Marked for Albert Baba
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad5 Apr 2027
A fracture rules Pejman Ghoddos out for 54 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Afrique Foot Elite will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Squad5 Apr 2027
Albert Baba 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.
Squad5 Apr 2027
Words at Afrique Foot Elite training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Zoumana Coulibaly 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.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Player ratings8 Feb 2027
No sign of nerves from Malick Djiguiba at 20 — 9.58
The hardest thing about being 20 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Malick Djiguiba did not need any: 9.58, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Squad8 Feb 2027
The match ball belongs to Malick Djiguiba, whose 3 goals turned a difficult afternoon into a procession.
Match6 Feb 2027
5 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.
Squad8 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 Afrique Foot Elite this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match6 Feb 2027
A 4‑2 win over Binga, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Player ratings8 Feb 2027
Successful dribbles: 21. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad8 Feb 2027
Moussa Ballo 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.
Player ratings8 Feb 2027
Marked 9.07 — 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
Player ratings25 Jan 2027
Two goals and a mark of 8.79 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Squad25 Jan 2027
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Abdelkarim Mostafa is living that version at Afrique Foot Elite, and it tends to show in the first month.
Market25 Jan 2027
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Squad25 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 Afrique Foot Elite this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match23 Jan 2027
AS Police left with the points after a 3‑4 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Squad25 Jan 2027
Moussa Ballo 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.
Market25 Jan 2027
Nobody sells a season ticket on a signing like this. Every manager who has been through a bad October wants one anyway, and Afrique Foot Elite have gone and got theirs early.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match9 Jan 2027
A 0‑4 beating by Real Bamako was the sort of result that empties a stadium long before the final whistle.
Squad11 Jan 2027
Gonzalo Mall 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 Afrique Foot Elite this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad11 Jan 2027
Words at Afrique Foot Elite training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Zoumana Coulibaly 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.
Squad11 Jan 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Sebastián Píriz, and the manager let it.
Market11 Jan 2027
The name of Aboubacar Meïté has come up in conversations Afrique Foot Elite were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Boardroom11 Jan 2027
Nobody left the Afrique Foot Elite dressing room in a hurry
The door stayed shut a long time after the final whistle. What was said in there is between them; whether it worked is between them and Saturday.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad2 Nov 2026
A one-man rearguard from Gonzalo Mall
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.
Match31 Oct 2026
0‑5 to Stade Malien, and it was every bit as bad as the number suggests. There are defeats you argue about and defeats you apologise for; this was the second kind.
Squad2 Nov 2026
Malick Djiguiba: 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.” Afrique Foot Elite have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Squad2 Nov 2026
“The easiest signature of my career.” Albert Baba and Afrique Foot Elite agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad2 Nov 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 Afrique Foot Elite this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Boardroom2 Nov 2026
Nobody left the Afrique Foot Elite dressing room in a hurry
The door stayed shut a long time after the final whistle. What was said in there is between them; whether it worked is between them and Saturday.
Player ratings2 Nov 2026
There was one mistake and it ended in the net. Defenders are judged on the worst thing they did rather than on the eighty-nine minutes either side of it, which is unfair and is also the job.
Player ratings2 Nov 2026
Successful dribbles: 11. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Market2 Nov 2026
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Afrique Foot Elite, another week without a signature from Razak Abdullah.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Player ratings26 Oct 2026
Successful dribbles: 33. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Match24 Oct 2026
The wait goes on for WAFA
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.
Squad26 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 WAFA this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad26 Oct 2026
Isaac Asamoah 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.
Match24 Oct 2026
Beaten 1‑2, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Squad26 Oct 2026
The medical room confirms 44 days on the sidelines for Gladson Kudus, and a plan built around him now has to be rebuilt.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match7 Oct 2026
The cup run ends for WAFA
1‑3 against Medeama, and the road stops here. Cup exits are quick deaths — no second leg, no next week, just the league from now until May.
Squad12 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 WAFA this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match10 Oct 2026
2‑3 to Great Olympics, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Squad12 Oct 2026
Brahim Sabaouni 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.
Player ratings12 Oct 2026
Ninety minutes of Abraham Boateng at his very best
Marked 8.39. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at WAFA.
Player ratings12 Oct 2026
Chances created: 14. Not on the scoresheet and not remotely anonymous — a passing performance that pulled a defence apart without leaving a mark on the column that gets read.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market7 Sep 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.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Tempers go at WAFA
Isaac Asamoah 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.
Boardroom7 Sep 2026
Graduation day at WAFA
3 boys move up, and somewhere in the building the people who coached them at twelve are quietly having the best morning of their working year. Nothing about this shows up in a result and it is why the academy exists.
Match5 Sep 2026
1‑3 to Ashanti Gold, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Words at WAFA training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Martín Lucero 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.
Market7 Sep 2026
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Kwame Acquah has been at this club since he was a boy and is now, formally, one of the first-team squad — which for a local readership beats any signing of any size.
Market7 Sep 2026
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Emmanuel Sulemana is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Market7 Sep 2026
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Joseph Gyan has been at this club since he was a boy and is now, formally, one of the first-team squad — which for a local readership beats any signing of any size.
Squad7 Sep 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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market31 Aug 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.
Squad31 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 WAFA this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad31 Aug 2026
Brahim Sabaouni 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.