Marked for Abdallah Boukhanfer
From our football correspondent
Steady
Boardroom5 Jul 2027
This is the season the town will measure the next twenty against. The trophy travels home with the squad, and the route through the streets was agreed days ago.
Market5 Jul 2027
“I listened, I thought about it, and I am staying. That is the whole story.” The clubs had agreed a fee. Esaie Djikoloum had not agreed to go, which turned out to be the part that mattered.
Squad5 Jul 2027
The kind of year that ends with a name being read out in a hall. CotonTchad had the benefit of it every week and now have the problem of everybody else knowing.
Squad5 Jul 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 CotonTchad this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad5 Jul 2027
At 36, 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.
Squad5 Jul 2027
Hamza Asrir 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.
Transfer targets5 Jul 2027
CotonTchad asked and Elect Sport said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Market5 Jul 2027
“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.
Boardroom5 Jul 2027
Wages swallow 89% of the CotonTchad income
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.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Boardroom28 Jun 2027
This is the season the town will measure the next twenty against. The trophy travels home with the squad, and the route through the streets was agreed days ago.
Match23 Jun 2027
Cup ties wait for somebody to seize them, and Yacine Wakili obliged against AS PSI. 1‑0 on the night, and the name in the next round’s hat is CotonTchad.
The dugout28 Jun 2027
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” CotonTchad may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Player ratings28 Jun 2027
At 37 every good afternoon gets called a throwback, and this one was: 8.18, and nobody on the pitch better.
Match23 Jun 2027
CotonTchad make home a hard place to visit
11 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 Jun 2027
A muscle injury sidelines Youness Mokhtar for 15 days
Nobody makes a documentary about a hamstring and everybody in the game fears one. CotonTchad will be careful with the return date, because the second one is always worse than the first.
Squad28 Jun 2027
Mohamed Hamami and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad28 Jun 2027
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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Match21 Jun 2027
First, on 50 points. The table is a fact and a fact is allowed to be enjoyed, which is as far as anybody at the club is prepared to go in public.
Transfer targets21 Jun 2027
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Stars Jeunes Talents keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Market21 Jun 2027
The interest is real enough to have reached print. CotonTchad have said nothing, which in a transfer window is its own kind of answer.
Squad21 Jun 2027
Abdallah Boukhanfer 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.
Squad21 Jun 2027
It happens to all of them and it is still the hardest paragraph a local paper has to write. 39 years old, 3 points down on where he was, and a body that has started charging interest on a career.
Squad21 Jun 2027
Mohamed Hamami 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.
Transfer targets21 Jun 2027
CotonTchad asked and University of Pretoria said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
The dugout21 Jun 2027
“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.
The dugout21 Jun 2027
Yacine Wakili gets picked when it counts
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 Yacine Wakili is on it.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad12 Apr 2027
7 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.
The terraces12 Apr 2027
Something is building at CotonTchad
Position 1 with 50 on the board, and the queues outside the ticket office are the part of a promotion push that never shows up in a table. The town has decided this one is real.
Player ratings12 Apr 2027
Youness Mokhtar, 36, rolls back the years — 8.09
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.09 at 36, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Match10 Apr 2027
10 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
Squad12 Apr 2027
Yacine Wakili 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 Apr 2027
A row about effort at CotonTchad
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Mohamed Hamami was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad12 Apr 2027
12 goals and a season average of 7.23 will do that. The space he used to find has gone; he keeps scoring anyway, which is the mark of the real thing.
The terraces12 Apr 2027
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 19-year-old it feels ownership of. Madaoua Tchiva 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
Upbeat
Match13 Mar 2027
12 matches without defeat, and then Foullah Edifice. Nobody at the ground pretended it would go on forever; nobody expected it to stop here either.
Squad15 Mar 2027
Mohamed Hamami and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad15 Mar 2027
Zaid Karouch is not the player he was
It happens to all of them and it is still the hardest paragraph a local paper has to write. 36 years old, 3 points down on where he was, and a body that has started charging interest on a career.
Match13 Mar 2027
Foullah Edifice left with the points after a 1‑3 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
The dugout15 Mar 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.
Squad15 Mar 2027
A season average of 7.23 with 11 goals behind it. Opponents have started planning around him, which is the sincerest compliment football pays.
Market15 Mar 2027
“There is a gap, and pretending there is not helps nobody.” Neither side has moved, and the calendar is working for exactly one of them.
The dugout15 Mar 2027
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Oumar Mbaiguedem after 1‑3, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
Player ratings15 Mar 2027
Successful dribbles: 15. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match6 Mar 2027
Hard to beat is not the same as winning, but 12 matches without defeat is a foundation CotonTchad did not have in the autumn.
Squad8 Mar 2027
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Zaid Karouch and CotonTchad agree another 2 years.
Squad8 Mar 2027
Yacine Wakili 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.
