Marked for Ezechiel Abba
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad4 Oct 2027
Ahmat Ngaradoumbe damages knee ligaments — 48 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 48 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.
Squad4 Oct 2027
55 days, the medical staff say, and medical staff are optimists by profession. The team sheet will look wrong without him.
Squad4 Oct 2027
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Zakaria Hadraf commits to CotonTchad for another 2 years.
Squad4 Oct 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 CotonTchad this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Boardroom4 Oct 2027
5 academy graduates step up at CotonTchad
Senior shirt numbers handed to boys the coaches have known since they were twelve. Most will not make it and all of them have already done the hard part.
Market4 Oct 2027
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Issa Abba 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.
Market4 Oct 2027
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Djibrine Mbainaissem is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Market4 Oct 2027
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Brahim Mbaiguedem is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Market4 Oct 2027
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Abdramane Mbaiguedem has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market27 Sep 2027
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Saleh Souleymane will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around CotonTchad the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Market27 Sep 2027
The name of Youness Mokhtar keeps appearing in other people's back pages. CotonTchad say nothing, which says plenty.
The dugout27 Sep 2027
Ezechiel Abba 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 Ezechiel Abba trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market16 Aug 2027
“I listened, I thought about it, and I am staying. That is the whole story.” The clubs had agreed a fee. Esaie Djikoloum had not agreed to go, which turned out to be the part that mattered.
Transfer targets16 Aug 2027
CotonTchad had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at US Moursal, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
Market16 Aug 2027
AS Etat Major did not want to sell and the number is why they did. $43.0K for Abdoulaye Haroun, and the expectation that arrives with him is the kind no amount of settling-in period softens.
Squad16 Aug 2027
Fawzi Ouaamar and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad16 Aug 2027
Hicham Nouali has improved at 30, 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.
The terraces16 Aug 2027
Boards get told what they have done wrong for years and hear nothing on the days they get it right. This is one of those days: Abdoulaye Haroun from AS Etat Major for $43.0K, and a ticket office having a very good morning.
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
The injury that keeps coming back, keeps being rushed back from, and quietly costs more careers than the dramatic ones. 14 days is the estimate; the honest figure depends on whether anybody is patient.
The dugout16 Aug 2027
Gérard Diarra knocks on the manager's door
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at CotonTchad, and both men came out saying it was fine.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Match9 Aug 2027
52 points on the board and a place in the leading group. Nobody at the ground is saying the word out loud yet.
Transfer targets9 Aug 2027
CotonTchad asked and CS Constantine said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Squad9 Aug 2027
A row about effort at CotonTchad
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Hicham Nouali was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad9 Aug 2027
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Léger Djimrangar commits to CotonTchad for another 1 years.
Market9 Aug 2027
Elect Sport are about to pick up the phone
A conversation is coming this week. CotonTchad will put a number on him, and from there it stops being football and becomes arithmetic.
Squad9 Aug 2027
6 new faces, and CotonTchad are still learning each other
A squad rebuilt inside one window pays for it in a currency nobody budgets for. The football is not worse than the sum of the players; it is worse than the sum of the players who have played together before.
The dugout9 Aug 2027
Youness Mokhtar has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at CotonTchad 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.
Market9 Aug 2027
The name of Fawzi Ouaamar keeps appearing in other people's back pages. CotonTchad say nothing, which says plenty.
The dugout9 Aug 2027
Ezechiel Abba knocks on the manager's door
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at CotonTchad, and both men came out saying it was fine.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad28 Jun 2027
Fawzi Ouaamar 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 targets28 Jun 2027
CotonTchad asked and AS Algoy said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Squad28 Jun 2027
Words at CotonTchad training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. El Mehdi El Bassil 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 dugout28 Jun 2027
The manager makes an example of Ezechiel Abba
“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.
Market28 Jun 2027
Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Hicham El Aroui’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.
Squad28 Jun 2027
The competition arrived without a word said to him about it. Zakaria Hadraf keeps the shirt for now, at CotonTchad's convenience rather than his own.
Squad28 Jun 2027
He trains hard, says the right things and goes home to an empty flat. Nobody at CotonTchad has done anything wrong, which is exactly what makes it so difficult to fix.
Market28 Jun 2027
A season-long audition: AS Algoy still own him, but the shirt and the minutes are CotonTchad's to give. A loan is a bet both clubs believe they are winning.
Market28 Jun 2027
1 months remain and no agreement is close. Every week without a signature costs CotonTchad money.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market21 Jun 2027
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Transfer targets21 Jun 2027
CotonTchad asked and Muranga Seal said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Squad21 Jun 2027
Words at CotonTchad training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Hicham Nouali 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.
Transfer targets21 Jun 2027
A loan move for Issa Youssouf is in the works
CotonTchad have made the call to AS Etat Major. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
Market21 Jun 2027
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. CotonTchad know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
The dugout21 Jun 2027
Ezechiel Abba knocks on the manager's door
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at CotonTchad, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Squad21 Jun 2027
Two hours a week with a tutor, which is the least glamorous thing at CotonTchad and the one that decides whether a foreign signing is still here in two years.
Market21 Jun 2027
Training is not playing and everybody in the game knows it. Madaoua Tchiva has gone out on loan to a club that wants him in the side rather than around it, and he will come back either a better player or an answered question.
The dugout21 Jun 2027
Public backing, and the sort that costs a manager something if it turns out to be wrong. Youness Mokhtar has been told in front of everybody that the shirt is his.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Match17 May 2027
CotonTchad refuse to drop out of the race
Position 2, 52 points, and the result everyone checks first is now theirs. The word is still not being said around the ground, which is how you know everyone is thinking it.
Squad17 May 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 CotonTchad this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad17 May 2027
A row about effort at CotonTchad
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Hicham Nouali was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout17 May 2027
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 Youness Mokhtar is on it.
