Marked for Madaoua Tchiva
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad5 Jul 2027
43 days out for Léger Djimrangar after a fracture
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. CotonTchad will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Market5 Jul 2027
The offer from US Bougouba for Madaoua Tchiva 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.
Squad5 Jul 2027
There are footballers who have a good season and footballers a season is remembered for, and the second kind get their names read out in a hall in the summer. CotonTchad will be quietly delighted and privately nervous.
Squad5 Jul 2027
Hamza Asrir 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.
Transfer targets5 Jul 2027
$16.0K on the table at Stars Jeunes Talents. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
Transfer targets5 Jul 2027
$4.0K was the most the club would pay and AS Etat Major were asking for more. Deals like this are revived in the last week of a window roughly half the time, and everybody involved knows it.
The dugout5 Jul 2027
news_b_frozen_out_of_the_side
Market5 Jul 2027
The interest is real enough to have reached print. CotonTchad have said nothing, which in a transfer window is its own kind of answer.
Transfer targets5 Jul 2027
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.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Boardroom28 Jun 2027
This is the season the town will measure the next twenty against. The trophy travels home with the squad, and the route through the streets was agreed days ago.
Squad28 Jun 2027
Defences have started doubling up on Hicham El Aroui
26 goals and a season average of 7.74 will do that. The space he used to find has gone; he keeps scoring anyway, which is the mark of the real thing.
Squad28 Jun 2027
2 kept out from twelve yards, and a stadium that will describe each of them for twenty years. A goalkeeper needs one night like this in a career, and this was it.
Match23 Jun 2027
Foullah Edifice are out and CotonTchad go through, 2‑2 the final word. The bracket opens up a little, and everyone allows themselves a look at it.
Squad28 Jun 2027
50 days out for Léger Djimrangar after a fracture
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. CotonTchad will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Match23 Jun 2027
15 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
Player ratings28 Jun 2027
Successful dribbles: 30. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Player ratings28 Jun 2027
Marked 8.42 at 19, in a side that makes no allowances for age. He did not need any, and he looked the least nervous man on the pitch.
Squad28 Jun 2027
A season average of 7.17 at an age when most of his year group are still in the youth team. CotonTchad know what they have, and so, by now, does everybody else.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad14 Jun 2027
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 64 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Squad14 Jun 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 CotonTchad this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The dugout14 Jun 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Léger Djimrangar, and the manager let it.
The dugout14 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.
Market14 Jun 2027
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. CotonTchad know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Squad14 Jun 2027
A window away with the national side, and a shirt at CotonTchad that briefly doubles as an advertisement. A call-up flatters the player and the club that built him in the same breath.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad31 May 2027
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 78 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Squad31 May 2027
He is 19, he is averaging 7.17, and older professionals have started passing to him in the difficult minutes. That last part is the real scouting report.
Squad31 May 2027
Hicham El Aroui 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.
Squad31 May 2027
Words at CotonTchad training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mohamed Hasnaoui 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 dugout31 May 2027
Zaid Karouch 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.
The dugout31 May 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.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad3 May 2027
Esaie Djikoloum damages knee ligaments — 20 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 20 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.
Squad3 May 2027
A fracture rules Léger Djimrangar out for 106 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason CotonTchad will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Squad3 May 2027
A season average of 7.17 at an age when most of his year group are still in the youth team. CotonTchad know what they have, and so, by now, does everybody else.
Squad3 May 2027
Words at CotonTchad training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Hamza Asrir 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 dugout3 May 2027
Mohamed Hasnaoui has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at CotonTchad 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.
The dugout3 May 2027
Zaid Karouch 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 Zaid Karouch trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Squad12 Apr 2027
26 goals and a season average of 7.74. Form like that gets noticed well beyond this town.
Squad12 Apr 2027
41 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. CotonTchad lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Match7 Apr 2027
A 2‑0 win over Aiglons, a place in the next round, and the quiet arithmetic every supporter does on the walk home: how many more until a final?
Match7 Apr 2027
The run at home goes on for CotonTchad
14 matches unbeaten here. Every visiting manager is asked about it in the week before, which is precisely why it keeps going.
