play against.
Match12 Dec 2026
The run now stands at 9, and the questions being asked around Gazelle Garoua are no longer polite ones.
Match12 Dec 2026
9 matches without a goal for Gazelle Garoua
The chances are being made and something is happening between the making and the finishing. 9 matches now, and the anxiety in the ground arrives a little earlier every week.
Market14 Dec 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 Gazelle Garoua, and it is not being withdrawn.
Match12 Dec 2026
Gazelle Garoua make home a hard place to visit
8 without defeat on their own grass. The pitch has not changed; the crowd has — louder earlier, and quicker to sense when the opposition would rather be somewhere else.
Player ratings14 Dec 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.
Squad14 Dec 2026
Gildas Wamaka 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.
Market14 Dec 2026
“We are a long way apart, and pretending otherwise helps nobody.” Neither side is close, and the calendar is not on the club's side.
Squad14 Dec 2026
Words at Gazelle Garoua training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Wanre Daikreo 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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match14 Nov 2026
Whatever happens, Gazelle Garoua do not lose
10 games unbeaten now. Some were earned and some were survived, but a habit is forming — and habits are the hardest thing in football to play against.
Match14 Nov 2026
No end in sight to Gazelle Garoua's wait for a win
5 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Gazelle Garoua has to find a result from somewhere.
Match14 Nov 2026
5 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.
Squad16 Nov 2026
Sthembiso Hlophe 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.
Squad16 Nov 2026
Dave Tessa 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.
Player ratings16 Nov 2026
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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Match7 Nov 2026
Whatever happens, Gazelle Garoua do not lose
9 games unbeaten now. Some were earned and some were survived, but a habit is forming — and habits are the hardest thing in football to play against.
Match7 Nov 2026
The run now stands at 4, and the questions being asked around Gazelle Garoua are no longer polite ones.
Match7 Nov 2026
4 matches without a goal for Gazelle Garoua
The chances are being made and something is happening between the making and the finishing. 4 matches now, and the anxiety in the ground arrives a little earlier every week.
Squad9 Nov 2026
Sthembiso Hlophe 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.
Squad9 Nov 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Darío Arias, and the manager let it.
Player ratings9 Nov 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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad5 Oct 2026
Sony Farell Evina is a better footballer than he was
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 20 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
Cleiton 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.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Sthembiso Hlophe 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.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Cleiton has outgrown this division
There is a level at which a footballer stops being tested and starts being contained, and he reached it some time ago. Gazelle Garoua know it, and so does everybody who watches him.
Market5 Oct 2026
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Gazelle Garoua, another week without a signature from Cleiton.
Player ratings5 Oct 2026
Marked 7.74. Ask anyone leaving the ground what settled it and you will get one name, which is the only award that has ever really counted.
Market5 Oct 2026
Darío Arias is 37 and has run out of things to prove. What he has left is where to stand, when to slow it down and what to say at half-time, and none of that is on a fitness chart.
Market5 Oct 2026
At 37, he has seen every situation this season can produce, twice. The legs will be managed; the head is the purchase.