“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 The request is on a desk at Gazelle Garoua, and it is not being withdrawn.
6 goals in one match, Abiola Dauda on the scoresheet, and a scoreline that will look like a misprint. Neutrals could not have asked more of Gazelle Garoua and Panthere du Nde.
11 goals and a season average of 7.36. Form like that gets noticed well beyond this town.
The dugout28 Dec 2026
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 2‑4 Christian Onguene left the room before anybody could ask which.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Gazelle Garoua told Eden Creol something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
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.
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 Sony Farell Evina is on it.
In brief
SquadA Gazelle Garoua teenager takes the young player award
1‑4 against Cotonsport Garoua, and no complaints that would survive the replay. The manager spoke about character afterwards; the terraces used shorter words.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 8 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
“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 The request is on a desk at Gazelle Garoua, and it is not being withdrawn.
Dave Tessa 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.
Position 7, 16 points, and every result so far reduced to one line. The second half of the season starts with the same squad and a different set of expectations.
Maël Monyebe 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.
He is 21 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.
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.
At 38 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 9.93 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
“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 Gazelle Garoua, and it is not being withdrawn.
A season average of 7.09 at an age when most of his year group are still in the youth team. Gazelle Garoua know what they have, and so, by now, does everybody else.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Gazelle Garoua this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Sony Farell Evina and Gazelle Garoua agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Two or more conceded in each of the last 4 matches. It is not one mistake repeating itself, which would be the easier thing to fix; it is a different one every week.
Fauve Azur Elite will want this one forgotten quickly: 5‑2, every duel lost, and a long ride home. Gazelle Garoua were ruthless in the way good sides are ruthless.
The hardest thing about being 20 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Serge Daura did not need any: 10.00, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 7 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
7 goals in one match, Serge Daura on the scoresheet, and a scoreline that will look like a misprint. Neutrals could not have asked more of Gazelle Garoua and Fauve Azur Elite.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 20-year-old it feels ownership of. Serge Daura 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.
It had gone 5 games. The players did not celebrate like men who had won a match; they celebrated like men who had been let out of something.
The dugout26 Oct 2026
The view from the dugout
“We controlled it. There were spells I did not like and we will look at them, but the group showed me something.” Christian Onguene, on a 5‑2 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
2 kept out from twelve yards, and a stadium that will describe each of them for twenty years. A goalkeeper needs one night like this in a career, and this was it.
2 goals to the good, and then a slow surrender of everything that had been earned. Colbert Binni will not be the one blamed for it, but nobody at Gazelle Garoua escapes the conversation that follows a collapse like this.
Player ratings12 Oct 2026
Colbert Binni, 20, plays like he has been here for years — 9.61
A mark of 9.61 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 20-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
“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.
Player ratings12 Oct 2026
Up for the corner, and Wanre Daikreo delivers — 7.16
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Wanre Daikreo scored, was marked 7.16, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Arsene Mekila is 19, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Gazelle Garoua can pretend not to have heard.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 20 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
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.
Dave Tessa 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 supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 1‑2, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
A month is long enough that nobody gets in by accident. Marius Kalgong is in the division's best eleven for it, which is a quieter compliment than an award and a more reliable one.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 6 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
At 38 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.46 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Gazelle Garoua can pretend not to have heard.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 21 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 6 goals between Gazelle Garoua and Aigle Royal de Moungo, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Marius Kalgong. 4‑2 against Aigle Royal de Moungo, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 20-year-old it feels ownership of. Colbert Binni 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.
Dave Tessa and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Words at Gazelle Garoua training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ange Constant Kenfack 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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Arsene Mekila trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Gazelle Garoua, another week without a signature from Franck Choupo-Moting.
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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Aigle Royal de la Menoua have kept their man, and Gazelle Garoua go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Dave Tessa 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.
He is not being dropped. There is simply nowhere in the formation Gazelle Garoua are playing to put a man who does what he does, which is a harder thing to be told than any team sheet.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Ange Constant Kenfack was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Gazelle Garoua can pretend not to have heard.
Maël Monyebe 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.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Stephane Fai is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Achille Oyongo has been at this club since he was a boy and is now, formally, one of the first-team squad — which for a local readership beats any signing of any size.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Boris Kameni has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.
He is doing things on a Saturday afternoon that nobody around him can answer, which is flattering for about one season and a problem after that. Gazelle Garoua will not keep him by pretending otherwise.
Gazelle Garoua have made the call to Stade Renard de Melong. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
“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 Gazelle Garoua, and it is not being withdrawn.
He is doing things on a Saturday afternoon that nobody around him can answer, which is flattering for about one season and a problem after that. Gazelle Garoua will not keep him by pretending otherwise.
49 months left and silence from upstairs — no offer, no talks, nothing for his people to answer. Clubs that let a calendar do their negotiating usually end up negotiating with the calendar.
Cotonsport Garoua have been asked whether they would lend him. Loans are agreed quickly or not at all, and this one will be one or the other by the weekend.
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.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Gazelle Garoua, another week without a signature from Colbert Binni.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Ange Constant Kenfack was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.