Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Aigle Royal de Moungo will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
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.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Mohamad Assadoullah and Aigle Royal de Moungo agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
In brief
SquadJosip Šoljić falls out with a teammate over standards
The words a physio says slowly. 79 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.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Josip Šoljić and Aigle Royal de Moungo agree another 2 years.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 22 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.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Paul Ebongue Ebengue has just signed for Aigle Royal de Moungo, and for once the answer mattered.
He left as a boy and has come back still knowing where the away end is. Most signings have to be explained to a town; this one needed a photograph and nothing else.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Mohamad Assadoullah is 21, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
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.
The morning the pathway stops being a brochure and becomes a team sheet. Most of them will not be here in three years; all of them have already done the hard part, which was getting to today.
At 26 the improving is meant to be over. It is not: 3 points better than the mark taken at the start of the year, which is the sort of thing that happens to players who take the boring parts of the job seriously.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Fabrice Ganago has been at this club since he was a boy and is now, formally, one of the first-team squad — which for a local readership beats any signing of any size.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Desire Njie has been at this club since he was a boy and is now, formally, one of the first-team squad — which for a local readership beats any signing of any size.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Joel Moukandjo has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Stephane Mabouka is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
“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 Aigle Royal de Moungo, and it is not being withdrawn.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 21 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.
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.
42 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.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Junior Elong will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Aigle Royal de Moungo the goodbyes have quietly begun.
The chances are being made and something is happening between the making and the finishing. 5 matches now, and the anxiety in the ground arrives a little earlier every week.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Mohamad Assadoullah is 21, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
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.
Josué Balamandji 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.