16 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Canon Yaounde lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Canon Yaounde is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Nathan Doualla 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.
1‑2 to Aigle Royal de Moungo, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Squad22 Sep 2031
Words at Canon Yaounde training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Luc Bide Ndohoungar 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 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.
Nobody at Canon Yaounde will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
44 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Canon Yaounde lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Canon Yaounde have lost him in all but the paperwork.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Armel Djimmoe will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Canon Yaounde the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 18 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.
Nathan Doualla 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.
Canon Yaounde asked and Cotonsport Garoua said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
At 31 the improving is meant to be over. It is not: 3 points better than the mark taken at the start of the year, which is the sort of thing that happens to players who take the boring parts of the job seriously.
Canon Yaounde have made the call to Aigle Royal de la Menoua. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
79 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Canon Yaounde lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Canon Yaounde they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Canon Yaounde asked and Cotonsport Garoua said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Squad21 Jul 2031
Words at Canon Yaounde training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Luc Bide Ndohoungar 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.
Herman Tchakounte 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.
Canon Yaounde have made the call to Aigle Royal de la Menoua. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
The words a physio says slowly. 86 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.
“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 Canon Yaounde, and it is not being withdrawn.
Canon Yaounde and Cotonsport Garoua have settled on $94.0K. The rest belongs to the player and his agent, and a supporter who has watched one of these before knows not to buy the shirt yet.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Canon Yaounde is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Canon Yaounde this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Canon Yaounde asked and Cotonsport Garoua said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Gilfranck Peto was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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 Martin Ako Assomo is on it.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Canon Yaounde will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Canon Yaounde can pretend not to have heard.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Canon Yaounde have lost him in all but the paperwork.
Squad10 Feb 2031
At 18, Olivier Dawa is already the best thing here
An average of 6.59 in a first team he is several years too young for. Canon Yaounde have something, and by now the whole division has noticed.
Nathan Doualla 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Zamalek have kept their man, and Canon Yaounde go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Luc Bide Ndohoungar was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“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 Canon Yaounde, and it is not being withdrawn.
There are footballers who have a good season and footballers a season is remembered for, and the second kind get their names read out in a hall in the summer. Canon Yaounde will be quietly delighted and privately nervous.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Canon Yaounde have done the hard part with Stade Renard de Melong, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Nathan Doualla 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.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Willy Ebendeng has just signed for Canon Yaounde, and for once the answer mattered.