Marked for Youssef Dalouzi
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad24 Sep 2029
Zakaria Ajoughlal and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Boardroom24 Sep 2029
The numbers do not look good at Renaissance
Wages have outrun income and the accountants have started attending meetings they used to send apologies to. Ambition comes second in a season like this.
Squad24 Sep 2029
Words at Renaissance training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Youssef Dalouzi 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 dugout24 Sep 2029
“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.
The dugout24 Sep 2029
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Amine El Maswab is on it.
The dugout24 Sep 2029
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Mathieu Adoassou trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad17 Sep 2029
Mathieu Adoassou and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Squad17 Sep 2029
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Zakaria Ajoughlal was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Market17 Sep 2029
The name of Youssef Dalouzi keeps appearing in other people's back pages. Renaissance say nothing, which says plenty.
Market17 Sep 2029
Still no ink between Renaissance and a squad player
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Renaissance, another week without a signature from a squad player.
The dugout17 Sep 2029
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Saleh Moustapha is on it.
Squad17 Sep 2029
“I have done everything asked of me in training and it has not changed a thing on a Saturday.” The most familiar complaint in football, and one Renaissance will have to answer with minutes or with a transfer.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market10 Sep 2029
“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.
Transfer targets10 Sep 2029
Everything was agreed with AS PSI and then the doctor spoke. Renaissance have walked away from a signing on the advice of somebody who never saw him play, which is how it is supposed to work.
Squad10 Sep 2029
Youssef Dalouzi 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 Sep 2029
Zakaria Ajoughlal 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.
Market10 Sep 2029
“There is a gap, and pretending there is not helps nobody.” Neither side has moved, and the calendar is working for exactly one of them.
Squad10 Sep 2029
Too much change too quickly at Renaissance
5 signings in three months. Every one of them may be an upgrade and the team can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild that never appears in the transfer-window verdicts.
The dugout10 Sep 2029
Zakaria Ajoughlal has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Renaissance will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
The dugout10 Sep 2029
The manager makes an example of Idriss Djimet
“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.
Squad10 Sep 2029
He trains hard, says the right things and goes home to an empty flat. Nobody at Renaissance has done anything wrong, which is exactly what makes it so difficult to fix.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad3 Sep 2029
15 days out for Mathieu Adoassou after a fracture
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Renaissance will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Market3 Sep 2029
“It was not right for me. I am not going to explain why to anybody except the people I owe an explanation to.” A deal agreed between two clubs, and a player who declined to be part of it.
Market3 Sep 2029
Saleh Djimet 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 Renaissance can pretend not to have heard.
The dugout3 Sep 2029
This is not rotation. Saleh Djimet has not been in the manager's plans for some time, and nobody at Renaissance is pretending otherwise.
Boardroom3 Sep 2029
Window shuts: 8 in, 6 out at Renaissance
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 8 arrived, 6 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
Squad3 Sep 2029
Zakaria Ajoughlal and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Transfer targets3 Sep 2029
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. AS PSI have kept their man, and Renaissance go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad3 Sep 2029
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Youssef Dalouzi was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout3 Sep 2029
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Youssef Dalouzi, and the manager let it.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad20 Aug 2029
29 days out for Mathieu Adoassou after a fracture
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Renaissance will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Market20 Aug 2029
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Renaissance can pretend not to have heard.
Transfer targets20 Aug 2029
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Renaissance have done the hard part with Gazelle, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Squad20 Aug 2029
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Renaissance this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad20 Aug 2029
Zakaria Ajoughlal 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 targets20 Aug 2029
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.
The dugout20 Aug 2029
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Mahamat Ali Hassan is on it.
The dugout20 Aug 2029
Nafiu Abubakar asks for a word with the manager
“I would rather say it to his face than read about it.” The meeting was requested by the player, which tells you most of what you need to know.
Market20 Aug 2029
The name of Youssef Dalouzi keeps appearing in other people's back pages. Renaissance say nothing, which says plenty.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad13 Aug 2029
36 days out for Mathieu Adoassou after a fracture
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Renaissance will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Market13 Aug 2029
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Renaissance have lost him in all but the paperwork.
Transfer targets13 Aug 2029
The deal with CotonTchad is done in every sense but the one that puts him on the pitch. Nothing goes wrong at this stage, except on the occasions when it does.
Squad13 Aug 2029
Mathieu Adoassou and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad13 Aug 2029
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Youssef Dalouzi was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout13 Aug 2029
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Mathieu Adoassou, and the manager let it.
Transfer targets13 Aug 2029
A loan move for Florent Warna is in the works
Renaissance have made the call to Foullah Edifice. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
The dugout13 Aug 2029
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Zakaria Ajoughlal is on it.
The dugout13 Aug 2029
Nafiu Abubakar 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 Renaissance, and both men came out saying it was fine.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market6 Aug 2029
The offer from Stars Jeunes Talents for Zakaria Ajoughlal 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.
The dugout6 Aug 2029
This is not rotation. Saleh Djimet has not been in the manager's plans for some time, and nobody at Renaissance is pretending otherwise.
Squad6 Aug 2029
Youssef Dalouzi and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Squad6 Aug 2029
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Zakaria Ajoughlal was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Market6 Aug 2029
“There is a gap, and pretending there is not helps nobody.” Neither side has moved, and the calendar is working for exactly one of them.
The dugout6 Aug 2029
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Mathieu Adoassou trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
The dugout6 Aug 2029
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Marius Tokindang, and the manager let it.
Market6 Aug 2029
The Saleh Djimet talk will not go away
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Renaissance know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market30 Jul 2029
“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 Renaissance, and it is not being withdrawn.
Market30 Jul 2029
The name of Zakaria Ajoughlal has come up in conversations Renaissance were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Squad30 Jul 2029
Youssef Dalouzi and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Boardroom30 Jul 2029
The accounts are being read more closely than the results. Wages before ambition is the order of business now, and the manager has been told so.
Squad30 Jul 2029
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Zakaria Ajoughlal was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout30 Jul 2029
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Nafiu Abubakar, and the manager let it.
Transfer targets30 Jul 2029
A loan enquiry to AS PSI: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.
The dugout30 Jul 2029
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.
Market30 Jul 2029
Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Samuel Boamah Quansah’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad23 Jul 2029
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Renaissance this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad23 Jul 2029
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Youssef Dalouzi was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout23 Jul 2029
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Youssef Dalouzi, and the manager let it.
Transfer targets23 Jul 2029
Renaissance have made the call to CotonTchad. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
The dugout23 Jul 2029
Nobody at Renaissance will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
Market23 Jul 2029
The name of Youssef Dalouzi keeps appearing in other people's back pages. Renaissance say nothing, which says plenty.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market16 Jul 2029
The offer from AS PSI for Melvin Hernández 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.
Squad16 Jul 2029
Mathieu Adoassou and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad16 Jul 2029
Words at Renaissance training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Zakaria Ajoughlal 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.
Transfer targets16 Jul 2029
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.
Boardroom16 Jul 2029
Wages swallow 119% of the Renaissance income
Every club pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time it has been tried.
Transfer targets16 Jul 2029
AS PSI have been asked whether they would lend him. Loans are agreed quickly or not at all, and this one will be one or the other by the weekend.
The dugout16 Jul 2029
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.
The dugout16 Jul 2029
Youssef Dalouzi asks for a word with the manager
“I would rather say it to his face than read about it.” The meeting was requested by the player, which tells you most of what you need to know.
The dugout16 Jul 2029
The manager makes an example of Ezechiel Ndoram
“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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market9 Jul 2029
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Renaissance have lost him in all but the paperwork.
The dugout9 Jul 2029
This is not rotation. Saleh Djimet has not been in the manager's plans for some time, and nobody at Renaissance is pretending otherwise.
Transfer targets9 Jul 2029
The deal with AS PSI is done in every sense but the one that puts him on the pitch. Nothing goes wrong at this stage, except on the occasions when it does.
Squad9 Jul 2029
Youssef Dalouzi and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Squad9 Jul 2029
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Zakaria Ajoughlal was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Transfer targets9 Jul 2029
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.
