Marked for Eid Al-Muwallad
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad28 Sep 2026
6 saves, and a scoreline the ten men in front of him had no right to. Goalkeepers only get noticed on the bad days; this was one of the other ones.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Theo Bongonda and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Player ratings28 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 17. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad28 Sep 2026
A row about effort at Al-Faisaly
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Yaseen Barnawi was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout28 Sep 2026
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Sultan Al-Dawsari after the 0‑0 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
Squad28 Sep 2026
One weekend, judged against everybody else's. Jean Charles Ahoua has come out on top of it, and for most footballers a weekly award is the only silverware a career ever produces.
Match26 Sep 2026
Ninety minutes, two goalkeepers with clean gloves, and not one finish worth keeping. Al-Nassr will be the happier side with the point.
Market28 Sep 2026
The name of Jaime Seoane keeps appearing in other people's back pages. Al-Faisaly say nothing, which says plenty.
The dugout28 Sep 2026
Jaber Issa gets picked when it counts
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Jaber Issa is on it.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad31 Aug 2026
The match ball belongs to Luvannor, whose 3 goals turned a difficult afternoon into a procession.
Player ratings31 Aug 2026
Age has not caught Luvannor yet — 9.47
At 36 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 9.47 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Player ratings31 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 28. 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.
Market31 Aug 2026
Jaber Issa 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-Faisaly can pretend not to have heard.
Match29 Aug 2026
Hajer made Al-Faisaly work for it, but the scoreboard read 5‑3 at the end and the table does not ask how.
Match29 Aug 2026
Luvannor among the goals in a wild afternoon
8 goals in one match, Luvannor on the scoresheet, and a scoreline that will look like a misprint. Neutrals could not have asked more of Al-Faisaly and Hajer.
Transfer targets31 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.
The dugout31 Aug 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Fernando Pacheco, and the manager let it.
Player ratings31 Aug 2026
Eid Al-Muwallad was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.02. 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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market24 Aug 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.
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
Jaime Seoane pops up at the right end — 7.76
7.76, 1 on the scoresheet, and the specific comedy of a back-four player celebrating like somebody who does this every week. He does not, and that is exactly why the ground reacted the way it did.
Market24 Aug 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-Faisaly can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
Transfer targets24 Aug 2026
Al-Faisaly had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Al Shaab, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
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-Faisaly this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
Wilfried Eza has a hand in both — 7.96
One scored and one made, which is a different afternoon from scoring twice and an easier one to overlook. Marked 7.96, and involved in 2 of his side's goals.
Match22 Aug 2026
2‑3 to Al-Fateh, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Squad24 Aug 2026
A row about effort at Al-Faisaly
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Abdoulaye Seck was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad24 Aug 2026
100 games in these colours. Service of that kind gets rarer every season, and the crowd knows it.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 31. 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.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 7 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Theo Bongonda 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.
Market17 Aug 2026
Najran pay $150.0K, and the deal is done. The number reads well on a balance sheet; whether it reads well on the pitch is next season's question.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Abdoulaye Seck 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 dugout17 Aug 2026
The manager makes an example of Eid Al-Muwallad
“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.
Match15 Aug 2026
A goal on 89 minutes turned three points into one and a good afternoon into an argument about game management that will run until Saturday.
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
Luvannor stands above it all
Some games turn on a moment; this one turned on a man. 7.74 on the card, and the Al-Faisaly support went home talking about one name.
Match15 Aug 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.