Marked for Ali Issa Blagué
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad1 Mar 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 AS PSI this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The terraces1 Mar 2027
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Brahim Goudja has it now, and everything he does for the rest of his time here will be measured against the goodwill he was handed for free.
Player ratings1 Mar 2027
Successful dribbles: 19. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Match27 Feb 2027
It finished 1‑0, and it was Brahim Goudja’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to AS PSI.
Player ratings1 Mar 2027
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.42, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Squad1 Mar 2027
Words at AS PSI training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Fabrice Djimhoué 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.
Squad1 Mar 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Joël Djingar, and the manager let it.
Squad1 Mar 2027
Warm-up bib, ninety minutes of watching, and a handshake at the end that fooled nobody. Big matches tell you who a manager trusts; this one told Jasurbek Mahmudjonov.
Market1 Mar 2027
The name of Félix Noubara keeps appearing in other people's back pages. AS PSI say nothing, which says plenty.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad15 Feb 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 AS PSI this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match13 Feb 2027
Three points for AS PSI, 2‑1 the final word against Galactik in a contest settled by the finer margins.
Player ratings15 Feb 2027
Successful dribbles: 19. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Player ratings15 Feb 2027
A performance of 8.35 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Squad15 Feb 2027
14 days, the medical staff say, and medical staff are optimists by profession. The team sheet will look wrong without him.
Squad15 Feb 2027
Words at AS PSI training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Dia Syayid 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.
Squad15 Feb 2027
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Artur Sibagatulin commits to AS PSI for another 3 years.
Market15 Feb 2027
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. AS PSI know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Market15 Feb 2027
Still no offer on the table, and Anushil Prasad’s deal keeps shrinking. In boardroom language, silence this long stops being an oversight and starts being an answer.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad11 Jan 2027
A knee injury of the worst kind for Ezechiel Mahamat
21 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. AS PSI lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Squad11 Jan 2027
Joël Djingar breaks a bone — 26 days out
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 26 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Market11 Jan 2027
Renaissance come back empty-handed
The bid was some way short and AS PSI did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Player ratings11 Jan 2027
Successful dribbles: 26. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad11 Jan 2027
Tempers go at AS PSI
Nassar Koulelengar 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 Jan 2027
The medical room confirms 19 days on the sidelines for Bark Abdramane, and a plan built around him now has to be rebuilt.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad4 Jan 2027
A knee injury of the worst kind for Ezechiel Mahamat
28 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. AS PSI lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Squad4 Jan 2027
Joël Djingar breaks a bone — 33 days out
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 33 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Market4 Jan 2027
US Bougouba come back empty-handed
The bid was some way short and AS PSI did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Player ratings4 Jan 2027
Successful dribbles: 30. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad4 Jan 2027
An individual honour is a strange thing in a team game, and the best of them are never argued with. He has had the sort of year that ends with his name being read out, and AS PSI have had the benefit of it.
Squad4 Jan 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 AS PSI this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match2 Jan 2027
Beaten 1‑2, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Player ratings4 Jan 2027
Brahim Goudja was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.26. 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.
Market4 Jan 2027
The Joël Djingar story refuses to die
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Joël Djingar signs something — a contract at AS PSI or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Player ratings21 Dec 2026
Successful dribbles: 46. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad21 Dec 2026
A knee injury of the worst kind for Ezechiel Mahamat
42 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. AS PSI lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Squad21 Dec 2026
Joël Djingar breaks a bone — 47 days out
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 47 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Match19 Dec 2026
Whatever happens, AS PSI do not lose
8 games unbeaten now. Some were earned and some were survived, but a habit is forming — and habits are the hardest thing in football to play against.
Squad21 Dec 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 AS PSI this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The terraces21 Dec 2026
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Brahim Goudja has it now, and everything he does for the rest of his time here will be measured against the goodwill he was handed for free.
Squad21 Dec 2026
Ezechiel Mahamat has improved at 26, which nobody expected
Careers are supposed to plateau and then decline, and the players who ignore that are always the ones who were listening on the training ground. 3 points of it, over months, at an age where the direction normally only goes one way.
Match19 Dec 2026
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Brahim Goudja. 1‑0 against AS Algoy, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Player ratings21 Dec 2026
A performance of 8.29 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad9 Nov 2026
A knee injury of the worst kind for Ezechiel Mahamat
84 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. AS PSI lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Squad9 Nov 2026
Joël Djingar breaks a bone — 89 days out
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 89 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Match4 Nov 2026
Cup progress for AS PSI
A 1‑0 win over AS Etat Major, a place in the next round, and the quiet arithmetic every supporter does on the walk home: how many more until a final?
Match4 Nov 2026
Ninety minutes of very little, and then everything at once. The winner arrived in the 89th, and AS Etat Major spent what remained of the match appealing to the referee rather than chasing the ball.
Squad9 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 AS PSI this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Player ratings9 Nov 2026
Successful dribbles: 21. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
The terraces9 Nov 2026
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Brahim Goudja has it now, and everything he does for the rest of his time here will be measured against the goodwill he was handed for free.
Match7 Nov 2026
A 1‑0 win over Stars Jeunes Talents, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Player ratings9 Nov 2026
Ninety minutes of Joël Djingar at his very best
Marked 8.25. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at AS PSI.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Market5 Oct 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 AS PSI, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Gabkala Daba is 22, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Player ratings5 Oct 2026
Successful dribbles: 24. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad5 Oct 2026
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Dia Syayid commits to AS PSI for another 3 years.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Tempers go at AS PSI
Brahim Goudja 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.
Boardroom5 Oct 2026
Graduation day at AS PSI
1 boys move up, and somewhere in the building the people who coached them at twelve are quietly having the best morning of their working year. Nothing about this shows up in a result and it is why the academy exists.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Ali Issa Blagué has improved at 24, which nobody expected
Careers are supposed to plateau and then decline, and the players who ignore that are always the ones who were listening on the training ground. 3 points of it, over months, at an age where the direction normally only goes one way.
The terraces5 Oct 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.
Market5 Oct 2026
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Ali Hissein 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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market7 Sep 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 AS PSI, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Bark Abdramane 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 Bark Abdramane trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Market7 Sep 2026
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Bark Abdramane signs something — a contract at AS PSI or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market31 Aug 2026
Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Nassar Koulelengar’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.
Market31 Aug 2026
The minutes were not coming at AS PSI, so they will be looked for at AS Bakaridjan. A loan out is not a goodbye, but it is always a question: about the player, or about the plan.
Squad31 Aug 2026
Public backing, and the sort that costs a manager something if it turns out to be wrong. Bark Abdramane has been told in front of everybody that the shirt is his.