Market9 Jul 2029
He signed expecting a bigger stage than the one he found. It has not taken long, and it has not taken the dressing room long to notice either.
Squad9 Jul 2029
He is not being dropped. There is simply nowhere in the formation Renaissance are playing to put a man who does what he does, which is a harder thing to be told than any team sheet.
Transfer targets9 Jul 2029
A loan enquiry to Elect Sport: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market2 Jul 2029
“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 Renaissance, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad2 Jul 2029
Zakaria Ajoughlal and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Boardroom2 Jul 2029
The accounts are being read more closely than the results. Wages before ambition is the order of business now, and the manager has been told so.
Squad2 Jul 2029
Words at Renaissance training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Youssef Dalouzi 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 dugout2 Jul 2029
The manager makes an example of Nafiu Abubakar
“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.
Transfer targets2 Jul 2029
Renaissance have made the call to Gazelle. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
Boardroom2 Jul 2029
Renaissance sign 3 boys into the academy
None of them will be seen by anybody outside the training ground for three years, most of them will never play a senior match, and one of them might change the club. That is the whole proposition, and it is why academies exist.
The dugout2 Jul 2029
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.
The dugout2 Jul 2029
Saleh Djimet knocks on the manager’s door
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Saleh Djimet trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad25 Jun 2029
18 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Renaissance lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Market25 Jun 2029
Roger Emga 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 Renaissance can pretend not to have heard.
Squad25 Jun 2029
Mathieu Adoassou and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Squad25 Jun 2029
Zakaria Ajoughlal 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 dugout25 Jun 2029
“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.
Transfer targets25 Jun 2029
A loan enquiry to Gazelle: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.
The dugout25 Jun 2029
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Mahamat Ali Hassan is on it.
The dugout25 Jun 2029
Nafiu Abubakar 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 Renaissance, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Market25 Jun 2029
The name of Youssef Dalouzi keeps appearing in other people's back pages. Renaissance say nothing, which says plenty.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad18 Jun 2029
25 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Renaissance lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Squad18 Jun 2029
Youssef Dalouzi 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 dugout18 Jun 2029
This is not rotation. Yaya Kerim has not been in the manager's plans for some time, and nobody at Renaissance is pretending otherwise.
Squad18 Jun 2029
Words at Renaissance training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Zakaria Ajoughlal 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.
Boardroom18 Jun 2029
130% of the income goes out in wages at Renaissance
Every club in football pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time somebody has tried it.
Transfer targets18 Jun 2029
CotonTchad have been asked whether they would lend him. Loans are agreed quickly or not at all, and this one will be one or the other by the weekend.
The dugout18 Jun 2029
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.
The dugout18 Jun 2029
“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.
The dugout18 Jun 2029
“I would rather say it to his face than read about it.” The meeting was requested by the player, which tells you most of what you need to know.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad11 Jun 2029
32 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Renaissance lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Market11 Jun 2029
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Renaissance have lost him in all but the paperwork.
The dugout11 Jun 2029
This is not rotation. Saleh Djimet has not been in the manager's plans for some time, and nobody at Renaissance is pretending otherwise.
Transfer targets11 Jun 2029
The deal with Gazelle is done in every sense but the one that puts him on the pitch. Nothing goes wrong at this stage, except on the occasions when it does.
Squad11 Jun 2029
Zakaria Ajoughlal and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Transfer targets11 Jun 2029
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Gazelle have kept their man, and Renaissance go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad11 Jun 2029
Youssef Dalouzi 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 dugout11 Jun 2029
“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.
Market11 Jun 2029
The name of Mathieu Adoassou keeps appearing in other people's back pages. Renaissance say nothing, which says plenty.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad4 Jun 2029
39 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Renaissance lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Squad4 Jun 2029
Mathieu Adoassou 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.
Squad4 Jun 2029
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Zakaria Ajoughlal was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout4 Jun 2029
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Appolinaire Djingabeye, and the manager let it.
Transfer targets4 Jun 2029
A loan enquiry to Gazelle: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.
Boardroom4 Jun 2029
The accounts make uncomfortable reading. Wages first and ambition second is the order of business at Renaissance now.
The dugout4 Jun 2029
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Amine El Maswab is on it.
Squad4 Jun 2029
Renaissance will explain it as a decision about the team, and it may well be one. A dressing room has never once read it that way.
The dugout4 Jun 2029
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Renaissance, and both men came out saying it was fine.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad28 May 2029
46 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Renaissance lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Squad28 May 2029
Zakaria Ajoughlal 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.
Squad28 May 2029
Oumar Youssouf and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Squad28 May 2029
26 days, the medical staff say, and medical staff are optimists by profession. The team sheet will look wrong without him.
The dugout28 May 2029
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Renaissance, and both men came out saying it was fine.
The dugout28 May 2029
Nobody at Renaissance will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad21 May 2029
53 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Renaissance lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Squad21 May 2029
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Renaissance this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The dugout21 May 2029
This is not rotation. Yaya Kerim has not been in the manager's plans for some time, and nobody at Renaissance is pretending otherwise.
Squad21 May 2029
Words at Renaissance training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Youssef Dalouzi 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.
Boardroom21 May 2029
146% of the income goes out in wages at Renaissance
Every club in football pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time somebody has tried it.
The dugout21 May 2029
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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad14 May 2029
The words a physio says slowly. 60 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.
The dugout14 May 2029
This is not rotation. Saleh Djimet has not been in the manager's plans for some time, and nobody at Renaissance is pretending otherwise.
Squad14 May 2029
Youssef Dalouzi and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad14 May 2029
Zakaria Ajoughlal 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.
Squad14 May 2029
16 days, the scan says, and scans are kinder than reality. The fixtures in that window have just become somebody else’s job.
The dugout14 May 2029
“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
Squad7 May 2029
67 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Renaissance lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
The dugout7 May 2029
“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.
Market7 May 2029
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Renaissance they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad7 May 2029
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Mathieu Adoassou and Renaissance agree another 2 years.
Squad7 May 2029
Youssef Dalouzi and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Boardroom7 May 2029
The accounts make uncomfortable reading. Wages first and ambition second is the order of business at Renaissance now.
Squad7 May 2029
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Zakaria Ajoughlal was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout7 May 2029
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.
The dugout7 May 2029
Saleh Djimet asks for a word with the manager
“I would rather say it to his face than read about it.” The meeting was requested by the player, which tells you most of what you need to know.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad30 Apr 2029
74 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Renaissance lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Squad30 Apr 2029
Zakaria Ajoughlal 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.
Squad30 Apr 2029
Youssef Dalouzi 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.
Squad30 Apr 2029
Yaya Kerim is not the player he was
It happens to all of them and it is still the hardest paragraph a local paper has to write. 37 years old, 4 points down on where he was, and a body that has started charging interest on a career.
The dugout30 Apr 2029
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Idriss Djimet, and the manager let it.
The dugout30 Apr 2029
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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad9 Apr 2029
The words a physio says slowly. 95 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.
Player ratings9 Apr 2029
No sign of nerves from Nafiu Abubakar at 21 — 7.66
The hardest thing about being 21 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Nafiu Abubakar did not need any: 7.66, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Market9 Apr 2029
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Renaissance is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad9 Apr 2029
Zakaria Ajoughlal and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Squad9 Apr 2029
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Youssef Dalouzi was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout9 Apr 2029
The manager makes an example of Roger Emga
“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.
Boardroom9 Apr 2029
The accounts make uncomfortable reading. Wages first and ambition second is the order of business at Renaissance now.
The dugout9 Apr 2029
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Amine El Maswab is on it.
The dugout9 Apr 2029
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Narcisse Oumar was not hiding it after 0‑0, and nobody in the Renaissance dressing room was either.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad26 Mar 2029
The words a physio says slowly. 109 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.
Squad26 Mar 2029
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.
Squad26 Mar 2029
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Renaissance this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The dugout26 Mar 2029
This is not rotation. Yaya Kerim has not been in the manager's plans for some time, and nobody at Renaissance is pretending otherwise.
