Marked for Junior Leboum Meli
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market7 Dec 2026
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Gazelle Garoua can pretend not to have heard.
The dugout7 Dec 2026
Wanre Daikreo: 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.” Gazelle Garoua have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
The dugout7 Dec 2026
This is not rotation. Francky Manga has not been in the manager's plans for some time, and nobody at Gazelle Garoua is pretending otherwise.
Squad7 Dec 2026
Dave Tessa 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 Dec 2026
Marcel Djialeu 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.
Squad7 Dec 2026
“The easiest signature of my career.” Saidou Nouhou and Gazelle Garoua agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
The dugout7 Dec 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 1‑3 defeat, delivered by Michel Moukandjo to a room that had heard them before.
Squad7 Dec 2026
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.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad9 Nov 2026
Maël Monyebe 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 Gazelle Garoua this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Player ratings9 Nov 2026
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.
The dugout9 Nov 2026
The manager makes an example of Colbert Binni
“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.
Squad9 Nov 2026
Sony Farell Evina 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 dugout9 Nov 2026
“The players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 1‑0, Michel Moukandjo could afford to be generous.
Squad9 Nov 2026
The first one is the one every signing is asked about until it arrives. It has arrived, and he can stop being asked.
Player ratings9 Nov 2026
Shots: 11, not one of them in. A centre forward is paid for one thing, and on this evidence he has forgotten which thing it is.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad5 Oct 2026
A knee injury of the worst kind for Jean Moukoudi
49 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Gazelle Garoua lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Market5 Oct 2026
Francky Manga 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 Gazelle Garoua can pretend not to have heard.
Player ratings5 Oct 2026
Successful dribbles: 26. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Squad5 Oct 2026
At 20 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
Marcel Djialeu and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
The terraces5 Oct 2026
The crowd has taken to Dave Tessa
At 22 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Colbert Binni 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 dugout5 Oct 2026
“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 ratings5 Oct 2026
Nobody on the pitch touched Dave Tessa
7.10, and no serious argument from anybody who was there. Gazelle Garoua had eleven men on the pitch and one of them decided how it went.