An individual honour is a strange thing in a team game, and the best of them are never argued with. He has had the sort of year that ends with his name being read out, and Panthere du Nde have had the benefit of it.
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. François Fegue Omgba scored, was marked 7.62, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Isaac Maben has just signed for Panthere du Nde, and for once the answer mattered.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Panthere du Nde this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The paperwork is done long before the player is. Vladimir Limaleba has agreed terms to come here when his current deal runs out, which means Panthere du Nde have spent a summer's transfer budget on a phone call.
The words a physio says slowly. 66 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.
0‑1 against Aigle Royal de la Menoua, and the road stops here. Cup exits are quick deaths — no second leg, no next week, just the league from now until May.
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.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Mohamed Moluh Mounta and Panthere du Nde agree another 4 years.
The words a physio says slowly. 23 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Panthere du Nde this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Sibongiseni Ngcobo 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.
Mohamed Moluh Mounta 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 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.
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. François Fegue Omgba scored, was marked 7.51, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Panthere du Nde this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Bulelane Nikani 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.
He is doing things on a Saturday afternoon that nobody around him can answer, which is flattering for about one season and a problem after that. Panthere du Nde will not keep him by pretending otherwise.
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.
Sibongiseni Ngcobo is 35 and has run out of things to prove. What he has left is where to stand, when to slow it down and what to say at half-time, and none of that is on a fitness chart.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Amr Nasser has just signed for El Dakhleya, and for once the answer mattered.
Some transfers need a press campaign. This one needed a shirt with the old number on it. Amr Nasser is a El Dakhleya player again, and the town has its story of the summer.
Mohamed Rizk 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.
Squad17 Sep 2029
Sherif Dabo 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 clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at El Dakhleya is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
He will play here until the summer and then walk out of the door for free, having already signed elsewhere. Supporters will manage the first part of that sentence; it is the second they will struggle with.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at El Dakhleya this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad10 Sep 2029
Words at El Dakhleya training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Sherif Dabo 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.
97 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. El Dakhleya lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at El Dakhleya this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
In brief
SquadWords at El Dakhleya training over how hard people work
Sherif Dabo 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.
Squad19 Mar 2029
Shérif Jimoh 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.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around El Dakhleya they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at El Dakhleya this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad26 Feb 2029
Words at El Dakhleya training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Shérif Jimoh 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.
Nobody makes a documentary about a hamstring and everybody in the game fears one. El Dakhleya will be careful with the return date, because the second one is always worse than the first.