Squad26 Mar 2029
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Samuel Boamah Quansah was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Player ratings26 Mar 2029
Successful dribbles: 19. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Match24 Mar 2029
0‑1 to AS PSI, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Boardroom26 Mar 2029
Wages eat 132% of everything Renaissance earn
There is a figure at which a wage bill stops being ambitious and becomes the reason nothing else is possible, and this club has reached it. Nothing is left over for a transfer, a stand or a rainy afternoon.
The dugout26 Mar 2029
“I could talk about decisions and I could talk about luck. I will not. We lost.” The manager, 0‑1, and a press conference that lasted four minutes.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad19 Mar 2029
116 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Renaissance lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
The dugout19 Mar 2029
This is not rotation. Saleh Djimet has not been in the manager's plans for some time, and nobody at Renaissance is pretending otherwise.
Squad19 Mar 2029
Mathieu Adoassou 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.
Squad19 Mar 2029
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Youssef Dalouzi was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Match17 Mar 2029
It finished 1‑0, and it was Saleh Djimet’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Renaissance.
The dugout19 Mar 2029
“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.
Player ratings19 Mar 2029
Successful dribbles: 16. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Player ratings19 Mar 2029
Nobody on the pitch touched Saleh Djimet
7.72, and no serious argument from anybody who was there. Renaissance had eleven men on the pitch and one of them decided how it went.
The dugout19 Mar 2029
“That is what I want every week. Not the result, the way they went about it.” The manager, after 1‑0, already talking about the next one.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match3 Mar 2029
Rarely has this fixture seen a display like it: 4‑1 against US Moursal, and it could have been more.
Player ratings5 Mar 2029
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 8.39, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
Player ratings5 Mar 2029
Two goals and a mark of 8.29 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Squad5 Mar 2029
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Amine El Maswab and Renaissance agree another 4 years.
Squad5 Mar 2029
Youssef Dalouzi 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.
Squad5 Mar 2029
Words at Renaissance training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Zakaria Ajoughlal 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 terraces5 Mar 2029
At 21 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.
The dugout5 Mar 2029
“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 dugout5 Mar 2029
Youssef Dalouzi is still being punished for one mistake
Nobody will confirm it and the team sheets confirm it every week. One error has bought him a spell as second choice that is already longer than the error deserved.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad26 Feb 2029
Mathieu Adoassou and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Squad26 Feb 2029
Words at Renaissance training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Youssef Dalouzi 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.
Match24 Feb 2029
Three points for Renaissance, 2‑1 the final word against Gazelle in a contest settled by the finer margins.
Boardroom26 Feb 2029
139% of the income goes out in wages at Renaissance
Every club in football pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time somebody has tried it.
The dugout26 Feb 2029
The manager makes an example of Youssef Dalouzi
“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 ratings26 Feb 2029
7.97, and no serious argument from anybody who was there. Renaissance had eleven men on the pitch and one of them decided how it went.
The dugout26 Feb 2029
“The players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 2‑1, Narcisse Oumar could afford to be generous.
The dugout26 Feb 2029
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.
Squad26 Feb 2029
The one goal every signing is asked about until it comes. It has come, and a press-conference question has been retired.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market19 Feb 2029
“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 Renaissance, and it is not being withdrawn.
The dugout19 Feb 2029
This is not rotation. Saleh Djimet has not been in the manager's plans for some time, and nobody at Renaissance is pretending otherwise.
Squad19 Feb 2029
Mathieu Adoassou 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.
Squad19 Feb 2029
Zakaria Ajoughlal 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.
Match17 Feb 2029
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.
Player ratings19 Feb 2029
Successful dribbles: 18. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
The dugout19 Feb 2029
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Doueugui Mala, and the manager let it.
The dugout19 Feb 2029
The view from the dugout
“We did not lose. Some weeks that is all you get, and I would rather have the point than not.” Narcisse Oumar chose the glass-half-full version of 0‑0; the supporters left with the other one.
The dugout19 Feb 2029
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Renaissance, and both men came out saying it was fine.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market12 Feb 2029
“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 Renaissance, and it is not being withdrawn.
The dugout12 Feb 2029
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Renaissance may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Market12 Feb 2029
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Renaissance they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad12 Feb 2029
Youssef Dalouzi and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Squad12 Feb 2029
Zakaria Ajoughlal 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.
Player ratings12 Feb 2029
Successful dribbles: 17. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Boardroom12 Feb 2029
The accounts are being read more closely than the results. Wages before ambition is the order of business now, and the manager has been told so.
The dugout12 Feb 2029
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.
The dugout12 Feb 2029
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Narcisse Oumar was not hiding it after 0‑0, and nobody in the Renaissance dressing room was either.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market5 Feb 2029
“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.
Boardroom5 Feb 2029
Deadline passes with 0 signed and 1 gone
That is the business done at Renaissance until the window opens again. Whether it was enough will be answered on Saturdays rather than in a column, and the first Saturday is close.
Squad5 Feb 2029
Zakaria Ajoughlal 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.
Transfer targets5 Feb 2029
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Gazelle have kept their man, and Renaissance go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad5 Feb 2029
Words at Renaissance training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Youssef Dalouzi 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.
Match3 Feb 2029
Beaten 0‑1, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Squad5 Feb 2029
Yaya Kerim is not the player he was
It happens to all of them and it is still the hardest paragraph a local paper has to write. 37 years old, 4 points down on where he was, and a body that has started charging interest on a career.
The dugout5 Feb 2029
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Mahamat Tokindang, and the manager let it.
The dugout5 Feb 2029
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 0‑1, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match27 Jan 2029
4‑0, and Youssef Dalouzi took the headlines on an afternoon when everything Renaissance tried came off. Days like this are retold all winter.
Player ratings29 Jan 2029
A brace, and Youssef Dalouzi takes the afternoon — 8.48
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Youssef Dalouzi provided it, and the 8.48 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Market29 Jan 2029
Yaya Kerim 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 Renaissance can pretend not to have heard.
Player ratings29 Jan 2029
At 35 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 7.85 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Squad29 Jan 2029
Mathieu Adoassou and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Squad29 Jan 2029
Zakaria Ajoughlal 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.
Boardroom29 Jan 2029
138% of the income goes out in wages at Renaissance
Every club in football pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time somebody has tried it.
Player ratings29 Jan 2029
Zakaria Ajoughlal was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.47. 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.
The dugout29 Jan 2029
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Narcisse Oumar on a 4‑0 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Match17 Jan 2029
The small margins put Renaissance out
Out, 1‑2 to AS PSI, and the long argument about which of the small moments decided it. The league is all there is now, and everybody knows it.
Market22 Jan 2029
“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.
The dugout22 Jan 2029
This is not rotation. Saleh Djimet has not been in the manager's plans for some time, and nobody at Renaissance is pretending otherwise.
Squad22 Jan 2029
Youssef Dalouzi and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad22 Jan 2029
Zakaria Ajoughlal 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.
Match22 Jan 2029
Halfway: Renaissance sit in position 6
18 points at the turn. The first half of a season is a promise; the second is a bill, and the town is about to find out which of the two this one was.
Player ratings22 Jan 2029
Marked 7.88 on an afternoon he ran from the first whistle to the last. Whatever else went wrong, Renaissance had the best player on the pitch.
Squad22 Jan 2029
Goalkeepers do not get to make mistakes; they get to make goals. He made one, he knew it instantly, and there was nobody behind him to make it anything else.
Match20 Jan 2029
It finished 1‑1, and it somehow always looked like it would. One of those afternoons where the table moves less than the tempers.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market15 Jan 2029
“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 Renaissance, and it is not being withdrawn.
Market15 Jan 2029
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Renaissance they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad15 Jan 2029
Zakaria Ajoughlal and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Squad15 Jan 2029
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Youssef Dalouzi was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout15 Jan 2029
The manager makes an example of Nafiu Abubakar
“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.
Boardroom15 Jan 2029
The numbers do not look good at Renaissance
Wages have outrun income and the accountants have started attending meetings they used to send apologies to. Ambition comes second in a season like this.
The dugout15 Jan 2029
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.
Squad15 Jan 2029
“I have done everything asked of me in training and it has not changed a thing on a Saturday.” The most familiar complaint in football, and one Renaissance will have to answer with minutes or with a transfer.
