Marked for Moussa Abakar
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market7 Aug 2028
“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.
Squad7 Aug 2028
A season average of 7.17 at an age when most of his year group are still in the youth team. Stars Jeunes Talents know what they have, and so, by now, does everybody else.
Squad7 Aug 2028
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.
Squad7 Aug 2028
“The easiest signature of my career.” Issa Abakar and Stars Jeunes Talents agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad7 Aug 2028
Adam Tokindang 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.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad10 Jul 2028
A season average of 7.17 at an age when most of his year group are still in the youth team. Stars Jeunes Talents know what they have, and so, by now, does everybody else.
Market10 Jul 2028
“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.
Squad10 Jul 2028
Adam Tokindang 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.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad12 Jun 2028
A season average of 7.17 at an age when most of his year group are still in the youth team. Stars Jeunes Talents know what they have, and so, by now, does everybody else.
Squad12 Jun 2028
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Stars Jeunes Talents may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Market12 Jun 2028
“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.
Squad12 Jun 2028
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Adam Tokindang, and the manager let it.
Squad12 Jun 2028
Issa Abakar 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.
Market12 Jun 2028
Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Adam Tokindang’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad22 May 2028
Moussa Bechir breaks a bone — 18 days out
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 18 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Market22 May 2028
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Stars Jeunes Talents is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad22 May 2028
Issa Abakar 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 Stars Jeunes Talents this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad8 May 2028
Moussa Bechir breaks a bone — 32 days out
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 32 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Market8 May 2028
“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.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad3 Apr 2028
Moussa Bechir breaks a bone — 67 days out
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 67 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Market3 Apr 2028
“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 Stars Jeunes Talents, and it is not being withdrawn.
Market3 Apr 2028
Marius Adoum has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Stars Jeunes Talents they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad1 Nov 2027
A fracture rules Marius Oumar out for 84 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Stars Jeunes Talents will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Player ratings1 Nov 2027
The hardest thing about being 19 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Abdoulaye Allamine did not need any: 8.16, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Market1 Nov 2027
“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.
Market1 Nov 2027
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Stars Jeunes Talents is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Match30 Oct 2027
A 3‑1 win over Galactik, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Squad1 Nov 2027
Words at Stars Jeunes Talents training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Adam Tokindang 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 terraces1 Nov 2027
At 19 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
Match30 Oct 2027
2 goals before the ground had finished arriving. Galactik spent the rest of the afternoon playing a match that had already been decided, and everybody in the stadium knew it.
Squad1 Nov 2027
Issa Abakar 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 Stars Jeunes Talents this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Player ratings25 Oct 2027
Successful dribbles: 36. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad25 Oct 2027
A fracture rules Marius Oumar out for 91 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Stars Jeunes Talents will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Market25 Oct 2027
Narcisse Oumar has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Stars Jeunes Talents they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Match23 Oct 2027
The run now stands at 5, and the questions being asked around Stars Jeunes Talents are no longer polite ones.
Squad25 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 Stars Jeunes Talents this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad25 Oct 2027
Adam Tokindang 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.
Squad25 Oct 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Adam Tokindang, and the manager let it.
Match23 Oct 2027
A 1‑1 draw with CotonTchad leaves the dressing room somewhere between relief and regret.
Market25 Oct 2027
Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Adam Tokindang’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market17 May 2027
“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.
Market17 May 2027
Only the photograph left for Saleh Djimet
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Saleh Djimet will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Stars Jeunes Talents the goodbyes have quietly begun.
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 Stars Jeunes Talents this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad17 May 2027
Brahim Tokindang 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.
Squad17 May 2027
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Mahamat Mahamat trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Market17 May 2027
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Adam Tokindang signs something — a contract at Stars Jeunes Talents or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.