Player ratings12 Apr 2027
Madaoua Tchiva, 19, plays like he has been here for years — 8.18
A mark of 8.18 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 19-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
Player ratings12 Apr 2027
At 37 every good afternoon gets called a throwback, and this one was: 8.78, and nobody on the pitch better.
Match7 Apr 2027
Momentum is a hard thing to buy and an easy thing to lose, and right now CotonTchad have 5 straight wins of it.
Squad12 Apr 2027
The injury that keeps coming back, keeps being rushed back from, and quietly costs more careers than the dramatic ones. 14 days is the estimate; the honest figure depends on whether anybody is patient.
Squad12 Apr 2027
Hicham El Aroui 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.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad5 Apr 2027
48 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. CotonTchad lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
The dugout5 Apr 2027
Moussa Oumar: 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.” CotonTchad have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Squad5 Apr 2027
At 19, Madaoua Tchiva is already the best thing here
An average of 7.17 in a first team he is several years too young for. CotonTchad have something, and by now the whole division has noticed.
Squad5 Apr 2027
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Mohamed Hasnaoui and CotonTchad agree another 2 years.
Squad5 Apr 2027
Hamza Asrir 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 dugout5 Apr 2027
The manager makes an example of Hamza Asrir
“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.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad22 Mar 2027
62 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. CotonTchad lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Match20 Mar 2027
CotonTchad make home a hard place to visit
13 without defeat on their own grass. The pitch has not changed; the crowd has — louder earlier, and quicker to sense when the opposition would rather be somewhere else.
Match20 Mar 2027
Nobody wants to play CotonTchad 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.
Squad22 Mar 2027
Hicham El Aroui and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad22 Mar 2027
Words at CotonTchad training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mohamed Hasnaoui 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.
Match20 Mar 2027
A 2‑0 win over Renaissance, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
The dugout22 Mar 2027
Zaid Karouch 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 ratings22 Mar 2027
Successful dribbles: 18. 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.
Player ratings22 Mar 2027
Marked 7.74 on an afternoon he ran from the first whistle to the last. Whatever else went wrong, CotonTchad had the best player on the pitch.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad15 Mar 2027
Esaie Djikoloum damages knee ligaments — 69 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 69 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.
Match13 Mar 2027
The 2-goal deficit was real and so was the recovery. Mohamed Hasnaoui was at the centre of it, Elect Sport were at the end of it, and everybody who left early will hear about this one for years.
Player ratings15 Mar 2027
No sign of nerves from Madaoua Tchiva at 19 — 8.63
The hardest thing about being 19 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Madaoua Tchiva did not need any: 8.63, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Player ratings15 Mar 2027
At 36 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 7.98 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Squad15 Mar 2027
Hamza Asrir 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.
Match13 Mar 2027
Three points for CotonTchad, 3‑2 the final word against Elect Sport in a contest settled by the finer margins.
Squad15 Mar 2027
Mohamed Hasnaoui 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 terraces15 Mar 2027
He is 15 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.
The dugout15 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.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad8 Mar 2027
The match ball belongs to Hicham El Aroui, whose 5 goals turned a difficult afternoon into a procession.
Squad8 Mar 2027
A season average of 7.76 with 26 goals behind it. Opponents have started planning around him, which is the sincerest compliment football pays.
Squad8 Mar 2027
A knee injury of the worst kind for Esaie Djikoloum
76 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. CotonTchad lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Match6 Mar 2027
Rarely has this fixture seen a display like it: 7‑1 against AS DGSSIE, and it could have been more.
Player ratings8 Mar 2027
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 9.99, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
Player ratings8 Mar 2027
Hicham El Aroui, 37, rolls back the years — 10.00
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 10.00 at 37, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Match6 Mar 2027
12 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
Squad8 Mar 2027
He is 19, he is averaging 7.10, and older professionals have started passing to him in the difficult minutes. That last part is the real scouting report.
The dugout8 Mar 2027
Narcisse Adoum: 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.” CotonTchad have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match20 Feb 2027
Hard to beat is not the same as winning, but 20 matches without defeat is a foundation CotonTchad did not have in the autumn.
Squad22 Feb 2027
Esaie Djikoloum damages knee ligaments — 90 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 90 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.
