The words a physio says slowly. 38 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.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Saleh Adoum will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around AS Algoy the goodbyes have quietly begun.
At 28 the improving is meant to be over, and it is not: 3 points better than a year ago. It happens to the ones who take the boring parts seriously.
Squad24 Sep 2029
Words at AS Algoy training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Saleh Moustapha 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.
66 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. AS Algoy lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around AS Algoy they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
A season average of 7.05 at an age when most of his year group are still in the youth team. AS Algoy know what they have, and so, by now, does everybody else.
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.
Nobody at AS Algoy 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.
The message was aimed at the stands as much as the dressing room: a squad player plays, and the argument is closed until the manager decides otherwise.
101 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. AS Algoy lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
He is 17, he is averaging 7.04, and older professionals have started passing to him in the difficult minutes. That last part is the real scouting report.
AS Algoy have made the call to Foullah Edifice. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
Squad23 Jul 2029
Words at AS Algoy training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Saleh Moustapha 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 words a physio says slowly. 22 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.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at US Moursal is saying, and nobody at AS Algoy is enjoying the guessing.
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 Hassan Abakar is on it.
Squad18 Jun 2029
Words at AS Algoy training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Saleh Moustapha 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 clubs have shaken hands with Gazelle; the player has not yet. Personal terms are next, and personal terms are where more deals die than anybody prints.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: AS Etat Major keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Stars Jeunes Talents wanted more than $4.0K and the board would not go there. Walked away, for now, which in a transfer window means until somebody blinks.
AS Algoy asked and AS PSI 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 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.
Nobody at AS Algoy 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.
A call-up flatters the player and the club that produced him in the same breath. AS Algoy would like him back in one piece and know they will not be consulted.
A season average of 7.05 at an age when most of his year group are still in the youth team. AS Algoy know what they have, and so, by now, does everybody else.
AS Algoy have made the call to AS Etat Major. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
AS Algoy have made the call to US Moursal. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
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.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Narcisse Allamine signs something — a contract at AS Algoy or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Hassan Abakar signs something — a contract at AS Algoy or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
He is 20, he is averaging 7.05, and older professionals have started passing to him in the difficult minutes. That last part is the real scouting report.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Saleh Moustapha was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Nobody at AS Algoy 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.
Position 6, 33 points, and a run-in that decides whether next season has Thursday nights in it. Nobody is calling it a race yet, which is what people say during one.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Ahmat Doungous provided it, and the 9.12 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
At 20 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.
At 18 he was better than everybody his age in the division for four weeks running, which is harder than one good afternoon. AS Algoy will try not to make too much of it.
Ahmat Doungous had done his part in building a 2-goal cushion. What happened after that was collective, and AS PSI were allowed back into a match that had been finished with.
Two goals and a mark of 8.86 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
He is 18 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.
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 Hassan Abakar is on it.
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Oumar Bechir after the 2‑2 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
“They were honest with me, and I would rather know.” Mahamat Mahamat has been informed he is not in the manager's thinking at AS Algoy.
The dugout19 Mar 2029
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Oumar Bechir was not hiding it after 1‑1, and nobody in the AS Algoy dressing room was either.
Squad19 Mar 2029
Words at AS Algoy training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Saleh Moustapha 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 manager wanted a different profile for this opponent, which is a real football reason and no consolation. He did nothing wrong and he did not play.
“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 AS Algoy, and it is not being withdrawn.
He is 17, he is averaging 7.00, and older professionals have started passing to him in the difficult minutes. That last part is the real scouting report.
“That is on me. I pick the team and I picked wrong.” Managers say that when they mean it and when they need to be seen to, and after 0‑1 Oumar Bechir left the room before anybody could ask which.
A month is long enough that nobody gets in by accident. Djibrine Ngaradoumbe is in the division's best eleven for it, which is a quieter compliment than an award and a more reliable one.
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.
Successful dribbles: 18. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
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.
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Oumar Bechir after the 1‑1 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
In brief
SquadSaleh Moustapha falls out with a teammate over standards
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at AS Algoy is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
He is 20, he is averaging 7.02, and older professionals have started passing to him in the difficult minutes. That last part is the real scouting report.
He found out with everybody else, an hour before kick-off, from a sheet of paper on a wall. Nobody at AS Algoy pretended it was anything other than a decision about him.
