Marked for Brahim Abba
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad21 Dec 2026
Brahim Abba breaks a bone — 93 days out
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 93 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Market21 Dec 2026
“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.
Squad21 Dec 2026
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Narcisse Tokindang and AS Algoy agree another 3 years.
Match19 Dec 2026
Beaten 0‑1, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Squad21 Dec 2026
“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.
Loan watch21 Dec 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 Algoy, and 2 appearances in 16 say he has earned the hearing.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad7 Dec 2026
A fracture rules Hassan Oumar out for 21 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason AS Algoy will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Player ratings7 Dec 2026
Saleh Youssouf, 19, plays like he has been here for years — 8.23
A mark of 8.23 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 19-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
Market7 Dec 2026
“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 The request is on a desk at AS Algoy, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad7 Dec 2026
At 26 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.
Squad7 Dec 2026
Djibrine Tokindang 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 terraces7 Dec 2026
At 19 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.
Player ratings7 Dec 2026
Marked 8.03 — 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.
Loan watch7 Dec 2026
“I watch every AS Algoy game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Galactik runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad23 Nov 2026
A fracture rules Hassan Oumar out for 35 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason AS Algoy will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Squad23 Nov 2026
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.
Squad23 Nov 2026
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 Algoy this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match21 Nov 2026
Gazelle left with the points after a 1‑3 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Loan watch23 Nov 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 Algoy, and 5 appearances in 15 say he has earned the hearing.
Squad23 Nov 2026
“The easiest signature of my career.” Marius Oumar and AS Algoy agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Player ratings23 Nov 2026
The substitution nobody applauded turned out to be the whole story. AS Algoy were going nowhere until he came on.
Player ratings23 Nov 2026
Successful dribbles: 7. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Market23 Nov 2026
AS Algoy have made Brahim Abba available for transfer. A career at this club is over in all but paperwork.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad9 Nov 2026
A fracture rules Hassan Oumar out for 49 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason AS Algoy will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Match7 Nov 2026
The small margins put AS Algoy out
Out, 0‑0 to Foullah Edifice, and the long argument about which of the small moments decided it. The league is all there is now, and everybody knows it.
Market9 Nov 2026
“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.
Squad9 Nov 2026
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 Algoy this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad9 Nov 2026
At 26 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.
Loan watch9 Nov 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 Algoy, and 0 appearances in 10 say he has earned the hearing.
Player ratings9 Nov 2026
Some games turn on a moment; this one turned on a man. 7.13 on the card, and the AS Algoy support went home talking about one name.
Squad9 Nov 2026
Ali Adoum 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.
Market9 Nov 2026
The Ali Adoum story refuses to die
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Ali Adoum signs something — a contract at AS Algoy or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad12 Oct 2026
A fracture rules Hassan Oumar out for 77 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason AS Algoy will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Squad12 Oct 2026
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Mahamat Mbainaissem is 23, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Market12 Oct 2026
“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.
Squad12 Oct 2026
At 26 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.
Squad12 Oct 2026
Djibrine Tokindang 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.
Market12 Oct 2026
“We are a long way apart, and pretending otherwise helps nobody.” Neither side is close, and the calendar is not on the club's side.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad14 Sep 2026
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 23 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.
Market14 Sep 2026
“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 AS Algoy, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad14 Sep 2026
At 26 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.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Hassan Oumar 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.
Squad14 Sep 2026
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Ezechiel Mbainaissem commits to AS Algoy for another 3 years.
Loan watch14 Sep 2026
“I watch every AS Algoy game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at CotonTchad runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.