Marked for Ezechiel Djimet
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market18 Jan 2027
“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 The request is on a desk at AS Etat Major, and it is not being withdrawn.
Market18 Jan 2027
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Squad18 Jan 2027
Brahim Abba 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.
Squad18 Jan 2027
“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 watch18 Jan 2027
“I did not go to Aiglons to sit and watch. I want to come back to AS Etat Major and fight for my place.” 3 appearances in 20 matches say the rest.
Squad18 Jan 2027
Moussa Ngaradoumbe 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
Steady
Match28 Nov 2026
It is a specific kind of quiet, a ground watching a winning position dissolve. Gazelle kept coming because nothing stopped them, and AS Etat Major will be asked about the last half hour all week.
Market30 Nov 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 The request is on a desk at AS Etat Major, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad30 Nov 2026
A one-man rearguard from Issa Abakar
There were 6 saves in it, and at least three that had no business being saves at all. The ten outfield players owe him a drink and they know it.
Player ratings30 Nov 2026
No sign of nerves from Ahmat Oumar at 21 — 7.83
The hardest thing about being 21 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Ahmat Oumar did not need any: 7.83, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Squad30 Nov 2026
Brahim Abba 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.
Match28 Nov 2026
It finished 2‑2, and it somehow always looked like it would. One of those afternoons where the table moves less than the tempers.
Squad30 Nov 2026
Words at AS Etat Major training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Moussa Ngaradoumbe 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.
Player ratings30 Nov 2026
Successful dribbles: 14. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad30 Nov 2026
“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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market2 Nov 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 Etat Major, and it is not being withdrawn.
Player ratings2 Nov 2026
Marius Abakar ran the middle of the pitch — 6.91
He won it back and then made something of it, which is two jobs and the reason the scoreline looks the way it does. 14 combined actions and a mark of 6.91, and not one of them will make a highlights package.
Squad2 Nov 2026
Ahmat 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.
Match31 Oct 2026
Beaten 0‑1, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Squad2 Nov 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Brahim Abba, and the manager let it.
Squad2 Nov 2026
A month that belonged to Ahmat Oumar
The young player of the month award goes to a 21-year-old at AS Etat Major who has looked like the finished article for four weekends running. The next four are the ones that decide whether he is.
Loan watch2 Nov 2026
Ali Oumar wants to come home
“I did not go to Aiglons to sit and watch. I want to come back to AS Etat Major and fight for my place.” 3 appearances in 10 matches say the rest.
Squad2 Nov 2026
Saleh Adoum 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.
Market2 Nov 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
Uneasy
Market19 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.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Ezechiel Djimet is 21, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Brahim Abba 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
Ezechiel Tokindang has improved at 26, which nobody expected
Careers are supposed to plateau and then decline, and the players who ignore that are always the ones who were listening on the training ground. 3 points of it, over months, at an age where the direction normally only goes one way.
Loan watch19 Oct 2026
“I did not go to Foullah Edifice to sit and watch. I want to come back to AS Etat Major and fight for my place.” 0 appearances in 10 matches say the rest.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Marius Mbaiguedem 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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad12 Oct 2026
17 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. AS Etat Major lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Squad12 Oct 2026
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Marius Abakar is 22, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Squad12 Oct 2026
Ahmat Oumar has improved at 28, which nobody expected
Careers are supposed to plateau and then decline, and the players who ignore that are always the ones who were listening on the training ground. 4 points of it, over months, at an age where the direction normally only goes one way.
Squad12 Oct 2026
Brahim Abba 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.
The terraces12 Oct 2026
At 22 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 ratings12 Oct 2026
Marked 7.80 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.
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 Issa Abakar.
Loan watch12 Oct 2026
“I watch every AS Etat Major game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Gazelle runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
Player ratings12 Oct 2026
Successful dribbles: 15. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad21 Sep 2026
38 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. AS Etat Major lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Market21 Sep 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.
Market21 Sep 2026
The deal that would have taken Idriss Ndoram to AS Algoy has collapsed at the last stage, and he reports back to AS Etat Major with a summer to forget and a season still to play. Nobody is saying which side walked away.
Squad21 Sep 2026
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Ezechiel Djimet is 21, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Squad21 Sep 2026
Brahim Abba 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.
Squad21 Sep 2026
At 25 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.