“There are things I liked and things we will be doing on Tuesday until they are right.” 0‑0, and a manager who had already decided what Tuesday looked like.
The crowd waited for a goal that never came. Elect Sport defended in numbers and left with what they came for, and the two sides could be playing still without troubling a scorer.
The hardest thing about being 18 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Idriss Tokindang did not need any: 7.82, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
He is 18 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.
Successful dribbles: 14. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
The dugout12 Feb 2029
The view from the dugout
“We did not lose. Some weeks that is all you get, and I would rather have the point than not.” Oumar Bechir chose the glass-half-full version of 1‑1; the supporters left with the other one.
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.
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.
“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 AS Algoy, and it is not being withdrawn.
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 0 arrived, 2 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
Stars Jeunes Talents wanted more than $4.0K and the board would not go there. Walked away, for now, which in a transfer window means until somebody blinks.
AS Algoy ran out of time with CotonTchad. The paperwork was open when the deadline passed, and a transfer that was almost done is now a transfer that never happened.
The dugout5 Feb 2029
The view from the dugout
“We did not lose. Some weeks that is all you get, and I would rather have the point than not.” Oumar Bechir chose the glass-half-full version of 0‑0; the supporters left with the other one.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Saleh Moustapha was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The deal with Elect Sport is done in every sense but the one that puts him on the pitch. Nothing goes wrong at this stage, except on the occasions when it does.
He is 20 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.
Conceding is one thing; the response is what tells you about a dressing room. Hassan Abakar had AS Algoy level again within 2 minutes, and AS Etat Major never got to play with a lead at all.
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 Hassan Abakar is on it.
He is 19 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.
“The players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 3‑0, Oumar Bechir could afford to be generous.
Nobody at AS Algoy 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.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around AS Algoy they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
The hardest thing about being 19 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Hassan Abakar did not need any: 7.91, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
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.
Successful dribbles: 14. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
The dugout25 Dec 2028
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Oumar Bechir was not hiding it after 1‑1, and nobody in the AS Algoy dressing room was either.
Squad25 Dec 2028
Words at AS Algoy training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Saleh Moustapha 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 hardest thing about being 17 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Saleh Adoum did not need any: 7.93, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Oumar Bechir after the 1‑1 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
Successful dribbles: 12. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
3 months left, and both sides know what that means: every week without a signature, the fee AS Algoy could ask drops and the wages Mahamat Djimet can ask rise.
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.
Nobody at AS Algoy is suggesting he is out of form. The manager simply wanted somebody with a different set of qualities for ninety specific minutes, and there is nothing a player can train to fix that.
“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 AS Algoy, and it is not being withdrawn.
Player ratings13 Nov 2028
Up for the corner, and Hassan Abakar delivers — 7.00
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Hassan Abakar scored, was marked 7.00, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
4 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.
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Mahamat Djimet, and the manager let it.
The dugout13 Nov 2028
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 1‑2 defeat, delivered by Oumar Bechir to a room that had heard them before.
1 error, one goal, and a night in front of the same three seconds. He will see it tonight, tomorrow and probably in February, and everybody who has played knows exactly which frame he keeps stopping on.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Mahamat Djimet will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around AS Algoy the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Player ratings30 Oct 2028
Idriss Tokindang, 18, plays like he has been here for years — 7.87
A mark of 7.87 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 18-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
Successful dribbles: 14. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
The dugout30 Oct 2028
The view from the dugout
“We did not lose. Some weeks that is all you get, and I would rather have the point than not.” Oumar Bechir chose the glass-half-full version of 1‑1; the supporters left with the other one.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Saleh Moustapha was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Aiglons next, and one man in the AS Algoy dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
The hardest thing about being 16 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Adam Ngaradoumbe did not need any: 7.73, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Saleh Adoum. 1‑0 against CotonTchad, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
The dugout23 Oct 2028
The manager’s verdict
“I am not going to get carried away and I will not let them either. It was a good day. There will be harder ones.” Oumar Bechir kept it short after the 1‑0 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
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.
AS Etat Major next, and one man in the AS Algoy dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
12 times he got in the way of something. Centre-halves get written about when they make mistakes and ignored when they do not, so an afternoon like this needs saying out loud: he is the reason the scoreline reads as it does.
