Marked for Sofiane Boufal
From our football correspondent
Steady
Player ratings15 Mar 2027
Defensive actions: 29. He was first to everything and second to nothing, and the goalkeeper had an easy day because of it.
Market15 Mar 2027
Fares Nechat 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 JS Kabylie can pretend not to have heard.
Player ratings15 Mar 2027
Headers, blocks, tackles, interceptions — 27 of them, and not one goal behind him. The sort of performance that never makes a highlight reel and wins football matches.
Market15 Mar 2027
Fares Nechat has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around JS Kabylie they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad15 Mar 2027
Allan Nyom 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 JS Kabylie this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Player ratings15 Mar 2027
A performance of 9.41 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Match13 Mar 2027
A 1‑0 win over CR Belouizdad, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Player ratings15 Mar 2027
A performance of 8.26 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Squad15 Mar 2027
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market8 Mar 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.
Squad8 Mar 2027
“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.
Market8 Mar 2027
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at JS Kabylie is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad8 Mar 2027
“The easiest signature of my career.” Sofiane Boufal and JS Kabylie agree another 2 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad8 Mar 2027
Allan Nyom 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.
Match6 Mar 2027
0‑1 to USM Alger, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market22 Feb 2027
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at JS Kabylie is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad22 Feb 2027
Allan Nyom 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.
Match20 Feb 2027
Three points for JS Kabylie, 3‑1 the final word against JS Saoura in a contest settled by the finer margins.
Player ratings22 Feb 2027
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 9.11, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Player ratings22 Feb 2027
Marked 8.80 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
Player ratings22 Feb 2027
Marked 8.41 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
Player ratings22 Feb 2027
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.11, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Squad22 Feb 2027
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
Squad22 Feb 2027
Defences have started doubling up on Sofiane Boufal
3 goals and a season average of 7.22 will do that. The space he used to find has gone; he keeps scoring anyway, which is the mark of the real thing.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market15 Feb 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.
Match13 Feb 2027
6 matches without a win for JS Kabylie
The run now stands at 6, and the questions being asked around JS Kabylie are no longer polite ones.
Market15 Feb 2027
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at JS Kabylie is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad15 Feb 2027
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” JS Kabylie have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Squad15 Feb 2027
Allan Nyom 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 JS Kabylie this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match13 Feb 2027
MB Rouissat left with the points after a 0‑1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Player ratings15 Feb 2027
Successful dribbles: 18. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad15 Feb 2027
The manager makes an example of Jonathan Mensah
“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.
Boardroom15 Feb 2027
The manager kept them in and said what needed saying. A response is expected on Saturday, and if it does not come the questions move upstairs.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Player ratings8 Feb 2027
Headers, blocks, tackles, interceptions — 27 of them, and not one goal behind him. The sort of performance that never makes a highlight reel and wins football matches.
Market8 Feb 2027
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Match6 Feb 2027
The wait goes on for JS Kabylie
5 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.
Market8 Feb 2027
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Walid Khermouche will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around JS Kabylie the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad8 Feb 2027
Allan Nyom 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.
Player ratings8 Feb 2027
Successful dribbles: 22. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Player ratings8 Feb 2027
Marked 7.63 on an afternoon he ran from the first whistle to the last. Whatever else went wrong, JS Kabylie had the best player on the pitch.
Squad8 Feb 2027
A player who expected to start watched it instead. The manager will call it a decision for the team; Mohamed Amine Madani will call it something else in private.
Market8 Feb 2027
CS Constantine are about to pick up the phone
A conversation is coming this week. JS Kabylie will put a number on him, and from there it stops being football and becomes arithmetic.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market11 Jan 2027
The offer from ASO Chlef for Oualid Malki 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.
Market11 Jan 2027
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Walid Khermouche will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around JS Kabylie the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Player ratings11 Jan 2027
Successful dribbles: 23. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Match9 Jan 2027
Hard to beat is not the same as winning, but 7 matches without defeat is a foundation JS Kabylie did not have in the autumn.
Squad11 Jan 2027
Allan Nyom 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.
