From our football correspondent
Triumph
Match17 Oct 2026
6‑0, and the margin flattered nobody — it could have carried another goal or two without complaint. Afternoons like this are why people keep coming.
Player ratings19 Oct 2026
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 9.14, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
Player ratings19 Oct 2026
A brace, and Mahamadou Sissoko takes the afternoon — 8.67
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Mahamadou Sissoko provided it, and the 8.67 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Player ratings19 Oct 2026
A brace, and Fantamady Diarra takes the afternoon — 8.41
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Fantamady Diarra provided it, and the 8.41 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
The dugout19 Oct 2026
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Djoliba may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Market19 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 The request is on a desk at Djoliba, and it is not being withdrawn.
Match17 Oct 2026
Nobody wants to play Djoliba 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.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Oumar Coulibaly is 23, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Makan Samabaly 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.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Match10 Oct 2026
4‑0, and Seydou Diabaté took the headlines on an afternoon when everything Djoliba tried came off. Days like this are retold all winter.
Player ratings12 Oct 2026
Two goals and a mark of 9.08 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
Two goals and a mark of 8.15 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
Marked 8.58 at 21, in a side that makes no allowances for age. He did not need any, and he looked the least nervous man on the pitch.
Player ratings12 Oct 2026
Fantamady Diarra, 34, rolls back the years — 8.04
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.04 at 34, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Squad12 Oct 2026
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Aly Keïta is 23, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Squad12 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 Djoliba this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad12 Oct 2026
At 32 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.
Squad12 Oct 2026
8 new faces, and Djoliba 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.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Match3 Oct 2026
Rarely has this fixture seen a display like it: 3‑0 against US Bougouni, and it could have been more.
Player ratings5 Oct 2026
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 8.30, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
Player ratings5 Oct 2026
No sign of nerves from Mahamadou Sissoko at 21 — 8.42
The hardest thing about being 21 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Mahamadou Sissoko did not need any: 8.42, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Squad5 Oct 2026
At 22 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.
Squad5 Oct 2026
A falling-out at Djoliba
Makan Samabaly and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Méry Camara has improved at 25, 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.
The terraces5 Oct 2026
He is 21 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.
Boardroom5 Oct 2026
Wages eat 126% of everything Djoliba 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.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Méry Camara 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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad28 Sep 2026
At 21 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Words exchanged at Djoliba
Makan Samabaly 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 30 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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market21 Sep 2026
Bakary Kouma 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 Djoliba can pretend not to have heard.
Squad21 Sep 2026
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Oumar Coulibaly is 23, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Squad21 Sep 2026
Zoumana Simpara has improved at 28, 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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market14 Sep 2026
“I know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” Flora had the fee agreed and the shirt ready; they did not have the player, and now they will not.
Market14 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 Djoliba, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad14 Sep 2026
27 days, the scan says, and scans are kinder than reality. The fixtures in that window have just become somebody else’s job.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Boulkassoum Diarra is 23, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Squad14 Sep 2026
At 32 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.
Squad14 Sep 2026
A row about effort at Djoliba
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Méry Camara was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market7 Sep 2026
“I know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” Levadia had the fee agreed and the shirt ready; they did not have the player, and now they will not.
Market7 Sep 2026
“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.
Boardroom7 Sep 2026
Window shuts: 20 in, 4 out at Djoliba
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 20 arrived, 4 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
Market7 Sep 2026
The bid was some way short and Djoliba did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Words exchanged at Djoliba
Barou Sanogo 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.
Squad7 Sep 2026
A row about effort at Djoliba
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Méry Camara was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad7 Sep 2026
8 new faces, and Djoliba 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
The manager has re-ordered his thinking and Kénan Glougbé has come out of it lower. He will be told it is temporary, and the players who have heard that before will avoid his eye.
Market7 Sep 2026
Djoliba have made Mahamadou Sissoko available for transfer. A career at this club is over in all but paperwork.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market31 Aug 2026
“It was not right for me. I am not going to explain why to anybody except the people I owe an explanation to.” A deal agreed between two clubs, and a player who declined to be part of it.
Market31 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 Djoliba, and it is not being withdrawn.
Market31 Aug 2026
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market24 Aug 2026
“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.
Market24 Aug 2026
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Transfer targets24 Aug 2026
Djoliba offered $670.0K; Stade Malien said it was not close. The manager will be told the money is still there for the right player, which is what managers are told.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Makan Samabaly 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.
Transfer targets24 Aug 2026
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Stade Malien have kept their man, and Djoliba go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Market24 Aug 2026
The Kénan Glougbé conversation is coming
Everyone has stopped pretending: Flora will make the call about Kénan Glougbé this week. Djoliba have a number in mind, and the number is not shy.
Squad24 Aug 2026
A row about effort at Djoliba
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Sékou Diarra was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Market24 Aug 2026
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Mahamadou Sissoko has his answer from Djoliba; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
Squad24 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 Djoliba know which stage they are at.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad17 Aug 2026
56 days, the medical staff say, and medical staff are optimists by profession. The team sheet will look wrong without him.
Market17 Aug 2026
Djoliba say no — this time
The offer from Flora for Amadou Soumaré 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.
Transfer targets17 Aug 2026
The offer went to Stade Malien this week and it is theirs to answer. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loud the door closes.
Market17 Aug 2026
Add another name to the list: Flora have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Kénan Glougbé. The answer from Djoliba has not changed — yet.
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 Djoliba 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 Djoliba know which stage they are at.
Market17 Aug 2026
“We are a long way apart, and pretending otherwise helps nobody.” Neither side is close, and the calendar is not on the club's side.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Sékou Diarra 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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market10 Aug 2026
“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.
Market10 Aug 2026
The bid was some way short and Djoliba did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Squad10 Aug 2026
Words exchanged at Djoliba
Makan Samabaly 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 targets10 Aug 2026
Djoliba asked and Stade Malien 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
The name of Amadou Soumaré has come up in conversations Djoliba were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Market10 Aug 2026
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Lassana Toure is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market3 Aug 2026
Djoliba say no — this time
The offer from Etoiles du Mande for Mahamadou Sissoko 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.
Squad3 Aug 2026
“The easiest signature of my career.” Kénan Glougbé and Djoliba agree another 5 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Transfer targets3 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.
Squad3 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 Djoliba know which stage they are at.
Market3 Aug 2026
“We are a long way apart, and pretending otherwise helps nobody.” Neither side is close, and the calendar is not on the club's side.
Squad3 Aug 2026
A falling-out at Djoliba
Oumar Coulibaly and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.