Marked for Adam Moustapha
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match9 Jan 2027
13 matches without a win for AS Etat Major
The run now stands at 13, and the questions being asked around AS Etat Major are no longer polite ones.
Match11 Jan 2027
Every point is an argument now for AS Etat Major
Position 11 and 7 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.
Market11 Jan 2027
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what AS Etat Major can pretend not to have heard.
Transfer targets11 Jan 2027
Everything agreed with AS Algoy, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
Market11 Jan 2027
The interest is real enough to have reached print. AS Etat Major have said nothing, which in a transfer window is its own kind of answer.
Transfer targets11 Jan 2027
The approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.
Squad11 Jan 2027
Omar Hakimi 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.
Squad11 Jan 2027
Saleh Oumar 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.
Player ratings11 Jan 2027
Issa Abba beats them one at a time
Successful dribbles: 19. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match12 Dec 2026
9 matches without a win for AS Etat Major
The run now stands at 9, and the questions being asked around AS Etat Major are no longer polite ones.
Match14 Dec 2026
5 points, and a fixture list that is running out. The mathematics are not yet cruel, but they are no longer kind.
Market14 Dec 2026
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what AS Etat Major can pretend not to have heard.
Match12 Dec 2026
4 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at AS Etat Major can tell you which week it ends in.
Squad14 Dec 2026
Bicto Tyonga 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 terraces14 Dec 2026
The crowd has taken to Omar Hakimi
At 23 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
The dugout14 Dec 2026
Bicto Tyonga gets it from the manager
“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.
Player ratings14 Dec 2026
Nobody could get near Issa Abba
Successful dribbles: 16. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Player ratings14 Dec 2026
Marked 7.22. Ask anyone leaving the ground what settled it and you will get one name, which is the only award that has ever really counted.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
The dugout2 Nov 2026
Bicto Tyonga: 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.” AS Etat Major have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Squad2 Nov 2026
Bicto Tyonga and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Match31 Oct 2026
3 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at AS Etat Major can tell you which week it ends in.
Loan watch2 Nov 2026
“I watch every AS Etat Major game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Foullah Edifice runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
Match31 Oct 2026
AS Algoy left with the points after a 0‑1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
The dugout2 Nov 2026
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Ezechiel Ndoram after 0‑1, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
Player ratings2 Nov 2026
Successful dribbles: 15. 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.
Squad2 Nov 2026
Off the academy pitches and onto a senior team sheet at 20. The debut is the easy part; the second appearance is the one every young player has to earn.
Squad2 Nov 2026
Ali Ndoram is not saying it is over
“Ask me in the summer. I will know before anybody else does.” He is 33 with 2 appearances behind him, and AS Etat Major have to plan for both answers.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market19 Oct 2026
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what AS Etat Major can pretend not to have heard.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Bicto Tyonga 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.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Omar Hakimi was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Time is catching up with Adam Djimet
Everybody at AS Etat Major saw it before anybody said it, which is how this always goes. At 35 the decline is real and measurable — 3 points — and the only question left is how the club handles somebody it owes a great deal to.
Loan watch19 Oct 2026
“I am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at AS Etat Major, and 2 appearances in 10 say he has earned the hearing.
Player ratings19 Oct 2026
Marked 7.35 on an afternoon he ran from the first whistle to the last. Whatever else went wrong, AS Etat Major had the best player on the pitch.
The dugout19 Oct 2026
The view from the dugout
“We did not lose. Some weeks that is all you get, and I would rather have the point than not.” Ezechiel Ndoram chose the glass-half-full version of 0‑0; the supporters left with the other one.
The dugout19 Oct 2026
There is no complaint available here and everybody involved knows it, which does not make the walk to the bench any shorter. Form is the only currency in football that cannot be borrowed against.
Match17 Oct 2026
Point won or two lost for AS Etat Major?
Ninety minutes, no goals, and the argument started before the car park emptied: a point gained, or two thrown away against Renaissance? Both sides of it will still be going on Thursday.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad12 Oct 2026
Bicto Tyonga 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 AS Etat Major this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Loan watch12 Oct 2026
“I am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at AS Etat Major, and 0 appearances in 6 say he has earned the hearing.
Market12 Oct 2026
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at AS Etat Major, another week without a signature from Saleh Oumar.
Looking ahead12 Oct 2026
AS Etat Major take on the side everybody is chasing
Renaissance arrive as leaders. A side at the top is beaten roughly once a month, and the club that does it gets a week it remembers for a year.
Market12 Oct 2026
The Ahmat Ndoram talk will not go away
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. AS Etat Major know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
The dugout12 Oct 2026
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at AS Etat Major, and both men came out saying it was fine.