Marked for Junior Mpanza
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad15 May 2028
Thuto Sesipi 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.
Squad15 May 2028
Words at FC Diarra training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Serigne Sow 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 May 2028
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Junior Mpanza, and the manager let it.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad7 Feb 2028
Sfundo Nzama 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.
Squad7 Feb 2028
Words at FC Diarra training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Thuto Sesipi 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.
The terraces7 Feb 2028
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 17-year-old it feels ownership of. Sekou Sissoko 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 ratings7 Feb 2028
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.78, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Player ratings7 Feb 2028
A performance of 8.75 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Squad7 Feb 2028
Sfundo Nzama gets it from the manager
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
Squad7 Feb 2028
11 shut-outs and counting. Goalkeepers are only noticed when they fail, and Mamadou Diakité has given nobody the chance.
Market7 Feb 2028
Still no offer on the table, and Bradley Manyama’s deal keeps shrinking. In boardroom language, silence this long stops being an oversight and starts being an answer.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market26 Jul 2027
“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.
Squad26 Jul 2027
Yafeesi Mubiru 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.
Squad26 Jul 2027
Words at FC Diarra training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Youssou Coulibaly 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
Steady
Market31 May 2027
“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.
Squad31 May 2027
Yafeesi Mubiru 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.
Squad31 May 2027
Words at FC Diarra training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Sandile Ndlovu 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
Steady
Squad26 Apr 2027
Sergio Sardinha damages knee ligaments — 28 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 28 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.
Market26 Apr 2027
Junior Mpanza 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 FC Diarra can pretend not to have heard.
Squad26 Apr 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 FC Diarra this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad12 Apr 2027
A knee injury of the worst kind for Sergio Sardinha
42 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. FC Diarra lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Market12 Apr 2027
“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.
Squad12 Apr 2027
Yafeesi Mubiru 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
Market29 Mar 2027
“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.
Squad29 Mar 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.
Player ratings29 Mar 2027
Aboubacar Sidibé, 21, plays like he has been here for years — 7.66
A mark of 7.66 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 21-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
Match27 Mar 2027
The wait goes on for FC Diarra
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.
Squad29 Mar 2027
Yafeesi Mubiru 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.
Squad29 Mar 2027
Words at FC Diarra training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Sandile Ndlovu 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.
Match27 Mar 2027
Beaten 1‑2, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Squad29 Mar 2027
Abbati Musa gets it from the manager
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
Player ratings29 Mar 2027
Successful dribbles: 17. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad22 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 FC Diarra this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad22 Mar 2027
Youssou Coulibaly 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.
Squad22 Mar 2027
“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 ratings22 Mar 2027
Successful dribbles: 15. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad22 Mar 2027
Mpho Moletsane dropped after a run of poor form
The one version of being left out a player cannot argue with, and the one he takes worst. Somebody else has been better and the team sheet says so, in public, every week until it changes.
Match20 Mar 2027
It needed Junior Mpanza to find the net to bring anything home at all: 1‑1 against AS Bakaridjan, and half the dressing room will call it a point won.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market8 Mar 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 FC Diarra, and it is not being withdrawn.
The terraces8 Mar 2027
The ground has had enough
“We travel everywhere and we get this.” 6 of the 22 senior players heard it walking off, and the ones who did not hear it were not playing.
Squad8 Mar 2027
Sandile Ndlovu 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.
Match6 Mar 2027
1‑2 to Etoiles du Mande, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Squad8 Mar 2027
Thuto Sesipi 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 Mar 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Youssou Coulibaly, and the manager let it.
Squad8 Mar 2027
“Some mornings you wake up and you are still a long way from everything you know.” It is not the football and it never was; FC Diarra are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Player ratings8 Mar 2027
Successful dribbles: 16. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Player ratings8 Mar 2027
5.31 on the card. Some afternoons a footballer looks like a man who has only just been introduced to the game, and this was one of them.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market1 Mar 2027
“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.
Match27 Feb 2027
FC Diarra make it 3 in a row
Momentum is a hard thing to buy and an easy thing to lose, and right now FC Diarra have 3 straight wins of it.
Squad1 Mar 2027
Yafeesi Mubiru 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.
Squad1 Mar 2027
Words at FC Diarra training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Youssou Coulibaly 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
“Some mornings you wake up and you are still a long way from everything you know.” It is not the football and it never was; FC Diarra are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Match27 Feb 2027
It finished 2‑1, and it was Junior Mpanza’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to FC Diarra.
The terraces1 Mar 2027
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.
Squad1 Mar 2027
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
Player ratings1 Mar 2027
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.31, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match28 Nov 2026
There is no crueller way to lose a football match. FC Diarra scored in the 91th minute, the restart barely happened, and the away end was still standing when the whistle went.
Player ratings30 Nov 2026
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 8.20, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
Match28 Nov 2026
FC Diarra cannot stop winning
3 wins on the spin now, and the question has changed from whether the run ends to who ends it. Confidence like this cannot be bought; it has to be earned exactly this way.
Squad30 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 FC Diarra this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match28 Nov 2026
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Thuto Sesipi. 3‑2 against US Bougouba, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
The terraces30 Nov 2026
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 21-year-old it feels ownership of. Aboubacar Sidibé 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.
Squad30 Nov 2026
Ngcebo Nala gets it from the manager
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
Squad30 Nov 2026
There is no complaint available here and everybody involved knows it, which does not make the walk to the bench any shorter. Form is the only currency in football that cannot be borrowed against.
Player ratings30 Nov 2026
Successful dribbles: 12. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match23 Nov 2026
FC Diarra refuse to drop out of the race
Position 3, 14 points, and the result everyone checks first is now theirs. The word is still not being said around the ground, which is how you know everyone is thinking it.
Squad23 Nov 2026
Sfundo Nzama 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 FC Diarra this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad23 Nov 2026
Words at FC Diarra training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Sandile Ndlovu 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.
Match21 Nov 2026
A 2‑1 win over US Bougouni, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
The terraces23 Nov 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.
Player ratings23 Nov 2026
Marked 8.72 — 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.