Marked for Muhammad Suleiman
From our football correspondent
Steady
The dugout23 Aug 2027
news_b_frozen_out_of_the_side
Squad23 Aug 2027
Uche Collins is in the form of his life
A season average of 7.27 with 18 goals behind it. Opponents have started planning around him, which is the sincerest compliment football pays.
Market23 Aug 2027
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Katsina United they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Player ratings23 Aug 2027
Successful dribbles: 22. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad23 Aug 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 Katsina United this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Market23 Aug 2027
Both sides expect a conversation in the coming days. Katsina United will name a price, and everything after that is arithmetic.
Match21 Aug 2027
It finished 1‑0, and it was Uche Collins’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Katsina United.
Squad23 Aug 2027
Words at Katsina United training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Sani Faisal 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.
Player ratings23 Aug 2027
Some games turn on a moment; this one turned on a man. 7.82 on the card, and the Katsina United support went home talking about one name.
In brief
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The dugout
The view from the dugout
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Player ratings
Moses Adikwu shuts the door
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The dugout
Ismail Muhd gets picked when it counts
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad16 Aug 2027
18 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Katsina United lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Market16 Aug 2027
Joshua Enaholo has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Katsina United they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad16 Aug 2027
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 6 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Match14 Aug 2027
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.
Squad16 Aug 2027
Joshua Enaholo and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad16 Aug 2027
Words at Katsina United training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Sani Faisal 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.
Match14 Aug 2027
Late, late show earns Katsina United a point
Minute 95, against Rivers United, and a goal that felt like a win to everybody who had stayed. It was a draw. Nobody leaving the ground will describe it as one.
Match14 Aug 2027
A 1‑1 draw with Rivers United leaves the dressing room somewhere between relief and regret.
The dugout16 Aug 2027
The view from the dugout
“We did not lose. Some weeks that is all you get, and I would rather have the point than not.” David Babatunde chose the glass-half-full version of 1‑1; the supporters left with the other one.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad9 Aug 2027
A knee injury of the worst kind for Emmanuel Bakare
25 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Katsina United lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Squad9 Aug 2027
12 saves, and a scoreline the ten men in front of him had no right to. Goalkeepers only get noticed on the bad days; this was one of the other ones.
Market9 Aug 2027
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Wikki Tourists waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Katsina United is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Squad9 Aug 2027
17 goals and a season average of 7.26. Form like that gets noticed well beyond this town.
Squad9 Aug 2027
“The easiest signature of my career.” Samson Obi and Katsina United agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Transfer targets9 Aug 2027
Katsina United asked and Bayelsa United said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Match7 Aug 2027
Remo Stars left with the points after a 1‑2 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Player ratings9 Aug 2027
Uche Collins beats them one at a time
Successful dribbles: 16. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
The dugout9 Aug 2027
“I could talk about decisions and I could talk about luck. I will not. We lost.” The manager, 1‑2, and a press conference that lasted four minutes.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad26 Jul 2027
A knee injury of the worst kind for Emmanuel Bakare
39 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Katsina United lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Player ratings26 Jul 2027
A brace, and Uche Collins takes the afternoon — 8.70
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Uche Collins provided it, and the 8.70 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Squad26 Jul 2027
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 7 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
Market26 Jul 2027
Medeama come back empty-handed
The bid was some way short and Katsina United did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
The dugout26 Jul 2027
news_b_frozen_out_of_the_side
Transfer targets26 Jul 2027
No thanks: Efe Obiomo rejects the move
Katsina United had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Bendel Insurance, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
Squad26 Jul 2027
16 goals and a season average of 7.25. Form like that gets noticed well beyond this town.
Squad26 Jul 2027
Samson Obi 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 Jul 2027
Enyimba left with the points after a 2‑3 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad19 Jul 2027
Emmanuel Bakare damages knee ligaments — 46 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 46 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.
Match17 Jul 2027
3‑0, and the margin flattered nobody — it could have carried another goal or two without complaint. Afternoons like this are why people keep coming.
Player ratings19 Jul 2027
Two goals and a mark of 8.98 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Market19 Jul 2027
The offer from Kun Khalifat for Joshua Enaholo 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.
Squad19 Jul 2027
Samson Obi and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad19 Jul 2027
14 goals and a season average of 7.22. Form like that gets noticed well beyond this town.
Transfer targets19 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.
Player ratings19 Jul 2027
A performance of 8.81 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Player ratings19 Jul 2027
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.00, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match21 Apr 2027
Rivers United ended it 0‑0. The season narrows to the league now, and everyone in the ground knew it before the final whistle.
Match24 Apr 2027
6 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.
Squad26 Apr 2027
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 6 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Player ratings26 Apr 2027
Successful dribbles: 26. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Player ratings26 Apr 2027
Marked 8.07 — 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.
Match24 Apr 2027
Late, late show earns Katsina United a point
Minute 88, against Niger Tornadoes, and a goal that felt like a win to everybody who had stayed. It was a draw. Nobody leaving the ground will describe it as one.
Squad26 Apr 2027
Joshua Enaholo and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Player ratings26 Apr 2027
A penalty is the one moment in football with nowhere to hide, and he did not score it. The walk back was long and the week will be longer.
