Marked for Abdulkarim Sultan
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match1 Mar 2027
Position 16 and 12 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.
The terraces1 Mar 2027
The mood at Al-Saudi Al-Watani has turned into something else
Supporters who sing when it goes badly are supporters. Supporters who gather afterwards are a problem, and everybody inside the building knows which of the two this now is.
Player ratings1 Mar 2027
No sign of nerves from Khaled Al-Rammah at 21 — 9.13
The hardest thing about being 21 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Khaled Al-Rammah did not need any: 9.13, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Boardroom1 Mar 2027
Nobody upstairs has said anything, which is the loudest thing they could do. Results buy silence in this game; the account at Al-Saudi Al-Watani is running low.
Squad1 Mar 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.
Squad1 Mar 2027
Marclei 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.
Squad1 Mar 2027
At 21, Khaled Al-Rammah is already the best thing here
An average of 7.04 in a first team he is several years too young for. Al-Saudi Al-Watani have something, and by now the whole division has noticed.
Player ratings1 Mar 2027
22 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.
Squad1 Mar 2027
Words at Al-Saudi Al-Watani training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Abdullah Al-Zoari 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.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad1 Mar 2027
A knee injury of the worst kind for Samuel Giménez
125 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Al-Ta'ee lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Market1 Mar 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.
Match27 Feb 2027
8 matches without a win for Al-Ta'ee
The run now stands at 8, and the questions being asked around Al-Ta'ee are no longer polite ones.
Squad1 Mar 2027
“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-Ta'ee know it.
Squad1 Mar 2027
Luis Haquín 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-Ta'ee this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad1 Mar 2027
Luis Alberto Lozoya 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.
Match27 Feb 2027
Beaten 0‑1, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Loan watch1 Mar 2027
“I did not go to Al-Diriyah to sit and watch. I want to come back to Al-Ta'ee and fight for my place.” 2 appearances in 6 matches say the rest.
Market1 Mar 2027
Ammar Al-Ammar returns from a loan that gave him nothing
1 appearances and 0 goals is not a season, it is a year somebody has lost. Whether that is his fault, the borrowing club's or the people who arranged it is the argument the next few weeks will have.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match20 Feb 2027
29 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Al-Saudi Al-Watani has to find a result from somewhere.
Squad22 Feb 2027
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Al-Saudi Al-Watani will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Market22 Feb 2027
“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-Saudi Al-Watani, and it is not being withdrawn.
Player ratings22 Feb 2027
Khaled Al-Rammah, 21, plays like he has been here for years — 8.11
A mark of 8.11 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.
Market22 Feb 2027
Only the photograph left for Rayan Siddiq
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Rayan Siddiq will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Al-Saudi Al-Watani the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Boardroom22 Feb 2027
There is no worse way to lose a footballer. Rayan Siddiq has pre-agreed a move away, which means every appearance between now and June is made by a man the club can no longer sell, and somebody upstairs will be asked why the contract was allowed to get here.
Squad22 Feb 2027
Faisal Al-Subiani 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.
Player ratings22 Feb 2027
Abdulkarim Sultan was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.90. 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 terraces22 Feb 2027
At 21 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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad15 Feb 2027
A knee injury of the worst kind for Samuel Giménez
139 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Al-Ta'ee lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Match13 Feb 2027
6 matches without a win for Al-Ta'ee
The run now stands at 6, and the questions being asked around Al-Ta'ee are no longer polite ones.
Squad15 Feb 2027
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Al-Ta'ee may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Squad15 Feb 2027
A move César Ayón 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. César Ayón is living that version at Al-Ta'ee, and it tends to show in the first month.
Squad15 Feb 2027
Luis Haquín 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-Ta'ee this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Player ratings15 Feb 2027
Törles Knöll was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.09. 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.
Player ratings15 Feb 2027
There was one mistake and it ended in the net. Defenders are judged on the worst thing they did rather than on the eighty-nine minutes either side of it, which is unfair and is also the job.
Match13 Feb 2027
A 1‑1 draw with Al-Shoulla leaves the dressing room somewhere between relief and regret.
Player ratings15 Feb 2027
5.47. Every footballer has these and most of them happen away from a full ground; his did not, and he will be aware of that all week.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Match9 Jan 2027
Beaten 0‑3 by Al-Fayha, and beaten everywhere it matters. The inquest starts on the training pitch on Monday morning.