Looking ahead15 Jan 2029
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against AS Algoy in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad25 Dec 2028
Zakaria Ajoughlal and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad25 Dec 2028
Words at Renaissance training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Youssef Dalouzi 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.
Match23 Dec 2028
It had gone 5 games. The players did not celebrate like men who had won a match; they celebrated like men who had been let out of something.
The dugout25 Dec 2028
The manager makes an example of Youssef Dalouzi
“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.
Match23 Dec 2028
AS PSI made Renaissance work for it, but the scoreboard read 1‑0 at the end and the table does not ask how.
Player ratings25 Dec 2028
19 times he got in the way of something. Centre-halves get written about when they make mistakes and ignored when they do not, so an afternoon like this needs saying out loud: he is the reason the scoreline reads as it does.
Squad25 Dec 2028
Yaya Kerim reaches 100 appearances
100 games in the shirt. Nobody sets out to build a record like that; it happens to a certain kind of player at a certain kind of club, and this town knows what it has.
Player ratings25 Dec 2028
Some games turn on a moment; this one turned on a man. 7.81 on the card, and the Renaissance support went home talking about one name.
The dugout25 Dec 2028
“That is what I want every week. Not the result, the way they went about it.” The manager, after 1‑0, already talking about the next one.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
The dugout11 Dec 2028
“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.
Match9 Dec 2028
4 matches without a win for Renaissance
The run now stands at 4, and the questions being asked around Renaissance are no longer polite ones.
Match9 Dec 2028
4 matches without a goal for Renaissance
The chances are being made and something is happening between the making and the finishing. 4 matches now, and the anxiety in the ground arrives a little earlier every week.
Squad11 Dec 2028
Youssef Dalouzi 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.
Squad11 Dec 2028
Zakaria Ajoughlal 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.
Match9 Dec 2028
Stars Jeunes Talents left with the points after a 0‑1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Player ratings11 Dec 2028
Marked 7.06 on 9 actions at both ends of the pitch. Midfielders like this get described as unspectacular by people who have never tried to play against one.
The dugout11 Dec 2028
The manager’s verdict
“That is on me. I pick the team and I picked wrong.” Managers say that when they mean it and when they need to be seen to, and after 0‑1 Narcisse Oumar left the room before anybody could ask which.
Player ratings11 Dec 2028
Successful dribbles: 15. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad4 Dec 2028
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 8 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Squad4 Dec 2028
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Renaissance this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match2 Dec 2028
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.
Squad4 Dec 2028
Youssef Dalouzi 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.
Match2 Dec 2028
0‑2 to US Moursal, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Boardroom4 Dec 2028
Wages swallow 115% of the Renaissance income
Every club pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time it has been tried.
The dugout4 Dec 2028
The manager’s verdict
“That is on me. I pick the team and I picked wrong.” Managers say that when they mean it and when they need to be seen to, and after 0‑2 Narcisse Oumar left the room before anybody could ask which.
Squad4 Dec 2028
Yaya Kerim is no longer first choice
The manager has re-ordered his thinking and Yaya Kerim has come out of it lower. He will be told it is temporary, and the players who have heard that before will avoid his eye.
The dugout4 Dec 2028
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Mahamat Ali Hassan, and the manager let it.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market20 Nov 2028
“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.
Market20 Nov 2028
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Renaissance they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad20 Nov 2028
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Renaissance this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad20 Nov 2028
Zakaria Ajoughlal 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 dugout20 Nov 2028
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Mahamat Ali Hassan is on it.
Market20 Nov 2028
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Samuel Boamah Quansah signs something — a contract at Renaissance or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Market20 Nov 2028
The clock does Doueugui Mala’s negotiating for him
4 months left, and both sides know what that means: every week without a signature, the fee Renaissance could ask drops and the wages Doueugui Mala can ask rise.
The dugout20 Nov 2028
Marius Abakar 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 Renaissance, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Squad20 Nov 2028
The shrug has gone, the language is coming, and he now argues in training like somebody who expects to be here next year. Half a signing's value is this and none of it appears on a fee.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad13 Nov 2028
Zakaria Ajoughlal 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.
Squad13 Nov 2028
Words at Renaissance training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Youssef Dalouzi 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.
Match11 Nov 2028
Beaten 0‑2, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
The dugout13 Nov 2028
“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 dugout13 Nov 2028
“I could talk about decisions and I could talk about luck. I will not. We lost.” The manager, 0‑2, and a press conference that lasted four minutes.
Squad13 Nov 2028
Renaissance are still strangers to each other
5 new signings in one window. Every one may be an upgrade and the side can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild the verdicts never mention.
Boardroom13 Nov 2028
The accounts make uncomfortable reading. Wages first and ambition second is the order of business at Renaissance now.
The dugout13 Nov 2028
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.
Market13 Nov 2028
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Renaissance know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Match1 Nov 2028
Amine El Maswab wins it after the whistle should have gone
119 minutes played. Amine El Maswab found the finish in time that only existed because of earlier delays, and US Moursal went from a point to nothing inside one movement.
Player ratings6 Nov 2028
A debut Jean Embolo will not forget — 7.94
There is exactly one of these per career and it does not usually go like this. 0 on the scoresheet, 7.94 beside the name, and a crowd that had never seen him before chanting it by the end.
Squad6 Nov 2028
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 6 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Squad6 Nov 2028
Mathieu Adoassou and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Squad6 Nov 2028
Words at Renaissance training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Zakaria Ajoughlal 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.
Squad6 Nov 2028
The decline has begun for Yaya Kerim
Everybody saw it before anybody said it. At 37 the numbers say 3 points down on what he was, and the question for Renaissance is how to handle a man they owe a great deal.
The terraces6 Nov 2028
He is 18 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.
Match4 Nov 2028
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Youssef Dalouzi. 1‑0 against Foullah Edifice, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad30 Oct 2028
There were 6 saves in it, and at least three that had no business being saves at all. The ten outfield players owe him a drink and they know it.
Squad30 Oct 2028
Words at Renaissance training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Zakaria Ajoughlal 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.
Match28 Oct 2028
1‑2 to Aiglons, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Squad30 Oct 2028
Mahamat Youssouf and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Player ratings30 Oct 2028
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.03, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
The dugout30 Oct 2028
The view from the dugout
“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 1‑2 defeat, delivered by Narcisse Oumar to a room that had heard them before.
The dugout30 Oct 2028
David Wanyama knocks on the manager’s door
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and David Wanyama trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Market30 Oct 2028
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Renaissance know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
The dugout30 Oct 2028
Roger Emga does not fit this one
Ninety specific minutes wanted a different sort of player, and the manager picked one. He is not out of form and he is not in the side, and both are true.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Boardroom23 Oct 2028
The club looked outside for a month, found nothing it preferred, and handed the job to the man who had been doing it anyway. He knows the building; now he has to prove he knows the rest.
Market23 Oct 2028
Saleh Djimet 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 Renaissance can pretend not to have heard.
The dugout23 Oct 2028
“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.
Market23 Oct 2028
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Melvin Hernández will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Renaissance the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad23 Oct 2028
Zakaria Ajoughlal and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Squad23 Oct 2028
Words at Renaissance training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Samuel Boamah Quansah 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.
Squad23 Oct 2028
100 games in the shirt. Nobody sets out to build a record like that; it happens to a certain kind of player at a certain kind of club, and this town knows what it has.
Player ratings23 Oct 2028
7.52, and no serious argument from anybody who was there. Renaissance had eleven men on the pitch and one of them decided how it went.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Boardroom2 Oct 2028
The end came on a Tuesday, as these things usually do: a short meeting, a shorter statement, and Moussa Ndoram clearing his office by noon. Football’s cruellest ritual, performed to schedule.
Boardroom2 Oct 2028
“Somebody has to pick the team on Saturday, and this week that is me.” An interim appointment with no promises attached, which is how most of them start.
Squad2 Oct 2028
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Mathieu Adoassou commits to Renaissance for another 2 years.
Squad2 Oct 2028
Mathieu Adoassou 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.
Squad2 Oct 2028
Words at Renaissance training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Samuel Boamah Quansah 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.
