Marked for Emad El Sayed
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match27 Feb 2027
10 matches without a win for Al Gaish
The run now stands at 10, and the questions being asked around Al Gaish are no longer polite ones.
Squad1 Mar 2027
8 saves, and a scoreline the ten men in front of him had no right to. Goalkeepers only get noticed on the bad days; this was one of the other ones.
Player ratings1 Mar 2027
Successful dribbles: 28. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad1 Mar 2027
Words exchanged at Al Gaish
Karim Tarek 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.
Squad1 Mar 2027
Ismaïl Ouro-Agoro 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.
Market1 Mar 2027
No place for Fares Hatem in the plan
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Fares Hatem has his answer from Al Gaish; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
The dugout1 Mar 2027
“It is not the end of the world and it is not good enough. Both of those are true.” The manager, after a 0‑0 draw, said the honest thing and then went to say it again inside.
Player ratings1 Mar 2027
13 defensive actions and a clean sheet at the end of them. A defender's afternoon can only be told by what did not happen, which is why nobody makes a highlights package out of one and every manager in the division would take it.
Match27 Feb 2027
Al Gaish and Aswan cancel each other out
Nil-nil, and few chances worth the name. Aswan came to defend and left with exactly what they came for.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
Match18 Nov 2026
Cup progress for Al Gaish
A 1‑0 win over Petrojet, a place in the next round, and the quiet arithmetic every supporter does on the walk home: how many more until a final?
Squad23 Nov 2026
A fracture rules Khaled Sotohi out for 41 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Al Gaish will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Squad23 Nov 2026
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 6 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
The dugout23 Nov 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.
Squad23 Nov 2026
Karim Tarek 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 Al Gaish this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad23 Nov 2026
Ismaïl Ouro-Agoro 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 terraces23 Nov 2026
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Fares Hatem 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.
Match21 Nov 2026
Beaten 0‑1, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Player ratings23 Nov 2026
Successful dribbles: 18. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Player ratings9 Nov 2026
Successful dribbles: 33. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Market9 Nov 2026
Ahmed Khaled 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 Al Gaish can pretend not to have heard.
Squad9 Nov 2026
Khaled Sotohi breaks a bone — 57 days out
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 57 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Player ratings9 Nov 2026
Age has not caught Karim Tarek yet — 7.96
At 34 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 7.96 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Squad9 Nov 2026
Words exchanged at Al Gaish
Karim Tarek 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.
Squad9 Nov 2026
Words at Al Gaish training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Camacho 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.
Player ratings9 Nov 2026
A performance of 8.22 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Match7 Nov 2026
Level with 85 minutes on the clock, after an afternoon Al Gaish had all but put away. Haras El Hodoud will call it a point earned; the home dressing room will call it two given away, and both of them are right.
Match7 Nov 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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad12 Oct 2026
A fracture rules Khaled Sotohi out for 88 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Al Gaish will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Squad12 Oct 2026
Words exchanged at Al Gaish
Karim Tarek 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.
Squad12 Oct 2026
Youssef Hassan is a better footballer than he was
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 21 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
Squad12 Oct 2026
“The easiest signature of my career.” Ghaith Al-Madadha and Al Gaish agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
The dugout12 Oct 2026
A promise honoured at Al Gaish
Something was said to Islam Mohareb and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
The dugout12 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.
Looking ahead12 Oct 2026
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Emad El Sayed’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Al Gaish needing him to play as if none of it matters.
The dugout12 Oct 2026
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Houssem Eddine Souissi trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Market12 Oct 2026
Ahmed Abbas told to find a new club
“They were honest with me, and I would rather know.” Ahmed Abbas has been informed he is not in the manager's thinking at Al Gaish.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad28 Sep 2026
Khaled Sotohi breaks a bone — 104 days out
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 104 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
The dugout28 Sep 2026
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Al Gaish may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Match26 Sep 2026
The wait goes on for Al Gaish
6 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.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 6 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Karim Tarek 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 Al Gaish this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Camacho 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.
Match26 Sep 2026
No clean sheets in sight for Al Gaish
4 games now with at least two against. The back line has been rearranged, the goalkeeper has been backed publicly, and the goals keep going in anyway.
Player ratings28 Sep 2026
Ahmed Khaled was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.52. 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.
Player ratings28 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 17. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market31 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.
Market31 Aug 2026
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Al Gaish people have started saying his name in the past tense.
Transfer targets31 Aug 2026
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Flamengo keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Player ratings31 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 22. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad31 Aug 2026
Karim Tarek 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 Al Gaish this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Market31 Aug 2026
Zamalek are about to pick up the phone
A conversation is coming this week. Al Gaish will put a number on him, and from there it stops being football and becomes arithmetic.
Squad31 Aug 2026
Ismaïl Ouro-Agoro 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.
Match29 Aug 2026
3 matches without a goal for Al Gaish
The chances are being made and something is happening between the making and the finishing. 3 matches now, and the anxiety in the ground arrives a little earlier every week.
Transfer targets31 Aug 2026
Al Gaish asked and Fluminense 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
Uneasy
Squad24 Aug 2026
There were 6 saves in it, and at least three that had no business being saves at all. The ten outfield players owe him a drink and they know it.
Market24 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 Al Gaish, and it is not being withdrawn.
Transfer targets24 Aug 2026
The deal with Flamengo is done in every sense but the one that puts him on the pitch. Nothing goes wrong at this stage, except on the occasions when it does.
Transfer targets24 Aug 2026
No thanks: Leonel Pérez rejects the move
Al Gaish had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Grêmio, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
Squad24 Aug 2026
A falling-out at Al Gaish
Emad El Sayed and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 21. 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.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Words at Al Gaish training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Camacho 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 targets24 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.
Transfer targets24 Aug 2026
A loan move for Kauã is in the works
Al Gaish have made the call to Criciuma. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad3 Aug 2026
8 seasons and 267 appearances, all of them here. Careers like this are not designed; they happen to a certain kind of man at a certain kind of club, and this town has one.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Camacho signs a new deal
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Camacho commits to Al Gaish for another 2 years.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Emad El Sayed 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.
Squad3 Aug 2026
A row about effort at Al Gaish
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Camacho was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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 Al Gaish, another week without a signature from Camacho.
Market3 Aug 2026
Still no offer on the table, and Ismaïl Ouro-Agoro’s deal keeps shrinking. In boardroom language, silence this long stops being an oversight and starts being an answer.
Transfer targets3 Aug 2026
A loan enquiry to Cruzeiro: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.
Transfer targets3 Aug 2026
A loan enquiry to Barracas Central: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.
The dugout3 Aug 2026
Amro Tarek 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.