Marked for Andre Afful
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad30 Nov 2026
18 goals and a season average of 7.55. Form like that gets noticed well beyond this town.
Squad30 Nov 2026
6 saves, and a scoreline the ten men in front of him had no right to. Goalkeepers only get noticed on the bad days; this was one of the other ones.
The dugout30 Nov 2026
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Wa All Stars may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Player ratings30 Nov 2026
No sign of nerves from Albert Acquah at 20 — 7.60
The hardest thing about being 20 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Albert Acquah did not need any: 7.60, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Player ratings30 Nov 2026
At 33 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.06 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Squad30 Nov 2026
“The easiest signature of my career.” Abdul Amoah and Wa All Stars agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad30 Nov 2026
Jonathan Asante 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 terraces30 Nov 2026
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.
In brief
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Player ratings
Abeiku Paintsil was on a different afternoon to everybody else
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The dugout
No hiding place for Abdul Amoah
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The dugout
The view from the dugout
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad23 Nov 2026
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 9 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
The dugout23 Nov 2026
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Wa All Stars may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Squad23 Nov 2026
Amos Annan 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.
Squad23 Nov 2026
Abeiku 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.
Match21 Nov 2026
Asante Kotoko left with the points after a 0‑1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
The dugout23 Nov 2026
“I could talk about decisions and I could talk about luck. I will not. We lost.” The manager, 0‑1, and a press conference that lasted four minutes.
The dugout23 Nov 2026
“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.
The dugout23 Nov 2026
No place in the plan for Andre Afful
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.
Player ratings23 Nov 2026
Successful dribbles: 8. 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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad16 Nov 2026
Defences have started doubling up on Abeiku Paintsil
17 goals and a season average of 7.54 will do that. The space he used to find has gone; he keeps scoring anyway, which is the mark of the real thing.
Squad16 Nov 2026
Amos Annan 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.
Match14 Nov 2026
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Isaac Amoah. 2‑1 against Liberty Professionals, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Player ratings16 Nov 2026
Ninety minutes of Isaac Amoah at his very best
Marked 8.81. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Wa All Stars.
Player ratings16 Nov 2026
Abeiku Paintsil was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.55. 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.
Squad16 Nov 2026
Words at Wa All Stars training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Isaac Amoah 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.
Player ratings16 Nov 2026
Successful dribbles: 17. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
The dugout16 Nov 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.” Samuel Annan, on a 2‑1 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
Looking ahead16 Nov 2026
Wa All Stars take on the side everybody is chasing
Asante Kotoko arrive as leaders. A side at the top is beaten roughly once a month, and the club that does it gets a week it remembers for a year.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Match17 Oct 2026
Wa All Stars throw away a 2-goal lead
2 in front and in complete control, and it finished with BA All Stars the happier side. There is no version of this afternoon that Wa All Stars will enjoy reviewing.
Player ratings19 Oct 2026
At 33 every good afternoon gets called a throwback, and this one was: 8.14, and nobody on the pitch better.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Jonathan Asante and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad19 Oct 2026
18 days, the medical staff say, and medical staff are optimists by profession. The team sheet will look wrong without him.
Squad19 Oct 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.
Player ratings19 Oct 2026
Ninety minutes of Isaac Amoah at his very best
Marked 8.28. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Wa All Stars.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Andre Afful 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 dugout19 Oct 2026
The manager makes an example of Joseph Kyereh
“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.
Match17 Oct 2026
3‑3, and both dressing rooms will call it two points lost. A draw that asked plenty of questions and answered none of them.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Squad5 Oct 2026
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.
Match3 Oct 2026
Nobody wants to play Wa All Stars 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.
Market5 Oct 2026
Felix Nuhu 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.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Amos Annan and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Match3 Oct 2026
WAFA made Wa All Stars work for it, but the scoreboard read 2‑0 at the end and the table does not ask how.
Player ratings5 Oct 2026
Headers, blocks, tackles, interceptions — 20 of them, and not one goal behind him. The sort of performance that never makes a highlight reel and wins football matches.
Player ratings5 Oct 2026
A performance of 8.79 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Isaac Amoah was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout5 Oct 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Andre Afful, and the manager let it.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Boardroom7 Sep 2026
Window shuts: 5 in, 1 out at Wa All Stars
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 5 arrived, 1 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
Boardroom7 Sep 2026
1 academy graduates step up at Wa All Stars
Senior shirt numbers handed to boys the coaches have known since they were twelve. Most will not make it and all of them have already done the hard part.
Match5 Sep 2026
Berekum Chelsea left with the points after a 1‑2 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Samba Traore 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.
Market7 Sep 2026
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Abdul Amoah has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Andre Afful 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 dugout7 Sep 2026
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 Samuel Annan to a room that had heard them before.
Player ratings7 Sep 2026
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.
Boardroom7 Sep 2026
Wa All Stars say no to the training-ground money
The plan went upstairs and came back down. Nothing about that will make a headline anywhere else, and everybody who works at the training ground will remember it for years.