Marked for Raphael Tchaptchet
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad18 Mar 2030
“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.
Squad18 Mar 2030
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Unisport Bafang this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad18 Mar 2030
Franck Tientcheu 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.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market25 Feb 2030
“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 The request is on a desk at Unisport Bafang, and it is not being withdrawn.
Match23 Feb 2030
No end in sight to Unisport Bafang's wait for a win
6 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Unisport Bafang has to find a result from somewhere.
The terraces25 Feb 2030
The ground has had enough
“We travel everywhere and we get this.” 6 of the 30 senior players heard it walking off, and the ones who did not hear it were not playing.
Squad25 Feb 2030
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Unisport Bafang this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad25 Feb 2030
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Pinna Sagbamaowei and Unisport Bafang agree another 3 years.
Squad25 Feb 2030
“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.
Match23 Feb 2030
0‑1 to Fauve Azur Elite, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Squad25 Feb 2030
Words at Unisport Bafang training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Franck Tientcheu 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.
The terraces25 Feb 2030
He is the name in every column and on every phone-in, which is a heavy thing to carry at any age. Some footballers thrive on it; others are quietly finished by it.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad8 Oct 2029
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 19 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Squad8 Oct 2029
A shoot-out is remembered by its ending, and this one ends with Sizwe Mhlangu: 2 kept out, and a set of supporters who will describe every one of them for the next twenty years.
Match3 Oct 2029
1‑1 against Fortuna Mfou, and the road stops here. Cup exits are quick deaths — no second leg, no next week, just the league from now until May.
Squad8 Oct 2029
27 days, the scan says, and scans are kinder than reality. The fixtures in that window have just become somebody else’s job.
Match6 Oct 2029
Beaten 1‑3, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Player ratings8 Oct 2029
Marked 8.26 — 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 ratings8 Oct 2029
The kick that got away from Pierre Akono
Twelve yards, a goalkeeper guessing, and it still did not go in. He will take the next one, and every soul in the ground will hold their breath.
Player ratings8 Oct 2029
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
Uneasy
Squad27 Aug 2029
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 61 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Market27 Aug 2029
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Unisport Bafang is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad27 Aug 2029
Kelechi Chimezie 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
Squad5 Feb 2029
A fracture rules Franck Tientcheu out for 95 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Unisport Bafang will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Squad5 Feb 2029
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Unisport Bafang may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Squad5 Feb 2029
Welligton 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 Unisport Bafang this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Player ratings5 Feb 2029
17 times he got in the way of something. Centre-halves get written about when they make mistakes and ignored when they do not, so an afternoon like this needs saying out loud: he is the reason the scoreline reads as it does.
Boardroom5 Feb 2029
The board have answered with money instead of encouragement, which is the only answer a manager ever wants. Spending it well is now entirely his problem.
Player ratings5 Feb 2029
Successful dribbles: 13. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Match3 Feb 2029
Nil-nil, and few chances worth the name. Victoria United came to defend and left with exactly what they came for.
Market5 Feb 2029
Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Pierre Akono’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.