From our football correspondent
Triumph
Player ratings2 Nov 2026
Successful dribbles: 40. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Player ratings2 Nov 2026
Hicham El Aroui, 36, rolls back the years — 8.25
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.25 at 36, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Match31 Oct 2026
4 wins on the spin now, and the question has changed from whether the run ends to who ends it. Confidence like this cannot be bought; it has to be earned exactly this way.
Squad2 Nov 2026
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at CotonTchad this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match31 Oct 2026
AS Etat Major made CotonTchad work for it, but the scoreboard read 1‑0 at the end and the table does not ask how.
Squad2 Nov 2026
8 new faces, and CotonTchad 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.
Squad2 Nov 2026
Four or five weekends of consistency, measured against everybody else in the division. A quieter compliment than an award and a more reliable one.
The dugout2 Nov 2026
“That is what I want every week. Not the result, the way they went about it.” The manager, after 1‑0, already talking about the next one.
Squad2 Nov 2026
It will be explained as a change for the team and it may even be one. Nobody who has worn one believes that, and neither does the man who has just had it taken away.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Player ratings26 Oct 2026
Successful dribbles: 28. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Player ratings26 Oct 2026
Hicham El Aroui, 36, rolls back the years — 7.80
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 7.80 at 36, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Match24 Oct 2026
Nobody wants to play CotonTchad 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.
Squad26 Oct 2026
Hicham El Aroui 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.
The dugout26 Oct 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.
Match24 Oct 2026
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Hicham El Aroui. 1‑0 against Stars Jeunes Talents, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
The dugout26 Oct 2026
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Abdoulaye Haroun on a 1‑0 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
The dugout26 Oct 2026
The manager wanted a different profile for this opponent, which is a real football reason and no consolation. He did nothing wrong and he did not play.
Player ratings26 Oct 2026
9 shots, and a count that reads like a good afternoon until you check the other column. Strikers survive weeks like this on the understanding that the chances keep arriving; the day they stop is the day it becomes a problem.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Player ratings19 Oct 2026
Successful dribbles: 40. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
Squad19 Oct 2026
The match ball belongs to Ahmed Chentouf, whose 3 goals turned a difficult afternoon into a procession.
Player ratings19 Oct 2026
At 35 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.13 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Madaoua Tchiva is 19, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Ahmed Chentouf 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.
Match17 Oct 2026
It finished 3‑1, and it was Ahmed Chentouf’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to CotonTchad.
Match17 Oct 2026
CotonTchad settle it inside twenty minutes
2 goals before the ground had finished arriving. AS Algoy spent the rest of the afternoon playing a match that had already been decided, and everybody in the stadium knew it.
Player ratings19 Oct 2026
Ninety minutes of Ahmed Chentouf at his very best
Marked 8.20. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at CotonTchad.
The dugout19 Oct 2026
“That is what I want every week. Not the result, the way they went about it.” The manager, after 3‑1, already talking about the next one.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Match10 Oct 2026
6‑0, and Hicham El Aroui took the headlines on an afternoon when everything CotonTchad tried came off. Days like this are retold all winter.
Player ratings12 Oct 2026
A brace, and Léger Djimrangar takes the afternoon — 9.68
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Léger Djimrangar provided it, and the 9.68 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Player ratings12 Oct 2026
Two goals and a mark of 9.39 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Player ratings12 Oct 2026
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 8.00, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
Squad12 Oct 2026
Ahmed Chentouf and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Match10 Oct 2026
6 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about CotonTchad and US Moursal in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
The terraces12 Oct 2026
The away end at US Moursal goes home happy
6-0, and a corner of somebody else’s ground that outsang the rest of it. Those coaches leave before dawn and nobody outside them mentions it.
The dugout12 Oct 2026
“The players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 6‑0, Abdoulaye Haroun could afford to be generous.
Squad12 Oct 2026
The one goal every signing is asked about until it comes. It has come, and a press-conference question has been retired.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad5 Oct 2026
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at CotonTchad this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Hicham Nouali has improved at 29, which nobody expected
Careers are supposed to plateau and then decline, and the players who ignore that are always the ones who were listening on the training ground. 3 points of it, over months, at an age where the direction normally only goes one way.
Squad5 Oct 2026
He is doing things every Saturday that nobody around him can answer. It is flattering for a season and a problem after that, and CotonTchad know which stage they are at.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Too much change too quickly at CotonTchad
11 signings in three months. Every one of them may be an upgrade and the team can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild that never appears in the transfer-window verdicts.
Boardroom5 Oct 2026
No investment in the facilities at CotonTchad
Nothing about this will be in a press release. A plan went upstairs, came back rejected, and the version of the club that would have existed in three years' time just quietly stopped being possible.
Market5 Oct 2026
Nobody sells a season ticket on a signing like this. Every manager who has been through a bad October wants one anyway, and CotonTchad have gone and got theirs early.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad28 Sep 2026
Hicham El Aroui 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.