He will play here until the summer and then walk out of the door for free, having already signed elsewhere. Supporters will manage the first part of that sentence; it is the second they will struggle with.
The manager kept them in and said what needed saying. A response is expected on Saturday, and if it does not come the questions move upstairs.
The dugout9 Oct 2028
The manager’s verdict
“That is on me. I pick the team and I picked wrong.” Managers say that when they mean it and when they need to be seen to, and after 0‑3 Oumar Bechir left the room before anybody could ask which.
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 Hassan Abakar is on it.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Saleh Moustapha was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
$16.0K was the most the club would pay and AS Etat Major were asking for more. Deals like this are revived in the last week of a window roughly half the time, and everybody involved knows it.
Signings arrive with a picture of the club in their head, and this one’s picture was bigger than the building. He will play well and he will be gone, in that order, and everybody knows it.
AS Algoy ran out of time with CotonTchad. The paperwork was open when the deadline passed, and a transfer that was almost done is now a transfer that never happened.
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Saleh Moustapha was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The clubs have shaken hands with CotonTchad; the player has not yet. Personal terms are next, and personal terms are where more deals die than anybody prints.
Boardroom4 Sep 2028
AS Algoy close the window on a squad of their own making
3 in and 8 out, and no more changes for months. The manager has what he has, the supporters have their opinion of it, and the table will have the last word.
$16.0K on the table at AS Etat Major. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
A deal that was a phone call from completion at lunchtime was dead by midnight. AS Algoy will try again when the window opens; US Moursal may not be selling by then.
Squad4 Sep 2028
AS Algoy have started building around a squad player
He used to be one of the options. He is now one of the men the options are picked around, and the change happened quietly enough that only the dressing room noticed on the day.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and a squad player trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
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 Djibrine Mbaiguedem is on it.
“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 AS Algoy, and it is not being withdrawn.
Everyone has stopped pretending: AS DGSSIE will make the call about Ezechiel Bechir this week. AS Algoy have a number in mind, and the number is not shy.
At 24 the improving is meant to be over, and it is not: 3 points better than a year ago. It happens to the ones who take the boring parts seriously.
Squad28 Aug 2028
Words at AS Algoy training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Saleh Moustapha 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.
In brief
The dugoutAbdoulaye Oumar has become a man the manager trusts
SquadThe training reports on Saleh Adoum are not good
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Galactik waiting with a shirt. Nobody at AS Algoy is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
AS Algoy and CotonTchad have settled on $20.0K. The rest belongs to the player and his agent, and a supporter who has watched one of these before knows not to buy the shirt yet.
AS Algoy 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.
Moussa Kone is 16, and AS Algoy have signed him for the player he will be rather than the one he is. The first team can wait; the point of a deal like this is the years it buys.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at AS Algoy, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Saleh Moustapha was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Oumar Bechir after 0‑1, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
Nobody at AS Algoy 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at AS Algoy this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
A month is long enough that nobody gets in by accident. Saleh Moustapha is in the division's best eleven for it, which is a quieter compliment than an award and a more reliable one.
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.
Nobody at AS Algoy 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.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 16 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at AS Algoy this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Something was said to Marius Haroun and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Oumar Bechir after the 0‑0 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at AS Algoy, another week without a signature from Marius Haroun.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 23 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
The hardest thing about being 17 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Ahmat Doungous did not need any: 7.75, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
12 combined actions and 7.39. The job he did is the one that shows up as other people looking good, and the only reliable way to notice it is to watch what happens on the afternoons he is missing.
Level with 87 minutes on the clock, after an afternoon AS Algoy had all but put away. US Moursal will call it a point earned; the home dressing room will call it two given away, and both of them are right.
Warm-up bib, ninety minutes of watching, and a handshake at the end that fooled nobody. Big matches tell you who a manager trusts; this one told Marius Haroun.
In brief
The dugoutHalf-satisfied: Oumar Bechir on the draw
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. AS Algoy have lost him in all but the paperwork.
Ezechiel Souleymane 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 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.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what AS Algoy can pretend not to have heard.
Successful dribbles: 20. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Mahamat Mahamat was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Oumar Bechir after the 0‑0 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
Somebody else has been better, the manager has said so with a team sheet, and there is no argument to be had. He will get the shirt back the only way it can be got back.