Marked for Brahim Abba
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad25 Jan 2027
A knee injury of the worst kind for Ferdinand Gassina
21 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Elect Sport lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Player ratings25 Jan 2027
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 8.44, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
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.
Match23 Jan 2027
It finished 2‑0, and it was Frédéric Djoita’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Elect Sport.
Player ratings25 Jan 2027
A performance of 8.30 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
The dugout25 Jan 2027
The view from the dugout
“We controlled it. There were spells I did not like and we will look at them, but the group showed me something.” Brahim Haroun, on a 2‑0 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
Market25 Jan 2027
Aiglons are about to pick up the phone
A conversation is coming this week. Elect Sport will put a number on him, and from there it stops being football and becomes arithmetic.
Squad25 Jan 2027
He wheeled away like a man who had been carrying it for months, because he had. Elect Sport have their signing off the mark and one press-conference question retired.
Player ratings25 Jan 2027
Shots: 8, enough of them from close enough that a striker in form scores two. He is not a striker in form.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Squad4 Jan 2027
A knee injury of the worst kind for Ferdinand Gassina
43 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Elect Sport lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Squad4 Jan 2027
The kind of year that ends with a name being read out in a hall. Elect Sport had the benefit of it every week and now have the problem of everybody else knowing.
Market4 Jan 2027
Brahim Abba hands in a written request
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Elect Sport can pretend not to have heard.
Squad4 Jan 2027
Frédéric Djoeta 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.
Transfer targets4 Jan 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.
The terraces4 Jan 2027
He is 23 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.
Match2 Jan 2027
A 1‑0 win over Gazelle, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Squad4 Jan 2027
A place in the month's best eleven for Mahamat Tchari
Four or five weekends of consistency, judged against everybody in the division doing his job. Mahamat Tchari has come out of that comparison in the side, and Elect Sport have had the benefit of every one of those afternoons.
The dugout4 Jan 2027
The view from the dugout
“We controlled it. There were spells I did not like and we will look at them, but the group showed me something.” Brahim Haroun, on a 1‑0 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad30 Nov 2026
Ferdinand Gassina damages knee ligaments — 80 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 80 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 ratings30 Nov 2026
Moussa Raimadji, 33, rolls back the years — 8.10
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.10 at 33, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Squad30 Nov 2026
Frédéric Djoeta 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.
Match28 Nov 2026
Three points for Elect Sport, 1‑0 the final word against AS Algoy in a contest settled by the finer margins.
Boardroom30 Nov 2026
Wages eat 98% of everything Elect Sport earn
There is a figure at which a wage bill stops being ambitious and becomes the reason nothing else is possible, and this club has reached it. Nothing is left over for a transfer, a stand or a rainy afternoon.
The dugout30 Nov 2026
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Brahim Haroun on a 1‑0 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
Player ratings30 Nov 2026
Successful dribbles: 12. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
The dugout30 Nov 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Brahim Abba, and the manager let it.
Squad30 Nov 2026
At 16 years old, Hassan Hissein became the latest name off the academy production line to be handed a senior shirt.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Transfer targets14 Sep 2026
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. AS Etat Major have kept their man, and Elect Sport go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Market14 Sep 2026
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Oumar Mahamat is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Market14 Sep 2026
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Issa Doungous 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.
The dugout14 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.
Market14 Sep 2026
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Elect Sport know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Market14 Sep 2026
The window shut and Brahim Abba is still in the building
Elect Sport spent a month trying to move him and nobody rang back. He trains with a squad that has told him where he stands, and both sides start counting down to the next one.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad31 Aug 2026
23 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Elect Sport lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Market31 Aug 2026
Renaissance come back empty-handed
The bid was some way short and Elect Sport did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Transfer targets31 Aug 2026
Elect Sport and Stars Jeunes Talents have settled on $37.0K. The rest belongs to the player and his agent, and a supporter who has watched one of these before knows not to buy the shirt yet.
Transfer targets31 Aug 2026
Elect Sport offered $7.0K; Stars Jeunes Talents said it was not close. The manager will be told the money is still there for the right player, which is what managers are told.
Transfer targets31 Aug 2026
Elect Sport asked and US Moursal said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Transfer targets31 Aug 2026
AS Etat Major have been asked whether they would lend him. Loans are agreed quickly or not at all, and this one will be one or the other by the weekend.
Market31 Aug 2026
The name of Frédéric Djoita keeps appearing in other people's back pages. Elect Sport say nothing, which says plenty.
The dugout31 Aug 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
Market10 Aug 2026
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Elect Sport have lost him in all but the paperwork.
Squad10 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 Elect Sport this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Market10 Aug 2026
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Adam Souleymane 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.