Match6 Mar 2027
Every run ends on an afternoon somebody had marked down as routine. This one went 7 matches, which is long enough that a town had stopped counting, and short enough that it will remember exactly who stopped it.
Squad8 Mar 2027
Words at CotonTchad training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mohamed Hamami 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.
Match6 Mar 2027
A point taken on 89 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.
The dugout8 Mar 2027
Warm-up bib, ninety minutes of watching, and a handshake at the end that fooled nobody. Big matches tell you who a manager trusts; this one told Abdallah Boukhanfer.
The dugout8 Mar 2027
Bicto Tyonga 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.
Boardroom8 Mar 2027
$53.1K on the table at CotonTchad
The board have answered with money instead of encouragement, which is the only answer a manager ever wants. Spending it well is now entirely his problem.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Match1 Mar 2027
First, on 44 points. The table is a fact and a fact is allowed to be enjoyed, which is as far as anybody at the club is prepared to go in public.
Match27 Feb 2027
Momentum is a hard thing to buy and an easy thing to lose, and right now CotonTchad have 7 straight wins of it.
Player ratings1 Mar 2027
Two goals and a mark of 8.41 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Match27 Feb 2027
CotonTchad keep winning on the road
8 away wins in a row. Travelling support is the truest kind, and this season it is being repaid in the only currency that counts.
Player ratings1 Mar 2027
At 35 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 7.97 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Squad1 Mar 2027
Mohamed Hamami 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.
Squad1 Mar 2027
Hamza Asrir 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.
Match27 Feb 2027
Aiglons made CotonTchad work for it, but the scoreboard read 2‑0 at the end and the table does not ask how.
The dugout1 Mar 2027
Zaid Karouch 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
Triumph
Squad22 Feb 2027
18 days out for Ali Allamine after a fracture
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. CotonTchad will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Match20 Feb 2027
Nobody wants to play CotonTchad right now
6 wins in a row changes how opponents warm up: quieter, more glances across. Runs end, everybody knows that — but nobody in this dressing room is planning for it.
Player ratings22 Feb 2027
Hicham Nouali goes up and wins it — 7.52
A defender on the scoresheet, which happens rarely enough that everybody in the ground remembers who took the corner. 1 for him, and a mark of 7.52 for the rest of it.
Squad22 Feb 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 CotonTchad this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match20 Feb 2027
Three points for CotonTchad, 2‑0 the final word against Galactik in a contest settled by the finer margins.
The dugout22 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.
Player ratings22 Feb 2027
The afternoon belonged to Mahamat Adda
A mark of 7.76, and nobody in the ground would argue with it. He was involved in everything that mattered and most of what did not.
The dugout22 Feb 2027
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.” Oumar Mbaiguedem, on a 2‑0 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
Squad22 Feb 2027
“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 CotonTchad will have to answer with minutes or with a transfer.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Squad8 Feb 2027
Ali Allamine breaks a bone — 32 days out
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 32 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Match6 Feb 2027
Ninety minutes of very little, and then everything at once. The winner arrived in the 88th, and Stars Jeunes Talents spent what remained of the match appealing to the referee rather than chasing the ball.
Player ratings8 Feb 2027
Esaie Djikoloum, 35, rolls back the years — 7.92
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 7.92 at 35, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Match6 Feb 2027
Momentum is a hard thing to buy and an easy thing to lose, and right now CotonTchad have 4 straight wins of it.
Squad8 Feb 2027
A muscle injury and 15 days out for Younes Rachid
The most common injury in the game and the most rushed back from. CotonTchad will quote 15 days and will be careful with it, because the second one is always worse than the first.
Squad8 Feb 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 CotonTchad this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad8 Feb 2027
A row about effort at CotonTchad
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Anass Oublal was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout8 Feb 2027
“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.
In brief
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Player ratings
Abdallah Boukhanfer was on a different afternoon to everybody else
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Market
Gazelle are about to pick up the phone
-
Boardroom
Wages eat 89% of everything CotonTchad earn
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Match20 Jan 2027
A 1‑0 win over Aiglons, a place in the next round, and the quiet arithmetic every supporter does on the walk home: how many more until a final?
Squad25 Jan 2027
A fracture rules Ali Allamine out for 46 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason CotonTchad will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Player ratings25 Jan 2027
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 8.97, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
Market25 Jan 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 CotonTchad, and it is not being withdrawn.
Player ratings25 Jan 2027
Hamza Asrir, 34, rolls back the years — 8.00
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.00 at 34, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Squad25 Jan 2027
Abdallah Boukhanfer 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.
Match23 Jan 2027
Still nobody has beaten CotonTchad
The unbeaten run reaches 6. Some of them were wins and some were escapes, but a side that refuses to lose is a side other dressing rooms talk about.
