Marked for Brahim Abakar
From our football correspondent
Crisis
The terraces21 Jun 2027
It has stopped being a mood in the stands and started being something organised. Boards can ignore a bad atmosphere for a long time; they cannot ignore this stage of it for very long at all.
Market21 Jun 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.
Market21 Jun 2027
Gazelle come back empty-handed
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.
Squad21 Jun 2027
Issa Mbaiguedem 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.
Squad21 Jun 2027
Words at Stars Jeunes Talents training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Abdoulaye Bechir 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.
Loan watch21 Jun 2027
“I did not go to Aiglons to sit and watch. I want to come back to Stars Jeunes Talents and fight for my place.” 6 appearances in 43 matches say the rest.
Squad21 Jun 2027
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Narcisse Abakar trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Crisis
The terraces24 May 2027
It has stopped being a mood in the stands and started being something organised. Boards can ignore a bad atmosphere for a long time; they cannot ignore this stage of it for very long at all.
Market24 May 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.
Squad24 May 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.
Squad24 May 2027
Words at Stars Jeunes Talents training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Abdoulaye Bechir 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.
Loan watch24 May 2027
“I watch every Stars Jeunes Talents game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Aiglons runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
Squad24 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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad17 May 2027
Benjamin Ngakoutou damages knee ligaments — 64 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 64 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.
Squad17 May 2027
A fracture rules Abdoulaye Adoum out for 32 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Galactik will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Squad17 May 2027
Abanga Mahamat 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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad15 Mar 2027
127 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Galactik lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Squad15 Mar 2027
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 95 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Match13 Mar 2027
Galactik throw away a 4-goal lead
4 in front and in complete control, and it finished with AS Algoy the happier side. There is no version of this afternoon that Galactik will enjoy reviewing.
Squad15 Mar 2027
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 7 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Player ratings15 Mar 2027
Omadillo Abdubannobov, 21, plays like he has been here for years — 8.42
A mark of 8.42 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 21-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
Squad15 Mar 2027
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Galactik may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
The terraces15 Mar 2027
At 16 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.
Match13 Mar 2027
A 4‑4 draw with AS Algoy leaves the dressing room somewhere between relief and regret.
Player ratings15 Mar 2027
Successful dribbles: 16. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market4 Jan 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.
Squad4 Jan 2027
An individual honour is a strange thing in a team game, and the best of them are never argued with. He has had the sort of year that ends with his name being read out, and Galactik have had the benefit of it.
Squad4 Jan 2027
Abanga Mahamat 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.
The terraces4 Jan 2027
The crowd has taken to Saidu Lawan
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.
Squad4 Jan 2027
The manager makes an example of Brahim Abakar
“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.
Squad4 Jan 2027
The award goes to Youssouf Abdraman, and nobody around here is inclined to argue with the choice.
Player ratings4 Jan 2027
Successful dribbles: 15. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Match2 Jan 2027
Point won or two lost for Galactik?
Ninety minutes, no goals, and the argument started before the car park emptied: a point gained, or two thrown away against Foullah Edifice? Both sides of it will still be going on Thursday.
Market4 Jan 2027
The best deals are the ones the accountants never notice. Waisake Soga arrives at Galactik with his wages the only cost and something to prove the only clause.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad7 Dec 2026
Ousmane Biani 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.
Squad7 Dec 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.
Squad7 Dec 2026
A month is long enough that nobody gets in by accident. Youssouf Abdraman is in the division's best eleven for it, which is a quieter compliment than an award and a more reliable one.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match17 Oct 2026
Beaten 1‑4 by Gazelle, and beaten everywhere it matters. The inquest starts on the training pitch on Monday morning.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 8 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Brahim Abakar: that is not what I was promised
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Galactik have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Squad19 Oct 2026
“The easiest signature of my career.” Benjamin Ngakoutou and Galactik agree another 2 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Ousmane Biani 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.
Boardroom19 Oct 2026
Nobody left the Galactik 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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market12 Oct 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.
Squad12 Oct 2026
Abanga Mahamat 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.
Player ratings12 Oct 2026
Successful dribbles: 21. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad12 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.
Match10 Oct 2026
Beaten 1‑2, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Squad12 Oct 2026
The manager makes an example of Saidu Lawan
“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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad14 Sep 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.
Squad14 Sep 2026
13 new faces, and Galactik 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.
Squad14 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 Galactik this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad7 Sep 2026
Saidu Lawan 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 Galactik this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Ousmane Biani 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.
Squad7 Sep 2026
The manager makes an example of Brahim Abakar
“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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market31 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.
The terraces31 Aug 2026
Galactik spend $8.0K on the signing the town wanted
It is the rarest sequence in football: supporters ask for something, and the club goes and does it. $8.0K for Abdoulaye Adoum, and for one week nobody is complaining about anything.
Squad31 Aug 2026
Words at Galactik training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ousmane Biani 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.
Squad31 Aug 2026
Brahim Abakar 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 Aug 2026
He trains hard, says the right things and goes home to an empty flat. Nobody at Galactik has done anything wrong, which is exactly what makes it so difficult to fix.
Market31 Aug 2026
Nobody sells a season ticket on a signing like this. Every manager who has been through a bad October wants one anyway, and Galactik have gone and got theirs early.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad24 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 Galactik this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Abdramane Moustapha 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
Steady
Market17 Aug 2026
AS DGSSIE come back empty-handed
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.
Market17 Aug 2026
The fee is $31.0K, the contract is signed, and the argument about whether he is worth it can begin. AS Algoy drove a hard bargain; time will say who won it.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Moussa Abakar 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.
Squad17 Aug 2026
The injury that keeps coming back, keeps being rushed back from, and quietly costs more careers than the dramatic ones. 16 days is the estimate; the honest figure depends on whether anybody is patient.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Adam 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.
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.
Market3 Aug 2026
Aiglons come back empty-handed
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.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Adam 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.
Market3 Aug 2026
The name of Brahim Abakar has come up in conversations Stars Jeunes Talents were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Words at Stars Jeunes Talents training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Hassan Ndoram 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.
Squad3 Aug 2026
“The easiest signature of my career.” Issa Allamine and Stars Jeunes Talents agree another 1 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.