Boardroom2 Oct 2028
The bill for the sacking has arrived. Moussa Ndoram leaves with $6.3K for the time left on his deal, and that money buys the club nothing it can put on the pitch.
Boardroom2 Oct 2028
Renaissance board go back on their word
Something was promised, a deadline passed, and it did not arrive. Trust inside a football club is built over years and spent in an afternoon.
Squad2 Oct 2028
Somebody has moved past him. It is not a dropping and it is worse than one, because a dropping is about a Saturday and this is about where he stands.
The dugout2 Oct 2028
A fresh start for Zakaria Ajoughlal under the new man
Nothing resets a career like somebody arriving who did not pick the side last season. Zakaria Ajoughlal has taken the hint, and Renaissance are getting a version of him the previous regime had stopped seeing.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market25 Sep 2028
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Melvin Hernández will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Renaissance the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad25 Sep 2028
Zakaria Ajoughlal 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.
Squad25 Sep 2028
Ousmane Hissein and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
The dugout25 Sep 2028
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Youssef Dalouzi trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Market25 Sep 2028
The name of Mathieu Adoassou keeps appearing in other people's back pages. Renaissance say nothing, which says plenty.
The dugout25 Sep 2028
Djibrine Ndoram has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Renaissance will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
Squad25 Sep 2028
He trains hard, says the right things and goes home to an empty flat. Nobody at Renaissance has done anything wrong, which is exactly what makes it so difficult to fix.
The dugout25 Sep 2028
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Renaissance. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
Squad25 Sep 2028
A manager forgives a bad Saturday far more readily than a bad Tuesday, because one of them he can explain and the other one he chose. The reports this week have not been good.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market18 Sep 2028
“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 Renaissance, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad18 Sep 2028
Youssef Dalouzi 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.
Squad18 Sep 2028
Zakaria Ajoughlal 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.
Squad18 Sep 2028
7 new faces, and Renaissance 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.
Squad18 Sep 2028
The formation has left Nafiu Abubakar behind
Every shape has positions in it and this one does not have his. Renaissance will either change the shape, change his job, or change his club, and he is waiting to hear which.
The dugout18 Sep 2028
Oumar Youssouf has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Renaissance will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
Market18 Sep 2028
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Renaissance, another week without a signature from Nafiu Abubakar.
Market18 Sep 2028
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Renaissance know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Market18 Sep 2028
6 months left and the two sides are nowhere near each other. Every week this drags on takes money off what Renaissance could get for him.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market11 Sep 2028
Saleh Djimet 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 Renaissance can pretend not to have heard.
Squad11 Sep 2028
Youssef Dalouzi and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Transfer targets11 Sep 2028
Renaissance asked and AS PSI said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Market11 Sep 2028
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Hassan Haroun has been at this club since he was a boy and is now, formally, one of the first-team squad — which for a local readership beats any signing of any size.
Market11 Sep 2028
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Ezechiel Ndoram has been at this club since he was a boy and is now, formally, one of the first-team squad — which for a local readership beats any signing of any size.
Market11 Sep 2028
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Hassan Mahamat is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Transfer targets11 Sep 2028
A deal that was a phone call from completion at lunchtime was dead by midnight. Renaissance will try again when the window opens; CotonTchad may not be selling by then.
Squad11 Sep 2028
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.
Squad11 Sep 2028
“Some mornings you wake up and you are still a long way from everything you know.” It is not the football and it never was; Renaissance are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad4 Sep 2028
A knee injury of the worst kind for Youssef Dalouzi
14 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Renaissance lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Market4 Sep 2028
“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 Renaissance, and it is not being withdrawn.
Transfer targets4 Sep 2028
The clubs have shaken hands with CotonTchad; the player has not yet. Personal terms are next, and personal terms are where more deals die than anybody prints.
Boardroom4 Sep 2028
Deadline passes with 7 signed and 7 gone
That is the business done at Renaissance until the window opens again. Whether it was enough will be answered on Saturdays rather than in a column, and the first Saturday is close.
Squad4 Sep 2028
19 days, the scan says, and scans are kinder than reality. The fixtures in that window have just become somebody else’s job.
Squad4 Sep 2028
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Renaissance this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad4 Sep 2028
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Zakaria Ajoughlal was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Market4 Sep 2028
Signings arrive with a picture of the club in their head, and this one’s picture was bigger than the building. He will play well and he will be gone, in that order, and everybody knows it.
Market4 Sep 2028
David Wanyama is 18, and Renaissance have signed him for the player he will be rather than the one he is. The first team can wait; the point of a deal like this is the years it buys.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad28 Aug 2028
21 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Renaissance lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Transfer targets28 Aug 2028
Renaissance and AS DGSSIE have settled on $6.0K. The rest belongs to the player and his agent, and a supporter who has watched one of these before knows not to buy the shirt yet.
Market28 Aug 2028
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Melvin Hernández will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Renaissance the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Transfer targets28 Aug 2028
The offer went to Aiglons this week and it is theirs to answer. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loud the door closes.
Transfer targets28 Aug 2028
$25.0K was the most the club would pay and CotonTchad were asking for more. Deals like this are revived in the last week of a window roughly half the time, and everybody involved knows it.
Squad28 Aug 2028
Zakaria Ajoughlal 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.
Squad28 Aug 2028
Jean Embolo and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
The dugout28 Aug 2028
Doueugui Mala knocks on the manager’s door
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Doueugui Mala trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Market28 Aug 2028
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Mathieu Adoassou signs something — a contract at Renaissance or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad21 Aug 2028
28 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Renaissance lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Market21 Aug 2028
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Renaissance can pretend not to have heard.
Squad21 Aug 2028
Zakaria Ajoughlal and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Transfer targets21 Aug 2028
The offer went to CotonTchad this week and it is theirs to answer. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loud the door closes.
Transfer targets21 Aug 2028
AS DGSSIE wanted more than $5.0K and the board would not go there. Walked away, for now, which in a transfer window means until somebody blinks.
Transfer targets21 Aug 2028
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. AS Algoy have kept their man, and Renaissance go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad21 Aug 2028
Words at Renaissance training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Doueugui Mala 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.
Squad21 Aug 2028
“The easiest signature of my career.” Idriss Djimet and Renaissance agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Transfer targets21 Aug 2028
Stars Jeunes Talents have been asked whether they would lend him. Loans are agreed quickly or not at all, and this one will be one or the other by the weekend.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad14 Aug 2028
A knee injury of the worst kind for Youssef Dalouzi
35 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Renaissance lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Transfer targets14 Aug 2028
No thanks: Yannick Masra rejects the move
Renaissance had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Aiglons, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
Squad14 Aug 2028
Youssef Dalouzi and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Transfer targets14 Aug 2028
The offer went to AS DGSSIE this week and it is theirs to answer. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loud the door closes.
Transfer targets14 Aug 2028
Renaissance asked and AS PSI said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Squad14 Aug 2028
Zakaria Ajoughlal 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 Aug 2028
Stars Jeunes Talents have been asked whether they would lend him. Loans are agreed quickly or not at all, and this one will be one or the other by the weekend.
The dugout14 Aug 2028
Oumar Youssouf has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Renaissance will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
The dugout14 Aug 2028
Youssef Dalouzi asks for a word with the manager
“I would rather say it to his face than read about it.” The meeting was requested by the player, which tells you most of what you need to know.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad7 Aug 2028
42 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Renaissance lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Transfer targets7 Aug 2028
$110.0K settles it between the clubs for Yannick Masra
Aiglons have accepted the money. What Renaissance do not yet have is the man, and between here and the photograph is a conversation about wages that both sides are dreading.
Market7 Aug 2028
“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 Renaissance, and it is not being withdrawn.
Transfer targets7 Aug 2028
AS DGSSIE wanted more than $23.0K and the board would not go there. Walked away, for now, which in a transfer window means until somebody blinks.
Squad7 Aug 2028
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Zakaria Ajoughlal was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad7 Aug 2028
Ousmane Hissein 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.
Squad7 Aug 2028
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Djibrine Ndoram commits to Renaissance for another 3 years.
The dugout7 Aug 2028
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Renaissance, and both men came out saying it was fine.