Player ratings11 Jan 2027
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 9.16, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Market11 Jan 2027
Both sides expect a conversation in the coming days. JS Kabylie will name a price, and everything after that is arithmetic.
Match9 Jan 2027
It finished 1‑1, and it somehow always looked like it would. One of those afternoons where the table moves less than the tempers.
Squad11 Jan 2027
3 goals and a season average of 7.23. Form like that gets noticed well beyond this town.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Player ratings28 Dec 2026
Successful dribbles: 26. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Match26 Dec 2026
Nobody wants to play JS Kabylie right now
3 wins in a row changes how opponents warm up: quieter, more glances across. Runs end, everybody knows that — but nobody in this dressing room is planning for it.
Squad28 Dec 2026
Allan Nyom 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.
Squad28 Dec 2026
The medical room confirms 22 days on the sidelines for Mohamed Amine Madani, and a plan built around him now has to be rebuilt.
Player ratings28 Dec 2026
Marked 9.88 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
Player ratings28 Dec 2026
Defensive actions: 22. He was first to everything and second to nothing, and the goalkeeper had an easy day because of it.
Boardroom28 Dec 2026
Wages eat 142% of everything JS Kabylie earn
There is a figure at which a wage bill stops being ambitious and becomes the reason nothing else is possible, and this club has reached it. Nothing is left over for a transfer, a stand or a rainy afternoon.
Match26 Dec 2026
It finished 1‑0, and it was Zineddine Belaïd’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to JS Kabylie.
Player ratings28 Dec 2026
Defensive actions: 19, and a clean sheet at the end of it. A centre-half's best afternoons look like nothing happening, which is precisely the point.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Player ratings21 Dec 2026
Defensive actions: 30, and a clean sheet at the end of it. A centre-half's best afternoons look like nothing happening, which is precisely the point.
Match21 Dec 2026
30 points on the board and a place in the leading group. Nobody at the ground is saying the word out loud yet.
Market21 Dec 2026
Fares Nechat 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 JS Kabylie can pretend not to have heard.
Player ratings21 Dec 2026
Headers, blocks, tackles, interceptions — 26 of them, and not one goal behind him. The sort of performance that never makes a highlight reel and wins football matches.
Squad21 Dec 2026
Allan Nyom 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 JS Kabylie this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Player ratings21 Dec 2026
Defensive actions: 23. He was first to everything and second to nothing, and the goalkeeper had an easy day because of it.
Player ratings21 Dec 2026
Successful dribbles: 21. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Match19 Dec 2026
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Aimen Mahious. 1‑0 against ES Ben Aknoun, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Squad21 Dec 2026
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad30 Nov 2026
52 days, the scan says, and scans are kinder than reality. The fixtures in that window have just become somebody else’s job.
Squad30 Nov 2026
Allan Nyom 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.
Match28 Nov 2026
2‑3 to CR Belouizdad, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Player ratings30 Nov 2026
A performance of 9.11 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Boardroom30 Nov 2026
171% of the income goes out in wages at JS Kabylie
Every club in football 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 somebody has tried it.
Squad30 Nov 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Jonathan Mensah, and the manager let it.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market23 Nov 2026
“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 JS Kabylie, and it is not being withdrawn.
Player ratings23 Nov 2026
Successful dribbles: 25. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad23 Nov 2026
Allan Nyom 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 JS Kabylie this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad23 Nov 2026
An error at the back is a moment; an error in goal is a goal. Gaya Merbah knows it, the crowd knew it instantly, and there was nobody behind him to make it anything else.
Match21 Nov 2026
USM Alger left with the points after a 1‑2 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Player ratings23 Nov 2026
A performance of 8.71 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Squad23 Nov 2026
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
Squad23 Nov 2026
Gaya Merbah knocks on the manager’s door
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Gaya Merbah trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Player ratings23 Nov 2026
4.71 on the card. Some afternoons a footballer looks like a man who has only just been introduced to the game, and this was one of them.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad9 Nov 2026
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” JS Kabylie have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Match9 Nov 2026
20 points on the board and a place in the leading group. Nobody at the ground is saying the word out loud yet.
Match7 Nov 2026
Whatever happens, JS Kabylie do not lose
11 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.
