Marked for Ebenezer Abban
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market14 Sep 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.
Squad14 Sep 2026
8 saves, and a scoreline the ten men in front of him had no right to. Goalkeepers only get noticed on the bad days; this was one of the other ones.
Squad14 Sep 2026
The match ball belongs to Kwadwo Obeng Junior, whose 3 goals turned a difficult afternoon into a procession.
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
A performance of 9.48 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Ebenezer Abban was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
Both jobs done by Kwesi Pong — 6.75
A midfielder is measured on whether the team functions when he is on the pitch, which is nearly impossible to see and completely obvious in retrospect. 10 actions, 6.75, and a manager who will not be substituting him again in a hurry.
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
Kamaldeen Inusah did the work nobody counts — 6.85
9 combined actions and 6.85. The job he did is the one that shows up as other people looking good, and the only reliable way to notice it is to watch what happens on the afternoons he is missing.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market7 Sep 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 Heart of Lions can pretend not to have heard.
Boardroom7 Sep 2026
Window shuts: 17 in, 1 out at Heart of Lions
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 17 arrived, 1 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
Boardroom7 Sep 2026
1 academy graduates step up at Heart of Lions
Senior shirt numbers handed to boys the coaches have known since they were twelve. Most will not make it and all of them have already done the hard part.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Words at Heart of Lions training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ebenezer Abban 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.
Market7 Sep 2026
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Kamaldeen Schlupp has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.
Boardroom7 Sep 2026
Heart of Lions say no to the training-ground money
The plan went upstairs and came back down. Nothing about that will make a headline anywhere else, and everybody who works at the training ground will remember it for years.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Nathan Opoku moves up the pecking order
Nothing is announced when this happens and everybody knows. He is a bigger part of the plan at Heart of Lions than he was a month ago, and the training ground worked that out before the team sheet said so.
Market7 Sep 2026
The window shut and Ebenezer Abban is still in the building
Heart of Lions spent a month trying to move him and nobody rang back. He trains with a squad that has told him where he stands, and both sides start counting down to the next one.
Looking ahead7 Sep 2026
A side in position 10 visits next. The result will not make anybody’s season and it could quietly break the shape of one, which is why the manager has been watching the video since Sunday.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market31 Aug 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 Heart of Lions can pretend not to have heard.
Squad31 Aug 2026
Ishmael Addo is a better footballer than he was
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 19 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
Squad31 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 Heart of Lions this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market24 Aug 2026
The offer from Ashanti Gold for Ishmael Addo 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.
Transfer targets24 Aug 2026
Heart of Lions offered $32.0K; Liberty Professionals said it was not close. The manager will be told the money is still there for the right player, which is what managers are told.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Ebenezer Abban was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Ishmael Addo 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
Hearts of Oak 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.
Squad24 Aug 2026
“The easiest signature of my career.” Afriyie Annan and Heart of Lions agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market17 Aug 2026
The bid was some way short and Heart of Lions did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Boardroom17 Aug 2026
The number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $34.1K — a club that wants Etebo Onuachu enough to be asked twice.
Transfer targets17 Aug 2026
The offer went to Liberty Professionals this week and it is theirs to answer. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loud the door closes.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Lawrence Osei 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
No deal for Andre Djiku at that price
Heart of Lions offered $7.0K; Wa All Stars said it was not close. The manager will be told the money is still there for the right player, which is what managers are told.
Transfer targets17 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.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Ebenezer Abban 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.
Market17 Aug 2026
The Ishmael Addo story refuses to die
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Ishmael Addo signs something — a contract at Heart of Lions or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad3 Aug 2026
“The easiest signature of my career.” Ebenezer Abban and Heart of Lions agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
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 Heart of Lions this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Words at Heart of Lions training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ebenezer Abban 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.
Market3 Aug 2026
The name of Paul Agyei has come up in conversations Heart of Lions were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
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 Heart of Lions, another week without a signature from Lawrence Osei.
Transfer targets3 Aug 2026
A loan enquiry to Leicester City: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.