Marked for Achraf Dari
From our football correspondent
Steady
Transfer targets31 Jul 2028
Zamalek asked and West Bromwich Albion said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Transfer targets31 Jul 2028
The clubs have shaken hands with Masr El Makasa; the player has not yet. Personal terms are next, and personal terms are where more deals die than anybody prints.
Market31 Jul 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.
Transfer targets31 Jul 2028
Zamalek have gone to RKC Waalwijk with a bid, and the supporters have gone to the internet with an opinion about it. Whether either changes anything is up to the selling club.
Market31 Jul 2028
Ahmed Khodary 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.
The dugout31 Jul 2028
This is not rotation. Mohamed Shehata has not been in the manager's plans for some time, and nobody at Zamalek is pretending otherwise.
Squad31 Jul 2028
Achraf Dari 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.
Squad31 Jul 2028
The medical room confirms 24 days on the sidelines for Moustafa Zeidan, and a plan built around him now has to be rebuilt.
Squad31 Jul 2028
A row about effort at Zamalek
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Adam Kaied was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
Match12 Jun 2028
Zamalek up to position 2
76 points on the board and a place in the leading group. Nobody at the ground is saying the word out loud yet.
Market12 Jun 2028
Zamalek say no — this time
The offer from MC Alger for Ahmed Fatouh 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
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.
Market12 Jun 2028
“I listened, I thought about it, and I am staying. That is the whole story.” The clubs had agreed a fee. Omar Abdelaziz had not agreed to go, which turned out to be the part that mattered.
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.
Squad12 Jun 2028
Achraf Dari 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.
Squad12 Jun 2028
A row about effort at Zamalek
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Ilias Boumassaoudi was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout12 Jun 2028
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Abdallah Tarek is on it.
The dugout12 Jun 2028
Akim Zedadka 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.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Market1 May 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.
Match29 Apr 2028
Whatever happens, Zamalek do not lose
8 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.
Market1 May 2028
Achraf Dari 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.
Boardroom1 May 2028
There is no worse way to lose a footballer. Akim Zedadka has pre-agreed a move away, which means every appearance between now and June is made by a man the club can no longer sell, and somebody upstairs will be asked why the contract was allowed to get here.
Squad1 May 2028
A falling-out at Zamalek
Lucas Bruera and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Match29 Apr 2028
It finished 1‑0, and it was Abdallah Tarek’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Zamalek.
Squad1 May 2028
Akim Zedadka 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.
Player ratings1 May 2028
Marked 8.33 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
Looking ahead1 May 2028
All roads lead to Al Ahly
The fixture the calendar is arranged around. Form goes out of the window, the table is not consulted, and for ninety minutes Zamalek will be judged on one thing only.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
The dugout24 Apr 2028
“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.
Market24 Apr 2028
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.
Match22 Apr 2028
7 unbeaten for Zamalek
Hard to beat is not the same as winning, but 7 matches without defeat is a foundation Zamalek did not have in the autumn.
Squad24 Apr 2028
Words exchanged at Zamalek
Achraf Dari 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.
Loan watch24 Apr 2028
30 appearances away from home and 16 goals to show for them. Every one of them makes next summer's conversation a little more expensive.
Squad24 Apr 2028
A row about effort at Zamalek
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Adam Kaied was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Match22 Apr 2028
The run is over for Zamalek
6 matches without defeat, and then Ittihad. Nobody at the ground pretended it would go on forever; nobody expected it to stop here either.
The dugout24 Apr 2028
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Akim Zedadka, and the manager let it.
Player ratings24 Apr 2028
Successful dribbles: 16. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
In brief
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Player ratings
Ahmed Fatouh stands above it all
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The dugout
Ahmed Fatouh gets picked when it counts
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The dugout
The manager’s verdict
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Match29 Mar 2028
Cup progress for Zamalek
A 3‑1 win over Haras El Hodoud, a place in the next round, and the quiet arithmetic every supporter does on the walk home: how many more until a final?
Player ratings3 Apr 2028
Belal Ateya, 20, steals the show — 7.77
Marked 7.77 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.
The dugout3 Apr 2028
Mohamed Sobhi: that is not what I was promised
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Zamalek have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Market3 Apr 2028
“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.
Match1 Apr 2028
Zamalek make it 4 in a row
Momentum is a hard thing to buy and an easy thing to lose, and right now Zamalek have 4 straight wins of it.
Market3 Apr 2028
Baron Ochieng 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.
Market3 Apr 2028
The general version of this complaint is that a player wants more. The specific version names the thing: he wants to walk out under floodlights against clubs from other countries, and he has stopped pretending otherwise.
Squad3 Apr 2028
A falling-out at Zamalek
Lucas Bruera and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Player ratings3 Apr 2028
Adam Kaied has a hand in both — 7.86
One scored and one made, which is a different afternoon from scoring twice and an easier one to overlook. Marked 7.86, and involved in 2 of his side's goals.