The dugout7 Aug 2028
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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad31 Jul 2028
A knee injury of the worst kind for Youssef Dalouzi
49 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Renaissance lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Transfer targets31 Jul 2028
Renaissance and CotonTchad have settled on $24.0K. The rest belongs to the player and his agent, and a supporter who has watched one of these before knows not to buy the shirt yet.
Market31 Jul 2028
Adam Adoum 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 Renaissance can pretend not to have heard.
Market31 Jul 2028
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Renaissance is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad31 Jul 2028
Zakaria Ajoughlal 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.
Transfer targets31 Jul 2028
Renaissance have gone to AS DGSSIE with a bid, and the supporters have gone to the internet with an opinion about it. Whether either changes anything is up to the selling club.
Squad31 Jul 2028
Doueugui Mala 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.
Squad31 Jul 2028
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Hassan Hissein and Renaissance agree another 3 years.
The dugout31 Jul 2028
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Djibrine Ndoram, and the manager let it.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad24 Jul 2028
A knee injury of the worst kind for Youssef Dalouzi
56 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Renaissance lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Market24 Jul 2028
“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.
Transfer targets24 Jul 2028
$7.0K settles it between the clubs for Issa Allamine
AS Algoy have accepted the money. What Renaissance do not yet have is the man, and between here and the photograph is a conversation about wages that both sides are dreading.
Transfer targets24 Jul 2028
Renaissance have gone to Aiglons with a bid, and the supporters have gone to the internet with an opinion about it. Whether either changes anything is up to the selling club.
Squad24 Jul 2028
Youssef Dalouzi and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Squad24 Jul 2028
Zakaria Ajoughlal 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 targets24 Jul 2028
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. AS Algoy have kept their man, and Renaissance go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Boardroom24 Jul 2028
106% of the income goes out in wages at Renaissance
Every club in football pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time somebody has tried it.
Market24 Jul 2028
The name of Mathieu Adoassou keeps appearing in other people's back pages. Renaissance say nothing, which says plenty.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad17 Jul 2028
A knee injury of the worst kind for Youssef Dalouzi
63 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Renaissance lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Market17 Jul 2028
“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.
Transfer targets17 Jul 2028
Renaissance have gone to AS DGSSIE with a bid, and the supporters have gone to the internet with an opinion about it. Whether either changes anything is up to the selling club.
Squad17 Jul 2028
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Ousmane Hissein and Renaissance agree another 3 years.
Squad17 Jul 2028
Words at Renaissance training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Zakaria Ajoughlal 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.
Transfer targets17 Jul 2028
Renaissance asked and CotonTchad said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Squad17 Jul 2028
Jean Embolo 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 dugout17 Jul 2028
Oumar Youssouf has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Renaissance will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
The dugout17 Jul 2028
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Renaissance, and both men came out saying it was fine.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad10 Jul 2028
A knee injury of the worst kind for Youssef Dalouzi
70 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Renaissance lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Market10 Jul 2028
“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.
Market10 Jul 2028
The offer from AS Etat Major for Melvin Hernández 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.
Transfer targets10 Jul 2028
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Aiglons keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Transfer targets10 Jul 2028
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Renaissance have done the hard part with Stars Jeunes Talents, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Transfer targets10 Jul 2028
The offer went to AS Algoy this week and it is theirs to answer. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loud the door closes.
Squad10 Jul 2028
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Renaissance this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Transfer targets10 Jul 2028
Renaissance offered $5.0K; AS DGSSIE said it was not close. The manager will be told the money is still there for the right player, which is what managers are told.
Squad10 Jul 2028
Doueugui Mala 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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad3 Jul 2028
77 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Renaissance lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Transfer targets3 Jul 2028
The clubs have shaken hands with Aiglons; the player has not yet. Personal terms are next, and personal terms are where more deals die than anybody prints.
Market3 Jul 2028
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Renaissance is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad3 Jul 2028
Youssef Dalouzi 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.
Transfer targets3 Jul 2028
Renaissance have gone to AS DGSSIE with a bid, and the supporters have gone to the internet with an opinion about it. Whether either changes anything is up to the selling club.
Squad3 Jul 2028
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Zakaria Ajoughlal was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Market3 Jul 2028
A stepping stone, not a home, for Jean Embolo
He is doing his job and he is not settling. Renaissance were supposed to be a step up in his own reckoning, and his own reckoning has been adjusted since he arrived.
Market3 Jul 2028
Jean Embolo is 18, and Renaissance have signed him for the player he will be rather than the one he is. The first team can wait; the point of a deal like this is the years it buys.
Market3 Jul 2028
He is 18, and nobody at Renaissance signed him for this season. Deals like this are judged in four years, by people who may not still be in the building.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad26 Jun 2028
A knee injury of the worst kind for Youssef Dalouzi
84 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Renaissance lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Market26 Jun 2028
“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 Renaissance, and it is not being withdrawn.
Transfer targets26 Jun 2028
Renaissance have gone to CotonTchad with a bid, and the supporters have gone to the internet with an opinion about it. Whether either changes anything is up to the selling club.
Squad26 Jun 2028
Youssef Dalouzi and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Squad26 Jun 2028
Zakaria Ajoughlal 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 dugout26 Jun 2028
The manager makes an example of Youssef Dalouzi
“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.
Boardroom26 Jun 2028
106% of the income goes out in wages at Renaissance
Every club in football pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time somebody has tried it.
The dugout26 Jun 2028
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Félix Djoubairou trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Market26 Jun 2028
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Renaissance know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad19 Jun 2028
Youssef Dalouzi damages knee ligaments — 91 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 91 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.
Market19 Jun 2028
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Renaissance people have started saying his name in the past tense.
Market19 Jun 2028
“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 Renaissance, and it is not being withdrawn.
Transfer targets19 Jun 2028
Renaissance have gone to Stars Jeunes Talents with a bid, and the supporters have gone to the internet with an opinion about it. Whether either changes anything is up to the selling club.
Transfer targets19 Jun 2028
Renaissance offered $25.0K; CotonTchad said it was not close. The manager will be told the money is still there for the right player, which is what managers are told.
Squad19 Jun 2028
Ousmane Hissein and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Squad19 Jun 2028
Doueugui Mala 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 Jun 2028
Oumar Youssouf has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Renaissance will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
The dugout19 Jun 2028
Youssef Dalouzi asks for a word with the manager
“I would rather say it to his face than read about it.” The meeting was requested by the player, which tells you most of what you need to know.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad12 Jun 2028
A knee injury of the worst kind for Youssef Dalouzi
98 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Renaissance lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Market12 Jun 2028
“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 Renaissance, and it is not being withdrawn.
Transfer targets12 Jun 2028
$25.0K on the table at CotonTchad. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
Squad12 Jun 2028
Mathieu Adoassou and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Transfer targets12 Jun 2028
Renaissance asked and Aiglons said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Squad12 Jun 2028
Zakaria Ajoughlal 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 dugout12 Jun 2028
Nobody at Renaissance will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
The dugout12 Jun 2028
“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.
Market12 Jun 2028
Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Mathieu Adoassou’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad22 May 2028
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Oumar Youssouf and Renaissance agree another 3 years.
Squad22 May 2028
Words at Renaissance training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Zakaria Ajoughlal 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.
Squad22 May 2028
At 36, 4 points below where he was, and a body that has started charging interest. It happens to all of them and it is still the hardest paragraph on this page.
Squad22 May 2028
Hassan Hissein and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
The dugout22 May 2028
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Oumar Youssouf is on it.
The dugout22 May 2028
Oumar Youssouf knocks on the manager’s door
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Oumar Youssouf trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
From our football correspondent
Steady
The dugout15 May 2028
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Renaissance may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Market15 May 2028
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Renaissance is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad15 May 2028
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Renaissance this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad15 May 2028
Zakaria Ajoughlal 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 May 2028
“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.
The dugout15 May 2028
Oumar Youssouf knocks on the manager’s door
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Oumar Youssouf trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
From our football correspondent
Steady
The dugout8 May 2028
This is not rotation. Zakaria Ismaili has not been in the manager's plans for some time, and nobody at Renaissance is pretending otherwise.
Market8 May 2028
“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.
The dugout8 May 2028
“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.
