Marked for César Epoh
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad25 Jan 2027
33 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Aigle Royal de Moungo lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Match23 Jan 2027
The run now stands at 7, and the questions being asked around Aigle Royal de Moungo are no longer polite ones.
Squad25 Jan 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.
The dugout25 Jan 2027
Didas Miafang: 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.” Aigle Royal de Moungo have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Market25 Jan 2027
The bid was some way short and Aigle Royal de Moungo did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Transfer targets25 Jan 2027
Everything agreed with Canon Yaounde, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
Squad25 Jan 2027
Olivier Kouoh Dicka 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.
Match23 Jan 2027
0‑1 to Panthere du Nde, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
The dugout25 Jan 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 Georges Etame left the room before anybody could ask which.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad7 Dec 2026
Yannick Kamdoum damages knee ligaments — 80 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 80 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.
Squad7 Dec 2026
A one-man rearguard from César Epoh
There were 9 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.
Squad7 Dec 2026
Vini Lontsi 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 Aigle Royal de Moungo this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match5 Dec 2026
The unbeaten run reaches 6. Some of them were wins and some were escapes, but a side that refuses to lose is a side other dressing rooms talk about.
Squad7 Dec 2026
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Olivier Kouoh Dicka was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The terraces7 Dec 2026
At 20 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.
Match5 Dec 2026
A 2‑0 win over Fortuna Mfou, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
The dugout7 Dec 2026
“The players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 2‑0, Georges Etame could afford to be generous.
The dugout7 Dec 2026
Nobody will confirm this and nothing else explains the last month of selections. A costly error buys a player a period of being second choice that is always longer than the error was.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad30 Nov 2026
A knee injury of the worst kind for Yannick Kamdoum
87 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Aigle Royal de Moungo lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Squad30 Nov 2026
Ifeanyi Egwim 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 dugout30 Nov 2026
César Epoh 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 ratings30 Nov 2026
Marked 7.90. Ask anyone leaving the ground what settled it and you will get one name, which is the only award that has ever really counted.
Match28 Nov 2026
It finished 2‑2, and it somehow always looked like it would. One of those afternoons where the table moves less than the tempers.
Squad30 Nov 2026
Junior Titico Fanga 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 dugout30 Nov 2026
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Georges Etame was not hiding it after 2‑2, and nobody in the Aigle Royal de Moungo dressing room was either.
The dugout30 Nov 2026
There is no complaint available here and everybody involved knows it, which does not make the walk to the bench any shorter. Form is the only currency in football that cannot be borrowed against.
The dugout30 Nov 2026
The plan did not have a place for Samuel Tengoh
Nobody at Aigle Royal de Moungo 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
Squad9 Nov 2026
A knee injury of the worst kind for Yannick Kamdoum
108 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Aigle Royal de Moungo lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Squad9 Nov 2026
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 9 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Player ratings9 Nov 2026
Samuel Tengoh pops up at the right end — 7.10
7.10, 1 on the scoresheet, and the specific comedy of a back-four player celebrating like somebody who does this every week. He does not, and that is exactly why the ground reacted the way it did.
Squad9 Nov 2026
John Okoli and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad9 Nov 2026
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Marc Njango and Aigle Royal de Moungo agree another 2 years.
Match7 Nov 2026
A 1‑1 draw with PWD Bamenda leaves the dressing room somewhere between relief and regret.
The dugout9 Nov 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Samuel Ebelle, and the manager let it.
The dugout9 Nov 2026
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.” Georges Etame chose the glass-half-full version of 1‑1; the supporters left with the other one.
The dugout9 Nov 2026
Nobody will confirm this and nothing else explains the last month of selections. A costly error buys a player a period of being second choice that is always longer than the error was.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad19 Oct 2026
Yannick Kamdoum damages knee ligaments — 130 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 130 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.
Match14 Oct 2026
Out, 2‑4 to Dynamo Douala, and the long argument about which of the small moments decided it. The league is all there is now, and everybody knows it.
Match17 Oct 2026
6 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Aigle Royal de Moungo has to find a result from somewhere.
Squad19 Oct 2026
A one-man rearguard from César Epoh
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.
Player ratings19 Oct 2026
Marked 7.74 at 21, in a side that makes no allowances for age. He did not need any, and he looked the least nervous man on the pitch.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Vini Lontsi 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.
Match14 Oct 2026
6 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about Aigle Royal de Moungo and Dynamo Douala in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
Match17 Oct 2026
Two or more conceded in each of the last 4 matches. It is not one mistake repeating itself, which would be the easier thing to fix; it is a different one every week.
Match17 Oct 2026
Panthere du Nde left with the points after a 0‑2 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Player ratings5 Oct 2026
The game went through Samuel Ebelle — 6.53
Marked 6.53 on 20 actions at both ends of the pitch. Midfielders like this get described as unspectacular by people who have never tried to play against one.
Match3 Oct 2026
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.
Squad5 Oct 2026
John Okoli 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 Aigle Royal de Moungo this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match3 Oct 2026
1‑2 to Colombe du Dja et Lobo, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
The dugout5 Oct 2026
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 1‑2 Georges Etame left the room before anybody could ask which.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Words at Aigle Royal de Moungo training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Olivier Kouoh Dicka 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 dugout5 Oct 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to César Epoh, and the manager let it.
The dugout5 Oct 2026
The manager has not finished forgetting Yannick Kamdoum's mistake
Publicly it is behind everybody. It is not behind the man who picks the team, and the only place that shows is a team sheet. He will get another chance; he will get it in a match that matters less.
Player ratings5 Oct 2026
Marked 4.65, and generously at that. Nothing came off, and by the end the crowd had stopped expecting it to.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match26 Sep 2026
2‑6 to Canon Yaounde, and it was every bit as bad as the number suggests. There are defeats you argue about and defeats you apologise for; this was the second kind.
Squad28 Sep 2026
John Okoli 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.
Match26 Sep 2026
Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 8 goals between Aigle Royal de Moungo and Canon Yaounde, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Beaten 6 times, 2 saves, and an afternoon that will go on his record whether it was his fault or the defence’s. It is the quiet unfairness of the position.
Boardroom28 Sep 2026
The manager kept them in and said what needed saying. A response is expected on Saturday, and if it does not come the questions move upstairs.
The dugout28 Sep 2026
The view from the dugout
“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 2‑6 defeat, delivered by Georges Etame to a room that had heard them before.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Words at Aigle Royal de Moungo training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jean Paul Ndoung 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.
Squad28 Sep 2026
The first one is the one every signing is asked about until it arrives. It has arrived, and he can stop being asked.
The dugout28 Sep 2026
The manager makes an example of Yannick Kamdoum
“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.