Marked for Yan
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad12 Oct 2026
A knee injury of the worst kind for Alireza Sadipour
63 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Al-Njoom lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Market12 Oct 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 The request is on a desk at Al-Njoom, and it is not being withdrawn.
Match12 Oct 2026
Every point is an argument now for Al-Njoom
Position 15 and 5 points, and the table gets read bottom-up in this part of town. The calendar has stopped being a schedule and started being a countdown.
Match10 Oct 2026
The wait goes on for Al-Njoom
7 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
Sandino Sosa 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-Njoom this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Player ratings12 Oct 2026
Yan runs at them all day
Successful dribbles: 20. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad12 Oct 2026
Words at Al-Njoom training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ukeme Williams 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
“I have given this everything, but my family is not here and neither am I, not really.” A footballer can be coached out of bad form. Nobody has ever been coached out of this, and Al-Njoom know it.
Match10 Oct 2026
Beaten 0‑1, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad5 Oct 2026
Alireza Sadipour damages knee ligaments — 71 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 71 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Squad5 Oct 2026
There were 7 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.
Match3 Oct 2026
The wait goes on for Al-Njoom
6 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.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Yan 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.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Ukeme Williams 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.
Boardroom5 Oct 2026
974% of the income goes out in wages at Al-Njoom
Every club in football pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time somebody has tried it.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad28 Sep 2026
Alireza Sadipour damages knee ligaments — 78 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 78 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Player ratings28 Sep 2026
Age has not caught Chuck yet — 7.81
At 38 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 7.81 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Match26 Sep 2026
5 matches without a win for Al-Njoom
The run now stands at 5, and the questions being asked around Al-Njoom are no longer polite ones.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Yan 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-Njoom this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Words at Al-Njoom training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Chuck 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.
Squad28 Sep 2026
The manager makes an example of Prince Ibara
“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.
Match26 Sep 2026
It needed Chuck to find the net to bring anything home at all: 1‑1 against Al-Shoulla, and half the dressing room will call it a point won.
Player ratings28 Sep 2026
Nobody could get near Yan
Successful dribbles: 14. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Player ratings28 Sep 2026
12 attempts, none of them in. He got into the right places all afternoon, which is the hard part, and did the easy part badly — and that is the version of a bad day a manager can live with.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad21 Sep 2026
Alireza Sadipour damages knee ligaments — 85 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 85 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Market21 Sep 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-Njoom, and it is not being withdrawn.
Player ratings21 Sep 2026
Yan, 35, rolls back the years — 8.55
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.55 at 35, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Match19 Sep 2026
4 matches without a win for Al-Njoom
The run now stands at 4, and the questions being asked around Al-Njoom are no longer polite ones.
Match19 Sep 2026
A bad afternoon for Al-Njoom against Ohod
1‑3 to Ohod, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Squad21 Sep 2026
Ukeme Williams 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.
Squad21 Sep 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-Njoom this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad21 Sep 2026
An error at the back is a moment; an error in goal is a goal. Rafael Broetto knows it, the crowd knew it instantly, and there was nobody behind him to make it anything else.
Player ratings21 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 14. 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
Squad17 Aug 2026
Alireza Sadipour damages knee ligaments — 122 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 122 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Squad17 Aug 2026
There were 8 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.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Yan 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-Njoom this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Boardroom17 Aug 2026
Graduation day at Al-Njoom
4 boys move up, and somewhere in the building the people who coached them at twelve are quietly having the best morning of their working year. Nothing about this shows up in a result and it is why the academy exists.
Market17 Aug 2026
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Sami Al-Juhani has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.
Market17 Aug 2026
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Nasser Al-Ahmadi has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.
Market17 Aug 2026
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Faisal Al-Qahtani is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Market17 Aug 2026
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Ibrahim Al-Otaibi is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Squad17 Aug 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Prince Ibara, and the manager let it.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market10 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-Njoom, and it is not being withdrawn.
Market10 Aug 2026
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Squad10 Aug 2026
A move Tiago Schiulaz would have made for nothing
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Tiago Schiulaz is living that version at Al-Njoom, and it tends to show in the first month.
Squad10 Aug 2026
Yan 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-Njoom this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad10 Aug 2026
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Alireza Sadipour and Al-Njoom agree another 3 years.
Squad10 Aug 2026
Words at Al-Njoom training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ukeme Williams 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.