Marked for Ramadan Mostafa
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market24 Aug 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.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Mohamed Niaré 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.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Words at Victoria United training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ramadan Mostafa 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
Squad10 Aug 2026
Dérrick Anye Fru 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.
Squad10 Aug 2026
“The easiest signature of my career.” Ramadan Mostafa and Victoria United agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad10 Aug 2026
Mohamed Niaré 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.
Squad10 Aug 2026
Aminou Bouba 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. Victoria United know it, and so does everybody who watches him.
Market10 Aug 2026
There is a particular relief in a club addressing the thing its own crowd has been shouting about. Ramadan Mostafa arrives for exactly that job, and now he has to do it.
Market10 Aug 2026
The clock runs on Brayann Nana's contract
48 months left and silence from upstairs — no offer, no talks, nothing for his people to answer. Clubs that let a calendar do their negotiating usually end up negotiating with the calendar.