Player ratings22 Feb 2027
Madaoua Tchiva, 19, plays like he has been here for years — 7.92
A mark of 7.92 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 19-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
Player ratings22 Feb 2027
Youness Mokhtar, 36, rolls back the years — 8.31
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.31 at 36, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Match20 Feb 2027
The run at home goes on for CotonTchad
11 matches unbeaten here. Every visiting manager is asked about it in the week before, which is precisely why it keeps going.
Squad22 Feb 2027
Hicham El Aroui and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad22 Feb 2027
Mohamed Hasnaoui 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.
Match20 Feb 2027
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Madaoua Tchiva. 2‑1 against AS PSI, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
The terraces22 Feb 2027
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 19-year-old it feels ownership of. Madaoua Tchiva 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.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match23 Jan 2027
Hard to beat is not the same as winning, but 16 matches without defeat is a foundation CotonTchad did not have in the autumn.
Player ratings25 Jan 2027
Madaoua Tchiva, 19, plays like he has been here for years — 8.28
A mark of 8.28 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 19-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
Market25 Jan 2027
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Player ratings25 Jan 2027
Successful dribbles: 24. 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.
Transfer targets25 Jan 2027
CotonTchad had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Ajax Cape Town, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
Match23 Jan 2027
CotonTchad make home a hard place to visit
9 without defeat on their own grass. The pitch has not changed; the crowd has — louder earlier, and quicker to sense when the opposition would rather be somewhere else.
Squad25 Jan 2027
Words at CotonTchad training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Hamza Asrir 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.
Transfer targets25 Jan 2027
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Chippa United have kept their man, and CotonTchad go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match9 Jan 2027
5‑0, and the margin flattered nobody — it could have carried another goal or two without complaint. Afternoons like this are why people keep coming.
Match9 Jan 2027
Hard to beat is not the same as winning, but 13 matches without defeat is a foundation CotonTchad did not have in the autumn.
Player ratings11 Jan 2027
A brace, and Hicham El Aroui takes the afternoon — 9.37
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Hicham El Aroui provided it, and the 9.37 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Player ratings11 Jan 2027
At 36 every good afternoon gets called a throwback, and this one was: 8.47, and nobody on the pitch better.
Squad11 Jan 2027
A season average of 7.52 with 15 goals behind it. Opponents have started planning around him, which is the sincerest compliment football pays.
Squad11 Jan 2027
Hicham El Aroui 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.
Squad11 Jan 2027
Mohamed Hasnaoui 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.
Transfer targets11 Jan 2027
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Katsina United have kept their man, and CotonTchad go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
The terraces11 Jan 2027
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 19-year-old it feels ownership of. Madaoua Tchiva 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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad21 Dec 2026
Esaie Djikoloum damages knee ligaments — 21 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 21 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.
Match19 Dec 2026
Still nobody has beaten CotonTchad
The unbeaten run reaches 11. Some of them were wins and some were escapes, but a side that refuses to lose is a side other dressing rooms talk about.
Player ratings21 Dec 2026
At 35 every good afternoon gets called a throwback, and this one was: 8.33, and nobody on the pitch better.
Squad21 Dec 2026
Hamza Asrir 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.
Squad21 Dec 2026
Words at CotonTchad training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mohamed Hasnaoui 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.
Match19 Dec 2026
A 1‑1 draw with Renaissance leaves the dressing room somewhere between relief and regret.
The dugout21 Dec 2026
Oumar Abba: “We have to be better”
“It is not the end of the world and it is not good enough. Both of those are true.” The manager, after a 1‑1 draw, said the honest thing and then went to say it again inside.
Squad21 Dec 2026
The one goal every signing is asked about until it comes. It has come, and a press-conference question has been retired.
Player ratings21 Dec 2026
Successful dribbles: 12. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad30 Nov 2026
Esaie Djikoloum damages knee ligaments — 43 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 43 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.
Match30 Nov 2026
The view from the top for CotonTchad
20 points, and the rest of the division looking up. Every side that finishes first spends the season pretending it is not thinking about it, and this one has started pretending.
Player ratings30 Nov 2026
Marked 7.63 at 19, in a side that makes no allowances for age. He did not need any, and he looked the least nervous man on the pitch.
