Marked for Benjamin Moukoudi
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad10 May 2032
85 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Stade Renard de Melong lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Squad10 May 2032
Moustapha Bissene and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
The dugout10 May 2032
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.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match1 Oct 2031
Out, 0‑1 to Victoria United, and the long argument about which of the small moments decided it. The league is all there is now, and everybody knows it.
Player ratings6 Oct 2031
What a way to start for Desire Onguene — 7.21
0 on the scoresheet on his first appearance and a mark of 7.21 beside it. Most debuts are got through; this one was enjoyed, by him and by everybody watching it.
Market6 Oct 2031
“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 The request is on a desk at Stade Renard de Melong, and it is not being withdrawn.
Match4 Oct 2031
The run now stands at 4, and the questions being asked around Stade Renard de Melong are no longer polite ones.
Squad6 Oct 2031
Patrick Ekandjoum 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.
Match4 Oct 2031
Beaten 1‑2, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Player ratings6 Oct 2031
A midfielder is measured on whether the team functions when he is on the pitch, which is nearly impossible to see and completely obvious in retrospect. 11 actions, 6.88, and a manager who will not be substituting him again in a hurry.
The dugout6 Oct 2031
“I could talk about decisions and I could talk about luck. I will not. We lost.” The manager, 1‑2, and a press conference that lasted four minutes.
Squad6 Oct 2031
Ambroise Njie makes the team of the month
Four or five weekends of consistency, measured against everybody else in the division. A quieter compliment than an award and a more reliable one.