Marked for Samuel Prince Eda
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad14 Sep 2026
Tarik Aoutah and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Transfer targets14 Sep 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.
Squad14 Sep 2026
The system has changed and his position has not. A footballer can improve his form; he cannot improve the manager’s formation, and that is the whole of the problem.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market17 Aug 2026
US Bougouba come back empty-handed
The bid was some way short and AS Bakaridjan did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Squad17 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 AS Bakaridjan this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Transfer targets17 Aug 2026
AS Bakaridjan asked and Real Bamako said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Market17 Aug 2026
“We are a long way apart, and pretending otherwise helps nobody.” Neither side is close, and the calendar is not on the club's side.
Squad17 Aug 2026
He is doing things on a Saturday afternoon that nobody around him can answer, which is flattering for about one season and a problem after that. AS Bakaridjan will not keep him by pretending otherwise.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Somebody is after Makan Camara’s shirt
A new face in his position, and Makan Camara suddenly has to win back what he thought he owned. AS Bakaridjan have promised nothing — clubs rarely do at this stage.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Transfer targets10 Aug 2026
Everything agreed with Djoliba, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
Squad10 Aug 2026
“The easiest signature of my career.” Jordan Kouassi and AS Bakaridjan agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad10 Aug 2026
Aboubacar Haïdara 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 targets10 Aug 2026
AS Bakaridjan asked and US Bougouba said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Squad10 Aug 2026
The system has changed and his position has not. A footballer can improve his form; he cannot improve the manager’s formation, and that is the whole of the problem.
Market10 Aug 2026
48 months and counting on Makan Camara
Still no offer on the table, and Makan Camara’s deal keeps shrinking. In boardroom language, silence this long stops being an oversight and starts being an answer.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad3 Aug 2026
Mattéo Nkurunziza arrives at the club he grew up with
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Mattéo Nkurunziza has, at AS Bakaridjan, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
Squad3 Aug 2026
“The easiest signature of my career.” Aboubacar Haïdara and AS Bakaridjan agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad3 Aug 2026
The system has changed and his position has not. A footballer can improve his form; he cannot improve the manager’s formation, and that is the whole of the problem.
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 AS Bakaridjan, another week without a signature from Mattéo Nkurunziza.
Market3 Aug 2026
49 months to run and not a word offered. A club that lets the calendar negotiate for it usually ends up losing to the calendar.
Squad3 Aug 2026
7 new faces, and AS Bakaridjan 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.