Marked for Mostafa Berkane
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Player ratings14 Dec 2026
Two goals and a mark of 8.56 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Squad14 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 CS Constantine this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad14 Dec 2026
Words at CS Constantine training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Messala Merbah 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 Dec 2026
Three points for CS Constantine, 2‑1 the final word against MC Oran in a contest settled by the finer margins.
The terraces14 Dec 2026
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 21-year-old it feels ownership of. Hatem Grine 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 ratings14 Dec 2026
Nobody could get near Brahim Dib
Successful dribbles: 18. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad14 Dec 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Mostafa Berkane, and the manager let it.
Squad14 Dec 2026
Clubs make promises constantly and the page usually only hears about them when they are broken. This one was honoured, and the dressing room noticed that faster than any supporter did.
Player ratings14 Dec 2026
Off the bench and decisive: Hatem Grine
The substitution nobody applauded turned out to be the whole story. CS Constantine were going nowhere until he came on.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match28 Nov 2026
2‑5 against ES Setif, and no complaints that would survive the replay. The manager spoke about character afterwards; the terraces used shorter words.
Player ratings30 Nov 2026
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 8.18, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
Player ratings30 Nov 2026
Successful dribbles: 25. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad30 Nov 2026
Djihad Bizimana 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.
Squad30 Nov 2026
The manager makes an example of Mélo N'Diaye
“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.
Boardroom30 Nov 2026
The music was off and the showers ran late. What was said in that dressing room stays there, but Saturday will publish the minutes.
Squad30 Nov 2026
Beaten 5 times, with 3 saves for company. Goalkeepers carry these scorelines on their record whoever actually caused them, which is the quiet injustice of the job.
Squad30 Nov 2026
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at CS Constantine, and both men came out saying it was fine.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match7 Nov 2026
The board had gone up, the arguing had started, and then the ball was in the net in the 94th minute. USM Khenchela will replay every second of the added time for a week.
Player ratings9 Nov 2026
Successful dribbles: 31. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Player ratings9 Nov 2026
Ouadjih Khelfaoui, 21, plays like he has been here for years — 7.70
A mark of 7.70 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.
Player ratings9 Nov 2026
Age has not caught Brahim Dib yet — 8.09
At 33 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.09 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
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 CS Constantine this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match7 Nov 2026
It finished 2‑1, and it was Brahim Dib’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to CS Constantine.
The terraces9 Nov 2026
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 21-year-old it feels ownership of. Ouadjih Khelfaoui 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.
Squad9 Nov 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Messala Merbah, and the manager let it.
Squad9 Nov 2026
Words at CS Constantine training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Miloud Rebiaï 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
Market10 Aug 2026
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Squad10 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 CS Constantine this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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 CS Constantine, another week without a signature from Fethallah Tahar.
Market10 Aug 2026
48 months left and silence from upstairs — no offer, no talks, nothing for his people to answer. Clubs that let a calendar do their negotiating usually end up negotiating with the calendar.
Squad10 Aug 2026
Fethallah Tahar has seen what the next man earns
Numbers do not stay secret in a dressing room and never have. He is not asking for more than he is worth; he is asking why somebody beside him is worth more, and at CS Constantine that is a harder question to answer.