Match23 Jan 2027
US Moursal made CotonTchad work for it, but the scoreboard read 3‑1 at the end and the table does not ask how.
Squad25 Jan 2027
A row about effort at CotonTchad
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Mohamed Hamami was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market18 Jan 2027
“It was not right for me. I am not going to explain why to anybody except the people I owe an explanation to.” A deal agreed between two clubs, and a player who declined to be part of it.
Market18 Jan 2027
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Squad18 Jan 2027
Mohamed Hamami and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad18 Jan 2027
Words at CotonTchad training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Koffi Ayivi 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 dugout18 Jan 2027
Mouctar Kodji 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 CotonTchad, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Market18 Jan 2027
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Mohamed Hamami signs something — a contract at CotonTchad or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Market18 Jan 2027
The clock does Esaie Djikoloum’s negotiating for him
7 months left, and both sides know what that means: every week without a signature, the fee CotonTchad could ask drops and the wages Esaie Djikoloum can ask rise.
Squad18 Jan 2027
Two hours a week with a tutor, which is the least glamorous thing at CotonTchad and the one that decides whether a foreign signing is still here in two years.
Squad18 Jan 2027
He looks like a man who lives here now rather than one who is working here. It took most of a season, and at CotonTchad the difference is visible from the back of the stand.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Player ratings4 Jan 2027
Two goals and a mark of 8.74 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Squad4 Jan 2027
The kind of year that ends with a name being read out in a hall. CotonTchad had the benefit of it every week and now have the problem of everybody else knowing.
Market4 Jan 2027
The offer from Stars Jeunes Talents for Gérard Diarra 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.
Match2 Jan 2027
Another one collected away from home
5 on the bounce on the road for CotonTchad. The coaches leave early, arrive at unlovely grounds in the dark, and keep coming home with three points.
Match2 Jan 2027
3 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.
Squad4 Jan 2027
Yacine Wakili and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad4 Jan 2027
At 39, 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.
Squad4 Jan 2027
Words at CotonTchad training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Hamza Asrir 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.
Match2 Jan 2027
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Younes Rachid. 2‑1 against Renaissance, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Player ratings21 Dec 2026
At 35 every good afternoon gets called a throwback, and this one was: 8.08, and nobody on the pitch better.
Squad21 Dec 2026
Yacine Wakili 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.
Match19 Dec 2026
Another one collected away from home
4 on the bounce on the road for CotonTchad. The coaches leave early, arrive at unlovely grounds in the dark, and keep coming home with three points.
Squad21 Dec 2026
A row about effort at CotonTchad
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Mohamed Hamami was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Match19 Dec 2026
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Abdallah Boukhanfer. 2‑0 against AS DGSSIE, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Player ratings21 Dec 2026
A performance of 8.05 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
The dugout21 Dec 2026
The manager’s verdict
“I am not going to get carried away and I will not let them either. It was a good day. There will be harder ones.” Oumar Mbaiguedem kept it short after the 2‑0 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
The dugout21 Dec 2026
Hicham Nouali 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 CotonTchad, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Squad21 Dec 2026
One yellow too many, and a match watched from the stand. The most avoidable absence in football, and CotonTchad will feel it on Saturday.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match14 Dec 2026
CotonTchad are in among the leaders
Position 3 and 16 points on the board. Nobody at the ground will say the word out loud yet, and everybody at the ground is thinking it.
Squad14 Dec 2026
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at CotonTchad this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad14 Dec 2026
A row about effort at CotonTchad
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Koffi Ayivi was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout14 Dec 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Mouctar Kodji, and the manager let it.
Player ratings14 Dec 2026
A midfielder is measured on whether the team functions when he is on the pitch, which is nearly impossible to see and completely obvious in retrospect. 9 actions, 6.94, and a manager who will not be substituting him again in a hurry.
The dugout14 Dec 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 Oumar Mbaiguedem to a room that had heard them before.
Squad14 Dec 2026
Too much change too quickly at CotonTchad
5 signings in three months. Every one of them may be an upgrade and the team can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild that never appears in the transfer-window verdicts.
Squad14 Dec 2026
“I did not sign to watch. Nobody does.” The oldest complaint in the game, and CotonTchad will have to answer it with minutes or with a move.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Player ratings7 Dec 2026
Two goals and a mark of 8.46 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Player ratings7 Dec 2026
Hamza Asrir, 33, rolls back the years — 8.20
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.20 at 33, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Squad7 Dec 2026
Mohamed Hamami 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.
Match5 Dec 2026
Three points for CotonTchad, 3‑2 the final word against AS PSI in a contest settled by the finer margins.
Squad7 Dec 2026
A row about effort at CotonTchad
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Koffi Ayivi was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Match5 Dec 2026
Another one collected away from home
3 on the bounce on the road for CotonTchad. The coaches leave early, arrive at unlovely grounds in the dark, and keep coming home with three points.
