Marked for Patrick Asante
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad14 Aug 2028
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Renaissance this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad14 Aug 2028
Words at Renaissance training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Amine El Maswab 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 dugout14 Aug 2028
Oumar Youssouf back under a manager who knows him
The new man at Renaissance has worked with Oumar Youssouf before and it went well. He arrives with a view of the player already formed, which is worth more than any pre-season.
The dugout14 Aug 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.
Squad14 Aug 2028
No place for Oumar Youssouf in the new shape
He is not being dropped. There is simply nowhere in the formation Renaissance are playing to put a man who does what he does, which is a harder thing to be told than any team sheet.
Squad14 Aug 2028
Renaissance are still strangers to each other
8 new signings in one window. Every one may be an upgrade and the side can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild the verdicts never mention.
Market14 Aug 2028
36 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.
Market14 Aug 2028
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Najim Guerbaa has his answer from Renaissance; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
Boardroom14 Aug 2028
The accounts make uncomfortable reading. Wages first and ambition second is the order of business at Renaissance now.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad31 Jul 2028
Zakaria Ajoughlal 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.
Transfer targets31 Jul 2028
Renaissance asked and Galactik said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Squad31 Jul 2028
Youssef El Omari 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.
Transfer targets31 Jul 2028
A loan move for Djibrine Ndoram is in the works
Renaissance have made the call to Stars Jeunes Talents. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
The dugout31 Jul 2028
Félix Djoubairou has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Renaissance 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.
The dugout31 Jul 2028
Stéphane Acka asks for a word with the manager
“I would rather say it to his face than read about it.” The meeting was requested by the player, which tells you most of what you need to know.
The dugout31 Jul 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.
Market31 Jul 2028
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Félix Djoubairou signs something — a contract at Renaissance or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Market31 Jul 2028
4 months left and the two sides are nowhere near each other. Every week this drags on takes money off what Renaissance could get for him.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market17 Jul 2028
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Mahamat Ali Hassan will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Renaissance the goodbyes have quietly begun.
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.
Squad17 Jul 2028
Words at Renaissance training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Amine El Maswab 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 Jul 2028
Terrel Teboh 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.
Transfer targets17 Jul 2028
A loan enquiry to Stars Jeunes Talents: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.
Boardroom17 Jul 2028
The accounts make uncomfortable reading. Wages first and ambition second is the order of business at Renaissance now.
The dugout17 Jul 2028
Youssef Dalouzi has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Renaissance 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.
The dugout17 Jul 2028
Félix Djoubairou asks for a word with the manager
“I would rather say it to his face than read about it.” The meeting was requested by the player, which tells you most of what you need to know.
Market17 Jul 2028
1 months left and the two sides are nowhere near each other. Every week this drags on takes money off what Renaissance could get for him.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Match28 Jun 2028
1‑3 against Elect Sport, and the road stops here. Cup exits are quick deaths — no second leg, no next week, just the league from now until May.
Market3 Jul 2028
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Renaissance can pretend not to have heard.
Squad3 Jul 2028
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. Renaissance will be quietly delighted and privately nervous.
The dugout3 Jul 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.
Transfer targets3 Jul 2028
The deal with Stars Jeunes Talents is done in every sense but the one that puts him on the pitch. Nothing goes wrong at this stage, except on the occasions when it does.
Squad3 Jul 2028
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Youssef El Omari and Renaissance agree another 2 years.
Squad3 Jul 2028
Stéphane Acka 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.
Squad3 Jul 2028
A move Patrick Boateng would have made for nothing
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Patrick Boateng is living that version at Renaissance, and it tends to show in the first month.
Market3 Jul 2028
The phone has started ringing about Mahamat Ali Hassan again, and this time the name on the line is AS PSI. Renaissance are listening politely and promising nothing.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad16 Nov 2026
A fracture rules Edmund Wakaso out for 30 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Liberty Professionals will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Squad16 Nov 2026
Joseph Sulemana 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.
Squad16 Nov 2026
Words at Liberty Professionals training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Emmanuel Addo 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 dugout16 Nov 2026
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
The dugout16 Nov 2026
Basit Ahmed knocks on the manager's door
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Liberty Professionals, and both men came out saying it was fine.
The dugout16 Nov 2026
Seidu Saana has been promised minutes
A conversation in the manager’s office, and a commitment that came out of it. Promises like that are cheap to make and expensive to break, and Seidu Saana has written the date down.