Marked for Stéphane Bekolo
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Squad7 Sep 2026
Franck Assiga Edoa damages knee ligaments — 98 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 98 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Market7 Sep 2026
Yves Aimé Zoa 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 Canon Yaounde can pretend not to have heard.
The terraces7 Sep 2026
Supporters turn on the $120.0K sale of Stéphane Bekolo
He is going to Cotonsport Garoua, the club has $120.0K it did not have on Friday, and the phone-ins have already decided how they feel about that. Selling well and selling somebody they loved are not the same skill.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Kutlwano Letlhaku is 20, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Squad7 Sep 2026
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 Canon Yaounde this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Boardroom7 Sep 2026
3 boys move up, and somewhere in the building the people who coached them at twelve are quietly having the best morning of their working year. Nothing about this shows up in a result and it is why the academy exists.
Market7 Sep 2026
Cotonsport Garoua paid $120.0K and Canon Yaounde took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
The terraces7 Sep 2026
At 22 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market7 Sep 2026
“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 The request is on a desk at Cotonsport Garoua, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Franck Nanfack Ngoufack is 21, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Market7 Sep 2026
The chase for Stéphane Bekolo ended with $120.0K changing hands and Canon Yaounde out of reasons to say no. The supporters will judge the fee the only way that matters: on Saturdays.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Nicolas Nkoulou 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.
Boardroom7 Sep 2026
6 academy players handed senior numbers at Cotonsport Garoua
The morning the pathway stops being a brochure and becomes a team sheet. Most of them will not be here in three years; all of them have already done the hard part, which was getting to today.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Ben Elliott 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.
Market7 Sep 2026
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Nicolas Ekambi is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Market7 Sep 2026
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Joel Oyongo is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Félix Oukiné 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
Steady
Market24 Aug 2026
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Canon Yaounde can pretend not to have heard.
Market24 Aug 2026
The offer from PWD Bamenda for Paul Ombolo 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.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Junior Dande 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
Issa Bangfome 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 interest is real enough to have reached print. Canon Yaounde have said nothing, which in a transfer window is its own kind of answer.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Thato Sibiya 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. Canon Yaounde know it, and so does everybody who watches him.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad3 Aug 2026
“The easiest signature of my career.” Martin Ako Assomo and Canon Yaounde agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Junior Dande 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.
Market3 Aug 2026
The name of Évrard Beyong has come up in conversations Canon Yaounde were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Issa Bangfome 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.
Market3 Aug 2026
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Canon Yaounde, another week without a signature from Junior Dande.
Market3 Aug 2026
Still no offer on the table, and Martin Ako Assomo’s deal keeps shrinking. In boardroom language, silence this long stops being an oversight and starts being an answer.