The dugout7 Dec 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Hamza Asrir, and the manager let it.
Match5 Dec 2026
Conceding is one thing; the response is what tells you about a dressing room. Abdallah Boukhanfer had CotonTchad level again within 3 minutes, and AS PSI never got to play with a lead at all.
Player ratings7 Dec 2026
Successful dribbles: 15. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Match21 Nov 2026
3‑0, 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
At 38 every good afternoon gets called a throwback, and this one was: 8.02, and nobody on the pitch better.
Match21 Nov 2026
Nobody wants to play CotonTchad right now
4 wins in a row changes how opponents warm up: quieter, more glances across. Runs end, everybody knows that — but nobody in this dressing room is planning for it.
Squad23 Nov 2026
Zaid Karouch and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad23 Nov 2026
Hamza Asrir 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.
The terraces23 Nov 2026
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 21-year-old it feels ownership of. Koffi Ayivi 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.
The dugout23 Nov 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Hicham Nouali, and the manager let it.
Player ratings23 Nov 2026
Marked 8.11. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at CotonTchad.
Market23 Nov 2026
Signings arrive with a picture of the club in their head, and this one’s picture was bigger than the building. He will play well and he will be gone, in that order, and everybody knows it.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad16 Nov 2026
Yacine Wakili 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.
Squad16 Nov 2026
CotonTchad are still strangers to each other
6 new signings in one window. Every one may be an upgrade and the side can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild the verdicts never mention.
The dugout16 Nov 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Valdo Junior Bilunga, and the manager let it.
Squad16 Nov 2026
A season on the outside for Hamza Asrir
He trains hard, says the right things and goes home to an empty flat. Nobody at CotonTchad has done anything wrong, which is exactly what makes it so difficult to fix.
Market16 Nov 2026
The name of Zaid Karouch keeps appearing in other people's back pages. CotonTchad say nothing, which says plenty.
Looking ahead16 Nov 2026
Looking ahead: the trip to Galactik
Position 12 for the hosts, a long journey for the away end, and a fixture that will look ordinary on paper right up until it is not.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Match7 Nov 2026
AS Etat Major will want this one forgotten quickly: 3‑0, every duel lost, and a long ride home. CotonTchad were ruthless in the way good sides are ruthless.
Player ratings9 Nov 2026
At 35 every good afternoon gets called a throwback, and this one was: 8.34, and nobody on the pitch better.
Match7 Nov 2026
3 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.
Squad9 Nov 2026
Yacine Wakili and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
The dugout9 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.
Player ratings9 Nov 2026
A performance of 8.17 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Market9 Nov 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.
Squad9 Nov 2026
“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 CotonTchad will have to answer with minutes or with a transfer.
The dugout9 Nov 2026
The manager’s verdict
“I am not going to get carried away and I will not let them either. It was a good day. There will be harder ones.” Oumar Mbaiguedem kept it short after the 3‑0 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad19 Oct 2026
Abdallah Boukhanfer and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Zaid Karouch is not the player he was
It happens to all of them and it is still the hardest paragraph a local paper has to write. 35 years old, 3 points down on where he was, and a body that has started charging interest on a career.
The dugout19 Oct 2026
The manager makes an example of Abdramane Oumar
“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 ratings19 Oct 2026
Some games turn on a moment; this one turned on a man. 7.76 on the card, and the CotonTchad support went home talking about one name.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Too much change too quickly at CotonTchad
13 signings in three months. Every one of them may be an upgrade and the team can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild that never appears in the transfer-window verdicts.
Player ratings19 Oct 2026
Successful dribbles: 15. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
The dugout19 Oct 2026
Mouctar Kodji dropped after a run of poor form
The one version of being left out a player cannot argue with, and the one he takes worst. Somebody else has been better and the team sheet says so, in public, every week until it changes.
Match17 Oct 2026
It finished 1‑1, and it somehow always looked like it would. One of those afternoons where the table moves less than the tempers.
The dugout19 Oct 2026
“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
Steady
Squad12 Oct 2026
Yacine Wakili and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad12 Oct 2026
It happens to all of them and it is still the hardest paragraph a local paper has to write. 36 years old, 3 points down on where he was, and a body that has started charging interest on a career.
Squad12 Oct 2026
There is a level at which a footballer stops being tested and starts being contained, and he reached it some time ago. CotonTchad know it, and so does everybody who watches him.
Market12 Oct 2026
At 33, he has seen every situation this season can produce, twice. The legs will be managed; the head is the purchase.
Squad12 Oct 2026
He trains hard, says the right things and goes home to an empty flat. Nobody at CotonTchad has done anything wrong, which is exactly what makes it so difficult to fix.
Market12 Oct 2026
It is the least glamorous business a club does and the reason seasons do not collapse in February. Abdallah Boukhanfer is here for the weeks when three men are injured and somebody still has to play.