Marked for Adryelson
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market1 Feb 2027
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Player ratings1 Feb 2027
A brace, and Serginho takes the afternoon — 8.46
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Serginho provided it, and the 8.46 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Boardroom1 Feb 2027
Deadline passes with 1 signed and 7 gone
That is the business done at Al Wasl until the window opens again. Whether it was enough will be answered on Saturdays rather than in a column, and the first Saturday is close.
Market1 Feb 2027
Al Ain paid $1.6M and Al Wasl took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
Squad1 Feb 2027
Words exchanged at Al Wasl
Renato Tapia 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.
Squad1 Feb 2027
Defences have started doubling up on Serginho
9 goals and a season average of 7.36 will do that. The space he used to find has gone; he keeps scoring anyway, which is the mark of the real thing.
Match30 Jan 2027
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Serginho. 2‑0 against Al Nasr, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Squad1 Feb 2027
A row about effort at Al Wasl
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Adryelson was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Player ratings1 Feb 2027
Successful dribbles: 16. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
Match16 Dec 2026
Cup progress for Al Wasl
A 1‑0 win over Al Wahda, a place in the next round, and the quiet arithmetic every supporter does on the walk home: how many more until a final?
Player ratings21 Dec 2026
Salem Al-Azizi, 33, rolls back the years — 7.83
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 7.83 at 33, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Squad21 Dec 2026
Renato Tapia 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 Wasl this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match19 Dec 2026
Al Shabab made Al Wasl work for it, but the scoreboard read 2‑1 at the end and the table does not ask how.
Squad21 Dec 2026
A row about effort at Al Wasl
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Adryelson was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Player ratings21 Dec 2026
One of those days for Serginho
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.33, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Player ratings21 Dec 2026
A performance of 8.12 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Player ratings21 Dec 2026
Renato Júnior was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.12. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
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.” Faisal Hussain on a 2‑1 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Player ratings30 Nov 2026
Successful dribbles: 30. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
Squad30 Nov 2026
Renato Tapia 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.
Match28 Nov 2026
A bad afternoon for Al Wasl against Baniyas
0‑1 to Baniyas, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Squad30 Nov 2026
Words at Al Wasl training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Adryelson 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.
Boardroom30 Nov 2026
123% of the income goes out in wages at Al Wasl
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.
Match30 Nov 2026
The half-term report on Al Wasl
Position 2, 28 points, and every result so far reduced to one line. The second half of the season starts with the same squad and a different set of expectations.
The dugout30 Nov 2026
A promise honoured at Al Wasl
Something was said to Renato Tapia and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
The dugout30 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 0‑1 defeat, delivered by Faisal Hussain to a room that had heard them before.
The dugout30 Nov 2026
Dinko Horkaš knocks on the manager’s door
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Dinko Horkaš trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Match17 Oct 2026
Al Wasl win it in stoppage time
The board had gone up, the arguing had started, and then the ball was in the net in the 91th minute. Al Ain will replay every second of the added time for a week.
Player ratings19 Oct 2026
Nobody could get near Serginho
Successful dribbles: 31. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Match17 Oct 2026
Al Wasl cannot stop winning
6 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.
Squad19 Oct 2026
A falling-out at Al Wasl
Renato Tapia and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad19 Oct 2026
At 27 the improving is meant to be over, and it is not: 3 points better than a year ago. It happens to the ones who take the boring parts seriously.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Juan Campos is a better footballer than he was
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 19 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.
The terraces19 Oct 2026
Al Wasl supporters have found a favourite in Juan Campos
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 19-year-old it feels ownership of. Juan Campos has it now, and everything he does for the rest of his time here will be measured against the goodwill he was handed for free.
Match17 Oct 2026
Three points for Al Wasl, 1‑0 the final word against Al Ain in a contest settled by the finer margins.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Adryelson 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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad17 Aug 2026
A fracture rules Malek Janeer out for 49 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Al Wasl will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Transfer targets17 Aug 2026
No thanks: Paolo Rizzi rejects the move
Al Wasl had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Mattersburg, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
Market17 Aug 2026
The deal that would have taken Malek Janeer to Al Ahli has collapsed at the last stage, and he reports back to Al Wasl with a summer to forget and a season still to play. Nobody is saying which side walked away.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Pedro Malheiro 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.
Transfer targets17 Aug 2026
The approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Adryelson 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.
Transfer targets17 Aug 2026
Esteghlal have been asked whether they would lend him. Loans are agreed quickly or not at all, and this one will be one or the other by the weekend.
Market17 Aug 2026
Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Serginho’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.
Market17 Aug 2026
Al Wasl have made Lancine Bamba available for transfer. A career at this club is over in all but paperwork.