Marked for Trésor Feumba
From our football correspondent
Crisis
The terraces17 Jul 2028
The mood at Fortuna Mfou has turned into something else
Supporters who sing when it goes badly are supporters. Supporters who gather afterwards are a problem, and everybody inside the building knows which of the two this now is.
Squad17 Jul 2028
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 123 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Market17 Jul 2028
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Fortuna Mfou is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Market17 Jul 2028
“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.
Market17 Jul 2028
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Squad17 Jul 2028
Ismaël Fansu 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.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Crisis
The terraces31 Jan 2028
The mood at Fortuna Mfou has turned into something else
Supporters who sing when it goes badly are supporters. Supporters who gather afterwards are a problem, and everybody inside the building knows which of the two this now is.
Market31 Jan 2028
“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.
Squad31 Jan 2028
“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.
Market31 Jan 2028
Only the photograph left for Serge Eloundou
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Serge Eloundou will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Fortuna Mfou the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad31 Jan 2028
Maor Kandil 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 Fortuna Mfou this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Market31 Jan 2028
Both sides expect a conversation in the coming days. Fortuna Mfou will name a price, and everything after that is arithmetic.
Squad31 Jan 2028
Words at Fortuna Mfou training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Willian Pacheco 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.
Squad31 Jan 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.
Match29 Jan 2028
Beaten 0‑1, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match17 Jan 2028
Every point is an argument now for Fortuna Mfou
Position 12 and 17 points, and the table gets read bottom-up in this part of town. The calendar has stopped being a schedule and started being a countdown.
Market17 Jan 2028
Aiman Riahi 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 Fortuna Mfou can pretend not to have heard.
Match15 Jan 2028
No end in sight to Fortuna Mfou's wait for a win
6 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Fortuna Mfou has to find a result from somewhere.
Market17 Jan 2028
The bid was some way short and Fortuna Mfou did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Squad17 Jan 2028
Maor Kandil 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 Fortuna Mfou this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad17 Jan 2028
“The easiest signature of my career.” Trésor Feumba and Fortuna Mfou agree another 2 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad17 Jan 2028
Words at Fortuna Mfou training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Willian Pacheco 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.
Squad17 Jan 2028
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Alladoum Kolimba, and the manager let it.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad6 Dec 2027
Marc Yapéndé breaks a bone — 18 days out
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 18 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Market6 Dec 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.
Squad6 Dec 2027
Trésor Feumba: 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.” Panthere du Nde have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Squad6 Dec 2027
Raúl Quiroga 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.
Squad6 Dec 2027
30 days, the medical staff say, and medical staff are optimists by profession. The team sheet will look wrong without him.
Match4 Dec 2027
8 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad31 May 2027
Warren Fozing 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.
Squad31 May 2027
Alain Sifor 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.
Squad31 May 2027
Marc Onguene 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 Marc Onguene trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad3 May 2027
Raúl Quiroga breaks a bone — 18 days out
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 18 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Market3 May 2027
Trésor Feumba 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 Panthere du Nde can pretend not to have heard.
Squad3 May 2027
Raúl Quiroga 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 Panthere du Nde this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad29 Mar 2027
Raúl Quiroga breaks a bone — 54 days out
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 54 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Squad29 Mar 2027
A knee injury of the worst kind for Cyrien Saha Bikim
20 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Panthere du Nde lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Market29 Mar 2027
“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 Panthere du Nde, and it is not being withdrawn.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad8 Feb 2027
A fracture rules Raúl Quiroga out for 104 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Panthere du Nde will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Squad8 Feb 2027
Cyrien Saha Bikim damages knee ligaments — 72 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 72 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.
Match6 Feb 2027
0‑3 to PWD Bamenda, 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.
Market8 Feb 2027
Trésor Feumba 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 Panthere du Nde can pretend not to have heard.
Squad8 Feb 2027
Raúl Quiroga 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.
Squad8 Feb 2027
Words at Panthere du Nde training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Moussa Benzaid 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.
Boardroom8 Feb 2027
The manager kept them in and said what needed saying. A response is expected on Saturday, and if it does not come the questions move upstairs.
Player ratings8 Feb 2027
Marked 5.42, and generously at that. Nothing came off, and by the end the crowd had stopped expecting it to.
Player ratings8 Feb 2027
Marked 5.44. Nothing he attempted worked and by the hour mark he had stopped attempting much, which is the part a manager notices rather than the mistakes.