From our football correspondent
Steady
Match26 Aug 2026
Enyimba march on in the cup
Warri Wolves are out and Enyimba go through, 3‑1 the final word. The bracket opens up a little, and everyone allows themselves a look at it.
Match29 Aug 2026
Nowhere to hide for Enyimba
1‑5 against Rangers International, and no complaints that would survive the replay. The manager spoke about character afterwards; the terraces used shorter words.
Player ratings31 Aug 2026
Bassey John, 20, plays like he has been here for years — 7.76
A mark of 7.76 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 20-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
Player ratings31 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 23. 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.
Squad31 Aug 2026
Words exchanged at Enyimba
Ezekiel Edidiong 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.
Player ratings31 Aug 2026
Ninety minutes of Seyi Adegbite at his very best
Marked 8.18. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Enyimba.
Player ratings31 Aug 2026
Kingsley Maduforo was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.03. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
The dugout31 Aug 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Sylvester Bell, and the manager let it.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
Match19 Aug 2026
Enyimba through in the cup
A 4‑2 win over Bayelsa United, and the draw for the next round can be watched with some interest for once.
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
A brace, and Bassey John takes the afternoon — 9.35
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Bassey John provided it, and the 9.35 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 8.29, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
A debut Stephen Ugonna will not forget — 7.42
There is exactly one of these per career and it does not usually go like this. 0 on the scoresheet, 7.42 beside the name, and a crowd that had never seen him before chanting it by the end.
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.
Market24 Aug 2026
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Enyimba can pretend not to have heard.
Market24 Aug 2026
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Enyimba is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Transfer targets24 Aug 2026
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Asante Kotoko keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Boardroom24 Aug 2026
He will play here until the summer and then walk out of the door for free, having already signed elsewhere. Supporters will manage the first part of that sentence; it is the second they will struggle with.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Match15 Aug 2026
4‑1, and Ezekiel Edidiong took the headlines on an afternoon when everything Enyimba tried came off. Days like this are retold all winter.
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
A debut Ebube Success will not forget — 8.50
There is exactly one of these per career and it does not usually go like this. 1 on the scoresheet, 8.50 beside the name, and a crowd that had never seen him before chanting it by the end.
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
No sign of nerves from Sunday Aniebet at 19 — 7.87
The hardest thing about being 19 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Sunday Aniebet did not need any: 7.87, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
Age has not caught Stanley Dimgba yet — 7.89
At 33 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 7.89 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Market17 Aug 2026
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Enyimba they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Boardroom17 Aug 2026
He will play here until the summer and then walk out of the door for free, having already signed elsewhere. Supporters will manage the first part of that sentence; it is the second they will struggle with.
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 Enyimba this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Words at Enyimba training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Kelvin Ogunga 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.
The terraces17 Aug 2026
He is 19 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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market10 Aug 2026
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Enyimba is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Boardroom10 Aug 2026
The rules permit it and it stings anyway. Ufere Chukwu has agreed terms with El-Kanemi Warriors for the summer, and until then he pulls on this shirt as a player who has already chosen his next one.
Squad10 Aug 2026
Words exchanged at Enyimba
Ezekiel Edidiong 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
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Mamelodi Sundowns have kept their man, and Enyimba go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Player ratings10 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 16. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Player ratings10 Aug 2026
7.75, and no serious argument from anybody who was there. Enyimba had eleven men on the pitch and one of them decided how it went.
Match8 Aug 2026
It finished 1‑1, and it somehow always looked like it would. One of those afternoons where the table moves less than the tempers.
The dugout10 Aug 2026
The view from the dugout
“We did not lose. Some weeks that is all you get, and I would rather have the point than not.” Victor Ekong chose the glass-half-full version of 1‑1; the supporters left with the other one.
Squad10 Aug 2026
Ufere Chukwu 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
Crisis
Match1 Aug 2026
Chastening afternoon for Enyimba
A 0‑4 beating by Ikorodu City was the sort of result that empties a stadium long before the final whistle.
Market3 Aug 2026
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Enyimba is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad3 Aug 2026
“The easiest signature of my career.” Kelvin Ogunga and Enyimba agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad3 Aug 2026
A falling-out at Enyimba
Ezekiel Edidiong and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Words at Enyimba training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Kelvin Ogunga 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 targets3 Aug 2026
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Mamelodi Sundowns have kept their man, and Enyimba go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Boardroom3 Aug 2026
Nobody left the Enyimba dressing room in a hurry
The door stayed shut a long time after the final whistle. What was said in there is between them; whether it worked is between them and Saturday.
Market3 Aug 2026
49 months to run and not a word offered. A club that lets the calendar negotiate for it usually ends up losing to the calendar.
The dugout3 Aug 2026
The manager’s verdict
“That is on me. I pick the team and I picked wrong.” Managers say that when they mean it and when they need to be seen to, and after 0‑4 Victor Ekong left the room before anybody could ask which.