Marked for Excel Okam
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad17 Sep 2029
A one-man rearguard from Ahmed Abbas
There were 10 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.
Market17 Sep 2029
As if he never left: Ahmed Abbas returns
Some transfers need a press campaign. This one needed a shirt with the old number on it. Ahmed Abbas is a Fauve Azur Elite player again, and the town has its story of the summer.
Squad17 Sep 2029
Excel Okam 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 Fauve Azur Elite this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Player ratings17 Sep 2029
Headers, blocks, tackles, interceptions — 22 of them, and not one goal behind him. The sort of performance that never makes a highlight reel and wins football matches.
Match15 Sep 2029
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.
Player ratings17 Sep 2029
A performance of 8.57 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Player ratings17 Sep 2029
Successful dribbles: 17. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Player ratings17 Sep 2029
Defensive actions: 17, and a clean sheet at the end of it. A centre-half's best afternoons look like nothing happening, which is precisely the point.
Squad17 Sep 2029
He wheeled away like a man who had been carrying it for months, because he had. Fauve Azur Elite have their signing off the mark and one press-conference question retired.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market29 Jan 2029
The unthinkable, invoiced: Manuel Mbollo sold
Unisport Bafang arrived with $260.0K and left with the best player in the building. The board will call it business; the queue at the ticket office will use other words.
Match29 Jan 2029
Position 3 and 38 points on the board. Nobody at the ground will say the word out loud yet, and everybody at the ground is thinking it.
Player ratings29 Jan 2029
Successful dribbles: 25. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad29 Jan 2029
Brian Melingui Tsanga 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.
Squad29 Jan 2029
A season average of 7.23 with 12 goals behind it. Opponents have started planning around him, which is the sincerest compliment football pays.
Squad29 Jan 2029
Excel Okam 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.
Market29 Jan 2029
PWD Bamenda are about to pick up the phone
A conversation is coming this week. Fauve Azur Elite will put a number on him, and from there it stops being football and becomes arithmetic.
Player ratings29 Jan 2029
A performance of 8.39 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Player ratings29 Jan 2029
Marked 8.10 — 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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market26 Jun 2028
Excel Okam hands in a written request
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Fauve Azur Elite can pretend not to have heard.
Boardroom26 Jun 2028
The silence upstairs is getting loud at Fauve Azur Elite
Nobody on the board has said anything against the manager, which is the point — they have stopped saying anything for him either.
Squad26 Jun 2028
Moïse Sakava 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 Fauve Azur Elite this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Market26 Jun 2028
Gazelle Garoua are about to pick up the phone
A conversation is coming this week. Fauve Azur Elite will put a number on him, and from there it stops being football and becomes arithmetic.
Squad26 Jun 2028
“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.
Squad26 Jun 2028
“I would rather say it to his face than read about it.” The meeting was requested by the player, which tells you most of what you need to know.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market8 May 2028
“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 Fauve Azur Elite, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad8 May 2028
Machoer Djisse: 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.” Fauve Azur Elite have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Squad8 May 2028
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Fauve Azur Elite this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad8 May 2028
Excel Okam knocks on the manager’s door
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Excel Okam trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Boardroom8 May 2028
What was available in the summer has quietly gone. Upstairs nobody will call it a change of ambition; downstairs nobody will call it anything else.
Squad8 May 2028
A season on the outside for Excel Okam
He trains hard, says the right things and goes home to an empty flat. Nobody at Fauve Azur Elite has done anything wrong, which is exactly what makes it so difficult to fix.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market20 Mar 2028
Janvier Angoa hands in a written request
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Fauve Azur Elite can pretend not to have heard.
Market20 Mar 2028
Manuel Mbollo has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Fauve Azur Elite they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad20 Mar 2028
Zakaria Messibah 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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market24 Jan 2028
The bid was some way short and Fauve Azur Elite did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Market24 Jan 2028
Only the photograph left for Manuel Mbollo
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Manuel Mbollo will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Fauve Azur Elite the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Market24 Jan 2028
“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 Fauve Azur Elite, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad24 Jan 2028
Zakaria Messibah 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.
Squad24 Jan 2028
The manager makes an example of Excel Okam
“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.
Match22 Jan 2028
A 1‑1 draw with Gazelle Garoua leaves the dressing room somewhere between relief and regret.
Squad24 Jan 2028
“I would rather say it to his face than read about it.” The meeting was requested by the player, which tells you most of what you need to know.
Player ratings24 Jan 2028
Successful dribbles: 13. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match25 Dec 2027
No end in sight to Fauve Azur Elite's wait for a win
6 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Fauve Azur Elite has to find a result from somewhere.
Market27 Dec 2027
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Fauve Azur Elite can pretend not to have heard.
Squad27 Dec 2027
26 days, the scan says, and scans are kinder than reality. The fixtures in that window have just become somebody else’s job.
Squad27 Dec 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 Fauve Azur Elite this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Player ratings27 Dec 2027
Successful dribbles: 21. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Match25 Dec 2027
Beaten 1‑2, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Squad27 Dec 2027
Excel Okam 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 ratings27 Dec 2027
A performance of 8.11 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Squad27 Dec 2027
“I would rather say it to his face than read about it.” The meeting was requested by the player, which tells you most of what you need to know.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market13 Dec 2027
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Fauve Azur Elite can pretend not to have heard.
Match11 Dec 2027
The run now stands at 4, and the questions being asked around Fauve Azur Elite are no longer polite ones.
Squad13 Dec 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 Fauve Azur Elite this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad13 Dec 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.
Player ratings13 Dec 2027
Headers, blocks, tackles, interceptions — 17 of them, and not one goal behind him. The sort of performance that never makes a highlight reel and wins football matches.
Player ratings13 Dec 2027
Successful dribbles: 14. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad13 Dec 2027
Janvier Angoa asks for a word with the manager
“I would rather say it to his face than read about it.” The meeting was requested by the player, which tells you most of what you need to know.
Match11 Dec 2027
Ninety minutes, no goals, and the argument started before the car park emptied: a point gained, or two thrown away against Canon Yaounde? Both sides of it will still be going on Thursday.
Player ratings13 Dec 2027
Headers, blocks, tackles, interceptions — 12 of them, and not one goal behind him. The sort of performance that never makes a highlight reel and wins football matches.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market25 Oct 2027
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Squad25 Oct 2027
Zakaria Messibah 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 Oct 2027
Hard to beat is not the same as winning, but 6 matches without defeat is a foundation Fauve Azur Elite did not have in the autumn.
Player ratings25 Oct 2027
Successful dribbles: 19. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad25 Oct 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Excel Okam, and the manager let it.
Match23 Oct 2027
A 1‑1 draw with Gazelle Garoua leaves the dressing room somewhere between relief and regret.
Squad25 Oct 2027
Janvier Angoa knocks on the manager's door
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Fauve Azur Elite, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Player ratings25 Oct 2027
The substitution nobody applauded turned out to be the whole story. Fauve Azur Elite were going nowhere until he came on.
Squad25 Oct 2027
At 20 he is in the side on merit and somebody else is watching from the bench. Places at Fauve Azur Elite are won quietly and lost loudly.