Marked for Benjamin Ngakoutou
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad10 May 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 Galactik this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad10 May 2027
Ousmane Hissein 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 dugout10 May 2027
Ousmane Hissein has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Galactik 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.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
The dugout26 Apr 2027
Joël Djingar 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 Joël Djingar is on it.
Market26 Apr 2027
The name of Ousmane Biani keeps appearing in other people's back pages. Galactik say nothing, which says plenty.
Match26 Apr 2027
Galactik in the hunt for Europe
Position 6, 38 points, and a run-in that decides whether next season has Thursday nights in it. Nobody is calling it a race yet, which is what people say during one.
Squad26 Apr 2027
The shrug has gone, the language is coming, and he now argues in training like somebody who expects to be here next year. Half a signing's value is this and none of it appears on a fee.
Squad26 Apr 2027
Marked 6.75, and picked in the team of the week for it. He was the best player on that pitch and the selectors saw the same match everybody else did.
The dugout26 Apr 2027
The message was aimed at the stands as much as the dressing room: Benjamin Ngakoutou plays, and the argument is closed until the manager decides otherwise.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Squad19 Apr 2027
3 goals in one afternoon from one man. The other players were also present, a witness confirmed.
Match17 Apr 2027
Nobody wants to play Galactik 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.
Squad19 Apr 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 Galactik this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Player ratings19 Apr 2027
Ousmane Biani was on a different afternoon to everybody else
9.76. 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.
Match17 Apr 2027
Three points for Galactik, 3‑1 the final word against Aiglons in a contest settled by the finer margins.
Squad19 Apr 2027
Ousmane Hissein 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 terraces19 Apr 2027
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 20-year-old it feels ownership of. Saleh Hissein 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.
The dugout19 Apr 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.
The dugout19 Apr 2027
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Mahamat Bechir on a 3‑1 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Transfer targets4 Jan 2027
Galactik asked and Ghazl El Mahalla said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Match2 Jan 2027
Galactik rescue it on 88 minutes
Behind, and beaten by any honest reading, until minute 88. AS Etat Major had the points in their pocket and a corner of the ground still believed, which is generally when it happens.
Player ratings4 Jan 2027
Successful dribbles: 17. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
The dugout4 Jan 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.
The dugout4 Jan 2027
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Galactik told Dhayfallah Kadri something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
Match2 Jan 2027
It finished 1‑1, and it somehow always looked like it would. One of those afternoons where the table moves less than the tempers.
The dugout4 Jan 2027
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 Mohamed El Ouardi is on it.
The dugout4 Jan 2027
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Mahamat Bechir after the 1‑1 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
Squad4 Jan 2027
Hassan Abba, 14, is the weekend’s best young player
Measured against every other kid in the division and first among them. The senior award is where Galactik would like this to lead.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad7 Dec 2026
4 goals in one game. The first was taken well, the second was taken greedily, and by the third the crowd were simply waiting for him to get the ball.
Match5 Dec 2026
Rarely has this fixture seen a display like it: 5‑1 against AS DGSSIE, and it could have been more.
Match5 Dec 2026
Nobody wants to play Galactik 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.
Match5 Dec 2026
Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 6 goals between Galactik and AS DGSSIE, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.
Squad7 Dec 2026
A falling-out at Galactik
Joël Djingar and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Player ratings7 Dec 2026
Ninety minutes of Ousmane Biani at his very best
Marked 9.75. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Galactik.
Player ratings7 Dec 2026
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.
Player ratings7 Dec 2026
Marked 8.22 — 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.
Player ratings7 Dec 2026
A performance of 8.11 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Player ratings23 Nov 2026
The hardest thing about being 21 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Abdelaziz Youssouf did not need any: 8.11, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Squad23 Nov 2026
Words exchanged at Galactik
Ousmane Hissein 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.
The terraces23 Nov 2026
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 21-year-old it feels ownership of. Abdelaziz Youssouf 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.
Match21 Nov 2026
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Mohamed El Ouardi. 2‑0 against CotonTchad, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Player ratings23 Nov 2026
Successful dribbles: 18. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Player ratings23 Nov 2026
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.23, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
The dugout23 Nov 2026
“That is what I want every week. Not the result, the way they went about it.” The manager, after 2‑0, already talking about the next one.
The dugout23 Nov 2026
Ousmane Biani 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 Ousmane Biani is on it.
The dugout23 Nov 2026
The shape wanted a different profile against this opponent, which is a real football answer and no comfort at all to the man it is about. He did nothing wrong and he did not play.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Player ratings19 Oct 2026
Successful dribbles: 24. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Words exchanged at Galactik
Joël Djingar 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.
Match17 Oct 2026
1‑3 to Elect Sport, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
The dugout19 Oct 2026
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Mahamat Bechir after 1‑3, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Every signing waits for it and every press conference asks about it until it comes. It has come, Galactik have their man off the mark, and the second one is always easier.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Every debut is a small story about the future: Marius Djimet, 16 years old, off the academy pitches and into the first team. The parents in the stand will keep the programme.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad3 Aug 2026
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Ousmane Biani commits to Galactik for another 2 years.
Squad3 Aug 2026
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Galactik this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Transfer targets3 Aug 2026
A loan enquiry to Renaissance: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.