The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Unisport Bafang have lost him in all but the paperwork.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Unisport Bafang can pretend not to have heard.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Abubakar Salisu is 22, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Benoît Mathieu will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Unisport Bafang the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Serge Andoulo 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.
At 25 the improving is meant to be over. It is not: 4 points better than the mark taken at the start of the year, which is the sort of thing that happens to players who take the boring parts of the job seriously.
Unisport Bafang asked and Cotonsport Garoua said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Unisport Bafang people have started saying his name in the past tense.
Boardroom2 Sep 2030
Deadline passes with 10 signed and 11 gone
That is the business done at Unisport Bafang until the window opens again. Whether it was enough will be answered on Saturdays rather than in a column, and the first Saturday is close.
The offer from Aigle Royal de Moungo for Umar Yusuf 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.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Serge Andoulo and Unisport Bafang agree another 2 years.
Serge Andoulo 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.
At 26 the improving is meant to be over. It is not: 3 points better than the mark taken at the start of the year, which is the sort of thing that happens to players who take the boring parts of the job seriously.
The morning the pathway stops being a brochure and becomes a team sheet. Most of them will not be here in three years; all of them have already done the hard part, which was getting to today.
“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 Unisport Bafang, and it is not being withdrawn.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Unisport Bafang have done the hard part with Cotonsport Garoua, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Junior Rostand M'baï 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Paul Itim 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.
Unisport Bafang have made the call to Cotonsport Garoua. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Unisport Bafang, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Nobody at Unisport Bafang 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.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Unisport Bafang will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Aboubakkar Moussa and Unisport Bafang agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Junior Rostand M'baï 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.
Nobody at Unisport Bafang 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.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Unisport Bafang have lost him in all but the paperwork.
Junior Rostand M'baï 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.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Benoît Mathieu is living that version at Unisport Bafang, and it tends to show in the first month.
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Souleman Souleman, and the manager let it.
Squad15 Jan 2029
Moussa Limane 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.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Samuel Nguelle Mbom and Unisport Bafang agree another 3 years.
He is doing his job and he is not settling. Unisport Bafang were supposed to be a step up in his own reckoning, and his own reckoning has been adjusted since he arrived.