Market11 Jan 2027
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Al-Ta'ee can pretend not to have heard.
Squad11 Jan 2027
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 8 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Squad11 Jan 2027
Luis Haquín 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.
Market11 Jan 2027
Al-Ettifaq are about to pick up the phone
A conversation is coming this week. Al-Ta'ee will put a number on him, and from there it stops being football and becomes arithmetic.
Squad11 Jan 2027
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Abdullah Aman commits to Al-Ta'ee for another 3 years.
Squad11 Jan 2027
Eliandro 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.
Boardroom11 Jan 2027
Nobody left the Al-Ta'ee 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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match19 Dec 2026
20 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Al-Saudi Al-Watani has to find a result from somewhere.
Squad21 Dec 2026
A knee injury of the worst kind for Abdullah Al-Zoari
32 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Al-Saudi Al-Watani lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Squad21 Dec 2026
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Al-Saudi Al-Watani will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Match19 Dec 2026
8 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Al-Saudi Al-Watani can tell you which week it ends in.
Squad21 Dec 2026
“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.
Squad21 Dec 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-Saudi Al-Watani this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The terraces21 Dec 2026
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Faisal Al-Subiani 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.
Player ratings21 Dec 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.
Player ratings21 Dec 2026
Some games turn on a moment; this one turned on a man. 7.99 on the card, and the Al-Saudi Al-Watani support went home talking about one name.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market14 Dec 2026
“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.
Match12 Dec 2026
The wait goes on for Al-Ta'ee
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.
Squad14 Dec 2026
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Al-Ta'ee have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Squad14 Dec 2026
Hassan Al-Amri 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.
Player ratings14 Dec 2026
Successful dribbles: 19. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad14 Dec 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Reinaldo Ocampo, and the manager let it.
Match12 Dec 2026
0‑1 to Al-Mojzel, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Squad14 Dec 2026
Yasir Al-Sinan 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 terraces14 Dec 2026
Everybody has an opinion about Federico Losas
He is the name in every column and on every phone-in, which is a heavy thing to carry at any age. Some footballers thrive on it; others are quietly finished by it.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match28 Nov 2026
The run now stands at 17, and the questions being asked around Al-Saudi Al-Watani are no longer polite ones.
Squad30 Nov 2026
A knee injury of the worst kind for Abdullah Al-Zoari
53 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Al-Saudi Al-Watani lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Squad30 Nov 2026
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Al-Saudi Al-Watani will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Market30 Nov 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-Saudi Al-Watani, and it is not being withdrawn.
Match28 Nov 2026
5 games without scoring. Strikers stop looking up, midfielders take the extra touch, and every shot that clears the bar is followed by a groan that has been building since the last goal.
Squad30 Nov 2026
Marclei 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-Saudi Al-Watani this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad30 Nov 2026
Words at Al-Saudi Al-Watani training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Faisal Al-Subiani 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 ratings30 Nov 2026
Ali Kamali runs at them all day
Successful dribbles: 19. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Boardroom30 Nov 2026
129% of the income goes out in wages at Al-Saudi Al-Watani
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
Steady
Match11 Nov 2026
Al-Ta'ee bow out of the cup
Al-Hilal go through and Al-Ta'ee go home, 1‑1 the scoreline that did it. The dressing room will call the league the priority now, because that is what dressing rooms say.
Market16 Nov 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-Ta'ee, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad16 Nov 2026
Federico Losas decides it from twelve yards
1 kept out in the shoot-out, and a stadium that will still be describing them in twenty years. A goalkeeper only needs one of these to be remembered forever.
Squad16 Nov 2026
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Al-Ta'ee may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Squad16 Nov 2026
Luis Haquín 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.
Squad16 Nov 2026
Eliandro 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.
Player ratings16 Nov 2026
Successful dribbles: 19. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Match14 Nov 2026
Beaten 0‑1, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Player ratings16 Nov 2026
Eliandro misses from twelve yards
It was his to settle and he did not settle it. A long walk back to the halfway line, and a considerably longer week.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad26 Oct 2026
A knee injury of the worst kind for Abdullah Al-Zoari
88 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Al-Saudi Al-Watani lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Match24 Oct 2026
12 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Al-Saudi Al-Watani has to find a result from somewhere.
Squad26 Oct 2026
“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market19 Oct 2026
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Al-Ta'ee can pretend not to have heard.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Hassan Al-Amri 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.
