Marked for Khalid Serroukh
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad8 Feb 2027
13 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.
Market8 Feb 2027
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Police Union waiting with a shirt. Nobody at El Masry is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Market8 Feb 2027
El Masry say no — this time
The offer from Aswan for Amr El Saadawy 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.
The dugout8 Feb 2027
Khalid Serroukh: 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.” El Masry have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Match6 Feb 2027
Beaten 0‑2, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Squad8 Feb 2027
Hassan Ali 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 dugout8 Feb 2027
The manager makes an example of Mostafa El Aash
“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.
The dugout8 Feb 2027
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Walid Salah after 0‑2, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
Squad8 Feb 2027
Kingsley Eduwo named in the team of the month
A month is long enough that nobody gets in by accident. Kingsley Eduwo is in the division's best eleven for it, which is a quieter compliment than an award and a more reliable one.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Player ratings21 Dec 2026
Both of them Hassan Ali's — 8.32
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 8.32, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
Match19 Dec 2026
El Masry make it 5 in a row
Momentum is a hard thing to buy and an easy thing to lose, and right now El Masry have 5 straight wins of it.
Player ratings21 Dec 2026
Successful dribbles: 22. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Match19 Dec 2026
Three points for El Masry, 2‑0 the final word against Smouha in a contest settled by the finer margins.
Squad21 Dec 2026
Words at El Masry training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Hassan Ali 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.
Squad21 Dec 2026
At 36, 3 points below where he was, and a body that has started charging interest. It happens to all of them and it is still the hardest paragraph on this page.
Squad21 Dec 2026
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Ali Ghazal commits to El Masry for another 2 years.
The dugout21 Dec 2026
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Walid Salah on a 2‑0 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
Squad21 Dec 2026
The system has changed and his position has not. A footballer can improve his form; he cannot improve the manager’s formation, and that is the whole of the problem.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match7 Nov 2026
Moustafa Zeidan had done his part in building a 2-goal cushion. What happened after that was collective, and Aswan were allowed back into a match that had been finished with.
Player ratings9 Nov 2026
Two goals and a mark of 8.17 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Player ratings9 Nov 2026
Hassan Ali pops up at the right end — 7.81
7.81, 1 on the scoresheet, and the specific comedy of a back-four player celebrating like somebody who does this every week. He does not, and that is exactly why the ground reacted the way it did.
Squad9 Nov 2026
Words exchanged at El Masry
Karim El Eraki 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
Maurício signs on for more
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Maurício and El Masry agree another 2 years.
Match7 Nov 2026
A 3‑3 draw with Aswan leaves the dressing room somewhere between relief and regret.
Squad9 Nov 2026
A row about effort at El Masry
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Hassan Ali was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout9 Nov 2026
The manager makes an example of Ezekiel Tamara
“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.
The dugout9 Nov 2026
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Walid Salah after the 3‑3 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
In brief
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Squad
The formation has left Khalid Serroukh behind
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The dugout
Somebody else is better right now than Bambo
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Market
Experience through the door at El Masry