At 19 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.
Hamza Asrir 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.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 19-year-old it feels ownership of. Oussama Mazraoui has it now, and everything he does for the rest of his time here will be measured against the goodwill he was handed for free.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Oussama Mazraoui. 2‑0 against Stars Jeunes Talents, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
8.32. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
Successful dribbles: 16. 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.
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Abdramane Allamine on a 2‑0 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
He wheeled away like a man who had been carrying it for months, because he had. Gazelle have their signing off the mark and one press-conference question retired.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ezechiel 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.
“I did not go to Gazelle to sit and watch. I want to come back to Stars Jeunes Talents and fight for my place.” 2 appearances in 9 matches say the rest.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Oumar Mbainaissem after 0‑2, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Narcisse Adoum signs something — a contract at Stars Jeunes Talents or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Chances created: 8. Nothing on the scoresheet and everything in the match: the pass before the pass, over and over, until the defence stopped guessing right.
In brief
SquadThe training reports on Hassan Hissein are not good
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Gazelle this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Brahim Ndoram has been at this club since he was a boy and is now, formally, one of the first-team squad — which for a local readership beats any signing of any size.
He is doing things every Saturday that nobody around him can answer. It is flattering for a season and a problem after that, and Gazelle know which stage they are at.
10 signings in three months. Every one of them may be an upgrade and the team can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild that never appears in the transfer-window verdicts.
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Stars Jeunes Talents in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
The words a physio says slowly. 33 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.
“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 Stars Jeunes Talents, and 0 appearances in 5 say he has earned the hearing.
The most common injury in the game and the most rushed back from. Gazelle will quote 17 days and will be careful with it, because the second one is always worse than the first.
Gazelle asked and Aigle Royal de Moungo said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
AS Etat Major have been asked whether they would lend him. Loans are agreed quickly or not at all, and this one will be one or the other by the weekend.
Squad17 Aug 2026
5 new faces, and Gazelle are still learning each other
A squad rebuilt inside one window pays for it in a currency nobody budgets for. The football is not worse than the sum of the players; it is worse than the sum of the players who have played together before.
A year in and the language has not come, the city has not opened up, and he eats alone more often than anybody at Gazelle would like to admit. It is showing on Saturdays.
“I know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” AS PSI had the fee agreed and the shirt ready; they did not have the player, and now they will not.
The injury that keeps coming back, keeps being rushed back from, and quietly costs more careers than the dramatic ones. 16 days is the estimate; the honest figure depends on whether anybody is patient.
Youssouf Souleymane 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ezechiel 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.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Abdramane Souleymane and Stars Jeunes Talents agree another 3 years.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Abdramane Souleymane trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Stars Jeunes Talents have lost him in all but the paperwork.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Stars Jeunes Talents have done the hard part with AS PSI, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Narcisse Adoum and Stars Jeunes Talents agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Stars Jeunes Talents this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Mohamed Chennah is living that version at Gazelle, and it tends to show in the first month.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Gazelle this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The system has changed and his position has not. A footballer can improve his form; he cannot improve the manager’s formation, and that is the whole of the problem.
Still no offer on the table, and Hassane Boudina’s deal keeps shrinking. In boardroom language, silence this long stops being an oversight and starts being an answer.
“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 Stars Jeunes Talents, and it is not being withdrawn.
Youssouf Souleymane 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 name of Oussama Mazraoui has come up in conversations Stars Jeunes Talents were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Ezechiel Ngaradoumbe was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Stars Jeunes Talents have made the call to AS PSI. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.