Match28 Nov 2026
Still nobody has beaten CotonTchad
The unbeaten run reaches 8. Some of them were wins and some were escapes, but a side that refuses to lose is a side other dressing rooms talk about.
Squad30 Nov 2026
Hicham El Aroui and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad30 Nov 2026
Words at CotonTchad training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mohamed Hasnaoui 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.
Match28 Nov 2026
CotonTchad rescue it on 95 minutes
Behind, and beaten by any honest reading, until minute 95. Foullah Edifice had the points in their pocket and a corner of the ground still believed, which is generally when it happens.
Player ratings30 Nov 2026
Successful dribbles: 17. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Match28 Nov 2026
It finished 1‑1, and it somehow always looked like it would. One of those afternoons where the table moves less than the tempers.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Squad2 Nov 2026
Esaie Djikoloum damages knee ligaments — 72 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 72 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.
Player ratings2 Nov 2026
Two goals and a mark of 9.66 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Match31 Oct 2026
There is no crueller way to lose a football match. CotonTchad scored in the 95th minute, the restart barely happened, and the away end was still standing when the whistle went.
The dugout2 Nov 2026
Florent Warna: 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.” CotonTchad have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Player ratings2 Nov 2026
Marked 8.46 at 19, in a side that makes no allowances for age. He did not need any, and he looked the least nervous man on the pitch.
Player ratings2 Nov 2026
Youness Mokhtar, 35, rolls back the years — 7.80
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 7.80 at 35, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Match31 Oct 2026
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.
Match31 Oct 2026
A 3‑2 win over AS Etat Major, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Boardroom2 Nov 2026
The paperwork is done long before the player is. Marius Mbainaissem has agreed terms to come here when his current deal runs out, which means CotonTchad have spent a summer's transfer budget on a phone call.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Squad26 Oct 2026
79 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. CotonTchad lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Player ratings26 Oct 2026
A debut Madaoua Tchiva will not forget — 9.34
There is exactly one of these per career and it does not usually go like this. 2 on the scoresheet, 9.34 beside the name, and a crowd that had never seen him before chanting it by the end.
Match24 Oct 2026
6‑1, and the margin flattered nobody — it could have carried another goal or two without complaint. Afternoons like this are why people keep coming.
The dugout26 Oct 2026
“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 ratings26 Oct 2026
Hicham El Aroui, 36, rolls back the years — 9.94
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 9.94 at 36, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Squad26 Oct 2026
3 goals in one afternoon from one man. The other players were also present, a witness confirmed.
Match24 Oct 2026
Nobody wants to play CotonTchad 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.
Squad26 Oct 2026
Hicham El Aroui 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.
Match24 Oct 2026
7 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about CotonTchad and Stars Jeunes Talents in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Squad19 Oct 2026
87 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. CotonTchad lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Player ratings19 Oct 2026
Age has not caught Zakaria Hadraf yet — 7.98
At 36 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 7.98 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Madaoua Tchiva is 19, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Squad19 Oct 2026
At 24 the improving is meant to be over, and it is not: 4 points better than a year ago. It happens to the ones who take the boring parts seriously.
Match17 Oct 2026
It finished 3‑1, and it was Abdramane Djimet’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to CotonTchad.
Squad19 Oct 2026
A row about effort at CotonTchad
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Mohamed Hasnaoui was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Player ratings19 Oct 2026
Both jobs done by Zaid Karouch — 7.20
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. 11 actions, 7.20, and a manager who will not be substituting him again in a hurry.
The dugout19 Oct 2026
The view from the dugout
“We controlled it. There were spells I did not like and we will look at them, but the group showed me something.” Oumar Abba, on a 3‑1 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
The dugout19 Oct 2026
The plan did not have a place for Hicham Nouali
Nobody at CotonTchad is suggesting he is out of form. The manager simply wanted somebody with a different set of qualities for ninety specific minutes, and there is nothing a player can train to fix that.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad21 Sep 2026
Esaie Djikoloum damages knee ligaments — 115 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 115 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.
Squad21 Sep 2026
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Madaoua Tchiva is 19, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Squad21 Sep 2026
Zaid Karouch 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 CotonTchad this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.