Marked for Peter Etebo
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Squad12 Mar 2029
A season average of 7.50 with 33 goals behind it. Opponents have started planning around him, which is the sincerest compliment football pays.
Match10 Mar 2029
Zamalek make it 10 in a row
Momentum is a hard thing to buy and an easy thing to lose, and right now Zamalek have 10 straight wins of it.
Match10 Mar 2029
Rarely has this fixture seen a display like it: 3‑0 against Aswan, and it could have been more.
Market12 Mar 2029
Juan Bezerra 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 Zamalek can pretend not to have heard.
Player ratings12 Mar 2029
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 8.47, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
The dugout12 Mar 2029
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Zamalek may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Market12 Mar 2029
Mahmoud Warda wants to know where this is going
“I want to win things, and I would like to do it here.” Nothing has been demanded and nothing has been threatened — but a boardroom at Zamalek hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
Market12 Mar 2029
Only the photograph left for Esho
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Esho will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Zamalek the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Player ratings12 Mar 2029
Successful dribbles: 23. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market21 Aug 2028
El Masry come back empty-handed
The bid was some way short and Zamalek did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Market21 Aug 2028
Ebube Duru 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 Zamalek can pretend not to have heard.
Player ratings21 Aug 2028
Two goals and a mark of 8.35 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Market21 Aug 2028
Terms done: Amr Nasser is going
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Haras El Hodoud waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Zamalek is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
The dugout21 Aug 2028
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Zamalek may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Market21 Aug 2028
Only the photograph left for Ahmed Khodary
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Ahmed Khodary will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Zamalek the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Boardroom21 Aug 2028
A new deal for the man in the dugout, and the clearest thing a board can say without calling a press conference about it. Stability is cheap to promise and expensive to deliver.
Squad21 Aug 2028
Mahmoud Warda 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.
Boardroom21 Aug 2028
5 academy graduates step up at Zamalek
Senior shirt numbers handed to boys the coaches have known since they were twelve. Most will not make it and all of them have already done the hard part.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market14 Aug 2028
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Zamalek people have started saying his name in the past tense.
Market14 Aug 2028
Al Wasl come back empty-handed
The bid was some way short and Zamalek did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Match14 Aug 2028
Zamalek are in among the leaders
Position 3 and 83 points on the board. Nobody at the ground will say the word out loud yet, and everybody at the ground is thinking it.
Market14 Aug 2028
“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.
Market14 Aug 2028
“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.
Squad14 Aug 2028
Words at Zamalek training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Juan Bezerra 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.
Squad14 Aug 2028
Peter Etebo 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 Zamalek this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The dugout14 Aug 2028
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
The dugout14 Aug 2028
The manager makes an example of Ahmed Khodary
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market17 Jul 2028
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Zamalek have lost him in all but the paperwork.
Match17 Jul 2028
Zamalek refuse to drop out of the race
Position 3, 83 points, and the result everyone checks first is now theirs. The word is still not being said around the ground, which is how you know everyone is thinking it.
Market17 Jul 2028
“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.
Market17 Jul 2028
Only the photograph left for Ahmed Khodary
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Ahmed Khodary will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Zamalek the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Market17 Jul 2028
Zamalek say no — this time
The offer from Haras El Hodoud for Amr Nasser 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.
Squad17 Jul 2028
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Zamalek this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad17 Jul 2028
A row about effort at Zamalek
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Mahmoud El Wensh was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout17 Jul 2028
Nicolás Giménez has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Zamalek will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
The dugout17 Jul 2028
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Ahmed Khaled, and the manager let it.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market12 Jun 2028
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Ismaily waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Zamalek is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Market12 Jun 2028
Zamalek say no — this time
The offer from Enyimba for Ebube Duru 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.
Market12 Jun 2028
“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 Zamalek, and it is not being withdrawn.
Market12 Jun 2028
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Zamalek is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad12 Jun 2028
A falling-out at Zamalek
Mahmoud Warda and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad12 Jun 2028
Words at Zamalek training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Juan Bezerra 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.
