Marked for Thomas Ayew
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match23 Oct 2027
21 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
Match23 Oct 2027
Aduana Stars will want this one forgotten quickly: 3‑0, every duel lost, and a long ride home. Wa All Stars were ruthless in the way good sides are ruthless.
Match23 Oct 2027
Whatever happens, Wa All Stars do not lose
9 games unbeaten now. Some were earned and some were survived, but a habit is forming — and habits are the hardest thing in football to play against.
Squad25 Oct 2027
Thomas Ayew: 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.” Wa All Stars have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Squad25 Oct 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 Wa All Stars this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad25 Oct 2027
Kwadwo Boateng 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.
The terraces25 Oct 2027
The crowd has taken to Tauzy
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.
Player ratings25 Oct 2027
Kwadwo Boateng was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.25. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
Player ratings25 Oct 2027
A performance of 8.15 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad30 Aug 2027
Bernard Essien damages knee ligaments — 20 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 20 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.
Market30 Aug 2027
Nana Annan hands in a written request
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Wa All Stars can pretend not to have heard.
Squad30 Aug 2027
Hugo Buyla is a better footballer than he was
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 22 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
Squad30 Aug 2027
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Edmund Mohammed and Wa All Stars agree another 4 years.
Squad30 Aug 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 Wa All Stars this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Market30 Aug 2027
Both sides expect a conversation in the coming days. Wa All Stars will name a price, and everything after that is arithmetic.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market23 Aug 2027
Hasaacas come back empty-handed
The bid was some way short and BA All Stars did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Market23 Aug 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.
Squad23 Aug 2027
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Harrison Atiemo is 23, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Squad23 Aug 2027
The medical room confirms 16 days on the sidelines for Nana Paintsil, and a plan built around him now has to be rebuilt.
Squad23 Aug 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 BA All Stars this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad23 Aug 2027
Abraham Kyereh has improved at 29, 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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Boardroom5 Apr 2027
The board’s statement ran to three sentences and one of them mentioned results. Andre Mohammed has managed long enough to translate: win soon, or the next statement is shorter.
Market5 Apr 2027
The offer from Stabaek for Joseph Boateng 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.
Squad5 Apr 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 BA All Stars this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad5 Apr 2027
Words at BA All Stars training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Kamaldeen Paintsil 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.
Squad5 Apr 2027
Osman Baba 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.
Market5 Apr 2027
The loan was meant to give him football. 2 games and 0 goals later he is back at BA All Stars no further forward, and everybody involved will explain why it was not their doing.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Player ratings29 Mar 2027
Successful dribbles: 40. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Boardroom29 Mar 2027
The scrutiny sharpens at BA All Stars
Nobody upstairs has said anything, which is the loudest thing they could do. Results buy silence in this game; the account at BA All Stars is running low.
The terraces29 Mar 2027
The mood at BA All Stars has turned into something else
Supporters who sing when it goes badly are supporters. Supporters who gather afterwards are a problem, and everybody inside the building knows which of the two this now is.
Match27 Mar 2027
Harrison Atiemo wins it after the whistle should have gone
90 minutes played. Harrison Atiemo found the finish in time that only existed because of earlier delays, and Heart of Lions went from a point to nothing inside one movement.
Squad29 Mar 2027
Words at BA All Stars training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Nana Paintsil 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 terraces29 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.
Match27 Mar 2027
It finished 1‑0, and it was Harrison Atiemo’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to BA All Stars.
Player ratings29 Mar 2027
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.28, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Squad29 Mar 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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Player ratings1 Mar 2027
Successful dribbles: 44. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Boardroom1 Mar 2027
Pressure builds in the BA All Stars boardroom
The directors have stopped offering the manager public warmth. In football that is usually the stage before the short statement.
The terraces1 Mar 2027
The mood at BA All Stars has turned into something else
Supporters who sing when it goes badly are supporters. Supporters who gather afterwards are a problem, and everybody inside the building knows which of the two this now is.
Market1 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 BA All Stars, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad1 Mar 2027
Nana Paintsil 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.
Loan watch1 Mar 2027
“I watch every BA All Stars game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Berekum Chelsea runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
Squad1 Mar 2027
Kamaldeen Paintsil 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.
Squad1 Mar 2027
The manager's exit leaves Abraham Kyereh exposed
Every squad has men who were signed by a particular manager and men who were merely inherited. Abraham Kyereh is in the first group, and the man who wanted him here is no longer in the building.
Squad1 Mar 2027
Abraham Kyereh knocks on the manager’s door
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Abraham Kyereh trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Player ratings22 Feb 2027
Two goals and a mark of 8.63 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Player ratings22 Feb 2027
Successful dribbles: 26. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Match20 Feb 2027
Nobody wants to play Berekum Chelsea right now
4 wins in a row changes how opponents warm up: quieter, more glances across. Runs end, everybody knows that — but nobody in this dressing room is planning for it.
Market22 Feb 2027
Only the photograph left for Ebenezer Shamo
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Ebenezer Shamo will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Berekum Chelsea the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad22 Feb 2027
Suleiman Abdullahi 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.
Squad22 Feb 2027
Words at Berekum Chelsea training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Johnson Amuzu 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.
Match20 Feb 2027
It finished 2‑0, and it was Johnson Amuzu’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Berekum Chelsea.
Squad22 Feb 2027
Thomas Ayew 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.
