Marked for Mahamat Moustapha
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad22 Feb 2027
A one-man rearguard from Ahmat Oumar
There were 13 saves in it, and at least three that had no business being saves at all. The ten outfield players owe him a drink and they know it.
Squad22 Feb 2027
Ahmat Mbainaissem damages knee ligaments — 66 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 66 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.
Market22 Feb 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.
Squad22 Feb 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.
Match20 Feb 2027
Renaissance left with the points after a 0‑2 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Loan watch22 Feb 2027
“I did not go to Foullah Edifice to sit and watch. I want to come back to Stars Jeunes Talents and fight for my place.” 0 appearances in 28 matches say the rest.
Squad22 Feb 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Ahmat Abakar, and the manager let it.
Player ratings22 Feb 2027
Successful dribbles: 12. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad15 Feb 2027
Ahmat Mbainaissem damages knee ligaments — 73 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 73 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.
Squad15 Feb 2027
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.
Market15 Feb 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 The request is on a desk at Stars Jeunes Talents, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad15 Feb 2027
Brahim Mbainaissem 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.
Match13 Feb 2027
Issa Ndoram scored, and precious little else went right: 1‑3 to AS DGSSIE, and a quiet walk to the dressing room.
Squad15 Feb 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.
Player ratings15 Feb 2027
Successful dribbles: 15. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Market15 Feb 2027
The Saleh Ndoram story refuses to die
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Saleh Ndoram signs something — a contract at Stars Jeunes Talents or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match23 Jan 2027
1‑4 against CotonTchad, and no complaints that would survive the replay. The manager spoke about character afterwards; the terraces used shorter words.
Market25 Jan 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.
Squad25 Jan 2027
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 6 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
The terraces25 Jan 2027
Supporters turn on the $6.0K sale of Marius Hissein
He is going to Aiglons, the club has $6.0K it did not have on Friday, and the phone-ins have already decided how they feel about that. Selling well and selling somebody they loved are not the same skill.
Market25 Jan 2027
Aiglons paid $6.0K and Stars Jeunes Talents took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
Squad25 Jan 2027
Alfan Suaib 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.
Boardroom25 Jan 2027
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.
Loan watch25 Jan 2027
“I did not go to Foullah Edifice to sit and watch. I want to come back to Stars Jeunes Talents and fight for my place.” 0 appearances in 24 matches say the rest.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market7 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.
Player ratings7 Dec 2026
No sign of nerves from Marius Hissein at 17 — 7.80
The hardest thing about being 17 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Marius Hissein did not need any: 7.80, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
The terraces7 Dec 2026
At 17 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 ratings7 Dec 2026
Marked 7.91. Ask anyone leaving the ground what settled it and you will get one name, which is the only award that has ever really counted.
Loan watch7 Dec 2026
“I did not go to Galactik to sit and watch. I want to come back to Stars Jeunes Talents and fight for my place.” 7 appearances in 15 matches say the rest.
Player ratings7 Dec 2026
Successful dribbles: 15. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad7 Dec 2026
The manager makes an example of Hassan Abba
“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.
Squad7 Dec 2026
Abdramane Mbaiguedem 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
Player ratings23 Nov 2026
Successful dribbles: 31. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Match21 Nov 2026
7 games now with at least two against. The back line has been rearranged, the goalkeeper has been backed publicly, and the goals keep going in anyway.
Market23 Nov 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 ratings23 Nov 2026
A hand in 2 of them from Moussa Bechir — 7.74
Marked 7.74. There is a kind of forward whose value only shows up when you count what he was involved in rather than what he finished, and this is the day that argument makes itself.
Squad23 Nov 2026
Djibrine Abba 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.
Squad23 Nov 2026
“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.
Loan watch23 Nov 2026
“I watch every Stars Jeunes Talents game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Foullah Edifice runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
Match21 Nov 2026
2‑2, and both dressing rooms will call it two points lost. A draw that asked plenty of questions and answered none of them.
Squad23 Nov 2026
Words at Stars Jeunes Talents training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Moussa Mbaiguedem 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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad9 Nov 2026
There were 10 saves in it, and at least three that had no business being saves at all. The ten outfield players owe him a drink and they know it.
Match7 Nov 2026
Beaten 1‑4 by AS PSI, and beaten everywhere it matters. The inquest starts on the training pitch on Monday morning.
Match4 Nov 2026
4‑5 against AS DGSSIE, and the road stops here. Cup exits are quick deaths — no second leg, no next week, just the league from now until May.
Match4 Nov 2026
2 goals to the good, and then a slow surrender of everything that had been earned. Hassan Doungous will not be the one blamed for it, but nobody at Stars Jeunes Talents escapes the conversation that follows a collapse like this.
Player ratings9 Nov 2026
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 8.38, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
Market9 Nov 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 Stars Jeunes Talents, and it is not being withdrawn.
Player ratings9 Nov 2026
Abdoulaye Souleymane, 18, plays like he has been here for years — 7.97
A mark of 7.97 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.
Player ratings9 Nov 2026
At 34 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.48 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Match7 Nov 2026
5 games now with at least two against. The back line has been rearranged, the goalkeeper has been backed publicly, and the goals keep going in anyway.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad28 Sep 2026
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Mahamat Moustapha is 22, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Djibrine Abba 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.
Squad28 Sep 2026
At 24 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.