Marked for Issa Ngaradoumbe
From our football correspondent
Crisis
The terraces19 Jul 2027
A bad atmosphere can be waited out. A group of people meeting afterwards to decide what to do about it cannot, and everybody in the building knows which stage this is.
Squad19 Jul 2027
A fracture rules Abdoulaye Adoum out for 67 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Stars Jeunes Talents will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Boardroom19 Jul 2027
Nobody on the board has said anything against the manager, which is the point — they have stopped saying anything for him either.
Market19 Jul 2027
“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.
Market19 Jul 2027
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.
Transfer targets19 Jul 2027
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Stars Jeunes Talents have done the hard part with CotonTchad, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Squad19 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 Stars Jeunes Talents this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad19 Jul 2027
Words at Stars Jeunes Talents training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Youssouf Abakar 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.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad28 Jun 2027
88 days out for Abdoulaye Adoum 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.
Market28 Jun 2027
The bid was some way short and Stars Jeunes Talents did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Market28 Jun 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.
The dugout28 Jun 2027
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Loan watch28 Jun 2027
“I did not go to AS DGSSIE to sit and watch. I want to come back to Stars Jeunes Talents and fight for my place.” 6 appearances in 45 matches say the rest.
Squad28 Jun 2027
Issa Ngaradoumbe and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
The dugout28 Jun 2027
Ali Mahamat has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Stars Jeunes Talents 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
Uneasy
Market5 Apr 2027
“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.
Squad5 Apr 2027
Narcisse 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.
Loan watch5 Apr 2027
“I watch every Stars Jeunes Talents game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at AS DGSSIE runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
Market5 Apr 2027
Nothing to show for Abdramane Djimet's season away
1 appearances, 0 clean sheets, and a goalkeeper no further forward than the day he left. Whether that belongs to him, to the club that borrowed him or to the people who arranged it is the argument Stars Jeunes Talents will have this month.
The dugout5 Apr 2027
Youssouf Abakar 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.
The dugout5 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.
Market5 Apr 2027
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Hakim Benhima signs something — a contract at Stars Jeunes Talents or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Loan watch5 Apr 2027
“For the first time in years I am picked because somebody wants me in the team.” Aiglons suits him; the awkward conversation belongs to Stars Jeunes Talents, and the summer will force it.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match6 Mar 2027
22 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.
Market8 Mar 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.
Market8 Mar 2027
Hassan Ndoram has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Stars Jeunes Talents they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Match6 Mar 2027
4 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.
Squad8 Mar 2027
Adam Moustapha 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.
Squad8 Mar 2027
Words at Stars Jeunes Talents training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Abdoulaye Adoum 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 terraces8 Mar 2027
At 23 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.
Player ratings8 Mar 2027
Marked 7.92. Ask anyone leaving the ground what settled it and you will get one name, which is the only award that has ever really counted.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match26 Dec 2026
13 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.
Match26 Dec 2026
0‑3 against Foullah Edifice, and no complaints that would survive the replay. The manager spoke about character afterwards; the terraces used shorter words.
Match26 Dec 2026
The chances are being made and something is happening between the making and the finishing. 7 matches now, and the anxiety in the ground arrives a little earlier every week.
The dugout28 Dec 2026
“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.
Market28 Dec 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.
Squad28 Dec 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.
Boardroom28 Dec 2026
The accounts are being read more closely than the results. Wages before ambition is the order of business now, and the manager has been told so.
Boardroom28 Dec 2026
Nobody left the Stars Jeunes Talents 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.