Marked for Caio Canedo
From our football correspondent
Steady
Match31 Oct 2026
Beaten 1‑2, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
The terraces2 Nov 2026
At 23 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
Player ratings2 Nov 2026
A performance of 8.05 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Boardroom2 Nov 2026
Wages eat 120% of everything Al Wahda earn
There is a figure at which a wage bill stops being ambitious and becomes the reason nothing else is possible, and this club has reached it. Nothing is left over for a transfer, a stand or a rainy afternoon.
Squad2 Nov 2026
A falling-out at Al Wahda
Caio Canedo and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Boardroom2 Nov 2026
Nobody left the Al Wahda dressing room in a hurry
The door stayed shut a long time after the final whistle. What was said in there is between them; whether it worked is between them and Saturday.
The dugout2 Nov 2026
The view from the dugout
“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 1‑2 defeat, delivered by Majed Al Kamali to a room that had heard them before.
Squad2 Nov 2026
Jadsom has had enough of the noise
The ambition story running backwards, and the one nobody tells: a footballer who wants a smaller ground, fewer cameras and a crowd that does not turn. It is not weakness and it is rarely reported as anything else.
The dugout2 Nov 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.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad26 Oct 2026
4 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 ratings26 Oct 2026
Age has not caught Dušan Tadić yet — 8.16
At 37 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.16 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Player ratings26 Oct 2026
A performance of 10.00 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Match24 Oct 2026
Al Fujairah made Al Wahda work for it, but the scoreboard read 4‑3 at the end and the table does not ask how.
Match24 Oct 2026
Omar Khribin among the goals in a wild afternoon
7 goals in one match, Omar Khribin on the scoresheet, and a scoreline that will look like a misprint. Neutrals could not have asked more of Al Wahda and Al Fujairah.
The dugout26 Oct 2026
The manager makes an example of Lucas Pimenta
“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.
Squad26 Oct 2026
Favour Ogbu 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 Wahda this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The dugout26 Oct 2026
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Majed Al Kamali on a 4‑3 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
Squad26 Oct 2026
A row about effort at Al Wahda
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Lautaro Montenegro was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Match14 Oct 2026
Cup progress for Al Wahda
A 2‑1 win over Dibba, a place in the next round, and the quiet arithmetic every supporter does on the walk home: how many more until a final?
Player ratings19 Oct 2026
Age has not caught Dušan Tadić yet — 8.37
At 37 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.37 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Player ratings19 Oct 2026
Oumarou Diadje, 21, plays like he has been here for years — 7.68
A mark of 7.68 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 21-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Reza Ghandipour is 20, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Match17 Oct 2026
Dušan Tadić scored, and precious little else went right: 1‑3 to Al Wasl, and a quiet walk to the dressing room.
The terraces19 Oct 2026
At 20 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
Market19 Oct 2026
It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether Al Wahda can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
Player ratings19 Oct 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.
The dugout19 Oct 2026
The manager has not finished forgetting Jadsom'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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad12 Oct 2026
Words exchanged at Al Wahda
Facundo Kruspzky 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 watch12 Oct 2026
“I did not go to Al Nasr to sit and watch. I want to come back to Al Wahda and fight for my place.” 2 appearances in 9 matches say the rest.
Looking ahead12 Oct 2026
A test against the best for Al Wahda
The team at the top of the table next, and the honest measure of where this side actually is. Anybody can beat the club below them; the question is what happens against Al Wasl.
Squad12 Oct 2026
Hazaa Ammar 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.
Market12 Oct 2026
The name of Omar Khribin keeps appearing in other people's back pages. Al Wahda say nothing, which says plenty.
Looking ahead12 Oct 2026
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Caio Canedo’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Al Wahda needing him to play as if none of it matters.
The dugout12 Oct 2026
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Al Wahda. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
The dugout12 Oct 2026
Renné Rivas knocks on the manager's door
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Al Wahda, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Squad12 Oct 2026
The shrug has gone, the language is coming, and he now argues in training like somebody who expects to be here next year. Half a signing's value is this and none of it appears on a fee.