Marked for Patrick Atiemo
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad27 Dec 2027
Patrick Atiemo damages knee ligaments — 137 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 137 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.
Market27 Dec 2027
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Galactik can pretend not to have heard.
Squad27 Dec 2027
“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.
Squad27 Dec 2027
Abanga Mahamat Youssouf 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.
Squad27 Dec 2027
Boburbek Yorbekov 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.
Match25 Dec 2027
0‑2 to Aiglons, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad20 Dec 2027
Patrick Atiemo damages knee ligaments — 144 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 144 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.
Match20 Dec 2027
Galactik are in among the leaders
Position 2 and 24 points on the board. Nobody at the ground will say the word out loud yet, and everybody at the ground is thinking it.
Match18 Dec 2027
Whatever happens, Galactik do not lose
11 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.
Player ratings20 Dec 2027
No sign of nerves from Hassan Tokindang at 21 — 8.28
The hardest thing about being 21 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Hassan Tokindang did not need any: 8.28, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Market20 Dec 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.
Player ratings20 Dec 2027
Successful dribbles: 23. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad20 Dec 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 Galactik this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match18 Dec 2027
Three points for Galactik, 3‑1 the final word against AS Etat Major in a contest settled by the finer margins.
Squad20 Dec 2027
Words at Galactik training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Boburbek Yorbekov 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.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad13 Dec 2027
Patrick Atiemo damages knee ligaments — 151 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 151 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.
Player ratings13 Dec 2027
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 9.02, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
Match11 Dec 2027
Still nobody has beaten Galactik
The unbeaten run reaches 10. Some of them were wins and some were escapes, but a side that refuses to lose is a side other dressing rooms talk about.
Match11 Dec 2027
Galactik make home a hard place to visit
12 without defeat on their own grass. The pitch has not changed; the crowd has — louder earlier, and quicker to sense when the opposition would rather be somewhere else.
Player ratings13 Dec 2027
Successful dribbles: 22. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad13 Dec 2027
Abanga Mahamat Youssouf 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.
Match11 Dec 2027
A 3‑2 win over AS Algoy, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Squad13 Dec 2027
Benjamin Ngakoutou 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 terraces13 Dec 2027
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Akobirjon Ahmadjonov 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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market13 Sep 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 Galactik, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad13 Sep 2027
Boburbek Yorbekov is a better footballer than he was
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 23 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.
Squad13 Sep 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 Galactik this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad13 Sep 2027
At 29 the improving is meant to be over. It is not: 4 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.
Squad13 Sep 2027
Words at Galactik training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Boburbek Yorbekov 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.
Market13 Sep 2027
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Youssouf Abdraman signs something — a contract at Galactik or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad2 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 Galactik this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad2 Aug 2027
Words at Galactik training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Boburbek Yorbekov 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.
Squad2 Aug 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Boburbek Yorbekov, and the manager let it.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad5 Jul 2027
Odilo Pinutusta damages knee ligaments — 24 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 24 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.
Squad5 Jul 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 Galactik this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad5 Jul 2027
Words at Galactik training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Benjamin Ngakoutou 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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Player ratings15 Mar 2027
Successful dribbles: 68. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad15 Mar 2027
A fracture rules Albert Boakye out for 112 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Wa All Stars will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Player ratings15 Mar 2027
Joseph Acquah could not have asked for more on his first appearance — 7.24
Debuts are survived rather than enjoyed. This one was enjoyed: 7.24, 0 goals, and a manager already being asked whether he starts again next week.
Squad15 Mar 2027
Words at Wa All Stars training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jonathan 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 terraces15 Mar 2027
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Nitai Greis 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.
Squad15 Mar 2027
Osman Mensah 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.
Squad15 Mar 2027
3 goals and a season average of 7.39. Form like that gets noticed well beyond this town.
Match13 Mar 2027
Point won or two lost for Wa All Stars?
Ninety minutes, no goals, and the argument started before the car park emptied: a point gained, or two thrown away against Bechem United? Both sides of it will still be going on Thursday.
Market15 Mar 2027
Contract settled, hands shaken, no fee changing hands. Bernard Nuhu leaves Wa All Stars the quiet way, and the wage bill breathes a little easier.