From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match29 Aug 2026
A 0‑1 win over Kano Pillars, a place in the next round, and the quiet arithmetic every supporter does on the walk home: how many more until a final?
Match26 Aug 2026
A 2‑0 win over Kano Pillars, and the draw for the next round can be watched with some interest for once.
Squad31 Aug 2026
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 7 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Player ratings31 Aug 2026
Adama Goïta, 20, steals the show — 8.09
Marked 8.09 at 20, in a side that makes no allowances for age. He did not need any, and he looked the least nervous man on the pitch.
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 The request is on a desk at Remo Stars, and it is not being withdrawn.
Market31 Aug 2026
Everything was agreed until it was not, and Olalekan Adeleke reports back to Remo Stars with a summer to forget. Neither club is saying who walked away from the table.
Squad31 Aug 2026
Adama Goïta 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
Successful dribbles: 20. 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.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 36. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Match22 Aug 2026
2 goals to the good, and then a slow surrender of everything that had been earned. Samuel Anakwe will not be the one blamed for it, but nobody at Remo Stars escapes the conversation that follows a collapse like this.
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 8.75, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
Market24 Aug 2026
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Wikki Tourists waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Remo Stars is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 8.24, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
Mark Gibson, 21, plays like he has been here for years — 8.31
A mark of 8.31 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 21-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
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.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Samuel Anakwe 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.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Market17 Aug 2026
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Remo Stars have lost him in all but the paperwork.
Squad17 Aug 2026
3 goals in one game. The first was taken well, the second was taken greedily, and by the third the crowd were simply waiting for him to get the ball.
Market17 Aug 2026
The offer from Kun Khalifat for Olalekan Adeleke 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.
Match15 Aug 2026
3 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.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Samuel Anakwe and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 9.63, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Antonio Galeano 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.
Match15 Aug 2026
A 3‑1 win over Ikorodu City, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
The terraces17 Aug 2026
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 19-year-old it feels ownership of. Joseph Abah has it now, and everything he does for the rest of his time here will be measured against the goodwill he was handed for free.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Player ratings10 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 37. 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.
Player ratings10 Aug 2026
Two goals and a mark of 9.29 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Market10 Aug 2026
“I listened, I thought about it, and I am staying. That is the whole story.” The clubs had agreed a fee. Odunsi Sunday had not agreed to go, which turned out to be the part that mattered.
Transfer targets10 Aug 2026
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Remo Stars have done the hard part with Stade Malien, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Squad10 Aug 2026
“The easiest signature of my career.” Antonio Galeano and Remo Stars agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad10 Aug 2026
Samuel Anakwe 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.
Match8 Aug 2026
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Samuel Anakwe. 3‑1 against Katsina United, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Market10 Aug 2026
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Musa Osimhen 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
Triumph
Squad3 Aug 2026
The match ball belongs to Antonio Galeano, whose 6 goals turned a difficult afternoon into a procession.
Match1 Aug 2026
Kun Khalifat will want this one forgotten quickly: 6‑1, every duel lost, and a long ride home. Remo Stars were ruthless in the way good sides are ruthless.
Squad3 Aug 2026
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Samuel Anakwe commits to Remo Stars for another 4 years.
Squad3 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 Remo Stars this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match1 Aug 2026
7 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about Remo Stars and Kun Khalifat in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Antonio Galeano 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 terraces3 Aug 2026
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 20-year-old it feels ownership of. Adama Goïta has it now, and everything he does for the rest of his time here will be measured against the goodwill he was handed for free.
Market3 Aug 2026
Add another name to the list: Wikki Tourists have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Odunsi Sunday. The answer from Remo Stars has not changed — yet.
Player ratings3 Aug 2026
A performance of 8.29 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.