Marked for Jose Valencia
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market30 Aug 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 The request is on a desk at Victoria United, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad30 Aug 2027
Laurian Nguefack is a better footballer than he was
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 21 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.
Squad30 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 Victoria United this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad30 Aug 2027
Mamoudou Hassana has improved at 28, 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.
Squad30 Aug 2027
Words at Victoria United training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mohamed Niaré 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.
Market30 Aug 2027
Both sides expect a conversation in the coming days. Victoria United will name a price, and everything after that is arithmetic.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad2 Aug 2027
The injury that keeps coming back, keeps being rushed back from, and quietly costs more careers than the dramatic ones. 15 days is the estimate; the honest figure depends on whether anybody is patient.
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 Victoria United this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad2 Aug 2027
Words at Victoria United training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mohamed Niaré 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.
Boardroom2 Aug 2027
Victoria United release $116.3K for the manager
The board have put money on the table rather than an encouraging word. What happens to it now is somebody else's problem, and somebody else's job.
Squad2 Aug 2027
Victoria United will explain it as a decision about the team, and it may well be one. A dressing room has never once read it that way.
Market2 Aug 2027
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Ramadan Mostafa has his answer from Victoria United; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad5 Jul 2027
There are footballers who have a good season and footballers a season is remembered for, and the second kind get their names read out in a hall in the summer. Victoria United will be quietly delighted and privately nervous.
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 Victoria United this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad5 Jul 2027
20 clean sheets across a season, and the one award on the pitch nobody else is eligible for. Most keepers get through a whole career without a year like it.
Market5 Jul 2027
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Victoria United, another week without a signature from Leverton Pierre.
Boardroom5 Jul 2027
Victoria United release $116.3K for the manager
The board have put money on the table rather than an encouraging word. What happens to it now is somebody else's problem, and somebody else's job.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market7 Jun 2027
Only the photograph left for Gilfranck Peto
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Gilfranck Peto will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Victoria United the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad7 Jun 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 Victoria United this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad7 Jun 2027
Words at Victoria United training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mohamed Niaré 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.
Boardroom7 Jun 2027
Victoria United release $116.3K for the manager
The board have put money on the table rather than an encouraging word. What happens to it now is somebody else's problem, and somebody else's job.
Market7 Jun 2027
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Raphaël Anaba signs something — a contract at Victoria United or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Market7 Jun 2027
The list is a quiet document with a loud meaning. Jose Valencia may talk to anybody who asks, and everybody at the club understands what that means.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Player ratings11 Jan 2027
Successful dribbles: 35. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Market11 Jan 2027
The fee is $84.0K, the contract is signed, and the argument about whether he is worth it can begin. Canon Yaounde drove a hard bargain; time will say who won it.
Squad11 Jan 2027
Mohamed Niaré 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 terraces11 Jan 2027
Victoria United spend $84.0K on the signing the town wanted
It is the rarest sequence in football: supporters ask for something, and the club goes and does it. $84.0K for Zacharie Ebogo, and for one week nobody is complaining about anything.
Boardroom11 Jan 2027
The paperwork is done long before the player is. Ghislain Tchinda has agreed terms to come here when his current deal runs out, which means Victoria United have spent a summer's transfer budget on a phone call.
Squad11 Jan 2027
Words at Victoria United training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Sazi Gumbi 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 terraces11 Jan 2027
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Dilane Ekongolo 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.
Squad11 Jan 2027
“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.
Squad11 Jan 2027
There is no complaint available here and everybody involved knows it, which does not make the walk to the bench any shorter. Form is the only currency in football that cannot be borrowed against.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match12 Sep 2026
The wait goes on for Cortulua
6 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.
The terraces14 Sep 2026
The boos come down from three sides
“We pay for this every fortnight. The least we want is somebody who looks like he cares.” 5 of the 25 senior players walked off into it; the rest were not playing.
Market14 Sep 2026
“I have ambitions, and I would like the club to share them.” Nobody has asked to leave and nobody has been shown the door — but a player chooses that sentence carefully, and a boardroom hears it exactly as it was meant.
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 22. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Hector Valencia 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.
Match12 Sep 2026
Santa Fe left with the points after a 1‑3 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Squad14 Sep 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Luis Restrepo, and the manager let it.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Sebastian Cardona has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Cortulua will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
Squad14 Sep 2026
The first one is the one every signing is asked about until it arrives. It has arrived, and he can stop being asked.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Player ratings31 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 27. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
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.
Match29 Aug 2026
4 matches without a win for Cortulua
The run now stands at 4, and the questions being asked around Cortulua are no longer polite ones.
Match29 Aug 2026
Beaten 0‑1, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Squad31 Aug 2026
There is no complaint available here and everybody involved knows it, which does not make the walk to the bench any shorter. Form is the only currency in football that cannot be borrowed against.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match12 Aug 2026
Alianza Petrolera ended it 0‑1. The season narrows to the league now, and everyone in the ground knew it before the final whistle.
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 24. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad17 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 Cortulua this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad17 Aug 2026
The manager makes an example of Nicolas Montero
“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.
Match15 Aug 2026
Beaten 0‑2, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Javier Mejia 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.