Marked for Narcisse Doungous
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad19 Apr 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.
Market19 Apr 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.
Squad19 Apr 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 Stars Jeunes Talents this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad19 Apr 2027
Words at Stars Jeunes Talents training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Djibrine Youssouf 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 dugout19 Apr 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.
The dugout19 Apr 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.
The dugout19 Apr 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.
Market19 Apr 2027
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Stars Jeunes Talents know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market22 Mar 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.
Squad22 Mar 2027
20 goals and a season average of 7.22. Form like that gets noticed well beyond this town.
Squad22 Mar 2027
a squad player 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.
Squad22 Mar 2027
Words at Stars Jeunes Talents training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Djibrine Youssouf 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 dugout22 Mar 2027
“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.
Match20 Mar 2027
No time for Aiglons to settle
The goal that put Aiglons ahead was still being replayed on the concourse when Stars Jeunes Talents equalised, 3 minutes later. Leads are only worth what you do with them.
Match20 Mar 2027
1‑1, and both dressing rooms will call it two points lost. A draw that asked plenty of questions and answered none of them.
The dugout22 Mar 2027
“There are things I liked and things we will be doing on Tuesday until they are right.” 1‑1, and a manager who had already decided what Tuesday looked like.
Squad22 Mar 2027
One weekend, judged against everybody else's. Youssef Benatia has come out on top of it, and for most footballers a weekly award is the only silverware a career ever produces.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match1 Mar 2027
Position 11 and 11 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.
Market1 Mar 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.
Squad1 Mar 2027
Youssef Benatia and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad1 Mar 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 watch1 Mar 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 0 appearances in 29 say he has earned the hearing.
Looking ahead1 Mar 2027
AS Algoy next, and both sides can do the sum. Win and the table looks different; lose and it looks the way everybody has been fearing.
The dugout1 Mar 2027
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Ezechiel Mbainaissem trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Market1 Mar 2027
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Youssef Benatia signs something — a contract at Stars Jeunes Talents or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market22 Feb 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.
Match20 Feb 2027
6 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.
Squad22 Feb 2027
6 saves, and a scoreline the ten men in front of him had no right to. Goalkeepers only get noticed on the bad days; this was one of the other ones.
Squad22 Feb 2027
Djibrine Youssouf and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Match20 Feb 2027
Beaten 0‑1, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
The dugout22 Feb 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Ezechiel Mbainaissem, and the manager let it.
Squad22 Feb 2027
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Ahmat Ngaradoumbe was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout22 Feb 2027
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 0‑1 defeat, delivered by Brahim Mbainaissem to a room that had heard them before.
The dugout22 Feb 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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market11 Jan 2027
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Stars Jeunes Talents people have started saying his name in the past tense.
The dugout11 Jan 2027
“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.
Squad11 Jan 2027
26 days out for Hassan Doungous after a fracture
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.
Market11 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.
Market11 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 Stars Jeunes Talents, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad11 Jan 2027
Djibrine Youssouf 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.
Match9 Jan 2027
6 matches without a win, and then this, against Gazelle. Relief is a strange noise in a football ground and it was the only noise at the end.
Squad11 Jan 2027
Youssef Benatia 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
Squad30 Nov 2026
68 days out for Hassan Doungous after a fracture
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.
Squad30 Nov 2026
Djibrine Youssouf and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad30 Nov 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.
The dugout30 Nov 2026
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Ezechiel Mbainaissem trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
The dugout30 Nov 2026
Brahim Oumar gets it from the manager
“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.
The dugout30 Nov 2026
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.
Loan watch30 Nov 2026
9 appearances at an average of 6.15. The minutes were the point and he is getting them, which makes the numbers harder to explain away rather than easier.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match4 Nov 2026
Out, 1‑4 to AS DGSSIE, and the long argument about which of the small moments decided it. The league is all there is now, and everybody knows it.
Squad9 Nov 2026
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 89 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Market9 Nov 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.
Match7 Nov 2026
The run now stands at 7, and the questions being asked around Stars Jeunes Talents are no longer polite ones.
The terraces9 Nov 2026
1-4, and long before the end the away end had switched from encouragement to something considerably more pointed. Nobody rings a phone-in about losing narrowly.
The terraces9 Nov 2026
The boos come down from three sides
“We pay for this every fortnight. The least we want is somebody who looks like he cares.” 7 of the 33 senior players walked off into it; the rest were not playing.
Player ratings9 Nov 2026
No sign of nerves from Narcisse Doungous at 15 — 8.00
The hardest thing about being 15 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Narcisse Doungous did not need any: 8.00, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Squad9 Nov 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.
Match7 Nov 2026
Beaten 1‑2, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.