Marked for Kwame Atiemo
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad18 Oct 2027
17 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.
Match16 Oct 2027
No end in sight to BA All Stars's wait for a win
5 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at BA All Stars has to find a result from somewhere.
The dugout18 Oct 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.
Match16 Oct 2027
No clean sheets in sight for BA All Stars
5 games now with at least two against. The back line has been rearranged, the goalkeeper has been backed publicly, and the goals keep going in anyway.
Squad18 Oct 2027
Thomas Waris 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 dugout18 Oct 2027
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Squad18 Oct 2027
Kwadwo Wakaso 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.
Match16 Oct 2027
Andrew Nuhu scored, and precious little else went right: 1‑2 to Wa All Stars, and a quiet walk to the dressing room.
The dugout18 Oct 2027
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Albert Boateng after 1‑2, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market20 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 The request is on a desk at BA All Stars, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad20 Sep 2027
The step up is real for Andrew Nuhu
At 22 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.
The dugout20 Sep 2027
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Squad20 Sep 2027
Thomas Waris 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.
Squad20 Sep 2027
At 24 the improving is meant to be over, and it is not: 3 points better than a year ago. It happens to the ones who take the boring parts seriously.
Player ratings20 Sep 2027
Successful dribbles: 21. 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.
Squad20 Sep 2027
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Kwadwo Wakaso was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The terraces20 Sep 2027
He is 19 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.
Match18 Sep 2027
WAFA made BA All Stars work for it, but the scoreboard read 1‑0 at the end and the table does not ask how.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match4 Sep 2027
1‑4 to Hasaacas, 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.
Squad6 Sep 2027
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 8 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
Market6 Sep 2027
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around BA All Stars people have started saying his name in the past tense.
Boardroom6 Sep 2027
BA All Stars close the window on a squad of their own making
12 in and 13 out, and no more changes for months. The manager has what he has, the supporters have their opinion of it, and the table will have the last word.
Squad6 Sep 2027
Yaw Addo is a better footballer than he was
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 20 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.
Boardroom6 Sep 2027
BA All Stars moved before anybody else could: a new deal for Albert Boateng, agreed quietly and announced loudly. Boards extend managers for many reasons; the good one is the one this looks like.
Squad6 Sep 2027
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Thomas Waris commits to BA All Stars for another 3 years.
Squad6 Sep 2027
Thomas Waris and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Boardroom6 Sep 2027
5 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.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad16 Aug 2027
A knee injury of the worst kind for Albert Boateng
32 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. BA All Stars lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Market16 Aug 2027
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Liberty Professionals waiting with a shirt. Nobody at BA All Stars is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Squad16 Aug 2027
The step up is real for Nana Addo
At 22 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.
Squad16 Aug 2027
Kwadwo Wakaso has improved at 24, which nobody expected
Careers are supposed to plateau and then decline, and the players who ignore that are always the ones who were listening on the training ground. 3 points of it, over months, at an age where the direction normally only goes one way.
Transfer targets16 Aug 2027
The approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.
Squad16 Aug 2027
Kwadwo Wakaso 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 dugout16 Aug 2027
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The dugout16 Aug 2027
The manager makes an example of Nana Addo
“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.
The dugout16 Aug 2027
Bernard Nuhu gets picked when it counts
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Bernard Nuhu is on it.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market19 Jul 2027
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. BA All Stars have lost him in all but the paperwork.
Squad19 Jul 2027
Thomas Waris 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 BA All Stars this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Transfer targets19 Jul 2027
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Hearts of Oak have kept their man, and BA All Stars go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad19 Jul 2027
Kwadwo Wakaso 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 Jul 2027
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The dugout19 Jul 2027
A promise honoured for Nana Addo
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. BA All Stars told Nana Addo something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market21 Jun 2027
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Liberty Professionals waiting with a shirt. Nobody at BA All Stars is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Market21 Jun 2027
HNK Rijeka are about to pick up the phone
A conversation is coming this week. BA All Stars will put a number on him, and from there it stops being football and becomes arithmetic.
Squad21 Jun 2027
David 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 dugout21 Jun 2027
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Squad21 Jun 2027
66 days, the scan says, and scans are kinder than reality. The fixtures in that window have just become somebody else’s job.
Squad21 Jun 2027
a squad player and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Transfer targets21 Jun 2027
A loan enquiry to Hearts of Oak: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.
The dugout21 Jun 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Christian Annan, and the manager let it.
The dugout21 Jun 2027
Bernard Nuhu gets picked when it counts
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Bernard Nuhu is on it.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
The dugout24 May 2027
Andrew Kyereh: 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.” BA All Stars have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Squad24 May 2027
Thomas Waris 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 BA All Stars this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad24 May 2027
Words at BA All Stars training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Kwadwo Wakaso 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 dugout24 May 2027
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The dugout24 May 2027
The manager makes an example of Nana Addo
“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.
