Marked for Abdramane Abba
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market2 Aug 2027
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and AS Algoy waiting with a shirt. Nobody at US Moursal is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Squad2 Aug 2027
Moussa Haroun breaks a bone — 52 days out
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 52 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Market2 Aug 2027
“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.
Market2 Aug 2027
AS DGSSIE come back empty-handed
The bid was some way short and US Moursal did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Market2 Aug 2027
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Ezechiel Bechir will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around US Moursal the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad2 Aug 2027
Djibrine Bechir 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 targets2 Aug 2027
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.
Squad2 Aug 2027
A row about effort at US Moursal
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Abdramane Abba was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Transfer targets2 Aug 2027
Stars Jeunes Talents 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.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad12 Jul 2027
A knee injury of the worst kind for Marius Mbaiguedem
24 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. US Moursal lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Squad12 Jul 2027
Moussa Haroun breaks a bone — 73 days out
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 73 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Market12 Jul 2027
The bid was some way short and US Moursal did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Market12 Jul 2027
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around US Moursal people have started saying his name in the past tense.
Transfer targets12 Jul 2027
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at AS Algoy is saying, and nobody at US Moursal is enjoying the guessing.
Transfer targets12 Jul 2027
The paperwork begins on Adam Abakar
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. US Moursal have done the hard part with Galactik, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Squad12 Jul 2027
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at US Moursal this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Transfer targets12 Jul 2027
US Moursal asked and Renaissance said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Squad12 Jul 2027
A row about effort at US Moursal
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Abdramane Abba was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market31 Aug 2026
Oumar Adoum hands in a written request
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what US Moursal can pretend not to have heard.
Market31 Aug 2026
The offer from Aiglons for Abdoulaye Moustapha 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.
Market31 Aug 2026
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. US Moursal have lost him in all but the paperwork.
Market31 Aug 2026
The name of Youssouf Allamine has come up in conversations US Moursal were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Squad31 Aug 2026
Djibrine Bechir 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.
Squad31 Aug 2026
A row about effort at US Moursal
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Youssouf Allamine was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout31 Aug 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.
Squad31 Aug 2026
“The easiest signature of my career.” Abdramane Abba and US Moursal agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
The dugout31 Aug 2026
Abdramane Abba 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.