In brief
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Loan watch
The goals keep arriving from Mohamed Hamad’s exile
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Squad
Words at Zamalek training over how hard people work
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The terraces
The crowd has taken to Belal Ateya
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market6 Mar 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.
Squad6 Mar 2028
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Zamalek can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Squad6 Mar 2028
A falling-out at Zamalek
Achraf Dari and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad6 Mar 2028
“The easiest signature of my career.” Mahmoud El Wensh and Zamalek agree another 2 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad6 Mar 2028
Words at Zamalek training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Adam Kaied 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 ratings6 Mar 2028
Successful dribbles: 19. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Match4 Mar 2028
ENPPI left with the points after a 0‑1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Market6 Mar 2028
19 games and 4 goals away from here, and a man the manager did not have last summer. The loan did what loans are supposed to do and almost never do.
Loan watch6 Mar 2028
24 appearances at El Dakhleya and the goals keep coming. Zamalek are watching this more closely than the borrowing club would like.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Match12 Feb 2028
Police Union will want this one forgotten quickly: 3‑0, every duel lost, and a long ride home. Zamalek were ruthless in the way good sides are ruthless.
Match12 Feb 2028
Zamalek make it 7 in a row
Momentum is a hard thing to buy and an easy thing to lose, and right now Zamalek have 7 straight wins of it.
Transfer targets14 Feb 2028
$8.0M was the most the club would pay and Cracovia were asking for more. Deals like this are revived in the last week of a window roughly half the time, and everybody involved knows it.
Market14 Feb 2028
Only the photograph left for Ahmed Sherif
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Ahmed Sherif will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Zamalek the goodbyes have quietly begun.
The dugout14 Feb 2028
This is not rotation. Mohamed Shehata has not been in the manager's plans for some time, and nobody at Zamalek is pretending otherwise.
Market14 Feb 2028
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Zamalek heard it as anything else.
Squad14 Feb 2028
Lucas Bruera 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.
Squad14 Feb 2028
Adam Kaied 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.
Loan watch14 Feb 2028
“I did not go to Arab Contractors to sit and watch. I want to come back to Zamalek and fight for my place.” 1 appearances in 35 matches say the rest.
In brief
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Match
Another one collected away from home
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Player ratings
Oday Dabbagh was on a different afternoon to everybody else
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Match
Zamalek settle it inside twenty minutes
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match15 Jan 2028
El Dakhleya will want this one forgotten quickly: 4‑0, every duel lost, and a long ride home. Zamalek were ruthless in the way good sides are ruthless.
Market17 Jan 2028
“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.
Market17 Jan 2028
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Military Production waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Zamalek is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Player ratings17 Jan 2028
Two goals and a mark of 8.32 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Market17 Jan 2028
Zamalek pay El Masry $3.4M for a proper upgrade
El Masry did not want to sell and the number is why they did. $3.4M for Moustafa Zeidan, and the expectation that arrives with him is the kind no amount of settling-in period softens.
Market17 Jan 2028
Al Ahly will not enjoy the photographs. Achraf Dari has signed for Zamalek, and everyone involved understands that this particular deal was never only about football.
Player ratings17 Jan 2028
A defender's goal wins it for Zamalek — 7.61
1 for Achraf Dari, marked 7.61, and a centre-half's name in the part of the report he normally only reaches by mistake. He will not be allowed to forget it in the dressing room for a month.
The dugout17 Jan 2028
This is not rotation. Mohamed Shehata has not been in the manager's plans for some time, and nobody at Zamalek is pretending otherwise.
Squad17 Jan 2028
Words exchanged at Zamalek
Abdallah Aboutrika 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
Steady
Match1 Jan 2028
The longest week starts now for Zamalek
Beaten 1‑4 by Al Ahly in the one fixture that is never just a fixture. Work, school, the corner shop — there will be no getting away from this one.
Match1 Jan 2028
Every run ends on an afternoon somebody had marked down as routine. This one went 19 matches, which is long enough that a town had stopped counting, and short enough that it will remember exactly who stopped it.
Market3 Jan 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.
Squad3 Jan 2028
An individual honour is a strange thing in a team game, and the best of them are never argued with. He has had the sort of year that ends with his name being read out, and Zamalek have had the benefit of it.
Transfer targets3 Jan 2028
Zamalek have gone to Wadi Degla with a bid, and the supporters have gone to the internet with an opinion about it. Whether either changes anything is up to the selling club.
Transfer targets3 Jan 2028
The offer went to Al Ahly 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.
Transfer targets3 Jan 2028
Zamalek have gone to El Masry with a bid, and the supporters have gone to the internet with an opinion about it. Whether either changes anything is up to the selling club.
Squad3 Jan 2028
“Some mornings you wake up and you are still a long way from everything you know.” It is not the football and it never was; Zamalek are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Transfer targets3 Jan 2028
Zamalek have gone to Masr El Makasa with a bid, and the supporters have gone to the internet with an opinion about it. Whether either changes anything is up to the selling club.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
The dugout11 Oct 2027
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Al Ahly may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Market11 Oct 2027
“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 Ahly, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad11 Oct 2027
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 Ahly this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad11 Oct 2027
Emam Ashour 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 dugout11 Oct 2027
Marwan Ateya gets picked when it counts
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Marwan Ateya is on it.
