Marked for Nicolás Martínez
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match23 Jan 2027
No end in sight to Al-Wehda's wait for a win
10 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Al-Wehda has to find a result from somewhere.
Market25 Jan 2027
“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.
Squad25 Jan 2027
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.
Market25 Jan 2027
Only the photograph left for Wadhah Malik
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Wadhah Malik will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Al-Wehda the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Boardroom25 Jan 2027
The rules permit it and it stings anyway. Wadhah Malik has agreed terms with Al-Ettifaq for the summer, and until then he pulls on this shirt as a player who has already chosen his next one.
Squad25 Jan 2027
Demba Diallo 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.
Squad25 Jan 2027
Ali Kolahkaj 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.
Match23 Jan 2027
Beaten 0‑2, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Squad25 Jan 2027
“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.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match21 Nov 2026
3‑0, and the margin flattered nobody — it could have carried another goal or two without complaint. Afternoons like this are why people keep coming.
Squad23 Nov 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.
Player ratings23 Nov 2026
Age has not caught Bjørn Johnsen yet — 9.38
At 35 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 9.38 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Squad23 Nov 2026
Farouk Chafaï 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.
Squad23 Nov 2026
Words at Al-Wehda training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Demba Diallo 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 ratings23 Nov 2026
16 times he got in the way of something. Centre-halves get written about when they make mistakes and ignored when they do not, so an afternoon like this needs saying out loud: he is the reason the scoreline reads as it does.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad16 Nov 2026
A shoot-out is remembered by its ending, and this one ends with Abdulrahman Al-Shammari: 4 kept out, and a set of supporters who will describe every one of them for the next twenty years.
Match14 Nov 2026
11 matches without a win for Al-Wehda
The run now stands at 11, and the questions being asked around Al-Wehda are no longer polite ones.
Match11 Nov 2026
Al-Wehda through in the cup
A 0‑0 win over Najran, and the draw for the next round can be watched with some interest for once.
Squad16 Nov 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.
Match14 Nov 2026
6 matches without a goal for Al-Wehda
The chances are being made and something is happening between the making and the finishing. 6 matches now, and the anxiety in the ground arrives a little earlier every week.
Squad16 Nov 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 Al-Wehda this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match14 Nov 2026
Al-Khaleej left with the points after a 0‑2 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Squad16 Nov 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Nicolás Martínez, and the manager let it.
Player ratings16 Nov 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
Uneasy
Squad12 Oct 2026
There were 13 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.
Match10 Oct 2026
The wait goes on for Al-Wehda
5 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.
Squad12 Oct 2026
Farouk Chafaï 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 Oct 2026
Words at Al-Wehda training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Demba Diallo 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 Oct 2026
“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.
Match10 Oct 2026
1‑1, and both dressing rooms will call it two points lost. A draw that asked plenty of questions and answered none of them.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
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-Wehda, and it is not being withdrawn.
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
23 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.
Squad24 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 Al-Wehda this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 21. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
Headers, blocks, tackles, interceptions — 20 of them, and not one goal behind him. The sort of performance that never makes a highlight reel and wins football matches.
Match22 Aug 2026
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Bjørn Johnsen. 1‑0 against Al-Ra'ed, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Words at Al-Wehda training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Augustine Oladapo 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.
Squad24 Aug 2026
“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.
Market24 Aug 2026
Al-Ettifaq are about to pick up the phone
A conversation is coming this week. Al-Wehda will put a number on him, and from there it stops being football and becomes arithmetic.