Marked for Ibrahim Gomis
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad15 Nov 2027
48 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Medeama lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Squad15 Nov 2027
Kofi Asmah 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 dugout15 Nov 2027
Yussif Mubarik 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 Medeama, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Looking ahead15 Nov 2027
The leaders are next for Medeama
Asante Kotoko top the table and they are coming into view. Nothing to lose, which is what every manager says before losing.
The dugout15 Nov 2027
The manager makes an example of Emmanuel Owusu
“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.
Looking ahead15 Nov 2027
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Yussif Mubarik’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Medeama needing him to play as if none of it matters.
The dugout15 Nov 2027
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
Market15 Nov 2027
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Medeama know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Market15 Nov 2027
Medeama have made Kingsley Braye available for transfer. A career at this club is over in all but paperwork.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market14 Jun 2027
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Medeama people have started saying his name in the past tense.
Market14 Jun 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 The request is on a desk at Medeama, and it is not being withdrawn.
Transfer targets14 Jun 2027
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Mamelodi Sundowns is saying, and nobody at Medeama is enjoying the guessing.
Transfer targets14 Jun 2027
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Abia Warriors have kept their man, and Medeama go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad14 Jun 2027
Fatawu Sulemana 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 targets14 Jun 2027
A loan move for Thato Sibiya is in the works
Medeama have made the call to Mamelodi Sundowns. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
Transfer targets14 Jun 2027
Medeama have made the call to Mamelodi Sundowns. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
The dugout14 Jun 2027
The manager makes an example of Kelvin Obeng
“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 dugout14 Jun 2027
Kingsley Braye 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 Medeama, and both men came out saying it was fine.
From our football correspondent
Steady
The dugout17 May 2027
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Medeama may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Squad17 May 2027
A falling-out at Medeama
Prince Kwabena Owusu and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
The dugout17 May 2027
The manager makes an example of Rich Sackey
“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.
Squad17 May 2027
A row about effort at Medeama
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Fatawu Sulemana was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout17 May 2027
A promise honoured at Medeama
Something was said to Fatawu Sulemana and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
Market17 May 2027
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Ibrahim Gomis has his answer from Medeama; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad19 Apr 2027
Fuzy Taylor 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 dugout19 Apr 2027
The manager makes an example of Reyaad Pieterse
“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 Apr 2027
Successful dribbles: 16. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Squad19 Apr 2027
7 new faces, and Medeama are still learning each other
A squad rebuilt inside one window pays for it in a currency nobody budgets for. The football is not worse than the sum of the players; it is worse than the sum of the players who have played together before.
Match17 Apr 2027
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 Apr 2027
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Amos Essien after the 1‑1 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
Squad19 Apr 2027
Kofi Asmah 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 dugout19 Apr 2027
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Medeama, and both men came out saying it was fine.
The dugout19 Apr 2027
The plan did not have a place for Samuel Tetteh
Nobody at Medeama is suggesting he is out of form. The manager simply wanted somebody with a different set of qualities for ninety specific minutes, and there is nothing a player can train to fix that.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad22 Mar 2027
A knee injury of the worst kind for Ibrahim Gomis
21 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Medeama lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
The dugout22 Mar 2027
Yaw Osei: 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.” Medeama have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Squad22 Mar 2027
Thato Sibiya 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 Medeama this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad22 Mar 2027
Words at Medeama training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Fatawu Sulemana 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 dugout22 Mar 2027
The manager makes an example of Fatawu Sulemana
“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 ratings22 Mar 2027
A mark of 7.89, and nobody in the ground would argue with it. He was involved in everything that mattered and most of what did not.
Loan watch22 Mar 2027
“I did not go to Hasaacas to sit and watch. I want to come back to Medeama and fight for my place.” 0 appearances in 31 matches say the rest.
The dugout22 Mar 2027
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Amos Essien after 1‑2, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
In brief
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Squad
5 new faces, and Medeama are still learning each other
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Loan watch
The goals keep arriving from Ibrahim Nurudeen’s exile
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The dugout
The plan did not have a place for Jacob Mensah
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad15 Mar 2027
28 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Medeama lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Match13 Mar 2027
3‑0, and Samuel Tetteh took the headlines on an afternoon when everything Medeama tried came off. Days like this are retold all winter.
Player ratings15 Mar 2027
No sign of nerves from Gomolemo Kekana at 20 — 7.69
The hardest thing about being 20 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Gomolemo Kekana did not need any: 7.69, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Market15 Mar 2027
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Medeama they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad15 Mar 2027
Thato Sibiya 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 ratings15 Mar 2027
Successful dribbles: 19. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
The dugout15 Mar 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Felix Kyei, and the manager let it.
Squad15 Mar 2027
50 goals in these colours now, every one of them somebody’s memory. There is a supporter in the stand who can tell you where he was for most of them.
Player ratings15 Mar 2027
Prince Kwabena Owusu was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.39. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Match30 Jan 2027
Medeama win it in stoppage time
The board had gone up, the arguing had started, and then the ball was in the net in the 91th minute. BA All Stars will replay every second of the added time for a week.
The dugout1 Feb 2027
Felix Kyei: 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.” Medeama have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Player ratings1 Feb 2027
A brace, and Samuel Tetteh takes the afternoon — 8.75
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Samuel Tetteh provided it, and the 8.75 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Market1 Feb 2027
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Medeama can pretend not to have heard.
Market1 Feb 2027
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Ashanti Gold waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Medeama is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Boardroom1 Feb 2027
Medeama close the window on a squad of their own making
5 in and 2 out, and no more changes for months. The manager has what he has, the supporters have their opinion of it, and the table will have the last word.
Squad1 Feb 2027
Ibrahim Gomis arrives at the club he grew up with
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Ibrahim Gomis has, at Medeama, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
Squad1 Feb 2027
A falling-out at Medeama
Thato Sibiya and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Transfer targets1 Feb 2027
The approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.