The dugout11 Oct 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Mohamed Sherif, and the manager let it.
Loan watch11 Oct 2027
5 appearances away from home and 7 goals to show for them. Every one of them makes next summer's conversation a little more expensive.
The dugout11 Oct 2027
The manager has not finished forgetting Mohamed Hashem's mistake
Publicly it is behind everybody. It is not behind the man who picks the team, and the only place that shows is a team sheet. He will get another chance; he will get it in a match that matters less.
Market11 Oct 2027
Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Emam Ashour’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Match25 Sep 2027
Al Ahly make home a hard place to visit
24 without defeat on their own grass. The pitch has not changed; the crowd has — louder earlier, and quicker to sense when the opposition would rather be somewhere else.
Match25 Sep 2027
Rarely has this fixture seen a display like it: 3‑0 against Aswan, and it could have been more.
Player ratings27 Sep 2027
A brace, and Afimico Pululu takes the afternoon — 8.82
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Afimico Pululu provided it, and the 8.82 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Market27 Sep 2027
“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 Ahly, and it is not being withdrawn.
Match25 Sep 2027
Whatever happens, Al Ahly do not lose
7 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.
Squad27 Sep 2027
Words exchanged at Al Ahly
Hussein El Shahat 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 ratings27 Sep 2027
A hand in 2 of them from Monsef Bakrar — 7.95
Marked 7.95. There is a kind of forward whose value only shows up when you count what he was involved in rather than what he finished, and this is the day that argument makes itself.
Squad27 Sep 2027
Words at Al Ahly training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Afimico Pululu 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 ratings27 Sep 2027
Zizo ran the game
Chances created: 12. Not on the scoresheet and not remotely anonymous — a passing performance that pulled a defence apart without leaving a mark on the column that gets read.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Match10 May 2027
The view from the top for Al Ahly
81 points, and the rest of the division looking up. Every side that finishes first spends the season pretending it is not thinking about it, and this one has started pretending.
Market10 May 2027
Only the photograph left for Mohamed Atef
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Mohamed Atef will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Al Ahly the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad10 May 2027
Words exchanged at Al Ahly
Hussein El Shahat 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.
The dugout10 May 2027
A promise honoured at Al Ahly
Something was said to Youssef Belammari and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
Squad10 May 2027
A row about effort at Al Ahly
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Achraf Dari was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout10 May 2027
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Youssef Belammari is on it.
The dugout10 May 2027
Nobody will confirm this and nothing else explains the last month of selections. A costly error buys a player a period of being second choice that is always longer than the error was.
Market10 May 2027
The Marwan Ateya talk will not go away
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Al Ahly know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Loan watch10 May 2027
33 starts and a season average of 7.00. The loan is doing exactly what it was arranged to do.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market26 Apr 2027
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Al Ahly is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad26 Apr 2027
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 Ahly this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad26 Apr 2027
Afimico Pululu 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.
Match24 Apr 2027
Ittihad left with the points after a 0‑2 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Squad26 Apr 2027
22 days, the scan says, and scans are kinder than reality. The fixtures in that window have just become somebody else’s job.
Looking ahead26 Apr 2027
The neighbours are next for Al Ahly
Nothing about the week ahead is ordinary. Zamalek on Saturday, a town that has already started talking about it, and a dressing room that does not need telling what it means.
Market26 Apr 2027
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Al Ahly heard it as anything else.
Boardroom26 Apr 2027
Doors closed at Al Ahly
The music was off and the showers ran late. What was said in that dressing room stays there, but Saturday will publish the minutes.
The dugout26 Apr 2027
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 0‑2 Mahmoud Hamdi left the room before anybody could ask which.
In brief
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The dugout
Zizo has become a man the manager trusts
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Loan watch
8 goals on loan for Afsha
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The dugout
The manager has not finished forgetting Ahmed Eid's mistake
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Match5 Dec 2026
Rarely has this fixture seen a display like it: 4‑0 against Ghazl El Mahalla, and it could have been more.
Match5 Dec 2026
Al Ahly cannot stop winning
7 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.
Player ratings7 Dec 2026
A brace, and Achraf Bencharki takes the afternoon — 8.60
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Achraf Bencharki provided it, and the 8.60 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Squad7 Dec 2026
A season average of 7.37 with 19 goals behind it. Opponents have started planning around him, which is the sincerest compliment football pays.
The dugout7 Dec 2026
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Al Ahly may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Player ratings7 Dec 2026
Up for the corner, and Emam Ashour delivers — 7.67
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Emam Ashour scored, was marked 7.67, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
Market7 Dec 2026
Only the photograph left for Hazem Gamal
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Hazem Gamal will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Al Ahly the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad7 Dec 2026
Abdelrahman Mano is a better footballer than he was
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 18 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.
Squad7 Dec 2026
A falling-out at Al Ahly
Mohamed Hany and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.