Marked for Naphtali Agada
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market11 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.
Squad11 Jan 2027
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Cotonsport Garoua have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Player ratings11 Jan 2027
Successful dribbles: 24. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad11 Jan 2027
Víctor Barona gets the move he always wanted
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Víctor Barona has just signed for Cotonsport Garoua, and for once the answer mattered.
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 Cotonsport Garoua this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Market11 Jan 2027
Rodrigue Ella has left for Canon Yaounde in a $84.0K deal. The accountants are pleased; the supporters are less certain.
Boardroom11 Jan 2027
The paperwork is done long before the player is. Marius Essapa Esseme has agreed terms to come here when his current deal runs out, which means Cotonsport Garoua have spent a summer's transfer budget on a phone call.
Squad11 Jan 2027
Words at Cotonsport Garoua training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Félix Oukiné 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
Match23 Nov 2026
Position 1 and 18 points on the board. Nobody at the ground will say the word out loud yet, and everybody at the ground is thinking it.
Match21 Nov 2026
8 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.
Squad23 Nov 2026
Félix Oukiné 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 Cotonsport Garoua this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Player ratings23 Nov 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.
Player ratings23 Nov 2026
A defender's afternoon for Yvan Aloukou
Defensive actions: 19. He was first to everything and second to nothing, and the goalkeeper had an easy day because of it.
Squad23 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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad9 Nov 2026
Félix Oukiné 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 Cotonsport Garoua this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match7 Nov 2026
Hard to beat is not the same as winning, but 6 matches without defeat is a foundation Cotonsport Garoua did not have in the autumn.
Player ratings9 Nov 2026
Successful dribbles: 20. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad9 Nov 2026
Words at Cotonsport Garoua training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Siyabonga Mabena 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.
Match7 Nov 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.
Squad9 Nov 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Marcelin Mbahbi, and the manager let it.
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.
Market24 Aug 2026
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Market24 Aug 2026
The name of Daniel Andela Mendje has come up in conversations Cotonsport Garoua were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Santiago Maidana 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
Moussa Limane 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.
Market24 Aug 2026
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Naphtali Agada has his answer from Cotonsport Garoua; what he does with it is the next window’s story.