Squad22 Feb 2027
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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Boardroom1 Feb 2027
The scrutiny sharpens at BA All Stars
Nobody upstairs has said anything, which is the loudest thing they could do. Results buy silence in this game; the account at BA All Stars is running low.
The terraces1 Feb 2027
The mood at BA All Stars has turned into something else
Supporters who sing when it goes badly are supporters. Supporters who gather afterwards are a problem, and everybody inside the building knows which of the two this now is.
Match30 Jan 2027
Chastening afternoon for BA All Stars
A 0‑5 beating by Wa All Stars was the sort of result that empties a stadium long before the final whistle.
Market1 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 BA All Stars, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad1 Feb 2027
Kwame Baba: 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.” BA All Stars have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Player ratings1 Feb 2027
Nobody could get near Felix Addo
Successful dribbles: 23. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad1 Feb 2027
Nana Paintsil 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.
Loan watch1 Feb 2027
“I watch every BA All Stars game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Berekum Chelsea runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
Squad1 Feb 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Nana Paintsil, and the manager let it.
In brief
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Squad
Baba Acquah falls out with a teammate over standards
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Boardroom
Nobody left the BA All Stars dressing room in a hurry
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Player ratings
An afternoon Felix Djiku will want back
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match2 Jan 2027
18 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.
Boardroom4 Jan 2027
Andre Mohammed has until the next board meeting
What was said behind closed doors has now been said in front of a microphone. Everybody at BA All Stars can do the arithmetic, including the man it is aimed at.
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.
Boardroom4 Jan 2027
The scrutiny sharpens at BA All Stars
Nobody upstairs has said anything, which is the loudest thing they could do. Results buy silence in this game; the account at BA All Stars is running low.
Squad4 Jan 2027
Felix Addo 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.
Match2 Jan 2027
WAFA left with the points after a 2‑3 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Squad4 Jan 2027
Words at BA All Stars training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Nana Paintsil 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.
Squad4 Jan 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.
Player ratings4 Jan 2027
Marked 8.03 — 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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Match30 Dec 2026
Out, 0‑2 to Ashanti Gold, and the long argument about which of the small moments decided it. The league is all there is now, and everybody knows it.
Squad4 Jan 2027
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Berekum Chelsea may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Player ratings4 Jan 2027
Successful dribbles: 24. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad4 Jan 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 Berekum Chelsea this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match2 Jan 2027
A 2‑0 win over Liberty Professionals, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Squad4 Jan 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 ratings4 Jan 2027
Ninety minutes of Johnson Amuzu at his very best
Marked 8.55. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Berekum Chelsea.
Player ratings4 Jan 2027
Marked 8.17 — 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.
Squad4 Jan 2027
Silas Nwankwo dropped after a run of poor form
The one version of being left out a player cannot argue with, and the one he takes worst. Somebody else has been better and the team sheet says so, in public, every week until it changes.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match5 Dec 2026
14 matches without a win for BA All Stars
The run now stands at 14, and the questions being asked around BA All Stars are no longer polite ones.
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 BA All Stars can pretend not to have heard.
Player ratings7 Dec 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.
Squad7 Dec 2026
Nana Paintsil 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 ratings7 Dec 2026
A performance of 8.26 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Loan watch7 Dec 2026
“I watch every BA All Stars game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Berekum Chelsea runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
Squad7 Dec 2026
Samuel Annan 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.
Match5 Dec 2026
A 1‑1 draw with Berekum Chelsea leaves the dressing room somewhere between relief and regret.
Squad7 Dec 2026
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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match7 Nov 2026
10 matches without a win for BA All Stars
The run now stands at 10, and the questions being asked around BA All Stars are no longer polite ones.
Market9 Nov 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 BA All Stars can pretend not to have heard.
Squad9 Nov 2026
Nana Paintsil 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 ratings9 Nov 2026
Successful dribbles: 19. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Player ratings9 Nov 2026
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.
Loan watch9 Nov 2026
“I watch every BA All Stars game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Berekum Chelsea runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
Squad9 Nov 2026
Samuel Annan 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.
Match7 Nov 2026
It finished 1‑1, and it somehow always looked like it would. One of those afternoons where the table moves less than the tempers.
Squad9 Nov 2026
There is no complaint available here and everybody involved knows it, which does not make the walk to the bench any shorter. Form is the only currency in football that cannot be borrowed against.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Player ratings12 Oct 2026
Successful dribbles: 39. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad12 Oct 2026
A one-man rearguard from Amos Ofori
There were 11 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 Oct 2026
Asante Kotoko ended it 0‑2. The season narrows to the league now, and everyone in the ground knew it before the final whistle.
Squad12 Oct 2026
A fracture rules Joseph Waris out for 18 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason BA All Stars will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Match10 Oct 2026
No end in sight to BA All Stars's wait for a win
6 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at BA All Stars has to find a result from somewhere.
Squad12 Oct 2026
Felix Addo 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
Steady
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
Nobody could get near Felix Addo
Successful dribbles: 31. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad14 Sep 2026
A fracture rules Joseph Waris out for 46 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason BA All Stars will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Market14 Sep 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 BA All Stars, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Nana Paintsil 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.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Baba Boakye is a better footballer than he was
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 20 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
Match12 Sep 2026
0‑1 to Hearts of Oak, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market10 Aug 2026
The offer from Bechem United for Joseph Boateng 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.
Squad10 Aug 2026
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Nana Paintsil and BA All Stars agree another 4 years.
Squad10 Aug 2026
Felix Addo 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.