Marked for Patrick Essien
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Squad28 Dec 2026
David Boakye is in the form of his life
A season average of 8.03 with 31 goals behind it. Opponents have started planning around him, which is the sincerest compliment football pays.
Player ratings28 Dec 2026
Two goals and a mark of 9.23 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Match26 Dec 2026
Wa All Stars keep winning on the road
7 away wins in a row. Travelling support is the truest kind, and this season it is being repaid in the only currency that counts.
Match26 Dec 2026
Momentum is a hard thing to buy and an easy thing to lose, and right now Wa All Stars have 4 straight wins of it.
Squad28 Dec 2026
A season average of 7.14 at an age when most of his year group are still in the youth team. Wa All Stars know what they have, and so, by now, does everybody else.
Squad28 Dec 2026
Jeffrey Boakye 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.
Match26 Dec 2026
It finished 2‑1, and it was David Boakye’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Wa All Stars.
The terraces28 Dec 2026
The crowd has taken to Eyong Ofem
At 22 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.
The dugout28 Dec 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.” Abraham Baba, on a 2‑1 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Player ratings30 Nov 2026
Eyong Ofem beats them one at a time
Successful dribbles: 41. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Match30 Nov 2026
Wa All Stars are in among the leaders
Position 2 and 32 points on the board. Nobody at the ground will say the word out loud yet, and everybody at the ground is thinking it.
Match28 Nov 2026
The unbeaten run reaches 8. Some of them were wins and some were escapes, but a side that refuses to lose is a side other dressing rooms talk about.
Squad30 Nov 2026
A season average of 7.08 at an age when most of his year group are still in the youth team. Wa All Stars know what they have, and so, by now, does everybody else.
Squad30 Nov 2026
Defences have started doubling up on Amos Boateng
11 goals and a season average of 7.33 will do that. The space he used to find has gone; he keeps scoring anyway, which is the mark of the real thing.
Match28 Nov 2026
Every run ends on an afternoon somebody had marked down as routine. This one went 6 matches, which is long enough that a town had stopped counting, and short enough that it will remember exactly who stopped it.
Squad30 Nov 2026
David Waris 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 Wa All Stars this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The dugout30 Nov 2026
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Abraham Baba was not hiding it after 0‑0, and nobody in the Wa All Stars dressing room was either.
Squad30 Nov 2026
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Andrew Owusu was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad26 Oct 2026
10 saves: Ola Yusuf was the team
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 10 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
Squad26 Oct 2026
David Boakye takes the match ball home
3 goals in one afternoon from one man. The other players were also present, a witness confirmed.
Squad26 Oct 2026
16 goals and a season average of 7.57. Form like that gets noticed well beyond this town.
Player ratings26 Oct 2026
David Waris, 21, steals the show — 7.79
Marked 7.79 at 21, in a side that makes no allowances for age. He did not need any, and he looked the least nervous man on the pitch.
Market26 Oct 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 Wa All Stars, and it is not being withdrawn.
Player ratings26 Oct 2026
Nana Ayew beats them one at a time
Successful dribbles: 24. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Player ratings26 Oct 2026
Marked 9.72 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
Match24 Oct 2026
A 3‑1 win over Aduana Stars, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Squad26 Oct 2026
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Patrick Gyan and Wa All Stars agree another 3 years.
In brief
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Match
Aduana Stars blown away early
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The dugout
The view from the dugout
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The dugout
Patrick Essien has become a man the manager trusts
From our football correspondent
Steady
Match7 Oct 2026
Great Olympics go through and Wa All Stars go home, 2‑4 the scoreline that did it. The dressing room will call the league the priority now, because that is what dressing rooms say.
Match10 Oct 2026
2 goals to the good, and then a slow surrender of everything that had been earned. David Boakye will not be the one blamed for it, but nobody at Wa All Stars escapes the conversation that follows a collapse like this.
Player ratings12 Oct 2026
Two goals and a mark of 8.87 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Player ratings12 Oct 2026
No sign of nerves from Patrick Essien at 21 — 8.37
The hardest thing about being 21 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Patrick Essien did not need any: 8.37, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Player ratings12 Oct 2026
Successful dribbles: 26. 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.
Match10 Oct 2026
5 matches, two or more conceded in every one of them. Sides that create as much as this can live with it for a while. Nobody lives with it forever.
Squad12 Oct 2026
Ola Yusuf has improved at 25, 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.
Squad12 Oct 2026
Defences have started doubling up on David Boakye
11 goals and a season average of 7.36 will do that. The space he used to find has gone; he keeps scoring anyway, which is the mark of the real thing.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Match12 Sep 2026
Heart of Lions will want this one forgotten quickly: 5‑0, every duel lost, and a long ride home. Wa All Stars were ruthless in the way good sides are ruthless.
Squad14 Sep 2026
The match ball belongs to David Boakye, whose 3 goals turned a difficult afternoon into a procession.
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
Joseph Paintsil, 20, plays like he has been here for years — 8.32
A mark of 8.32 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 20-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
Market14 Sep 2026
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Market14 Sep 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.
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
A performance of 9.64 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
The terraces14 Sep 2026
He is 22 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.
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
Marked 8.30 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
Market14 Sep 2026
“There is a gap, and pretending there is not helps nobody.” Neither side has moved, and the calendar is working for exactly one of them.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market31 Aug 2026
“It was not right for me. I am not going to explain why to anybody except the people I owe an explanation to.” A deal agreed between two clubs, and a player who declined to be part of it.
Market31 Aug 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 Wa All Stars, and it is not being withdrawn.
Transfer targets31 Aug 2026
Everything agreed with Niger Tornadoes, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
The dugout31 Aug 2026
The manager makes an example of David Wakaso
“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.
Squad31 Aug 2026
The medical room confirms 33 days on the sidelines for Gladson Kudus, and a plan built around him now has to be rebuilt.
Squad31 Aug 2026
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Gladson Djiku and Wa All Stars agree another 3 years.
Squad31 Aug 2026
Gladson Djiku 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 dugout31 Aug 2026
Gladson Djiku knocks on the manager's door
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Wa All Stars, and both men came out saying it was fine.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market17 Aug 2026
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Wa All Stars people have started saying his name in the past tense.
Market17 Aug 2026
The offer from Hasaacas for Nana Ayew 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.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Jeffrey Boakye 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 dugout17 Aug 2026
Amos Kudus 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.
Squad17 Aug 2026
No place for Eyong Ofem in the new shape
He is not being dropped. There is simply nowhere in the formation Wa All Stars are playing to put a man who does what he does, which is a harder thing to be told than any team sheet.
Market17 Aug 2026
“We are a long way apart, and pretending otherwise helps nobody.” Neither side is close, and the calendar is not on the club's side.
Transfer targets17 Aug 2026
Niger Tornadoes 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.
Squad17 Aug 2026
“The easiest signature of my career.” Patrick Gyan and Wa All Stars agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Patrick Gyan was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.