Marked for Yohan Mollo
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
The terraces27 Mar 2028
Anger at Olympic Charleroi spills outside the ground
It has stopped being a mood in the stands and started being something organised. Boards can ignore a bad atmosphere for a long time; they cannot ignore this stage of it for very long at all.
Squad27 Mar 2028
The words a physio says slowly. 65 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.
The dugout27 Mar 2028
Toshio Lake: that is not what I was promised
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Olympic Charleroi have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Squad27 Mar 2028
Adrien Saussez and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad27 Mar 2028
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Lukáš Ambros was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad27 Mar 2028
A muscle injury sidelines Yohan Mollo for 15 days
Nobody makes a documentary about a hamstring and everybody in the game fears one. Olympic Charleroi will be careful with the return date, because the second one is always worse than the first.
Loan watch27 Mar 2028
“I did not go to Shirak to sit and watch. I want to come back to Olympic Charleroi and fight for my place.” 3 appearances in 30 matches say the rest.
Looking ahead27 Mar 2028
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Thomas Ephestion’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Olympic Charleroi needing him to play as if none of it matters.
The dugout27 Mar 2028
“I would rather say it to his face than read about it.” The meeting was requested by the player, which tells you most of what you need to know.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad13 Mar 2028
81 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Olympic Charleroi lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Market13 Mar 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.
Squad13 Mar 2028
There were 6 saves in it, and at least three that had no business being saves at all. The ten outfield players owe him a drink and they know it.
Player ratings13 Mar 2028
At 39 every good afternoon gets called a throwback, and this one was: 8.14, and nobody on the pitch better.
Squad13 Mar 2028
Victory Beniangba 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.
Squad13 Mar 2028
Gora Diouf 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 dugout13 Mar 2028
The view from the dugout
“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 1‑2 defeat, delivered by Vincent Noël to a room that had heard them before.
The dugout13 Mar 2028
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Boardroom6 Mar 2028
“This is a club with real history, and I did not have to think about it for long.” The new manager takes charge with every slate wiped clean.
Squad6 Mar 2028
The words a physio says slowly. 89 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 ratings6 Mar 2028
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 8.39, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
Player ratings6 Mar 2028
Age has not caught Yohan Mollo yet — 7.90
At 39 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 7.90 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Squad6 Mar 2028
Adrien Saussez 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.
Squad6 Mar 2028
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Thomas Ephestion and Olympic Charleroi agree another 2 years.
Squad6 Mar 2028
Kevin Kis is not the player he was
It happens to all of them and it is still the hardest paragraph a local paper has to write. 37 years old, 3 points down on where he was, and a body that has started charging interest on a career.
The dugout6 Mar 2028
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Niklo Dailly, and the manager let it.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match22 Jan 2028
No end in sight to Olympic Charleroi's wait for a win
12 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Olympic Charleroi has to find a result from somewhere.
Match24 Jan 2028
13 points, and a fixture list that is running out. The mathematics are not yet cruel, but they are no longer kind.
Player ratings24 Jan 2028
Two goals and a mark of 8.08 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Market24 Jan 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.
Squad24 Jan 2028
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Olympic Charleroi this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad24 Jan 2028
Words at Olympic Charleroi training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Lukáš Ambros 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.
Transfer targets24 Jan 2028
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.
Squad24 Jan 2028
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Isao Tokora and Olympic Charleroi agree another 4 years.
Loan watch24 Jan 2028
“I watch every Olympic Charleroi game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Shirak runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match15 Jan 2028
11 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
The dugout17 Jan 2028
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Olympic Charleroi may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Player ratings17 Jan 2028
Yohan Mollo, 39, rolls back the years — 8.20
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.20 at 39, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Market17 Jan 2028
Aitor Embela hands in a written request
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Olympic Charleroi can pretend not to have heard.
Squad17 Jan 2028
Adrien Saussez 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.
Squad17 Jan 2028
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Gora Diouf was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Transfer targets17 Jan 2028
Olympic Charleroi asked and Antwerp 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 dugout17 Jan 2028
The manager makes an example of Adrien Saussez
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
Squad17 Jan 2028
“I have given this everything, but my family is not here and neither am I, not really.” A footballer can be coached out of bad form. Nobody has ever been coached out of this, and Olympic Charleroi know it.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market22 Nov 2027
Connor Hall hands in a written request
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Olympic Charleroi can pretend not to have heard.
Player ratings22 Nov 2027
No sign of nerves from Shion Shinkawa at 20 — 7.76
The hardest thing about being 20 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Shion Shinkawa did not need any: 7.76, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Match20 Nov 2027
4 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
Squad22 Nov 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 Olympic Charleroi this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match20 Nov 2027
2‑3 to Francs Borains, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Squad22 Nov 2027
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Lukáš Ambros was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout22 Nov 2027
The manager makes an example of Luca Florică
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
The dugout22 Nov 2027
“I could talk about decisions and I could talk about luck. I will not. We lost.” The manager, 2‑3, and a press conference that lasted four minutes.
Market22 Nov 2027
“They were honest with me, and I would rather know.” Oliver Šarkić has been informed he is not in the manager's thinking at Olympic Charleroi.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad5 Oct 2026
There were 6 saves in it, and at least three that had no business being saves at all. The ten outfield players owe him a drink and they know it.
Squad5 Oct 2026
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Jens Cools commits to Olympic Charleroi for another 2 years.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Marc Giger 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.
Squad5 Oct 2026
The decline has begun for Jens Cools
Everybody saw it before anybody said it. At 36 the numbers say 3 points down on what he was, and the question for Olympic Charleroi is how to handle a man they owe a great deal.
Boardroom5 Oct 2026
Every club pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time it has been tried.
Match3 Oct 2026
0‑1 to KV Kortrijk, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
The dugout5 Oct 2026
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 0‑1, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
The dugout5 Oct 2026
The manager makes an example of Oliver Šarkić
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
The dugout5 Oct 2026
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.