Squad28 Sep 2026
At 35 the improving is meant to be over, and it is not: 3 points better than a year ago. It happens to the ones who take the boring parts seriously.
Squad28 Sep 2026
“The easiest signature of my career.” Ezechiel Djimet and CotonTchad agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
The dugout28 Sep 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Ali Hissein, and the manager let it.
The dugout28 Sep 2026
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Ezechiel Djimet trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Market28 Sep 2026
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Esaie Djikoloum signs something — a contract at CotonTchad or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad21 Sep 2026
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Madaoua Tchiva is 19, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Squad21 Sep 2026
Yacine Wakili 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.
Squad21 Sep 2026
At 35 the improving is meant to be over, and it is not: 3 points better than a year ago. It happens to the ones who take the boring parts seriously.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad14 Sep 2026
The injury that keeps coming back, keeps being rushed back from, and quietly costs more careers than the dramatic ones. 17 days is the estimate; the honest figure depends on whether anybody is patient.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Yacine Wakili and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Market14 Sep 2026
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Mahamat Mbaiguedem has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.
Market14 Sep 2026
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Ezechiel Abba has been at this club since he was a boy and is now, formally, one of the first-team squad — which for a local readership beats any signing of any size.
Squad14 Sep 2026
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. CotonTchad will not keep him by pretending otherwise.
Squad14 Sep 2026
A year in and the city has not opened up, the language has not come, and lunch is eaten alone more often than anybody at CotonTchad would admit. It shows on Saturdays.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Boardroom7 Sep 2026
Window shuts: 21 in, 2 out at CotonTchad
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 21 arrived, 2 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Hicham El Aroui and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Transfer targets7 Sep 2026
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.
Squad7 Sep 2026
This league is too small for Yacine Wakili
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. CotonTchad will not keep him by pretending otherwise.
Squad7 Sep 2026
10 new faces, and CotonTchad 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.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Somebody has moved past him. It is not a dropping and it is worse than one, because a dropping is about a Saturday and this is about where he stands.
Market7 Sep 2026
At 39, he has seen every situation this season can produce, twice. The legs will be managed; the head is the purchase.
Market7 Sep 2026
CotonTchad bring in an old head
Yacine Wakili 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.
Market7 Sep 2026
Experience through the door at CotonTchad
Nasser El Khayati arrives at 37 with nothing left to prove and plenty left to pass on. Legs are a young man's currency; knowing where to stand never ages.
From our football correspondent
Steady
The terraces31 Aug 2026
Mahamat Adda has gone, the accounts have $21.0K in them, and the supporters have the feeling of having been sold something themselves. Good business and a good decision are not always the same thing.
Transfer targets31 Aug 2026
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.
Market31 Aug 2026
Business is business: Mahamat Adda goes
Foullah Edifice paid $21.0K and CotonTchad took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
Transfer targets31 Aug 2026
A loan move for Samba Diallo is in the works
CotonTchad have made the call to Hasaacas. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
Squad31 Aug 2026
A year in and the language has not come, the city has not opened up, and he eats alone more often than anybody at CotonTchad would like to admit. It is showing on Saturdays.
Squad31 Aug 2026
The competition arrived without a word said to him about it. Zakaria Hadraf keeps the shirt for now, at CotonTchad's convenience rather than his own.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market24 Aug 2026
The phone has started ringing about Mahamat Adda again, and this time the name on the line is Foullah Edifice. CotonTchad are listening politely and promising nothing.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Mahamat Adda 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.
Transfer targets24 Aug 2026
CotonTchad asked and Dynamo Douala said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad17 Aug 2026
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at CotonTchad this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Transfer targets17 Aug 2026
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.
Squad17 Aug 2026
He is doing things every Saturday that nobody around him can answer. It is flattering for a season and a problem after that, and CotonTchad know which stage they are at.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market10 Aug 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 CotonTchad, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad10 Aug 2026
Hicham El Aroui 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.
Squad10 Aug 2026
“The easiest signature of my career.” Hicham Nouali and CotonTchad agree another 2 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Transfer targets10 Aug 2026
CotonTchad asked and AS Etat Major said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Market10 Aug 2026
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Djibrine Adoum has been at this club since he was a boy and is now, formally, one of the first-team squad — which for a local readership beats any signing of any size.
Market10 Aug 2026
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Ezechiel Djimet has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad3 Aug 2026
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Esaie Djikoloum commits to CotonTchad for another 1 years.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Zaid Karouch 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.
Market3 Aug 2026
Gérard Diarra is free to find somewhere else
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at CotonTchad has been clear about where Gérard Diarra stands, which is more than many ever get.
Squad3 Aug 2026
This league is too small for Zaid Karouch
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. CotonTchad will not keep him by pretending otherwise.
Market3 Aug 2026
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at CotonTchad, another week without a signature from Mahamat Adda.
Squad3 Aug 2026
The formation has left Hicham Nouali behind
Every shape has positions in it and this one does not have his. CotonTchad will either change the shape, change his job, or change his club, and he is waiting to hear which.