Marked for Gilbert Neossi
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad16 Nov 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 PWD Bamenda this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad16 Nov 2026
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Gilbert Neossi was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout16 Nov 2026
Nobody at PWD Bamenda 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 dugout16 Nov 2026
Stanley Amon 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 PWD Bamenda, and both men came out saying it was fine.
The dugout16 Nov 2026
The manager makes Odrick Bisah a promise
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at PWD Bamenda. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
Market16 Nov 2026
The Alvin Binsto story refuses to die
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Alvin Binsto signs something — a contract at PWD Bamenda or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad26 Oct 2026
A knee injury of the worst kind for Fabrice Kameni
18 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. PWD Bamenda lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Market26 Oct 2026
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at PWD Bamenda is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad26 Oct 2026
Vini Lontsi 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.
Match24 Oct 2026
Every run ends on an afternoon somebody had marked down as routine. This one went 6 matches, which is long enough that a town had stopped counting, and short enough that it will remember exactly who stopped it.
Match24 Oct 2026
0‑1 to Cotonsport Garoua, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
The dugout26 Oct 2026
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 0‑1 defeat, delivered by Fabrice Siani to a room that had heard them before.
Squad26 Oct 2026
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Gilbert Neossi was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad26 Oct 2026
Player of the week, judged against every other man in the division. A small award, and one most careers never collect.
The dugout26 Oct 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Kadad Ning Che, and the manager let it.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Squad5 Oct 2026
A knee injury of the worst kind for Fabrice Kameni
40 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. PWD Bamenda lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Player ratings5 Oct 2026
Successful dribbles: 30. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Player ratings5 Oct 2026
No sign of nerves from Stanley Amon at 20 — 7.61
The hardest thing about being 20 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Stanley Amon did not need any: 7.61, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Match3 Oct 2026
Nobody wants to play PWD Bamenda 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.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Robert Ndip Tambe 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.
Squad5 Oct 2026
At 21 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.
Squad5 Oct 2026
PWD Bamenda are still strangers to each other
9 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.
Player ratings5 Oct 2026
Some games turn on a moment; this one turned on a man. 7.64 on the card, and the PWD Bamenda support went home talking about one name.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Match12 Sep 2026
5‑1, and the margin flattered nobody — it could have carried another goal or two without complaint. Afternoons like this are why people keep coming.
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 8.95, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
What a way to start for Serge Daura — 7.29
0 on the scoresheet on his first appearance and a mark of 7.29 beside it. Most debuts are got through; this one was enjoyed, by him and by everybody watching it.
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
A defender on the scoresheet, which happens rarely enough that everybody in the ground remembers who took the corner. 1 for him, and a mark of 7.85 for the rest of it.
Squad14 Sep 2026
At 21 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.
Match12 Sep 2026
6 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about PWD Bamenda and Fauve Azur Elite in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
The terraces14 Sep 2026
He is 23 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.
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.05, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Stanley Amon 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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Transfer targets24 Aug 2026
Everything agreed with Real Bamako, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
Transfer targets24 Aug 2026
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Real Bamako is saying, and nobody at PWD Bamenda is enjoying the guessing.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Serge Daura 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 targets24 Aug 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.
Market24 Aug 2026
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at PWD Bamenda, another week without a signature from Vini Lontsi.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Gilbert Neossi 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
Steady
Squad3 Aug 2026
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Junior Nguimbat commits to PWD Bamenda for another 3 years.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Robert Ndip Tambe 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 Aug 2026
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Colombe du Dja et Lobo have kept their man, and PWD Bamenda go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad3 Aug 2026
He is doing things on a Saturday afternoon that nobody around him can answer, which is flattering for about one season and a problem after that. PWD Bamenda will not keep him by pretending otherwise.
Transfer targets3 Aug 2026
Stade Malien 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 targets3 Aug 2026
A loan enquiry to Bayelsa United: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.
Market3 Aug 2026
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at PWD Bamenda, another week without a signature from Serge Bengono.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Gilbert Neossi 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.