Two goals and a mark of 8.52 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Victoria United can pretend not to have heard.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Serge Bogam will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Victoria United the goodbyes have quietly begun.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Fabrice Olinga and Victoria United agree another 3 years.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Dilane Ekongolo 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.
“I know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” Panthere du Nde had the fee agreed and the shirt ready; they did not have the player, and now they will not.
The offer from Dynamo Douala for Tao Belabdi 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.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Serge Bogam will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Victoria United the goodbyes have quietly begun.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Victoria United this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Adama Ngom has, at Victoria United, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Dérrick Anye Fru was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
He is doing his job and he is not settling. Victoria United were supposed to be a step up in his own reckoning, and his own reckoning has been adjusted since he arrived.
A deal that was a phone call from completion at lunchtime was dead by midnight. Victoria United will try again when the window opens; Stade Renard de Melong may not be selling by then.
He is doing things every Saturday that nobody around him can answer. It is flattering for a season and a problem after that, and Victoria United know which stage they are at.
In brief
The dugoutSalam Jiddou has become a man the manager trusts
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Fortuna Mfou can pretend not to have heard.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Fortuna Mfou this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad27 Mar 2028
Words at Fortuna Mfou training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Raphaël Anaba 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.
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.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Fortuna Mfou, and both men came out saying it was fine.
“I did not come here to warm up in front of people.” He is out of contract eventually, he is old enough to count the weeks, and Fortuna Mfou will have to give him a reason to stay or an exit.
A manager forgives a bad Saturday far more readily than a bad Tuesday, because one of them he can explain and the other one he chose. The reports this week have not been good.
“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 Fortuna Mfou, and it is not being withdrawn.
A defender on the scoresheet, which happens rarely enough that everybody in the ground remembers who took the corner. 1 for him, and a mark of 7.75 for the rest of it.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Kazobar Kasongo will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Fortuna Mfou the goodbyes have quietly begun.
He is 20, he is averaging 7.00, and older professionals have started passing to him in the difficult minutes. That last part is the real scouting report.
Jean Simplice Mbang 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.
Squad14 Feb 2028
Raphaël Anaba 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.
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, 7.64, and a manager who will not be substituting him again in a hurry.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Fortuna Mfou can pretend not to have heard.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Fortuna Mfou have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
The kind of year that ends with a name being read out in a hall. Fortuna Mfou had the benefit of it every week and now have the problem of everybody else knowing.
Jean Simplice Mbang 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.
Squad3 Jan 2028
Raphaël Anaba 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 young player of the month award goes to a 20-year-old at Fortuna Mfou who has looked like the finished article for four weekends running. The next four are the ones that decide whether he is.
Somebody else has been better, the manager has said so with a team sheet, and there is no argument to be had. He will get the shirt back the only way it can be got back.
14 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Fortuna Mfou lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Fortuna Mfou this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad1 Nov 2027
Raphaël Anaba 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.
“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 dugout1 Nov 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.” Landry Toko-Ekambi chose the glass-half-full version of 0‑0; the supporters left with the other one.
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 Marc Lafleur Essono is on it.
28 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Fortuna Mfou lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Victoria United go through and Fortuna Mfou go home, 0‑1 the scoreline that did it. The dressing room will call the league the priority now, because that is what dressing rooms say.
8 matches without a win, and then this, against Stade Renard de Melong. Relief is a strange noise in a football ground and it was the only noise at the end.
One scored and one made, which is a different afternoon from scoring twice and an easier one to overlook. Marked 7.93, and involved in 2 of his side's goals.
Williams Yikat 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Raphaël Anaba was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 22-year-old it feels ownership of. Junior Patrick Akongo Evouna 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.
A 2‑0 win over Stade Renard de Melong, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Dynamo Douala waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Fortuna Mfou is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Marc Tsala Ndi and Fortuna Mfou agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Zaharaddeen Bello 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.
Squad12 Jul 2027
Words at Fortuna Mfou training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Williams Yikat 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 name of Franck Bekono has come up in conversations Fortuna Mfou were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
A loan enquiry to Fauve Azur Elite: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.
Fortuna Mfou have made the call to Victoria United. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
Clubs make promises constantly and the page usually only hears about them when they are broken. This one was honoured, and the dressing room noticed that faster than any supporter did.
Every shape has positions in it and this one does not have his. Fortuna Mfou will either change the shape, change his job, or change his club, and he is waiting to hear which.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Fortuna Mfou they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
“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 Fortuna Mfou, and it is not being withdrawn.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Adama Ngom is living that version at Fortuna Mfou, and it tends to show in the first month.
The deal with Victoria United is done in every sense but the one that puts him on the pitch. Nothing goes wrong at this stage, except on the occasions when it does.
Fortuna Mfou have gone to Colombe du Dja et Lobo 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.
Williams Yikat 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 fee was agreed and the flight was looked at — and then the phone stopped ringing. Aigle Royal de Moungo moved on, Gislain Abianda reports back to Fortuna Mfou, and everybody pretends Monday is just Monday.
Squad5 Jul 2027
Raphaël Anaba 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.