Marked for Brahim Mahamat
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market23 Nov 2026
“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 The request is on a desk at Gazelle, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad23 Nov 2026
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 6 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Squad23 Nov 2026
A falling-out at Gazelle
Osée Natoyoum and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Player ratings23 Nov 2026
Successful dribbles: 21. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad23 Nov 2026
A row about effort at Gazelle
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Mohamed Hasnaoui was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Match21 Nov 2026
0‑2 to Renaissance, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
The dugout23 Nov 2026
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Adam Adoum after 0‑2, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
The dugout23 Nov 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Mahamat Abba, and the manager let it.
Market23 Nov 2026
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Osée Natoyoum signs something — a contract at Gazelle or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad12 Oct 2026
A muscle injury sidelines Mohamed Hasnaoui for 21 days
Nobody makes a documentary about a hamstring and everybody in the game fears one. Gazelle will be careful with the return date, because the second one is always worse than the first.
Squad12 Oct 2026
Osée Natoyoum 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.
Squad12 Oct 2026
At 24 the improving is meant to be over, and it is not: 4 points better than a year ago. It happens to the ones who take the boring parts seriously.
Market12 Oct 2026
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Saleh Mbainaissem is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Market12 Oct 2026
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Marius Moustapha is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Squad12 Oct 2026
He is doing things on a Saturday afternoon that nobody around him can answer, which is flattering for about one season and a problem after that. Gazelle will not keep him by pretending otherwise.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Boardroom7 Sep 2026
Gazelle close the window on a squad of their own making
16 in and 0 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.
Squad7 Sep 2026
A row about effort at Gazelle
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Osée Natoyoum was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Transfer targets7 Sep 2026
The clock did what Stars Jeunes Talents would not, and ended it. Supporters who watched the countdown will spend the next window doing it again.
From our football correspondent
Steady
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.
Transfer targets31 Aug 2026
Gazelle had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Stars Jeunes Talents, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
Transfer targets31 Aug 2026
$13.0K on the table at Stars Jeunes Talents. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
Transfer targets31 Aug 2026
Gazelle 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.
Squad31 Aug 2026
A row about effort at Gazelle
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Osée Natoyoum was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Market31 Aug 2026
There is a particular relief in a club addressing the thing its own crowd has been shouting about. Saleh Mbainaissem arrives for exactly that job, and now he has to do it.
Squad31 Aug 2026
He is not being dropped. There is simply nowhere in the formation Gazelle are playing to put a man who does what he does, which is a harder thing to be told than any team sheet.
Squad31 Aug 2026
Aziz Sabiri 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 Gazelle this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad31 Aug 2026
Wages are the one subject a dressing room never discusses and always knows. Saleh Mbainaissem has signed terms at Gazelle that will be quietly noted by everybody who trains beside him.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Transfer targets24 Aug 2026
The clubs have shaken hands with AS Algoy; the player has not yet. Personal terms are next, and personal terms are where more deals die than anybody prints.
Boardroom24 Aug 2026
The number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $54.8K — a club that wants Bicto Tyonga enough to be asked twice.
Transfer targets24 Aug 2026
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Gazelle have done the hard part with Stars Jeunes Talents, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Squad24 Aug 2026
A falling-out at Gazelle
Abbas Maigué and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Transfer targets24 Aug 2026
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.
Transfer targets24 Aug 2026
A loan enquiry to AS Etat Major: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.
Squad24 Aug 2026
“The easiest signature of my career.” Hassan Moustapha and Gazelle agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
The dugout24 Aug 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Oumar Mahamat, and the manager let it.
Market24 Aug 2026
The list is a quiet document with a loud meaning. Brahim Mahamat may talk to anybody who asks, and everybody at the club understands what that means.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Transfer targets17 Aug 2026
$37.0K on the table at Foullah Edifice. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Words exchanged at Gazelle
Abbas Maigué 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 targets17 Aug 2026
No deal for Junior Elong at that price
Gazelle offered $27.0K; Aigle Royal de Moungo 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.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Osée Natoyoum 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 dugout17 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.
Transfer targets17 Aug 2026
AS Algoy 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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Transfer targets10 Aug 2026
The offer went to Aigle Royal de Moungo this week and it is theirs to answer. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loud the door closes.
Squad10 Aug 2026
César Abaya 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.
Market10 Aug 2026
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Hassan Moustapha is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Market10 Aug 2026
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Brahim Mahamat 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.
Market10 Aug 2026
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Marius Bechir is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Market10 Aug 2026
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Oumar Ngaradoumbe is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.