Squad8 May 2028
Zakaria Ajoughlal 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.
Squad8 May 2028
“The easiest signature of my career.” Yaya Kerim and Renaissance agree another 2 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad8 May 2028
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Youssef Dalouzi was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad1 May 2028
Zakaria Ajoughlal and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Squad1 May 2028
Youssef Dalouzi 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.
Boardroom1 May 2028
Wages swallow 110% of the Renaissance income
Every club pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time it has been tried.
Squad1 May 2028
It will be explained as a change for the team and it may even be one. Nobody who has worn one believes that, and neither does the man who has just had it taken away.
The dugout1 May 2028
Youssef Dalouzi asks for a word with the manager
“I would rather say it to his face than read about it.” The meeting was requested by the player, which tells you most of what you need to know.
The dugout1 May 2028
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Melvin Hernández, and the manager let it.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad24 Apr 2028
Mathieu Adoassou 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 Apr 2028
Words at Renaissance training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Zakaria Ajoughlal 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.
Squad24 Apr 2028
Yaya Kerim is not the player he was
It happens to all of them and it is still the hardest paragraph a local paper has to write. 36 years old, 3 points down on where he was, and a body that has started charging interest on a career.
The dugout24 Apr 2028
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Oumar Youssouf is on it.
Market24 Apr 2028
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Youssef Dalouzi signs something — a contract at Renaissance or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Market24 Apr 2028
The list is a quiet document with a loud meaning. Adam Adoum may talk to anybody who asks, and everybody at the club understands what that means.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market17 Apr 2028
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Melvin Hernández will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Renaissance the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad17 Apr 2028
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Youssef Dalouzi was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout17 Apr 2028
“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
Upbeat
Market3 Apr 2028
Adam Adoum 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 Renaissance can pretend not to have heard.
Squad3 Apr 2028
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Nasser El Khayati and Renaissance agree another 2 years.
Squad3 Apr 2028
Words at Renaissance training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Zakaria Ajoughlal 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.
Match1 Apr 2028
The run at home goes on for Renaissance
8 matches unbeaten here. Every visiting manager is asked about it in the week before, which is precisely why it keeps going.
Match1 Apr 2028
AS DGSSIE made Renaissance work for it, but the scoreboard read 1‑0 at the end and the table does not ask how.
Market3 Apr 2028
“There is a gap, and pretending there is not helps nobody.” Neither side has moved, and the calendar is working for exactly one of them.
Boardroom3 Apr 2028
Wages eat 93% of everything Renaissance earn
There is a figure at which a wage bill stops being ambitious and becomes the reason nothing else is possible, and this club has reached it. Nothing is left over for a transfer, a stand or a rainy afternoon.
Player ratings3 Apr 2028
Marked 7.46. Ask anyone leaving the ground what settled it and you will get one name, which is the only award that has ever really counted.
Squad3 Apr 2028
Hassan Hissein and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
From our football correspondent
Steady
The dugout27 Mar 2028
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Renaissance may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Squad27 Mar 2028
A muscle injury and 15 days out for Nasser El Khayati
The most common injury in the game and the most rushed back from. Renaissance will quote 15 days and will be careful with it, because the second one is always worse than the first.
Squad27 Mar 2028
Zakaria Ajoughlal and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad27 Mar 2028
“The easiest signature of my career.” Doueugui Mala and Renaissance agree another 1 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad27 Mar 2028
Doueugui Mala 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 dugout27 Mar 2028
“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.
The dugout27 Mar 2028
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.
The dugout27 Mar 2028
Oumar Youssouf 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 Renaissance, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Looking ahead27 Mar 2028
AS DGSSIE next, and one man in the Renaissance dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match18 Mar 2028
0‑3 to AS PSI, and it was every bit as bad as the number suggests. There are defeats you argue about and defeats you apologise for; this was the second kind.
Market20 Mar 2028
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Renaissance is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad20 Mar 2028
Mathieu Adoassou and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Squad20 Mar 2028
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Zakaria Ajoughlal was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout20 Mar 2028
“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 ratings20 Mar 2028
Marked 7.15 on 9 actions at both ends of the pitch. Midfielders like this get described as unspectacular by people who have never tried to play against one.
Boardroom20 Mar 2028
Nobody left the Renaissance dressing room in a hurry
The door stayed shut a long time after the final whistle. What was said in there is between them; whether it worked is between them and Saturday.
The dugout20 Mar 2028
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 0‑3, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
The dugout20 Mar 2028
No place for Doueugui Mala on the big day
He found out with everybody else, an hour before kick-off, from a sheet of paper on a wall. Nobody at Renaissance pretended it was anything other than a decision about him.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Match11 Mar 2028
Galactik will want this one forgotten quickly: 5‑1, every duel lost, and a long ride home. Renaissance were ruthless in the way good sides are ruthless.
Squad13 Mar 2028
3 goals in one afternoon from one man. The other players were also present, a witness confirmed.
Player ratings13 Mar 2028
At 36 every good afternoon gets called a throwback, and this one was: 8.00, and nobody on the pitch better.
The dugout13 Mar 2028
This is not rotation. Zakaria Ismaili has not been in the manager's plans for some time, and nobody at Renaissance is pretending otherwise.
Match11 Mar 2028
Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 6 goals between Renaissance and Galactik, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.
Squad13 Mar 2028
At 39, 3 points below where he was, and a body that has started charging interest. It happens to all of them and it is still the hardest paragraph on this page.
Player ratings13 Mar 2028
Ninety minutes of Youssef Dalouzi at his very best
Marked 9.16. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Renaissance.
Squad13 Mar 2028
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Zakaria Ajoughlal was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout13 Mar 2028
The view from the dugout
“We controlled it. There were spells I did not like and we will look at them, but the group showed me something.” Moussa Ndoram, on a 5‑1 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad28 Feb 2028
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Zakaria Ajoughlal was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad28 Feb 2028
Yaya Kerim is not the player he was
It happens to all of them and it is still the hardest paragraph a local paper has to write. 36 years old, 3 points down on where he was, and a body that has started charging interest on a career.
Match26 Feb 2028
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Oumar Youssouf. 1‑0 against US Moursal, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
The dugout28 Feb 2028
The manager makes an example of Roger Emga
“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 ratings28 Feb 2028
7.98, and no serious argument from anybody who was there. Renaissance had eleven men on the pitch and one of them decided how it went.
The dugout28 Feb 2028
“The players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 1‑0, Moussa Ndoram could afford to be generous.
The dugout28 Feb 2028
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.
Looking ahead28 Feb 2028
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Stars Jeunes Talents in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
Market28 Feb 2028
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Youssef Dalouzi signs something — a contract at Renaissance or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match12 Feb 2028
Chastening afternoon for Renaissance
A 1‑4 beating by Elect Sport was the sort of result that empties a stadium long before the final whistle.
The dugout14 Feb 2028
This is not rotation. Zakaria Ismaili has not been in the manager's plans for some time, and nobody at Renaissance is pretending otherwise.
Squad14 Feb 2028
Zakaria Ajoughlal 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.
Squad14 Feb 2028
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Amine El Maswab was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout14 Feb 2028
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Amine El Maswab, and the manager let it.
Boardroom14 Feb 2028
Nobody left the Renaissance dressing room in a hurry
The door stayed shut a long time after the final whistle. What was said in there is between them; whether it worked is between them and Saturday.
The dugout14 Feb 2028
“I could talk about decisions and I could talk about luck. I will not. We lost.” The manager, 1‑4, and a press conference that lasted four minutes.
Player ratings14 Feb 2028
Successful dribbles: 14. 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 dugout14 Feb 2028
Oumar Youssouf 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 Renaissance, and both men came out saying it was fine.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Player ratings7 Feb 2028
At 39 every good afternoon gets called a throwback, and this one was: 7.83, and nobody on the pitch better.
The dugout7 Feb 2028
“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.
Boardroom7 Feb 2028
Renaissance close the window on a squad of their own making
1 in and 0 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.
Transfer targets7 Feb 2028
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Gazelle keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Squad7 Feb 2028
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Zakaria Ismaili and Renaissance agree another 1 years.
