Marked for David André
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match9 Jan 2027
It is a specific kind of quiet, a ground watching a winning position dissolve. Nimes kept coming because nothing stopped them, and Chamois Niortais will be asked about the last half hour all week.
Squad11 Jan 2027
Olivier Aubry breaks a bone — 23 days out
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 23 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Squad11 Jan 2027
18 goals and a season average of 7.46. Form like that gets noticed well beyond this town.
Market11 Jan 2027
The offer from Cultural Leonesa for Raymond Adam 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.
Player ratings11 Jan 2027
Age has not caught Jacques Marty yet — 8.03
At 33 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.03 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
The dugout11 Jan 2027
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Chamois Niortais may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Squad11 Jan 2027
David Amegnaglo 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.
Squad11 Jan 2027
At 21, David Amegnaglo is already the best thing here
An average of 7.02 in a first team he is several years too young for. Chamois Niortais have something, and by now the whole division has noticed.
Match9 Jan 2027
6 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.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Player ratings23 Nov 2026
Successful dribbles: 50. 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.
Match18 Nov 2026
A 1‑0 win over LOSC Lille, and the draw for the next round can be watched with some interest for once.
Match23 Nov 2026
34 points on the board and a place in the leading group. Nobody at the ground is saying the word out loud yet.
Squad23 Nov 2026
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 7 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
Squad23 Nov 2026
David Amegnaglo 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.
Match21 Nov 2026
Red Star left with the points after a 0‑2 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Squad23 Nov 2026
Jacques Marty is in the form of his life
A season average of 7.28 with 10 goals behind it. Opponents have started planning around him, which is the sincerest compliment football pays.
Squad23 Nov 2026
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Arnaud Duval was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Match21 Nov 2026
Every run ends on an afternoon somebody had marked down as routine. This one went 4 matches, which is long enough that a town had stopped counting, and short enough that it will remember exactly who stopped it.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Player ratings5 Oct 2026
Successful dribbles: 40. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Match3 Oct 2026
Valenciennes will want this one forgotten quickly: 3‑0, every duel lost, and a long ride home. Chamois Niortais were ruthless in the way good sides are ruthless.
Squad5 Oct 2026
3 goals in one game. The first was taken well, the second was taken greedily, and by the third the crowd were simply waiting for him to get the ball.
Match3 Oct 2026
Hard to beat is not the same as winning, but 10 matches without defeat is a foundation Chamois Niortais did not have in the autumn.
Squad5 Oct 2026
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Chamois Niortais this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Player ratings5 Oct 2026
Antoine Lambert was on a different afternoon to everybody else
9.89. 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.
Squad5 Oct 2026
A season average of 7.23 with 10 goals behind it. Opponents have started planning around him, which is the sincerest compliment football pays.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Words at Chamois Niortais training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. El Hadji Dieye 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 dugout5 Oct 2026
“That is what I want every week. Not the result, the way they went about it.” The manager, after 3‑0, already talking about the next one.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad31 Aug 2026
3 goals in one game. The first was taken well, the second was taken greedily, and by the third the crowd were simply waiting for him to get the ball.
Player ratings31 Aug 2026
A brace, and Antoine Nicolas takes the afternoon — 8.39
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Antoine Nicolas provided it, and the 8.39 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Market31 Aug 2026
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Transfer targets31 Aug 2026
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: AJ Auxerre keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Match29 Aug 2026
6 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about Chamois Niortais and Dijon in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
Player ratings31 Aug 2026
Antoine Lambert was on a different afternoon to everybody else
9.82. 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.
Market31 Aug 2026
Business is business: Benoît Lopez goes
Angers SCO paid $310.0K and Chamois Niortais took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
Squad31 Aug 2026
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Arnaud Duval was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market10 Aug 2026
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Transfer targets10 Aug 2026
$2.5M settles it between the clubs for David Amegnaglo
Westerlo have accepted the money. What Chamois Niortais do not yet have is the man, and between here and the photograph is a conversation about wages that both sides are dreading.
Player ratings10 Aug 2026
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 8.20, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
Market10 Aug 2026
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Chamois Niortais people have started saying his name in the past tense.
Market10 Aug 2026
“I know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” Pontedera had the fee agreed and the shirt ready; they did not have the player, and now they will not.
Player ratings10 Aug 2026
Age has not caught Benoît Lopez yet — 7.96
At 34 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 7.96 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Transfer targets10 Aug 2026
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Chamois Niortais have done the hard part with FC Nantes, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match1 Aug 2026
2 goals to the good, and then a slow surrender of everything that had been earned. Antoine Nicolas will not be the one blamed for it, but nobody at Chamois Niortais escapes the conversation that follows a collapse like this.
Market3 Aug 2026
The offer from LOSC Lille for Antoine Lambert 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.
Player ratings3 Aug 2026
Jacques Marty, 33, rolls back the years — 8.16
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.16 at 33, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Transfer targets3 Aug 2026
Chamois Niortais have gone to Westerlo with a bid, and the supporters have gone to the internet with an opinion about it. Whether either changes anything is up to the selling club.
Market3 Aug 2026
Diego Rinaldi wants to know where this is going
“I want to win things, and I would like to do it here.” Nothing has been demanded and nothing has been threatened — but a boardroom at Chamois Niortais hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
Transfer targets3 Aug 2026
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Sint-Truiden have kept their man, and Chamois Niortais go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad3 Aug 2026
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Chamois Niortais this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The dugout3 Aug 2026
The manager makes an example of Diego Rinaldi
“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.
Market3 Aug 2026
The phone has started ringing about David André again, and this time the name on the line is Pontedera. Chamois Niortais are listening politely and promising nothing.