Mohamed El Ouardi 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.
Nobody makes a documentary about a hamstring and everybody in the game fears one. AS DGSSIE will be careful with the return date, because the second one is always worse than the first.
Squad22 Mar 2027
Issa Abba 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.
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.
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against AS Algoy in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
0‑3 against Renaissance, and no complaints that would survive the replay. The manager spoke about character afterwards; the terraces used shorter words.
“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 The request is on a desk at AS DGSSIE, and it is not being withdrawn.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 6 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
Mohamed El Ouardi and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad15 Mar 2027
Words at AS DGSSIE training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Issa Abba 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.
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.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Marius Moustapha after 0‑3, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
1‑7 against CotonTchad, and no complaints that would survive the replay. The manager spoke about character afterwards; the terraces used shorter words.
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.
Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 8 goals between AS DGSSIE and CotonTchad, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.
Squad8 Mar 2027
Words at AS DGSSIE training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Issa Abba 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.
Abdramane 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.
In brief
SquadA place in the month's best eleven for Henry Simon
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 10 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
“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 DGSSIE, and it is not being withdrawn.
1‑2 to AS PSI, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Squad1 Mar 2027
Issa Abba 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.
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 1‑2, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Moubarak Djibrine is on it.
The one version of being left out a player cannot argue with, and the one he takes worst. Somebody else has been better and the team sheet says so, in public, every week until it changes.
In brief
SquadHassan Adoum is the weekend's best young player
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 9 arrived, 0 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
Mohamed El Ouardi 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 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.
Squad1 Feb 2027
Words at AS DGSSIE training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Issa Abba 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.
Minute 94, against Gazelle, and a goal that felt like a win to everybody who had stayed. It was a draw. Nobody leaving the ground will describe it as one.
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.
13 points and a position everybody in the ground can do the arithmetic on. The songs have stopped being about the team and started being about surviving, which is a different noise entirely.
“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 DGSSIE, and it is not being withdrawn.
Mohamed El Ouardi 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.
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 DGSSIE this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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
Words at AS DGSSIE training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Issa Abba 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.
8.19. 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.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 10 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
The 86th minute, half the ground already edging towards the exits, and Mohamed El Ouardi decided nobody was going anywhere. AS Etat Major had no time left to answer.
AS DGSSIE asked and AS Etat Major said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Mohamed El Ouardi. 2‑1 against AS Etat Major, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Squad4 Jan 2027
Words at AS DGSSIE training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Issa Abba 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.
Marked 8.44 — 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.
Half the programme played, position 10, 12 on the board. Doubling it is the sum every supporter has done and the only one nobody at the club will do out loud.
AS DGSSIE 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.
Position 12 and 6 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.
“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 DGSSIE, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad21 Dec 2026
Issa Abba 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.
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Moubarak Djibrine is on it.
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Issa Abba’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and AS DGSSIE needing him to play as if none of it matters.
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 DGSSIE this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
3 games without scoring. Strikers stop looking up, midfielders take the extra touch, and every shot that clears the bar is followed by a groan that has been building since the last goal.
Squad14 Dec 2026
Words at AS DGSSIE training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Issa Abba 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.
Nobody at AS DGSSIE 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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Ali Djimet trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Issa Abba was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Mahamat Oumar and AS DGSSIE agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Boardroom7 Dec 2026
Nobody left the AS DGSSIE dressing room in a hurry
The door stayed shut a long time after the final whistle. What was said in there is between them; whether it worked is between them and Saturday.
The dugout7 Dec 2026
The view from the dugout
“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 0‑4 defeat, delivered by Marius Moustapha to a room that had heard them before.
A month is long enough that nobody gets in by accident. Ali Djimet is in the division's best eleven for it, which is a quieter compliment than an award and a more reliable one.
Issa Abba 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.
Successful dribbles: 19. 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.
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Mohamed El Ouardi is on it.
The dugout16 Nov 2026
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Marius Moustapha was not hiding it after 0‑0, and nobody in the AS DGSSIE dressing room was either.
Shifted about, taken off before the hour, asked to do somebody else's running — Marius Mahamat has had enough of being useful and would like to be picked. AS DGSSIE know, and have known for weeks.
In brief
SquadThe training reports on Ali Djimet are not good
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.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Marius Mahamat and AS DGSSIE agree another 3 years.
Squad2 Nov 2026
Issa Abba 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.
Successful dribbles: 18. 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.
4 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
At 21 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.
Successful dribbles: 19. 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.
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Ali Djimet, and the manager let it.
The dugout26 Oct 2026
The manager’s verdict
“That is on me. I pick the team and I picked wrong.” Managers say that when they mean it and when they need to be seen to, and after 2‑3 Marius Moustapha left the room before anybody could ask which.
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Issa Abba was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout19 Oct 2026
The view from the dugout
“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 2‑3 defeat, delivered by Marius Moustapha to a room that had heard them before.
The team at the top of the table next, and the honest measure of where this side actually is. Anybody can beat the club below them; the question is what happens against Elect Sport.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Abdoulaye Abakar is 20, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Idriss Mbaiguedem has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Issa Mahamat has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.
AS DGSSIE ran out of time with AS Algoy. The paperwork was open when the deadline passed, and a transfer that was almost done is now a transfer that never happened.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. AS Algoy have lost him in all but the paperwork.
The offer from Foullah Edifice for Marius Mbainaissem was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
The deal that would have taken Ali Mbainaissem to Galactik has collapsed at the last stage, and he reports back to AS Algoy with a summer to forget and a season still to play. Nobody is saying which side walked away.
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 8 arrived, 8 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Brahim Souleymane was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The manager has re-ordered his thinking and Ali Mbainaissem has come out of it lower. He will be told it is temporary, and the players who have heard that before will avoid his eye.
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 13 arrived, 0 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
The offer went to AS Algoy this week and it is theirs to answer. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loud the door closes.
The chase for Ali Djimet ended with $8.0K changing hands and AS Algoy out of reasons to say no. The supporters will judge the fee the only way that matters: on Saturdays.
Mohamed El Ouardi 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.
$2.0K was the most the club would pay and AS Algoy were asking for more. Deals like this are revived in the last week of a window roughly half the time, and everybody involved knows it.
Boards get told what they have done wrong for years and hear nothing on the days they get it right. This is one of those days: Ali Djimet from AS Algoy for $8.0K, and a ticket office having a very good morning.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Stars Jeunes Talents have kept their man, and AS DGSSIE go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
In brief
SquadWords at AS DGSSIE training over how hard people work
The words a physio says slowly. 28 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.
The offer from Galactik for Idriss Souleymane was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
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.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Words at AS Algoy training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Issa Haroun 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 name of Ali Djimet has come up in conversations AS Algoy were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
“Ambitious players need ambitious projects. Draw your own conclusions.” Marius Mbainaissem’s representative said it with a smile, and made sure everyone wrote it down.
Everything agreed with AS Etat Major, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
$9.0K on the table at AS Algoy. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
AS DGSSIE asked and AS Algoy said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Ahmat Djimet 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.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Mahamat Hissein is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Ali Doungous 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.
“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.
The name of Abdramane Mbainaissem has come up in conversations AS Algoy were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Words at AS Algoy training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Issa Haroun 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.