Market17 May 2027
The name of Fawzi Ouaamar keeps appearing in other people's back pages. CotonTchad say nothing, which says plenty.
The dugout17 May 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 CotonTchad, and both men came out saying it was fine.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market10 May 2027
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Saleh Souleymane will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around CotonTchad the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad10 May 2027
Fawzi Ouaamar 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.
Squad10 May 2027
Hicham Nouali 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 dugout10 May 2027
Zakaria Hadraf 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 Zakaria Hadraf trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
The dugout10 May 2027
The manager makes an example of Ezechiel Abba
“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.
Market10 May 2027
The name of Youness Mokhtar keeps appearing in other people's back pages. CotonTchad say nothing, which says plenty.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Player ratings29 Mar 2027
Two goals and a mark of 8.91 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Squad29 Mar 2027
A season average of 7.46 with 16 goals behind it. Opponents have started planning around him, which is the sincerest compliment football pays.
Match27 Mar 2027
Every run ends on an afternoon somebody had marked down as routine. This one went 10 matches, which is long enough that a town had stopped counting, and short enough that it will remember exactly who stopped it.
Squad29 Mar 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 CotonTchad this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match27 Mar 2027
2‑3 to Gazelle, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Squad29 Mar 2027
A row about effort at CotonTchad
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Hicham Nouali was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout29 Mar 2027
“I could talk about decisions and I could talk about luck. I will not. We lost.” The manager, 2‑3, and a press conference that lasted four minutes.
The dugout29 Mar 2027
A promise honoured at CotonTchad
Something was said to a squad player and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
The dugout29 Mar 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Ezechiel Abba, and the manager let it.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad4 Jan 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 CotonTchad this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Transfer targets4 Jan 2027
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Stars Jeunes Talents have kept their man, and CotonTchad go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Transfer targets4 Jan 2027
A loan enquiry to Free State Stars: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.
Squad4 Jan 2027
Four or five weekends of consistency, measured against everybody else in the division. A quieter compliment than an award and a more reliable one.
The dugout4 Jan 2027
The manager makes an example of Madaoua Tchiva
“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.
Squad4 Jan 2027
Ezechiel Abba 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.
Market4 Jan 2027
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Esaie Djikoloum has his answer from CotonTchad; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
Looking ahead4 Jan 2027
US Moursal next, and one man in the CotonTchad dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad14 Dec 2026
He is 19, he is averaging 7.32, and older professionals have started passing to him in the difficult minutes. That last part is the real scouting report.
The dugout14 Dec 2026
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” CotonTchad may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Match12 Dec 2026
Still nobody has beaten CotonTchad
The unbeaten run reaches 8. Some of them were wins and some were escapes, but a side that refuses to lose is a side other dressing rooms talk about.
Player ratings14 Dec 2026
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.
Market14 Dec 2026
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at CotonTchad is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad14 Dec 2026
Fawzi Ouaamar 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.
Match12 Dec 2026
Every run ends on an afternoon somebody had marked down as routine. This one went 7 matches, which is long enough that a town had stopped counting, and short enough that it will remember exactly who stopped it.
Looking ahead14 Dec 2026
The fixture the rest of the division is looking forward to more than either of the sides in it. Both know a win changes the season and a defeat does not end it, which is what makes it hard to play.
Match12 Dec 2026
Late, late show earns CotonTchad a point
Minute 93, against Elect Sport, and a goal that felt like a win to everybody who had stayed. It was a draw. Nobody leaving the ground will describe it as one.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Match30 Nov 2026
CotonTchad refuse to drop out of the race
Position 2, 19 points, and the result everyone checks first is now theirs. The word is still not being said around the ground, which is how you know everyone is thinking it.
Player ratings30 Nov 2026
Two goals and a mark of 9.29 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Match28 Nov 2026
Momentum is a hard thing to buy and an easy thing to lose, and right now CotonTchad have 6 straight wins of it.
Player ratings30 Nov 2026
Successful dribbles: 24. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Squad30 Nov 2026
El Mehdi El Bassil 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.
Squad30 Nov 2026
Hicham Nouali 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.
Match28 Nov 2026
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Madaoua Tchiva. 2‑1 against Foullah Edifice, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
The dugout30 Nov 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.
The dugout30 Nov 2026
The manager’s verdict
“I am not going to get carried away and I will not let them either. It was a good day. There will be harder ones.” Moussa Abba kept it short after the 2‑1 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Match21 Nov 2026
6‑2, and Madaoua Tchiva took the headlines on an afternoon when everything CotonTchad tried came off. Days like this are retold all winter.
Player ratings23 Nov 2026
No sign of nerves from Madaoua Tchiva at 19 — 9.98
The hardest thing about being 19 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Madaoua Tchiva did not need any: 9.98, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Squad23 Nov 2026
The match ball belongs to Madaoua Tchiva, whose 3 goals turned a difficult afternoon into a procession.
Player ratings23 Nov 2026
At 35 every good afternoon gets called a throwback, and this one was: 9.30, and nobody on the pitch better.
Match21 Nov 2026
Nobody wants to play CotonTchad right now
5 wins in a row changes how opponents warm up: quieter, more glances across. Runs end, everybody knows that — but nobody in this dressing room is planning for it.
Squad23 Nov 2026
Hicham El Aroui 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.
Match21 Nov 2026
Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 8 goals between CotonTchad and AS PSI, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.
The terraces23 Nov 2026
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 19-year-old it feels ownership of. Madaoua Tchiva 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.
Match21 Nov 2026
Another one collected away from home
3 on the bounce on the road for CotonTchad. The coaches leave early, arrive at unlovely grounds in the dark, and keep coming home with three points.