The Kano Pillars Gazette
Squad5 Jan 2037
A knee injury of the worst kind for Dennis Onyeka
49 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Kano Pillars lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Squad5 Jan 2037
Efa Enabulele breaks a bone — 58 days out
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 58 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Player ratings5 Jan 2037
Nobody could get near Chidera Collins
Successful dribbles: 30. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad5 Jan 2037
Chidera Collins is named among the best
There are footballers who have a good season and footballers a season is remembered for, and the second kind get their names read out in a hall in the summer. Kano Pillars will be quietly delighted and privately nervous.
Market5 Jan 2037
Warri Wolves join the queue for Chidera Collins
Add another name to the list: Warri Wolves have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Chidera Collins. The answer from Kano Pillars has not changed — yet.
Boardroom5 Jan 2037
Aminu Okoye signs on for the long haul
Kano Pillars moved before anybody else could: a new deal for Aminu Okoye, agreed quietly and announced loudly. Boards extend managers for many reasons; the good one is the one this looks like.
Market5 Jan 2037
Wilfred Abacha is on his way
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Kano Pillars is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad5 Jan 2037
Tempers go at Kano Pillars
Ali Abdullahi 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.
Boardroom5 Jan 2037
11 academy players handed senior numbers at Kano Pillars
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.
In brief
- Market One of our own: Ahmed Amoo joins the Kano Pillars first team
- Market John Ogunjobi steps up from the Kano Pillars academy
- Player ratings Ninety minutes of Azeez Agboola at his very best