Marked for Djibrine Ndoram
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
The dugout22 Mar 2032
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Binga may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Match20 Mar 2032
The wait goes on for Binga
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.
Squad22 Mar 2032
The injury that keeps coming back, keeps being rushed back from, and quietly costs more careers than the dramatic ones. 14 days is the estimate; the honest figure depends on whether anybody is patient.
Squad22 Mar 2032
Soufiane Aznabet 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.
Match20 Mar 2032
Binga leaking at the back
4 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.
The terraces22 Mar 2032
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 22-year-old it feels ownership of. Ousmane Doumbia has it now, and everything he does for the rest of his time here will be measured against the goodwill he was handed for free.
Player ratings22 Mar 2032
Ousmane Doumbia was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.11. 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 ratings22 Mar 2032
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.04, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Squad22 Mar 2032
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Binga this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Crisis
The terraces9 Feb 2032
Anger at Binga spills outside the ground
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.
Player ratings9 Feb 2032
Successful dribbles: 25. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad9 Feb 2032
A season average of 7.02 at an age when most of his year group are still in the youth team. Binga know what they have, and so, by now, does everybody else.
Market9 Feb 2032
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Binga is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad9 Feb 2032
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Djibrine Ndoram and Binga agree another 2 years.
Squad9 Feb 2032
Words at Binga training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Soufiane Aznabet 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.
Transfer targets9 Feb 2032
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Real Bamako have kept their man, and Binga go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Match7 Feb 2032
Afrique Foot Elite left with the points after a 0‑1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Transfer targets9 Feb 2032
A deal that was a phone call from completion at lunchtime was dead by midnight. Binga will try again when the window opens; Afrique Foot Elite may not be selling by then.
In brief
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Squad
A falling-out at Binga
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The dugout
The manager’s verdict
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The dugout
When it matters, Massiré Gassama plays
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad2 Feb 2032
A knee injury of the worst kind for Abdoulaye Toure
20 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Binga lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Player ratings2 Feb 2032
Marked 9.48 at 17, in a side that makes no allowances for age. He did not need any, and he looked the least nervous man on the pitch.
Squad2 Feb 2032
3 goals in one afternoon from one man. The other players were also present, a witness confirmed.
Squad2 Feb 2032
A season average of 7.07 at an age when most of his year group are still in the youth team. Binga know what they have, and so, by now, does everybody else.
Transfer targets2 Feb 2032
$17.0K settles it between the clubs for Moussa Sidibe
Afrique Foot Elite have accepted the money. What Binga do not yet have is the man, and between here and the photograph is a conversation about wages that both sides are dreading.
Boardroom2 Feb 2032
Window shuts: 0 in, 0 out at Binga
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 0 arrived, 0 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
The dugout2 Feb 2032
“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.
Match31 Jan 2032
The drought breaks for Binga
7 without a win is the sort of run that changes how a town talks about its club, and AS Police were the afternoon it stopped. Nothing is fixed by one result and everything feels different by one.
Squad2 Feb 2032
“The easiest signature of my career.” Djibrine Ndoram and Binga agree another 2 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad29 Sep 2031
45 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Binga lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Boardroom29 Sep 2031
The silence upstairs is getting loud at Binga
Nobody on the board has said anything against the manager, which is the point — they have stopped saying anything for him either.
Squad29 Sep 2031
Words exchanged at Binga
Soufiane Aznabet 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.
Squad29 Sep 2031
Words at Binga training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Papa Gassama 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 dugout29 Sep 2031
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.
Market29 Sep 2031
Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Soufiane Aznabet’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Boardroom1 Sep 2031
Pressure builds in the Binga boardroom
The directors have stopped offering the manager public warmth. In football that is usually the stage before the short statement.
Boardroom1 Sep 2031
Deadline passes with 0 signed and 3 gone
That is the business done at Binga until the window opens again. Whether it was enough will be answered on Saturdays rather than in a column, and the first Saturday is close.
Squad1 Sep 2031
A row about effort at Binga
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Soufiane Aznabet was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad1 Sep 2031
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Modibo Haidara commits to Binga for another 3 years.
