Marked for Ibrahim Raache
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad7 Jun 2027
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Chari Giwa commits to AS Korofina for another 4 years.
The dugout7 Jun 2027
Adama Traoré 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 Jun 2027
Samuel Segun 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 Jun 2027
Ibrahim Raache and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad7 Jun 2027
“I did not come here to warm up in front of people.” He is out of contract eventually, he is old enough to count the weeks, and AS Korofina will have to give him a reason to stay or an exit.
The dugout7 Jun 2027
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad24 May 2027
Adama Traoré 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.
Squad24 May 2027
8 new faces, and AS Korofina are still learning each other
A squad rebuilt inside one window pays for it in a currency nobody budgets for. The football is not worse than the sum of the players; it is worse than the sum of the players who have played together before.
Squad24 May 2027
Ibrahim Raache 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 dugout24 May 2027
Aaron Maniongui has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at AS Korofina will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
Market24 May 2027
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. AS Korofina know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
The dugout24 May 2027
Samuel Segun 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 Samuel Segun trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
The dugout24 May 2027
He asked about his future and was given an answer with minutes in it. The manager has now made a promise in a building where promises are remembered, and the clock on it has started.
Match24 May 2027
Continental football is in reach for AS Korofina
44 points from position 5. The title is somebody else’s business and the drop is somebody else’s problem; what is left is the argument about passports.
The dugout24 May 2027
The manager plants his flag on Dramane Traoré
“Judge me on him.” Managers do not say that kind of thing by accident — it moves the pressure from Dramane Traoré’s shoulders onto his own, and both of them know it.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad17 May 2027
Adama Traoré 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.
Squad17 May 2027
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Samuel Segun was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout17 May 2027
Quilma 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 Quilma trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Match19 Apr 2027
Full time on the season at AS Korofina
Position 5 on 44 points. Every season is a story and this is the last line of it, and now the club has three months to decide what the next one is about.
Player ratings19 Apr 2027
Two goals and a mark of 8.58 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Match17 Apr 2027
4 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.
The dugout19 Apr 2027
Jonathan Kapenga: 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.” AS Korofina have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Player ratings19 Apr 2027
Diby Keita beats them one at a time
Successful dribbles: 20. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
The terraces19 Apr 2027
At 21 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.
Match17 Apr 2027
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Ibrahim Raache. 2‑0 against US Bougouba, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Match17 Apr 2027
Another one collected away from home
3 on the bounce on the road for AS Korofina. The coaches leave early, arrive at unlovely grounds in the dark, and keep coming home with three points.
Squad19 Apr 2027
Samuel Segun 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.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Player ratings12 Apr 2027
Successful dribbles: 36. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
Match10 Apr 2027
Seydou Diabaté wins it after the whistle should have gone
95 minutes played. Seydou Diabaté found the finish in time that only existed because of earlier delays, and US Bougouni went from a point to nothing inside one movement.
Match10 Apr 2027
Nobody wants to play AS Korofina right now
3 wins in a row changes how opponents warm up: quieter, more glances across. Runs end, everybody knows that — but nobody in this dressing room is planning for it.
Squad12 Apr 2027
Adama Traoré 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 AS Korofina this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad12 Apr 2027
Defences have started doubling up on Adama Traoré
14 goals and a season average of 7.27 will do that. The space he used to find has gone; he keeps scoring anyway, which is the mark of the real thing.
Match10 Apr 2027
US Bougouni made AS Korofina work for it, but the scoreboard read 2‑1 at the end and the table does not ask how.
Player ratings12 Apr 2027
Seydou Diabaté was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.74. 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.
The dugout12 Apr 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Olufemi Kayode, and the manager let it.
Player ratings12 Apr 2027
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.06, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
In brief
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Squad
A row about effort at AS Korofina
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The dugout
The view from the dugout
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The dugout
When it matters, Taddeus Nkeng plays
From our football correspondent
Steady
Player ratings22 Mar 2027
Nobody could get near Chari Giwa
Successful dribbles: 30. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Player ratings22 Mar 2027
A defender's goal wins it for AS Korofina — 7.70
1 for Adama Keïta, marked 7.70, and a centre-half's name in the part of the report he normally only reaches by mistake. He will not be allowed to forget it in the dressing room for a month.
Transfer targets22 Mar 2027
Everything agreed with another club, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
Squad22 Mar 2027
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Aaron Maniongui and AS Korofina agree another 4 years.
Squad22 Mar 2027
Adama Traoré 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.
The terraces22 Mar 2027
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Diby Keita 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.
The dugout22 Mar 2027
The manager makes an example of Aaron Maniongui
“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
Taddeus Nkeng was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.06. 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.