Marked for Luyanda Makhathini
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad3 Apr 2028
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 65 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Squad3 Apr 2028
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Afrique Foot Elite have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad9 Aug 2027
A knee injury of the worst kind for Alejandro Arrieta
107 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Afrique Foot Elite lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Market9 Aug 2027
Emmanuel Ini 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 Afrique Foot Elite can pretend not to have heard.
Squad9 Aug 2027
Eugene Amankwah 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.
Squad9 Aug 2027
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Diyorbek To'laboyev has just signed for Afrique Foot Elite, and for once the answer mattered.
Squad9 Aug 2027
Martín López 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 Afrique Foot Elite this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Market9 Aug 2027
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Stanley Nnaemeka has his answer from Afrique Foot Elite; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad26 Apr 2027
A knee injury of the worst kind for Alejandro Arrieta
38 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Afrique Foot Elite lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Market26 Apr 2027
Milton Blanco 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 Afrique Foot Elite can pretend not to have heard.
Squad26 Apr 2027
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Afrique Foot Elite may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad9 Nov 2026
Ignacio Zabal breaks a bone — 33 days out
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 33 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Match4 Nov 2026
Out, 0‑1 to AS Korofina, and the long argument about which of the small moments decided it. The league is all there is now, and everybody knows it.
Squad9 Nov 2026
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 7 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
The terraces9 Nov 2026
The ground has had enough
“We travel everywhere and we get this.” 8 of the 23 senior players heard it walking off, and the ones who did not hear it were not playing.
Player ratings9 Nov 2026
It is a hard way to meet a crowd. Marked 5.58 on the day he was handed the shirt, and the important thing now is what the next one looks like.
Squad9 Nov 2026
Eugene Amankwah 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.
Match7 Nov 2026
3 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.
Squad9 Nov 2026
Martín López 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.
Match7 Nov 2026
Binga left with the points after a 0‑1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.