The dugout24 May 2027
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad26 Apr 2027
“The easiest signature of my career.” Kamaldeen Atiemo and BA All Stars agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad26 Apr 2027
Thomas Waris 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 BA All Stars this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad26 Apr 2027
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Kwadwo Wakaso was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout26 Apr 2027
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The dugout26 Apr 2027
Andrew Nuhu 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.
The dugout26 Apr 2027
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at BA All Stars, and both men came out saying it was fine.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market5 Apr 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.
Squad5 Apr 2027
Thomas Waris 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.
Squad5 Apr 2027
Kwadwo Wakaso 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 dugout5 Apr 2027
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Squad5 Apr 2027
The young player of the month award goes to a 21-year-old at BA All Stars who has looked like the finished article for four weekends running. The next four are the ones that decide whether he is.
The dugout5 Apr 2027
“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.
Squad5 Apr 2027
“The easiest signature of my career.” Emmanuel Atiemo and BA All Stars agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
The dugout5 Apr 2027
Francis Ayew knocks on the manager’s door
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Francis Ayew trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
The dugout5 Apr 2027
Nobody will confirm this and nothing else explains the last month of selections. A costly error buys a player a period of being second choice that is always longer than the error was.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Squad29 Mar 2027
5 goals in one afternoon from one man. The other players were also present, a witness confirmed.
Match27 Mar 2027
Rarely has this fixture seen a display like it: 5‑1 against Heart of Lions, and it could have been more.
Squad29 Mar 2027
A season average of 8.33 at an age when most of his year group are still in the youth team. BA All Stars know what they have, and so, by now, does everybody else.
Match29 Mar 2027
46 points, and the season has a number on it. Whatever it felt like from the inside, this is what it will look like in a book.
Player ratings29 Mar 2027
Marked 10.00 at 21, in a side that makes no allowances for age. He did not need any, and he looked the least nervous man on the pitch.
Match27 Mar 2027
5 wins on the spin now, and the question has changed from whether the run ends to who ends it. Confidence like this cannot be bought; it has to be earned exactly this way.
Match27 Mar 2027
Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 6 goals between BA All Stars and Heart of Lions, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.
The terraces29 Mar 2027
At 17 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.
Match27 Mar 2027
BA All Stars keep winning on the road
3 away wins in a row. Travelling support is the truest kind, and this season it is being repaid in the only currency that counts.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad1 Mar 2027
A one-man rearguard from Thomas Waris
There were 11 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.
Squad1 Mar 2027
He is 21, he is averaging 8.13, and older professionals have started passing to him in the difficult minutes. That last part is the real scouting report.
Match27 Feb 2027
Kamaldeen Atiemo wins it after the whistle should have gone
91 minutes played. Kamaldeen Atiemo found the finish in time that only existed because of earlier delays, and Bechem United went from a point to nothing inside one movement.
Player ratings1 Mar 2027
A brace, and Kamaldeen Atiemo takes the afternoon — 9.49
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Kamaldeen Atiemo provided it, and the 9.49 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Market1 Mar 2027
The offer from Hammarby for Kamaldeen Atiemo 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.
Market1 Mar 2027
Only the photograph left for Nana Kyereh
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Nana Kyereh will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around BA All Stars the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad1 Mar 2027
Thomas Waris and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad1 Mar 2027
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Kwadwo Wakaso was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Match27 Feb 2027
A 2‑1 win over Bechem United, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Player ratings18 Jan 2027
No sign of nerves from Kamaldeen Atiemo at 21 — 8.10
The hardest thing about being 21 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Kamaldeen Atiemo did not need any: 8.10, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Squad18 Jan 2027
Thomas Waris 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.
Match16 Jan 2027
Ashanti Gold left with the points after a 1‑2 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Squad18 Jan 2027
Words at BA All Stars training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Kwadwo Wakaso 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 dugout18 Jan 2027
The manager makes an example of Andrew Nuhu
“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.
The dugout18 Jan 2027
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 Albert Boateng to a room that had heard them before.
The dugout18 Jan 2027
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
The dugout18 Jan 2027
Francis Ayew asks for a word with the manager
“I would rather say it to his face than read about it.” The meeting was requested by the player, which tells you most of what you need to know.
Player ratings18 Jan 2027
Successful dribbles: 13. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Player ratings7 Dec 2026
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 9.31, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
Player ratings7 Dec 2026
No sign of nerves from Kwame Atiemo at 15 — 8.16
The hardest thing about being 15 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Kwame Atiemo did not need any: 8.16, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Squad7 Dec 2026
A season average of 7.53 at an age when most of his year group are still in the youth team. BA All Stars know what they have, and so, by now, does everybody else.
Market7 Dec 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 Dec 2026
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Francis Ayew commits to BA All Stars for another 2 years.
Squad7 Dec 2026
Nana Addo and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Match5 Dec 2026
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Kamaldeen Atiemo. 3‑2 against Berekum Chelsea, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Squad7 Dec 2026
Words at BA All Stars training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Kamaldeen Atiemo 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 terraces7 Dec 2026
He is 15 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.