Marked for Michael Mulee
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Player ratings13 Sep 2027
Successful dribbles: 30. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad13 Sep 2027
Words at Mathare United training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Herit Atariza 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.
Squad13 Sep 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 Mathare United this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Loan watch13 Sep 2027
“I did not go to AFC Leopards to sit and watch. I want to come back to Mathare United and fight for my place.” 1 appearances in 5 matches say the rest.
Squad13 Sep 2027
There is no complaint available here and everybody involved knows it, which does not make the walk to the bench any shorter. Form is the only currency in football that cannot be borrowed against.
Squad13 Sep 2027
Mandala Konté has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Mathare United 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.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
Match14 Aug 2027
22 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
Squad16 Aug 2027
Boniface Munyendo damages knee ligaments — 30 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 30 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 ratings16 Aug 2027
Successful dribbles: 36. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Market16 Aug 2027
The offer from Slovan Bratislava for Hassan Beja was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
Player ratings16 Aug 2027
Hassan Beja, 21, plays like he has been here for years — 8.19
A mark of 8.19 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 21-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
Squad16 Aug 2027
Hassan Beja is the real thing at 21
A season average of 7.13 at an age when most of his year group are still in the youth team. AFC Leopards know what they have, and so, by now, does everybody else.
Squad16 Aug 2027
Words at AFC Leopards training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Bourama Fomba 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.
Match14 Aug 2027
AFC Leopards settle it inside twenty minutes
2 goals before the ground had finished arriving. Bidco United spent the rest of the afternoon playing a match that had already been decided, and everybody in the stadium knew it.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad9 Aug 2027
Boniface Munyendo damages knee ligaments — 37 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 37 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 ratings9 Aug 2027
Successful dribbles: 36. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Match9 Aug 2027
AFC Leopards are in among the leaders
Position 1 and 55 points on the board. Nobody at the ground will say the word out loud yet, and everybody at the ground is thinking it.
Match7 Aug 2027
4 matches without a win for AFC Leopards
The run now stands at 4, and the questions being asked around AFC Leopards are no longer polite ones.
Match7 Aug 2027
4 matches without a goal for AFC Leopards
The chances are being made and something is happening between the making and the finishing. 4 matches now, and the anxiety in the ground arrives a little earlier every week.
Squad9 Aug 2027
Kaycie Odhiambo 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.
Squad9 Aug 2027
Words at AFC Leopards training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Paul Ochuoga 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.
Squad9 Aug 2027
5 new faces, and AFC Leopards 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.
Match7 Aug 2027
Point won or two lost for AFC Leopards?
Ninety minutes, no goals, and the argument started before the car park emptied: a point gained, or two thrown away against Kariobangi Sharks? Both sides of it will still be going on Thursday.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Match7 Aug 2027
Whatever happens, Mathare United do not lose
20 games unbeaten now. Some were earned and some were survived, but a habit is forming — and habits are the hardest thing in football to play against.
Squad9 Aug 2027
John Makwatta damages knee ligaments — 19 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 19 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 ratings9 Aug 2027
Successful dribbles: 29. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad9 Aug 2027
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Mathare United may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Match7 Aug 2027
9 matches unbeaten here. Every visiting manager is asked about it in the week before, which is precisely why it keeps going.
Squad9 Aug 2027
Taoufik Ijrouten 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
Squad29 Mar 2027
A knee injury of the worst kind for Sibusiso Vilakazi
73 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Mathare United lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Match27 Mar 2027
Some goals win a match and some take one off somebody else. John Nyawir scored in the 86th minute, Muranga Seal had already begun thinking about the journey home, and Mathare United took the lot.
Player ratings29 Mar 2027
Successful dribbles: 27. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Market29 Mar 2027
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Mathare United is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad29 Mar 2027
Moise Mbombo 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 Mathare United this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match27 Mar 2027
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: John Nyawir. 1‑0 against Muranga Seal, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Player ratings29 Mar 2027
Marked 7.56. Ask anyone leaving the ground what settled it and you will get one name, which is the only award that has ever really counted.
Squad29 Mar 2027
At 17 years old, Michael Mulee became the latest name off the academy production line to be handed a senior shirt.
Squad29 Mar 2027
John Nyawir finally opens his account
He wheeled away like a man who had been carrying it for months, because he had. Mathare United have their signing off the mark and one press-conference question retired.