Squad7 Feb 2028
Youssef Dalouzi and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Squad7 Feb 2028
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Zakaria Ajoughlal was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad7 Feb 2028
No place for Doueugui Mala in the new shape
He is not being dropped. There is simply nowhere in the formation Renaissance are playing to put a man who does what he does, which is a harder thing to be told than any team sheet.
Match5 Feb 2028
It finished 1‑1, and it somehow always looked like it would. One of those afternoons where the table moves less than the tempers.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market10 Jan 2028
“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.
Squad10 Jan 2028
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Zakaria Ajoughlal was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Transfer targets10 Jan 2028
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.
Transfer targets10 Jan 2028
A loan enquiry to CotonTchad: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.
Squad10 Jan 2028
Somebody watched every match in the division at the weekend and decided he was the best thing in any of them. A small honour, and most careers end without one.
The dugout10 Jan 2028
“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.
Market10 Jan 2028
The name of Mathieu Adoassou keeps appearing in other people's back pages. Renaissance say nothing, which says plenty.
The dugout10 Jan 2028
A conversation in the manager’s office, and a commitment that came out of it. Promises like that are cheap to make and expensive to break, and Abdoulaye Oumar has written the date down.
Looking ahead10 Jan 2028
Looking ahead: the trip to AS Algoy
Position 10 for the hosts, a long journey for the away end, and a fixture that will look ordinary on paper right up until it is not.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match1 Jan 2028
Rarely has this fixture seen a display like it: 3‑0 against CotonTchad, and it could have been more.
Player ratings3 Jan 2028
A brace, and Youssef Dalouzi takes the afternoon — 8.56
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Youssef Dalouzi provided it, and the 8.56 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Player ratings3 Jan 2028
At 36 every good afternoon gets called a throwback, and this one was: 8.07, and nobody on the pitch better.
Market3 Jan 2028
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Renaissance can pretend not to have heard.
The dugout3 Jan 2028
“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.
Transfer targets3 Jan 2028
Renaissance asked and CotonTchad said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Squad3 Jan 2028
Youssef Dalouzi 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 dugout3 Jan 2028
The manager’s verdict
“I am not going to get carried away and I will not let them either. It was a good day. There will be harder ones.” Moussa Ndoram kept it short after the 3‑0 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
The dugout3 Jan 2028
Youssef Dalouzi asks for a word with the manager
“I would rather say it to his face than read about it.” The meeting was requested by the player, which tells you most of what you need to know.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
The dugout20 Dec 2027
This is not rotation. Zakaria Ismaili has not been in the manager's plans for some time, and nobody at Renaissance is pretending otherwise.
Squad20 Dec 2027
At 38, 3 points below where he was, and a body that has started charging interest. It happens to all of them and it is still the hardest paragraph on this page.
Squad20 Dec 2027
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Zakaria Ajoughlal was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad20 Dec 2027
Roger Emga 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 Renaissance this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The dugout20 Dec 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Youssef Dalouzi, and the manager let it.
The dugout20 Dec 2027
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Moussa Ndoram was not hiding it after 0‑0, and nobody in the Renaissance dressing room was either.
Player ratings20 Dec 2027
5 attempts, none of them in. He got into the right places all afternoon, which is the hard part, and did the easy part badly — and that is the version of a bad day a manager can live with.
Match18 Dec 2027
The crowd waited for a goal that never came. AS PSI defended in numbers and left with what they came for, and the two sides could be playing still without troubling a scorer.
Looking ahead20 Dec 2027
AS DGSSIE next, and one man in the Renaissance dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad13 Dec 2027
Zakaria Ajoughlal and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Match11 Dec 2027
Galactik left with the points after a 1‑3 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Squad13 Dec 2027
Everybody at Renaissance saw it before anybody said it, which is how this always goes. At 34 the decline is real and measurable — 3 points — and the only question left is how the club handles somebody it owes a great deal to.
The dugout13 Dec 2027
“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 ratings13 Dec 2027
Successful dribbles: 16. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
The dugout13 Dec 2027
The manager’s verdict
“That is on me. I pick the team and I picked wrong.” Managers say that when they mean it and when they need to be seen to, and after 1‑3 Moussa Ndoram left the room before anybody could ask which.
Squad13 Dec 2027
At 14 years old, Hassan Hissein became the latest name off the academy production line to be handed a senior shirt.
The dugout13 Dec 2027
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Ousmane Hissein trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Market13 Dec 2027
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Renaissance know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match6 Dec 2027
Renaissance are in real trouble now
Position 13, 6 points, and a fixture list with fewer games left in it than excuses. The arithmetic is not cruel yet, but it has stopped being kind.
Squad6 Dec 2027
At 38, 3 points below where he was, and a body that has started charging interest. It happens to all of them and it is still the hardest paragraph on this page.
Squad6 Dec 2027
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Roger Emga and Renaissance agree another 3 years.
Squad6 Dec 2027
Words at Renaissance training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Zakaria Ajoughlal 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.
Squad6 Dec 2027
Ousmane Hissein and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Match4 Dec 2027
Stars Jeunes Talents left with the points after a 0‑1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Market6 Dec 2027
“There is a gap, and pretending there is not helps nobody.” Neither side has moved, and the calendar is working for exactly one of them.
The dugout6 Dec 2027
The manager’s verdict
“That is on me. I pick the team and I picked wrong.” Managers say that when they mean it and when they need to be seen to, and after 0‑1 Moussa Ndoram left the room before anybody could ask which.
The dugout6 Dec 2027
Clubs make promises constantly and the page usually only hears about them when they are broken. This one was honoured, and the dressing room noticed that faster than any supporter did.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match27 Nov 2027
The drought breaks for Renaissance
7 without a win is the sort of run that changes how a town talks about its club, and US Moursal were the afternoon it stopped. Nothing is fixed by one result and everything feels different by one.
Squad29 Nov 2027
Mathieu Adoassou and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Player ratings29 Nov 2027
Successful dribbles: 20. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Squad29 Nov 2027
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Zakaria Ajoughlal was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Match27 Nov 2027
It finished 2‑1, and it was Oumar Youssouf’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Renaissance.
Player ratings29 Nov 2027
A performance of 8.08 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
The dugout29 Nov 2027
The view from the dugout
“We controlled it. There were spells I did not like and we will look at them, but the group showed me something.” Moussa Ndoram, on a 2‑1 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
The dugout29 Nov 2027
Oumar Youssouf has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Renaissance will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
The dugout29 Nov 2027
“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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match20 Nov 2027
No end in sight to Renaissance's wait for a win
7 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Renaissance has to find a result from somewhere.
The dugout22 Nov 2027
This is not rotation. Zakaria Ismaili has not been in the manager's plans for some time, and nobody at Renaissance is pretending otherwise.
Squad22 Nov 2027
At 36, 3 points below where he was, and a body that has started charging interest. It happens to all of them and it is still the hardest paragraph on this page.
Player ratings22 Nov 2027
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.09, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Match20 Nov 2027
A 1‑1 draw with Gazelle leaves the dressing room somewhere between relief and regret.
The dugout22 Nov 2027
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Moussa Ndoram was not hiding it after 1‑1, and nobody in the Renaissance dressing room was either.
Market22 Nov 2027
Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Félix Djoubairou’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.
The dugout22 Nov 2027
The shape wanted a different profile against this opponent, which is a real football answer and no comfort at all to the man it is about. He did nothing wrong and he did not play.
Player ratings22 Nov 2027
Successful dribbles: 10. 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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad15 Nov 2027
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Zakaria Ajoughlal was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout15 Nov 2027
The manager makes an example of Youssef Dalouzi
“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
A test against the best for Renaissance
The team at the top of the table next, and the honest measure of where this side actually is. Anybody can beat the club below them; the question is what happens against Gazelle.
Squad15 Nov 2027
A year in and the city has not opened up, the language has not come, and lunch is eaten alone more often than anybody at Renaissance would admit. It shows on Saturdays.
Market15 Nov 2027
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Youssef Dalouzi signs something — a contract at Renaissance or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Market15 Nov 2027
Renaissance have let the market know Ezechiel Ndoram can be had. No price in the advert, but everyone in the trade knows roughly what it says.