88 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.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Katsina United will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
He is 19, he is averaging 6.58, and older professionals have started passing to him in the difficult minutes. That last part is the real scouting report.
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.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Muhammad Suleiman is 18, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Minute 87, against Nasarawa 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.
Successful dribbles: 17. 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.
It needed Muhammad Suleiman to find the net to bring anything home at all: 1‑1 against Nasarawa United, and half the dressing room will call it a point won.
The dugout13 Sep 2027
Sani Faisal is still being punished for one mistake
Nobody will confirm it and the team sheets confirm it every week. One error has bought him a spell as second choice that is already longer than the error deserved.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Katsina United will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Katsina United and Abia Warriors have settled on $39.0K. The rest belongs to the player and his agent, and a supporter who has watched one of these before knows not to buy the shirt yet.
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.
$2.0K on the table at Kwara United. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
Bendel Insurance wanted more than $56.0K and the board would not go there. Walked away, for now, which in a transfer window means until somebody blinks.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Akintunde Azeez was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
20 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.
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Katsina United, and it is not being withdrawn.
The offer from Wikki Tourists for Muhammad Suleiman 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.
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.
Katsina United have gone to Kwara United with a bid, and the supporters have gone to the internet with an opinion about it. Whether either changes anything is up to the selling club.
Katsina United offered $56.0K; Bendel Insurance said it was not close. The manager will be told the money is still there for the right player, which is what managers are told.
He is 21 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 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.
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Katsina United, and it is not being withdrawn.
$56.0K on the table at Bendel Insurance. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
Niger Tornadoes wanted more than $66.0K and the board would not go there. Walked away, for now, which in a transfer window means until somebody blinks.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Moses Adikwu and Katsina United agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
The name of Muhammad Suleiman has come up in conversations Katsina United were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Oriyomi Lebi, and the manager let it.
The dugout12 Jul 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 0‑1 Ifeanyi Ogu left the room before anybody could ask which.
In brief
SquadNasir Ahmed falls out with a teammate over standards
“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.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Katsina United have done the hard part with Plateau United, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
At 18 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.
He won it back and then made something of it, which is two jobs and the reason the scoreline looks the way it does. 12 combined actions and a mark of 7.87, and not one of them will make a highlights package.
Squad14 Jun 2027
Words at Katsina United training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Akintunde Azeez 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.
At 18 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.
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.
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.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Ifeanyi Ogu after 0‑1, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Abba Dali has his answer from Katsina United; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
Nobody at Katsina United 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.
Ninety specific minutes wanted a different sort of player, and the manager picked one. He is not out of form and he is not in the side, and both are true.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 18 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
Ifeanyi Ihemekwele 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Akintunde Azeez was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
17 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.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Muhammad Suleiman is 18, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Innocent Arigu and Katsina United agree another 3 years.