Marked for Maurice Beboum
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad15 May 2028
Maurice Beboum damages knee ligaments — 21 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 21 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.
Squad15 May 2028
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 46 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
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 Aigle Royal de la Menoua this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
In brief
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Squad
Ulrich Lobé falls out with a teammate over standards
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad8 May 2028
A knee injury of the worst kind for Maurice Beboum
29 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Aigle Royal de la Menoua lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Squad8 May 2028
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 53 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Boardroom8 May 2028
The board have said in public what they had been saying in private. Results between now and the next meeting decide it, and everybody in the building knows the arithmetic.
Squad8 May 2028
Ulrich Lobé 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
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jadelson Azul 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.
Boardroom8 May 2028
What was available in the summer has quietly gone. Upstairs nobody will call it a change of ambition; downstairs nobody will call it anything else.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
The terraces1 May 2028
It has stopped being a mood in the stands and started being something organised. Boards can ignore a bad atmosphere for a long time; they cannot ignore this stage of it for very long at all.
Squad1 May 2028
A knee injury of the worst kind for Maurice Beboum
36 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Aigle Royal de la Menoua lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Squad1 May 2028
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 60 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad24 Apr 2028
A knee injury of the worst kind for Maurice Beboum
43 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Aigle Royal de la Menoua lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Squad24 Apr 2028
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 67 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Squad24 Apr 2028
Jadelson Azul 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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad17 Apr 2028
A knee injury of the worst kind for Maurice Beboum
50 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Aigle Royal de la Menoua lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Squad17 Apr 2028
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 74 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Squad17 Apr 2028
Ulrich Lobé 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 Aigle Royal de la Menoua this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad10 Apr 2028
A knee injury of the worst kind for Maurice Beboum
57 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Aigle Royal de la Menoua lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Squad10 Apr 2028
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 81 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Squad10 Apr 2028
Ulrich Lobé 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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
The terraces3 Apr 2028
It has stopped being a mood in the stands and started being something organised. Boards can ignore a bad atmosphere for a long time; they cannot ignore this stage of it for very long at all.
Squad3 Apr 2028
A knee injury of the worst kind for Maurice Beboum
64 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Aigle Royal de la Menoua lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Squad3 Apr 2028
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 88 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Boardroom3 Apr 2028
Nobody upstairs has said anything, which is the loudest thing they could do. Results buy silence in this game; the account at Aigle Royal de la Menoua is running low.
Boardroom3 Apr 2028
The board’s statement ran to three sentences and one of them mentioned results. Pierre Hongla has managed long enough to translate: win soon, or the next statement is shorter.
Match29 Mar 2028
0‑4 against Cotonsport Garoua, and the road stops here. Cup exits are quick deaths — no second leg, no next week, just the league from now until May.
The terraces3 Apr 2028
It finished 0-4. A cup exit is a disappointment; this was a public dismantling, and the difference between the two is the number of people who will still be talking about it in August.
Match29 Mar 2028
The run now stands at 6, and the questions being asked around Aigle Royal de la Menoua are no longer polite ones.
Match29 Mar 2028
5 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Aigle Royal de la Menoua can tell you which week it ends in.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad27 Mar 2028
Maurice Beboum damages knee ligaments — 72 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 72 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.
Squad27 Mar 2028
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 95 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Squad27 Mar 2028
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Aigle Royal de la Menoua may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad20 Mar 2028
Maurice Beboum damages knee ligaments — 79 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 79 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.
Squad20 Mar 2028
Ulrich Lobé breaks a bone — 42 days out
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 42 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Market20 Mar 2028
Guti Hilarion 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 Aigle Royal de la Menoua can pretend not to have heard.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad13 Mar 2028
A knee injury of the worst kind for Maurice Beboum
87 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Aigle Royal de la Menoua lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Squad13 Mar 2028
Ulrich Lobé 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 Mar 2028
Samuel Ngom Echabe 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
Crisis
Squad6 Mar 2028
A knee injury of the worst kind for Maurice Beboum
94 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Aigle Royal de la Menoua lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
The terraces6 Mar 2028
It has stopped being a mood in the stands and started being something organised. Boards can ignore a bad atmosphere for a long time; they cannot ignore this stage of it for very long at all.
Boardroom6 Mar 2028
The board’s statement ran to three sentences and one of them mentioned results. Pierre Hongla has managed long enough to translate: win soon, or the next statement is shorter.
Boardroom6 Mar 2028
Nobody upstairs has said anything, which is the loudest thing they could do. Results buy silence in this game; the account at Aigle Royal de la Menoua is running low.
Squad6 Mar 2028
“The easiest signature of my career.” Ulrich Lobé and Aigle Royal de la Menoua agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad6 Mar 2028
Cecil Meyeke 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 Aigle Royal de la Menoua this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad28 Feb 2028
A knee injury of the worst kind for Maurice Beboum
101 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Aigle Royal de la Menoua lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Match26 Feb 2028
5 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Aigle Royal de la Menoua has to find a result from somewhere.
Squad28 Feb 2028
Éric Mefoe: that is not what I was promised
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Aigle Royal de la Menoua have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Player ratings28 Feb 2028
Successful dribbles: 23. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Match26 Feb 2028
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.
Squad28 Feb 2028
Cecil Meyeke 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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad21 Feb 2028
Maurice Beboum damages knee ligaments — 109 days out
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.
Market21 Feb 2028
Guti Hilarion 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 Aigle Royal de la Menoua can pretend not to have heard.
Squad21 Feb 2028
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Aigle Royal de la Menoua may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Match19 Feb 2028
4 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Aigle Royal de la Menoua has to find a result from somewhere.