Squad1 Sep 2031
Words exchanged at Binga
Lassana Soumare 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.
Transfer targets1 Sep 2031
Real Bamako 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.
The dugout1 Sep 2031
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 Ousmane Doumbia is on it.
Squad1 Sep 2031
A year in and the city has not opened up, the language has not come, and lunch is eaten alone more often than anybody at Binga would admit. It shows on Saturdays.
Market1 Sep 2031
Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Soufiane Aznabet’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad21 Jul 2031
He is 17, he is averaging 7.14, and older professionals have started passing to him in the difficult minutes. That last part is the real scouting report.
Transfer targets21 Jul 2031
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Binga have done the hard part with Stade Malien, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Market21 Jul 2031
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Binga is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad21 Jul 2031
Soufiane Aznabet 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.
Transfer targets21 Jul 2031
The approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.
The dugout21 Jul 2031
“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.
Squad21 Jul 2031
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Binga this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad21 Jul 2031
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Ibrahim Toure and Binga agree another 3 years.
The dugout21 Jul 2031
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
Uneasy
Squad14 Jul 2031
Words at Binga training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Soufiane Aznabet 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.
Squad14 Jul 2031
Tempers go at Binga
Onofieme Osagie 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.
Transfer targets14 Jul 2031
A loan move for Mamadou Haidara is in the works
Binga have made the call to US Forces Armees. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
The dugout14 Jul 2031
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Binga, and both men came out saying it was fine.
The dugout14 Jul 2031
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.
Market14 Jul 2031
The name of Achille Kouadio keeps appearing in other people's back pages. Binga say nothing, which says plenty.
Market14 Jul 2031
Contract settled, hands shaken, no fee changing hands. Kolawole Sunday leaves Binga the quiet way, and the wage bill breathes a little easier.
Squad14 Jul 2031
Cheick Toure is not doing himself any favours
A manager forgives a bad Saturday far more readily than a bad Tuesday, because one of them he can explain and the other one he chose. The reports this week have not been good.
Match14 Jul 2031
Nothing left to play for but pride at Binga
28 points in position 10: too many to go down, too few to go anywhere. The honest description of a season like this is a shrug, and the supporters have already given it.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Transfer targets7 Jul 2031
The deal with Real Bamako 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.
Squad7 Jul 2031
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Djibrine Ndoram commits to Binga for another 2 years.
Squad7 Jul 2031
Soufiane Aznabet 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.
Transfer targets7 Jul 2031
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Djoliba have kept their man, and Binga go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Transfer targets7 Jul 2031
A loan enquiry to Onze Createurs: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.
Squad7 Jul 2031
Bakary Malle 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 Binga this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Boardroom7 Jul 2031
4 new boys at the Binga academy
Signed today, seen by nobody for years, and one of them may one day be the reason the club exists. That is the whole of the argument for an academy, and it is a good one.
The dugout7 Jul 2031
Ousmane Doumbia has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Binga 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.
Market7 Jul 2031
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Binga know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad16 Jun 2031
15 days out for Cheick Toure after a fracture
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Binga will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Squad16 Jun 2031
Soufiane Aznabet 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.
Transfer targets16 Jun 2031
Binga asked and Djoliba said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Transfer targets16 Jun 2031
A loan enquiry to US Forces Armees: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.
Squad16 Jun 2031
Tempers go at Binga
Moussa Tamboura 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 dugout16 Jun 2031
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.
Market16 Jun 2031
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Achille Kouadio signs something — a contract at Binga or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
The dugout16 Jun 2031
James Ebuka 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 Binga, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Squad16 Jun 2031
Questions about Massiré Gassama on the training pitch
The standards have slipped, and in a building where everybody watches everybody it has not gone unremarked. This is how a player loses a place before he loses one.
In brief
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The dugout
Djibrine Ndoram keeps his manager's vote
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Match
Nothing left to play for but pride at Binga
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
The terraces2 Jun 2031
Anger at Binga spills outside the ground
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.