Match24 Apr 2027
1‑1, and both dressing rooms will call it two points lost. A draw that asked plenty of questions and answered none of them.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad29 Mar 2027
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 6 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Squad29 Mar 2027
Abdullahi Shehu 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.
Match27 Mar 2027
1‑3 to Remo Stars, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Player ratings29 Mar 2027
Successful dribbles: 20. 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.
Squad29 Mar 2027
Sani Faisal 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 dugout29 Mar 2027
The manager’s verdict
“That is on me. I pick the team and I picked wrong.” Managers say that when they mean it and when they need to be seen to, and after 1‑3 David Babatunde left the room before anybody could ask which.
Player ratings29 Mar 2027
Nobody's fault and entirely his: a goal that goes into the book with his name against it and nothing about it intended. Katsina United deserved better, and so did he.
The dugout29 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.
Looking ahead29 Mar 2027
Rivers United next, and one man in the Katsina United dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market22 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.
Player ratings22 Mar 2027
Marked 7.97 at 18, 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 ratings22 Mar 2027
Successful dribbles: 27. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Match20 Mar 2027
Nobody wants to play Katsina United 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
Abdullahi Shehu 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
He is 18 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.
Match20 Mar 2027
It finished 2‑0, and it was Samson Obi’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Katsina United.
Player ratings22 Mar 2027
Samson Obi was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.35. 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.
Squad22 Mar 2027
Sani Faisal 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
Steady
Player ratings22 Feb 2027
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 8.53, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
Market22 Feb 2027
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Katsina United can pretend not to have heard.
Squad22 Feb 2027
Samson Obi and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Match20 Feb 2027
2‑3 to Kwara United, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
The dugout22 Feb 2027
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” David Babatunde after 2‑3, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
Squad22 Feb 2027
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Abba Dali was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout22 Feb 2027
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Katsina United, and both men came out saying it was fine.
The dugout22 Feb 2027
The manager makes an example of Kabeer Jinadu
“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.
The dugout22 Feb 2027
Haruna Attah gets picked when it counts
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Haruna Attah is on it.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Player ratings1 Feb 2027
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 8.75, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
Squad1 Feb 2027
There were 6 saves in it, and at least three that had no business being saves at all. The ten outfield players owe him a drink and they know it.
Market1 Feb 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.
Boardroom1 Feb 2027
Katsina United close the window on a squad of their own making
1 in and 0 out, and no more changes for months. The manager has what he has, the supporters have their opinion of it, and the table will have the last word.
Squad1 Feb 2027
Abdullahi Shehu 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.
Match30 Jan 2027
Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 6 goals between Katsina United and Ikorodu City, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.
The terraces1 Feb 2027
He is 18 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 dugout1 Feb 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Godswill Utum, and the manager let it.
Match30 Jan 2027
It needed Muhammad Suleiman to find the net to bring anything home at all: 3‑3 against Ikorodu City, and half the dressing room will call it a point won.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad16 Nov 2026
Samson Obi 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.
Squad16 Nov 2026
Words at Katsina United training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Sani Faisal 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.
Squad16 Nov 2026
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Usman Barau and Katsina United agree another 2 years.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad19 Oct 2026
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Sani Faisal was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Joshua Enaholo 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.
Squad19 Oct 2026
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Muhammad Suleiman and Katsina United agree another 3 years.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market5 Oct 2026
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Katsina United is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Samson Obi and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Sani Faisal 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.
Market5 Oct 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.
Squad5 Oct 2026
A place in the month's best eleven for Joshua Enaholo
Four or five weekends of consistency, judged against everybody in the division doing his job. Joshua Enaholo has come out of that comparison in the side, and Katsina United have had the benefit of every one of those afternoons.
Squad5 Oct 2026
The demotion a club never announces and a dressing room always notices. Yusuf Abdulmumini is further from the side than he was, and the reason will not be given until he asks.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Player ratings7 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 31. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Boardroom7 Sep 2026
Katsina United close the window on a squad of their own making
15 in and 15 out, and no more changes for months. The manager has what he has, the supporters have their opinion of it, and the table will have the last word.
Market7 Sep 2026
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Muhammad Suleiman will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Katsina United the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Abdullahi Shehu 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.
Match5 Sep 2026
6 without a win is the sort of run that changes how a town talks about its club, and Niger Tornadoes were the afternoon it stopped. Nothing is fixed by one result and everything feels different by one.
Squad7 Sep 2026
“The easiest signature of my career.” Joshua Enaholo and Katsina United agree another 2 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Sani Faisal was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad7 Sep 2026
No place for Abbati Musa in the new shape
He is not being dropped. There is simply nowhere in the formation Katsina United are playing to put a man who does what he does, which is a harder thing to be told than any team sheet.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market24 Aug 2026
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Katsina United people have started saying his name in the past tense.
Market24 Aug 2026
“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.
Match22 Aug 2026
No end in sight to Katsina United's wait for a win
5 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Katsina United has to find a result from somewhere.
Market24 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.
Market24 Aug 2026
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Katsina United is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Boardroom24 Aug 2026
There is no worse way to lose a footballer. Azeez Falolu has pre-agreed a move away, which means every appearance between now and June is made by a man the club can no longer sell, and somebody upstairs will be asked why the contract was allowed to get here.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Words at Katsina United training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Sani Faisal 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.
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 16. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Usman Barau 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 Katsina United this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.