Marked for Narcisse Adoum
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad9 Aug 2027
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 84 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Match9 Aug 2027
The view from the top for CotonTchad
57 points, and the rest of the division looking up. Every side that finishes first spends the season pretending it is not thinking about it, and this one has started pretending.
Transfer targets9 Aug 2027
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Posta Rangers keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Transfer targets9 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.
The dugout9 Aug 2027
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 Zakaria Hadraf is on it.
Market9 Aug 2027
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. CotonTchad know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad12 Jul 2027
A fracture rules Zakaria Ismaili out for 112 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason CotonTchad will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Match12 Jul 2027
The view from the top for CotonTchad
57 points, and the rest of the division looking up. Every side that finishes first spends the season pretending it is not thinking about it, and this one has started pretending.
Market12 Jul 2027
Renaissance come back empty-handed
The bid was some way short and CotonTchad did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Squad12 Jul 2027
Zaid Karouch 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 targets12 Jul 2027
CotonTchad 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.
The dugout12 Jul 2027
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.
Market12 Jul 2027
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. CotonTchad know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Squad12 Jul 2027
A year in and the language has not come, the city has not opened up, and he eats alone more often than anybody at CotonTchad would like to admit. It is showing on Saturdays.
Squad12 Jul 2027
The training reports on Léger Djimrangar are not good
A bad Saturday is forgiven; a bad Tuesday is chosen. Standards have slipped and in a building where everybody watches everybody, it has been noticed.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad31 May 2027
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Stars Jeunes Talents will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Market31 May 2027
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Stars Jeunes Talents is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Market31 May 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 Stars Jeunes Talents, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad31 May 2027
Youssef Benatia 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.
Squad31 May 2027
Djibrine Youssouf 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.
Loan watch31 May 2027
“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 14 appearances in 42 say he has earned the hearing.
The dugout31 May 2027
Clubs make promises constantly and the page usually only hears about them when they are broken. This one was honoured, and the dressing room noticed that faster than any supporter did.
The dugout31 May 2027
“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.
Market31 May 2027
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Abdoulaye Mbaiguedem signs something — a contract at Stars Jeunes Talents or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad24 May 2027
Zaid Karouch 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.
The dugout24 May 2027
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. CotonTchad told Zakaria Ismaili something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
The dugout24 May 2027
Yacine Wakili has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at CotonTchad 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.
Market24 May 2027
Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Youness Mokhtar’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.
Squad24 May 2027
Nobody writes a headline about a tutor. Nobody has to be told, either, what happens to a signing who spends two years being the man nobody can talk to at lunch.
The dugout24 May 2027
Public backing, and the sort that costs a manager something if it turns out to be wrong. Zakaria Hadraf has been told in front of everybody that the shirt is his.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad26 Apr 2027
Zaid Karouch 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.
The dugout26 Apr 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Ali Mbaiguedem, and the manager let it.
The dugout26 Apr 2027
Yacine Wakili has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at CotonTchad 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.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Match17 Oct 2026
5‑0, and the margin flattered nobody — it could have carried another goal or two without complaint. Afternoons like this are why people keep coming.
Player ratings19 Oct 2026
Two goals and a mark of 9.39 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Player ratings19 Oct 2026
At 34 every good afternoon gets called a throwback, and this one was: 8.94, and nobody on the pitch better.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Madaoua Tchiva is 19, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Zaid Karouch 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 CotonTchad this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad19 Oct 2026
At 29 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.
Match17 Oct 2026
CotonTchad settle it inside twenty minutes
2 goals before the ground had finished arriving. AS Algoy spent the rest of the afternoon playing a match that had already been decided, and everybody in the stadium knew it.
The dugout19 Oct 2026
The view from the dugout
“We controlled it. There were spells I did not like and we will look at them, but the group showed me something.” Marius Adoum, on a 5‑0 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Every signing waits for it and every press conference asks about it until it comes. It has come, CotonTchad have their man off the mark, and the second one is always easier.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad21 Sep 2026
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Madaoua Tchiva is 19, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Squad21 Sep 2026
Zaid Karouch 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 CotonTchad this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad21 Sep 2026
Hicham Nouali has improved at 29, 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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad14 Sep 2026
Yacine Wakili and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad14 Sep 2026
He is not being dropped. There is simply nowhere in the formation CotonTchad are playing to put a man who does what he does, which is a harder thing to be told than any team sheet.
Squad14 Sep 2026
A year in and the city has not opened up, the language has not come, and lunch is eaten alone more often than anybody at CotonTchad would admit. It shows on Saturdays.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market7 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 CotonTchad, and it is not being withdrawn.
Market7 Sep 2026
The offer from Renaissance for Madaoua Tchiva 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.
Boardroom7 Sep 2026
Deadline passes with 21 signed and 0 gone
That is the business done at CotonTchad until the window opens again. Whether it was enough will be answered on Saturdays rather than in a column, and the first Saturday is close.
Transfer targets7 Sep 2026
Everything agreed with Gazelle, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
Squad7 Sep 2026
At 22 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.
Squad7 Sep 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 CotonTchad this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad7 Sep 2026
This league is too small for Yacine Wakili
He is doing things on a Saturday afternoon that nobody around him can answer, which is flattering for about one season and a problem after that. CotonTchad will not keep him by pretending otherwise.
Squad7 Sep 2026
10 new faces, and CotonTchad 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.
Market7 Sep 2026
CotonTchad bring in an old head
Yacine Wakili is 36 and has run out of things to prove. What he has left is where to stand, when to slow it down and what to say at half-time, and none of that is on a fitness chart.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Transfer targets31 Aug 2026
Everything agreed with Stars Jeunes Talents, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
Squad31 Aug 2026
Zaid Karouch and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Transfer targets31 Aug 2026
A loan enquiry to Gazelle: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.
Squad31 Aug 2026
Every shape has positions in it and this one does not have his. CotonTchad will either change the shape, change his job, or change his club, and he is waiting to hear which.
Squad31 Aug 2026
A year in and the language has not come, the city has not opened up, and he eats alone more often than anybody at CotonTchad would like to admit. It is showing on Saturdays.
Squad31 Aug 2026
The competition arrived without a word said to him about it. Zakaria Hadraf keeps the shirt for now, at CotonTchad's convenience rather than his own.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market17 Aug 2026
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Stars Jeunes Talents can pretend not to have heard.
Squad17 Aug 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 Stars Jeunes Talents this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Transfer targets17 Aug 2026
Stars Jeunes Talents asked and Foullah Edifice said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Words at Stars Jeunes Talents training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ahmat 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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market3 Aug 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.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Ezechiel Mbainaissem and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Djibrine Youssouf 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.
Market3 Aug 2026
The name of Narcisse Abba has come up in conversations Stars Jeunes Talents were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
The dugout3 Aug 2026
“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.