Marked for Abdullahi Mohammad
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match24 Apr 2027
1‑5 to Remo Stars, 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.
Squad26 Apr 2027
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.
Match21 Apr 2027
El-Kanemi Warriors ended it 2‑3. The season narrows to the league now, and everyone in the ground knew it before the final whistle.
Player ratings26 Apr 2027
Peter Ndidi, 17, plays like he has been here for years — 7.85
A mark of 7.85 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 17-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
Match24 Apr 2027
4 matches without a win for Kwara United
The run now stands at 4, and the questions being asked around Kwara United are no longer polite ones.
Player ratings26 Apr 2027
Successful dribbles: 22. 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.
Squad26 Apr 2027
Uche Jaguar 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.
Match24 Apr 2027
6 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about Kwara United and Remo Stars in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
Boardroom26 Apr 2027
The numbers do not look good at Kwara United
Wages have outrun income and the accountants have started attending meetings they used to send apologies to. Ambition comes second in a season like this.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Boardroom1 Mar 2027
The accounts are being read more closely than the results. Wages before ambition is the order of business now, and the manager has been told so.
Squad1 Mar 2027
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Junior Aimufua was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Match27 Feb 2027
Beaten 0‑1, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Squad1 Mar 2027
Jerry Alex 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 dugout1 Mar 2027
The manager makes an example of Nnamdi Anthony
“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.
Squad1 Mar 2027
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Somtochuwku Ezenabo and Kwara United agree another 5 years.
The dugout1 Mar 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 Aminu Umar left the room before anybody could ask which.
The dugout1 Mar 2027
Adeshina Gata 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.
The dugout1 Mar 2027
The plan did not have a place for Adeshina Gata
Nobody at Kwara United 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
Squad14 Sep 2026
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.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Kwara United will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Squad14 Sep 2026
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Kareem Yusuff and Kwara United agree another 3 years.
Match12 Sep 2026
Whatever happens, Kwara United do not lose
6 games unbeaten now. Some were earned and some were survived, but a habit is forming — and habits are the hardest thing in football to play against.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Junior Aimufua 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.
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
A performance of 8.01 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Match12 Sep 2026
It needed Jerry Alex to find the net to bring anything home at all: 1‑1 against Rivers United, and half the dressing room will call it a point won.
The dugout14 Sep 2026
Half-satisfied: Aminu Umar on the draw
“There are things I liked and things we will be doing on Tuesday until they are right.” 1‑1, and a manager who had already decided what Tuesday looked like.
The dugout14 Sep 2026
Kareem Yusuff 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 Kwara United, and both men came out saying it was fine.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad7 Sep 2026
9 saves, and a scoreline the ten men in front of him had no right to. Goalkeepers only get noticed on the bad days; this was one of the other ones.
Squad7 Sep 2026
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Kwara United will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Boardroom7 Sep 2026
Window shuts: 0 in, 21 out at Kwara United
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 0 arrived, 21 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Uche Jaguar 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.
Squad7 Sep 2026
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Jimoh Gbadamosi and Kwara United agree another 3 years.
Transfer targets7 Sep 2026
Kwara United asked and Katsina United said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Match5 Sep 2026
It needed Junior Aimufua to find the net to bring anything home at all: 1‑1 against Remo Stars, and half the dressing room will call it a point won.
The dugout7 Sep 2026
Aminu Umar: “We have to be better”
“It is not the end of the world and it is not good enough. Both of those are true.” The manager, after a 1‑1 draw, said the honest thing and then went to say it again inside.
The dugout7 Sep 2026
Kareem Yusuff 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.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad31 Aug 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 ratings31 Aug 2026
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 9.70, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
Match29 Aug 2026
Adeshina Gata wins it after the whistle should have gone
93 minutes played. Adeshina Gata found the finish in time that only existed because of earlier delays, and Barau went from a point to nothing inside one movement.
Squad31 Aug 2026
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 31 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Market31 Aug 2026
“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 Kwara United, and it is not being withdrawn.
Boardroom31 Aug 2026
The rules permit it and it stings anyway. Nurudeen Badmos has agreed terms with Rivers United for the summer, and until then he pulls on this shirt as a player who has already chosen his next one.
Squad31 Aug 2026
Uche Jaguar and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Match29 Aug 2026
Barau made Kwara United work for it, but the scoreboard read 3‑2 at the end and the table does not ask how.
Transfer targets31 Aug 2026
Kwara United asked and Crvena Zvezda said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Match19 Aug 2026
6‑6 against El-Kanemi Warriors, and the road stops here. Cup exits are quick deaths — no second leg, no next week, just the league from now until May.
Squad24 Aug 2026
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Kwara United will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
A brace, and Mustapha Salisu takes the afternoon — 9.20
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Mustapha Salisu provided it, and the 9.20 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
Babatunde Bright, 34, rolls back the years — 10.00
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 10.00 at 34, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Squad24 Aug 2026
The match ball belongs to Babatunde Bright, whose 3 goals turned a difficult afternoon into a procession.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 6 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
Market24 Aug 2026
“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.
Transfer targets24 Aug 2026
The deal with Shooting Stars 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.
Boardroom24 Aug 2026
The rules permit it and it stings anyway. Jamiu Sulaimon has agreed terms with Rivers United for the summer, and until then he pulls on this shirt as a player who has already chosen his next one.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Match15 Aug 2026
2 goals to the good, and then a slow surrender of everything that had been earned. Adeshina Gata will not be the one blamed for it, but nobody at Kwara United escapes the conversation that follows a collapse like this.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 45 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Transfer targets17 Aug 2026
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Olympiacos is saying, and nobody at Kwara United is enjoying the guessing.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Uche Jaguar 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.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Junior Aimufua was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
Ninety minutes of Adeshina Gata at his very best
Marked 8.03. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Kwara United.
Match15 Aug 2026
It needed Adeshina Gata to find the net to bring anything home at all: 2‑2 against Warri Wolves, and half the dressing room will call it a point won.
Transfer targets17 Aug 2026
A loan enquiry to Crvena Zvezda: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.
The dugout17 Aug 2026
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Aminu Umar was not hiding it after 2‑2, and nobody in the Kwara United dressing room was either.