Marked for Frédérick Ntsama
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Player ratings5 Oct 2026
Two goals and a mark of 8.99 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Match3 Oct 2026
Ninety minutes of very little, and then everything at once. The winner arrived in the 89th, and Gazelle Garoua spent what remained of the match appealing to the referee rather than chasing the ball.
Match3 Oct 2026
Nobody wants to play Panthere du Nde right now
4 wins in a row changes how opponents warm up: quieter, more glances across. Runs end, everybody knows that — but nobody in this dressing room is planning for it.
Match3 Oct 2026
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: David Ogbe Apeh. 3‑2 against Gazelle Garoua, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Squad5 Oct 2026
François Fegue Omgba 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 ratings5 Oct 2026
Warren Fozing was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.05. 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.
Squad5 Oct 2026
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Frédérick Ntsama and Panthere du Nde agree another 3 years.
Squad5 Oct 2026
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Panthere du Nde this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Marc Onguene lets one through his hands
A defender's mistake gets tidied up by somebody else; a goalkeeper's ends up in the net. He knew before the ball crossed the line, and so did everybody in the ground.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Player ratings28 Sep 2026
Marc Yapéndé pops up at the right end — 7.65
7.65, 1 on the scoresheet, and the specific comedy of a back-four player celebrating like somebody who does this every week. He does not, and that is exactly why the ground reacted the way it did.
Match26 Sep 2026
Momentum is a hard thing to buy and an easy thing to lose, and right now Panthere du Nde have 3 straight wins of it.
Squad28 Sep 2026
François Fegue Omgba 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 dugout28 Sep 2026
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Clinton Moukandjo on a 1‑0 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
The dugout28 Sep 2026
The manager has not finished forgetting Georges Mbarga Atedzoe's mistake
Publicly it is behind everybody. It is not behind the man who picks the team, and the only place that shows is a team sheet. He will get another chance; he will get it in a match that matters less.
Player ratings28 Sep 2026
5.18 on the card. Some afternoons a footballer looks like a man who has only just been introduced to the game, and this was one of them.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Marc Yapéndé finally opens his account
He wheeled away like a man who had been carrying it for months, because he had. Panthere du Nde have their signing off the mark and one press-conference question retired.
The dugout28 Sep 2026
No place in the plan for Herman Talla
The manager wanted a different profile for this opponent, which is a real football reason and no consolation. He did nothing wrong and he did not play.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Transfer targets14 Sep 2026
Panthere du Nde asked and Fortuna Mfou 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 Sep 2026
François Fegue Omgba 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 terraces14 Sep 2026
At 23 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.
Transfer targets14 Sep 2026
A deal that was a phone call from completion at lunchtime was dead by midnight. Panthere du Nde will try again when the window opens; Cotonsport Garoua may not be selling by then.
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
Marked 8.30 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.07, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Marc Yapéndé 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
Market7 Sep 2026
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Panthere du Nde people have started saying his name in the past tense.
Transfer targets7 Sep 2026
The clubs have shaken hands with Cotonsport Garoua; the player has not yet. Personal terms are next, and personal terms are where more deals die than anybody prints.
Boardroom7 Sep 2026
Deadline passes with 12 signed and 1 gone
That is the business done at Panthere du Nde 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.
Squad7 Sep 2026
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Panthere du Nde this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Transfer targets7 Sep 2026
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.
Squad7 Sep 2026
29 days, the scan says, and scans are kinder than reality. The fixtures in that window have just become somebody else’s job.
Boardroom7 Sep 2026
No investment in the facilities at Panthere du Nde
Nothing about this will be in a press release. A plan went upstairs, came back rejected, and the version of the club that would have existed in three years' time just quietly stopped being possible.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Emmanuel Ibekwe falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Market7 Sep 2026
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Panthere du Nde, another week without a signature from Marc Yapéndé.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market31 Aug 2026
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Aigle Royal de Moungo waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Panthere du Nde is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Market31 Aug 2026
“I listened, I thought about it, and I am staying. That is the whole story.” The clubs had agreed a fee. Frédérick Ntsama had not agreed to go, which turned out to be the part that mattered.
Market31 Aug 2026
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Market31 Aug 2026
The offer from Etoiles du Mande for Ryan Pharel Kouam 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.
Squad31 Aug 2026
François Fegue Omgba 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 Aug 2026
Panthere du Nde asked and Cotonsport Garoua said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market24 Aug 2026
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Panthere du Nde, and it is not being withdrawn.
Transfer targets24 Aug 2026
Panthere du Nde asked and PWD Bamenda said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and François Fegue Omgba was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market17 Aug 2026
The bid was some way short and Panthere du Nde did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Squad17 Aug 2026
François Fegue Omgba and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Transfer targets17 Aug 2026
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Canon Yaounde have kept their man, and Panthere du Nde go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Transfer targets17 Aug 2026
Cotonsport Garoua 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.
Transfer targets17 Aug 2026
PWD Bamenda 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
Steady
Market3 Aug 2026
The offer from Aigle Royal de Moungo for Frédérick Ntsama 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.
Squad3 Aug 2026
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” François Fegue Omgba and Panthere du Nde agree another 4 years.
Squad3 Aug 2026
François Fegue Omgba 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.
Squad3 Aug 2026
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Panthere du Nde this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Market3 Aug 2026
49 months left and silence from upstairs — no offer, no talks, nothing for his people to answer. Clubs that let a calendar do their negotiating usually end up negotiating with the calendar.
Market3 Aug 2026
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Panthere du Nde has been clear about where Frédérick Ntsama stands, which is more than many ever get.