Player ratings19 Oct 2026
Successful dribbles: 21. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Player ratings19 Oct 2026
Defensive actions: 21. He was first to everything and second to nothing, and the goalkeeper had an easy day because of it.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Eliandro 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.
Squad19 Oct 2026
The manager makes an example of Derlis Riveros
“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.
Match17 Oct 2026
It finished 1‑0, and it was Törles Knöll’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Al-Ta'ee.
Player ratings19 Oct 2026
Headers, blocks, tackles, interceptions — 19 of them, and not one goal behind him. The sort of performance that never makes a highlight reel and wins football matches.
Player ratings19 Oct 2026
Marked 8.24 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad28 Sep 2026
A knee injury of the worst kind for Abdullah Al-Zoari
116 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Al-Saudi Al-Watani lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Match26 Sep 2026
The run now stands at 8, and the questions being asked around Al-Saudi Al-Watani are no longer polite ones.
Squad28 Sep 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.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Faisal Al-Subiani 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.
Squad28 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-Saudi Al-Watani this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Player ratings28 Sep 2026
Defensive actions: 18. He was first to everything and second to nothing, and the goalkeeper had an easy day because of it.
Player ratings28 Sep 2026
17 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.
Player ratings28 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 12. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Match26 Sep 2026
Ninety minutes, no goals, and the argument started before the car park emptied: a point gained, or two thrown away against Al-Hazem? Both sides of it will still be going on Thursday.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad21 Sep 2026
Luis Haquín 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.
Match19 Sep 2026
Hard to beat is not the same as winning, but 6 matches without defeat is a foundation Al-Ta'ee did not have in the autumn.
Player ratings21 Sep 2026
Marked 8.14 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
Squad21 Sep 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Fahad Al-Hamad, and the manager let it.
Player ratings21 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 16. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad21 Sep 2026
A defender's mistake gets tidied up by somebody else; a goalkeeper's ends up in the net. He knew before the ball crossed the line, and so did everybody in the ground.
Squad21 Sep 2026
Nobody will confirm this and nothing else explains the last month of selections. A costly error buys a player a period of being second choice that is always longer than the error was.
Match19 Sep 2026
It finished 1‑1, and it somehow always looked like it would. One of those afternoons where the table moves less than the tempers.
Market21 Sep 2026
Al-Ta'ee have let the market know Yasir Al-Sinan can be had. No price in the advert, but everyone in the trade knows roughly what it says.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad24 Aug 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.
Market24 Aug 2026
Mutaz Gharawi hands in a written request
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Al-Saudi Al-Watani can pretend not to have heard.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Marclei 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-Saudi Al-Watani this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Abdullah Al-Zoari 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.
Match22 Aug 2026
0‑1 to Al-Ettifaq, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Squad24 Aug 2026
“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.
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
Nobody could get near Marclei
Successful dribbles: 15. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Market24 Aug 2026
The list is a quiet document with a loud meaning. Abdullah Al-Shehri may talk to anybody who asks, and everybody at the club understands what that means.
Market24 Aug 2026
Marclei arrives at 37 with nothing left to prove and plenty left to pass on. Legs are a young man's currency; knowing where to stand never ages.
From our football correspondent
Steady
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
Luis Haquín 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-Ta'ee this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Market10 Aug 2026
The interest is real enough to have reached print. Al-Ta'ee have said nothing, which in a transfer window is its own kind of answer.
Squad10 Aug 2026
Words at Al-Ta'ee training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Amer Khalil 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.
Squad10 Aug 2026
This league is too small for Samuel Giménez
He is doing things on a Saturday afternoon that nobody around him can answer, which is flattering for about one season and a problem after that. Al-Ta'ee will not keep him by pretending otherwise.
Market10 Aug 2026
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Al-Ta'ee, another week without a signature from Dino Halilović.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad3 Aug 2026
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Luis Haquín commits to Al-Ta'ee for another 3 years.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Luis Haquín 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.
Market3 Aug 2026
The name of Abdulkarim Sultan has come up in conversations Al-Ta'ee were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Dino Halilović 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.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Eliandro has outgrown this division
There is a level at which a footballer stops being tested and starts being contained, and he reached it some time ago. Al-Ta'ee know it, and so does everybody who watches him.
Market3 Aug 2026
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Al-Ta'ee, another week without a signature from Hassan Al-Amri.