Squad12 Jun 2028
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Mohamed Hamad and Zamalek agree another 4 years.
Squad12 Jun 2028
A quiet fortnight at Zamalek
With 6 players away on international duty the sessions are small and the manager can actually hear himself. It is the one break in the season, and it never quite feels like one.
The dugout12 Jun 2028
Clubs make promises constantly and the page usually only hears about them when they are broken. This one was honoured, and the dressing room noticed that faster than any supporter did.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Match6 May 2028
A derby to forget for Zamalek
Beaten 1‑6 by Al Ahly in the one fixture where losing is not allowed. The football was bad enough; the week ahead will be worse.
Match8 May 2028
Zamalek finish in position 3
83 points, and the season has a number on it. Whatever it felt like from the inside, this is what it will look like in a book.
Match6 May 2028
Every run ends on an afternoon somebody had marked down as routine. This one went 14 matches, which is long enough that a town had stopped counting, and short enough that it will remember exactly who stopped it.
Squad8 May 2028
Mohamed Sobhi pulls a muscle — 15 days out
The injury that keeps coming back, keeps being rushed back from, and quietly costs more careers than the dramatic ones. 15 days is the estimate; the honest figure depends on whether anybody is patient.
Market8 May 2028
Mahmoud Gehad has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Zamalek they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad8 May 2028
Words exchanged at Zamalek
Juan Bezerra 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.
Match6 May 2028
7 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about Zamalek and Al Ahly in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
Squad8 May 2028
A row about effort at Zamalek
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Mahmoud El Wensh was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout8 May 2028
Juan Bezerra gets it from the manager
“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.
In brief
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Squad
Peter Etebo stays put
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Boardroom
Inquest at Zamalek
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The dugout
The view from the dugout
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Player ratings10 Apr 2028
Ebube Duru beats them one at a time
Successful dribbles: 33. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Match10 Apr 2028
76 points and nobody above them. The word is not being said around the ground yet, and it is being thought in every seat.
Match8 Apr 2028
Zamalek keep winning on the road
9 away wins in a row. Travelling support is the truest kind, and this season it is being repaid in the only currency that counts.
Match8 Apr 2028
Whatever happens, Zamalek do not lose
11 games unbeaten now. Some were earned and some were survived, but a habit is forming — and habits are the hardest thing in football to play against.
The dugout10 Apr 2028
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Zamalek may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Player ratings10 Apr 2028
Peter Etebo goes up and wins it — 7.65
A defender on the scoresheet, which happens rarely enough that everybody in the ground remembers who took the corner. 1 for him, and a mark of 7.65 for the rest of it.
Market10 Apr 2028
“I have ambitions, and I would like the club to share them.” Nobody has asked to leave and nobody has been shown the door — but a player chooses that sentence carefully, and a boardroom hears it exactly as it was meant.
Market10 Apr 2028
Only the photograph left for Mahmoud Gehad
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Mahmoud Gehad will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Zamalek the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad10 Apr 2028
Words exchanged at Zamalek
Mahmoud Warda 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
Upbeat
Player ratings3 Apr 2028
Successful dribbles: 36. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Match1 Apr 2028
Whatever happens, Zamalek do not lose
10 games unbeaten now. Some were earned and some were survived, but a habit is forming — and habits are the hardest thing in football to play against.
Market3 Apr 2028
Esho is on his way
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Zamalek is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad3 Apr 2028
Mahmoud Warda 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 Apr 2028
Words at Zamalek training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ahmed Fatouh 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 dugout3 Apr 2028
A player who expected to start watched it instead. The manager will call it a decision for the team; Mahmoud El Wensh will call it something else in private.
Squad3 Apr 2028
Defences have started doubling up on Akinkunmi Amoo
3 goals and a season average of 7.38 will do that. The space he used to find has gone; he keeps scoring anyway, which is the mark of the real thing.
The dugout3 Apr 2028
Clubs make promises constantly and the page usually only hears about them when they are broken. This one was honoured, and the dressing room noticed that faster than any supporter did.
The dugout3 Apr 2028
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Peter Etebo, and the manager let it.