Squad21 Feb 2028
Ulrich Lobé 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 Aigle Royal de la Menoua this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match19 Feb 2028
3 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Aigle Royal de la Menoua can tell you which week it ends in.
Market21 Feb 2028
At 34, he has seen every situation this season can produce, twice. The legs will be managed; the head is the purchase.
Match19 Feb 2028
The crowd waited for a goal that never came. Aigle Royal de Moungo defended in numbers and left with what they came for, and the two sides could be playing still without troubling a scorer.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad14 Feb 2028
Maurice Beboum damages knee ligaments — 116 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 116 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.
Market14 Feb 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 Aigle Royal de la Menoua can pretend not to have heard.
Squad14 Feb 2028
Cecil Meyeke 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
Ali Ezzat pulls a muscle — 14 days out
The injury that keeps coming back, keeps being rushed back from, and quietly costs more careers than the dramatic ones. 14 days is the estimate; the honest figure depends on whether anybody is patient.
Squad14 Feb 2028
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ulrich Lobé 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.
Match12 Feb 2028
Gazelle Garoua left with the points after a 0‑1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad3 Jan 2028
Ismaël Fansu decides it from twelve yards
3 kept out in the shoot-out, and a stadium that will still be describing them in twenty years. A goalkeeper only needs one of these to be remembered forever.
Match29 Dec 2027
A 1‑1 win over PWD Bamenda, and the draw for the next round can be watched with some interest for once.
Match3 Jan 2028
Position 13, 20 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.
Squad3 Jan 2028
There are footballers who have a good season and footballers a season is remembered for, and the second kind get their names read out in a hall in the summer. Aigle Royal de la Menoua will be quietly delighted and privately nervous.
Match1 Jan 2028
4 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
Player ratings3 Jan 2028
Successful dribbles: 20. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad3 Jan 2028
Ulrich Lobé 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 Jan 2028
Maurice Beboum 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.
Player ratings3 Jan 2028
The kick that got away from Rodrigue Ele
Twelve yards, a goalkeeper guessing, and it still did not go in. He will take the next one, and every soul in the ground will hold their breath.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad27 Dec 2027
“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.
Squad27 Dec 2027
Cecil Meyeke 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.
Squad27 Dec 2027
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ulrich Lobé 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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
The terraces13 Dec 2027
Supporters who sing when it goes badly are supporters. Supporters who gather afterwards are a problem, and everybody inside the building knows which of the two this now is.
Market13 Dec 2027
Ismaël Fansu 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 Aigle Royal de la Menoua can pretend not to have heard.
Squad13 Dec 2027
Ismaël Fansu 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.
Player ratings13 Dec 2027
22 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.
Squad13 Dec 2027
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ulrich Lobé 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 Dec 2027
A 1‑0 win over Victoria United, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match27 Nov 2027
The run now stands at 5, and the questions being asked around Aigle Royal de la Menoua are no longer polite ones.
Squad29 Nov 2027
Ulrich Lobé 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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
The terraces15 Nov 2027
Supporters who sing when it goes badly are supporters. Supporters who gather afterwards are a problem, and everybody inside the building knows which of the two this now is.
Market15 Nov 2027
Ismaël Fansu 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 Aigle Royal de la Menoua can pretend not to have heard.
Squad15 Nov 2027
“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.
Squad15 Nov 2027
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ulrich Lobé 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.
Match13 Nov 2027
1‑2 to Gazelle Garoua, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Squad15 Nov 2027
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Aigle Royal de la Menoua this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad4 Oct 2027
Ismaël Fansu 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 Oct 2027
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ulrich Lobé 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.
Player ratings4 Oct 2027
Ulrich Lobé was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.37. 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.
Player ratings4 Oct 2027
Marked 8.22 — 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.
Squad4 Oct 2027
No hiding place for Ali Ezzat
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Ali Ezzat, and the manager let it.
Squad4 Oct 2027
A promise honoured for Ahmed Awad
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Aigle Royal de la Menoua told Ahmed Awad something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
Player ratings4 Oct 2027
Successful dribbles: 10. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market9 Aug 2027
The offer from Colombe du Dja et Lobo for Ismaël Fansu 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.
Market9 Aug 2027
“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 Aigle Royal de la Menoua, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad9 Aug 2027
“The easiest signature of my career.” Ali Ezzat and Aigle Royal de la Menoua agree another 2 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad9 Aug 2027
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ulrich Lobé 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.
Squad9 Aug 2027
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Aigle Royal de la Menoua this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad9 Aug 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Blaise Fuh Ndiforchu, and the manager let it.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market19 Jul 2027
The bid was some way short and Aigle Royal de la Menoua did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Squad19 Jul 2027
Ismaël Fansu 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 Aigle Royal de la Menoua this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad19 Jul 2027
Ulrich Lobé 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
Crisis
Market12 Jul 2027
Everything was agreed until it was not, and Ismaël Fansu reports back to Aigle Royal de la Menoua with a summer to forget. Neither club is saying who walked away from the table.
Squad12 Jul 2027
Ismaël Fansu 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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match13 Feb 2027
8 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Aigle Royal de la Menoua has to find a result from somewhere.
Squad15 Feb 2027
Jadelson Azul 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.
Match13 Feb 2027
0‑1 to Gazelle Garoua, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad10 Aug 2026
Ulrich Lobé 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.
Market10 Aug 2026
A conversation is coming this week. Aigle Royal de la Menoua will put a number on him, and from there it stops being football and becomes arithmetic.
Market10 Aug 2026
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Aigle Royal de la Menoua, another week without a signature from Cecil Meyeke.
Market10 Aug 2026
48 months to run and not a word offered. A club that lets the calendar negotiate for it usually ends up losing to the calendar.