Squad2 Jun 2031
Cheick Toure breaks a bone — 29 days out
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 29 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Squad2 Jun 2031
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Binga this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad2 Jun 2031
“The easiest signature of my career.” Abdou Diene and Binga agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
The dugout2 Jun 2031
The manager makes an example of Djibrine Ndoram
“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.
Squad2 Jun 2031
A row about effort at Binga
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Abdou Diene was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Transfer targets2 Jun 2031
A loan move for Samba Konaré is in the works
Binga have made the call to Stade Malien. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
Transfer targets2 Jun 2031
A loan enquiry to Stade Malien: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.
The dugout2 Jun 2031
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
Uneasy
The dugout26 May 2031
Djibrine Ndoram: 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.” Binga have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Squad26 May 2031
At 16, Lassana Soumare is already the best thing here
An average of 7.14 in a first team he is several years too young for. Binga have something, and by now the whole division has noticed.
Squad26 May 2031
36 days out for Cheick Toure after a fracture
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Binga will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Market26 May 2031
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Binga is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad26 May 2031
A row about effort at Binga
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Soufiane Aznabet was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad26 May 2031
14 days, the scan says, and scans are kinder than reality. The fixtures in that window have just become somebody else’s job.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
The terraces7 Apr 2031
Anger at Binga spills outside the ground
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.
Squad7 Apr 2031
A fracture rules Cheick Toure out for 85 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Binga will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Squad7 Apr 2031
Soufiane Aznabet 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 Apr 2031
Lassana Soumare is the division's best young player this month
At 16 he has spent a month being better than everybody his age in the league, which is a different and harder thing than one good afternoon. Binga will try very hard not to make too much of it.
Squad7 Apr 2031
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Binga this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The dugout7 Apr 2031
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 Achille Kouadio is on it.
The dugout7 Apr 2031
Djibrine Ndoram asks for a word with the manager
“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.
Boardroom7 Apr 2031
A $13.9K-a-year partner for Binga
A signature, a photograph, and a line in the accounts. Nobody sings about it and everything else on this page is paid for by it.
Market7 Apr 2031
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Binga know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
In brief
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The dugout
The manager plants his flag on Achille Kouadio
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Boardroom
Binga keep producing them
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Match
Mid-table, and Binga know it
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
The terraces10 Feb 2031
Anger at Binga spills outside the ground
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.
Match8 Feb 2031
No mercy from Binga
Afrique Foot Elite will want this one forgotten quickly: 5‑1, every duel lost, and a long ride home. Binga were ruthless in the way good sides are ruthless.
Player ratings10 Feb 2031
No sign of nerves from Lassana Soumare at 16 — 8.45
The hardest thing about being 16 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Lassana Soumare did not need any: 8.45, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Market10 Feb 2031
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Binga can pretend not to have heard.
Match8 Feb 2031
6 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about Binga and Afrique Foot Elite in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
Squad10 Feb 2031
A row about effort at Binga
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Soufiane Aznabet was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The terraces10 Feb 2031
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 22-year-old it feels ownership of. Achille Kouadio has it now, and everything he does for the rest of his time here will be measured against the goodwill he was handed for free.
Squad10 Feb 2031
The injury that keeps coming back, keeps being rushed back from, and quietly costs more careers than the dramatic ones. 14 days is the estimate; the honest figure depends on whether anybody is patient.
Player ratings10 Feb 2031
A performance of 8.12 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad15 Jul 2030
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 55 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Transfer targets15 Jul 2030
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Binga have done the hard part with Stade Malien, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Market15 Jul 2030
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Binga is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad15 Jul 2030
Soufiane Aznabet 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.
Squad15 Jul 2030
A falling-out at Binga
Onofieme Osagie and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Transfer targets15 Jul 2030
US Forces Armees 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.
The dugout15 Jul 2030
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.
Squad15 Jul 2030
A year in and the language has not come, the city has not opened up, and he eats alone more often than anybody at Binga would like to admit. It is showing on Saturdays.
Market15 Jul 2030
Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Massiré Gassama’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.