Player ratings9 Nov 2026
Successful dribbles: 24. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad9 Nov 2026
Allan Nyom 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 JS Kabylie this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad9 Nov 2026
14 days, the medical staff say, and medical staff are optimists by profession. The team sheet will look wrong without him.
Player ratings9 Nov 2026
Defensive actions: 22, and a clean sheet at the end of it. A centre-half's best afternoons look like nothing happening, which is precisely the point.
Player ratings9 Nov 2026
Headers, blocks, tackles, interceptions — 22 of them, and not one goal behind him. The sort of performance that never makes a highlight reel and wins football matches.
Player ratings9 Nov 2026
Headers, blocks, tackles, interceptions — 20 of them, and not one goal behind him. The sort of performance that never makes a highlight reel and wins football matches.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market26 Oct 2026
“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 JS Kabylie, and it is not being withdrawn.
Match24 Oct 2026
Whatever happens, JS Kabylie do not lose
9 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.
Squad26 Oct 2026
“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.
Player ratings26 Oct 2026
Successful dribbles: 25. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad26 Oct 2026
Allan Nyom 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 JS Kabylie this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Player ratings26 Oct 2026
Defensive actions: 22. He was first to everything and second to nothing, and the goalkeeper had an easy day because of it.
Player ratings26 Oct 2026
A performance of 8.94 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Squad26 Oct 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Aimen Mahious, and the manager let it.
Match24 Oct 2026
Three points for JS Kabylie, 1‑0 the final word against MC El Bayadh in a contest settled by the finer margins.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad5 Oct 2026
115 days, the medical staff say, and medical staff are optimists by profession. The team sheet will look wrong without him.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Allan Nyom 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.
Squad5 Oct 2026
“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 JS Kabylie know it.
Boardroom5 Oct 2026
Wages eat 295% of everything JS Kabylie earn
There is a figure at which a wage bill stops being ambitious and becomes the reason nothing else is possible, and this club has reached it. Nothing is left over for a transfer, a stand or a rainy afternoon.
Player ratings5 Oct 2026
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.93, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Squad5 Oct 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Gaya Merbah, and the manager let it.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Market28 Sep 2026
“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 JS Kabylie, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Allan Nyom 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 JS Kabylie this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match26 Sep 2026
It finished 2‑1, and it was Aimen Mahious’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to JS Kabylie.
Player ratings28 Sep 2026
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.72, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Squad28 Sep 2026
The manager makes an example of Jonathan Mensah
“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.
Player ratings28 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 15. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Jaredi Teixeira asks for a word with the manager
“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.
Squad28 Sep 2026
“Nobody outside is coming to save us.” It was short, it was not comfortable, and by all accounts the JS Kabylie squad were quieter afterwards than they had been all season.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Squad14 Sep 2026
Allan Nyom 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 JS Kabylie this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match12 Sep 2026
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Oto John. 2‑1 against USM Khenchela, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
One of those days for Allan Nyom
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.75, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 19. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad14 Sep 2026
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
Squad14 Sep 2026
A first senior shirt for Youcef Izem
Every debut is a small story about the future: Youcef Izem, 19 years old, off the academy pitches and into the first team. The parents in the stand will keep the programme.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad17 Aug 2026
Allan Nyom 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 JS Kabylie this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad17 Aug 2026
This league is too small for Sofiane Boufal
He is doing things on a Saturday afternoon that nobody around him can answer, which is flattering for about one season and a problem after that. JS Kabylie will not keep him by pretending otherwise.
Market17 Aug 2026
Both sides expect a conversation in the coming days. JS Kabylie will name a price, and everything after that is arithmetic.
Market17 Aug 2026
JS Kabylie bring in an old head
Kassim Doumbia is 36 and has run out of things to prove. What he has left is where to stand, when to slow it down and what to say at half-time, and none of that is on a fitness chart.
Market17 Aug 2026
At 36, he has seen every situation this season can produce, twice. The legs will be managed; the head is the purchase.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Allan Nyom still has not settled
A year in and the language has not come, the city has not opened up, and he eats alone more often than anybody at JS Kabylie would like to admit. It is showing on Saturdays.