Marked for Serafim
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad4 Jan 2027
Amjad Al-Sayed breaks a bone — 125 days out
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 125 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Market4 Jan 2027
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Market4 Jan 2027
The interest is real enough to have reached print. Al Dhafra have said nothing, which in a transfer window is its own kind of answer.
Transfer targets4 Jan 2027
The paperwork begins on Yousif Ali
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Al Dhafra have done the hard part with Al Wasl, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Match2 Jan 2027
The wait goes on for Al Dhafra
4 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.
Squad4 Jan 2027
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 Dhafra this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad4 Jan 2027
100 games in this shirt, through managers and relegations and everything else. Service like it is disappearing from the game and the crowd knows what it is watching.
The dugout4 Jan 2027
No hiding place for Serafim
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Serafim, and the manager let it.
Match2 Jan 2027
Al Dhafra caught on 90 minutes
The board was up, the win was priced in, and then Al Shabab scored. There is no worse minute to concede in and the ground emptied in the silence that follows one.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad28 Dec 2026
Amjad Al-Sayed breaks a bone — 134 days out
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 134 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Match26 Dec 2026
Chastening afternoon for Al Dhafra
A 0‑3 beating by Al Jazira was the sort of result that empties a stadium long before the final whistle.
Squad28 Dec 2026
Ibrahim Bayesh and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Match26 Dec 2026
The goals have deserted Al Dhafra
3 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Al Dhafra can tell you which week it ends in.
Squad28 Dec 2026
A row about effort at Al Dhafra
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Rostand Djooh was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout28 Dec 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.
Boardroom28 Dec 2026
Nobody left the Al Dhafra 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 dugout28 Dec 2026
The manager’s verdict
“That is on me. I pick the team and I picked wrong.” Managers say that when they mean it and when they need to be seen to, and after 0‑3 Salem Juma left the room before anybody could ask which.
The dugout28 Dec 2026
Serafim 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 Dhafra, and both men came out saying it was fine.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Match10 Oct 2026
4‑1, and the margin flattered nobody — it could have carried another goal or two without complaint. Afternoons like this are why people keep coming.
Match7 Oct 2026
Al Dhafra bow out of the cup
Sharjah go through and Al Dhafra go home, 0‑0 the scoreline that did it. The dressing room will call the league the priority now, because that is what dressing rooms say.
Squad12 Oct 2026
3 goals in one afternoon from one man. The other players were also present, a witness confirmed.
Player ratings12 Oct 2026
Successful dribbles: 25. 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
Jobson and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
The dugout12 Oct 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Mohamed El Khaloui, and the manager let it.
Market12 Oct 2026
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Bandar Al Kamali 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.
Market12 Oct 2026
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Amer Al Kamali 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.
Player ratings12 Oct 2026
A masterclass from Sory Kaba
Marked 8.59 — 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.
In brief
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Match
Al Dhafra settle it inside twenty minutes
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Player ratings
Ninety minutes of Ibrahim Bayesh at his very best
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Squad
Words at Al Dhafra training over how hard people work
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad28 Sep 2026
11 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.
Match26 Sep 2026
Beaten 0‑4 by Al Jazira, and beaten everywhere it matters. The inquest starts on the training pitch on Monday morning.
Match26 Sep 2026
No end in sight to Al Dhafra's wait for a win
4 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Al Dhafra has to find a result from somewhere.
Squad28 Sep 2026
The step up is real for Arielson
At 22 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Jobson 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.
The dugout28 Sep 2026
Serafim gets it from the manager
“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.
Boardroom28 Sep 2026
The manager kept them in and said what needed saying. A response is expected on Saturday, and if it does not come the questions move upstairs.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Too much change too quickly at Al Dhafra
7 signings in three months. Every one of them may be an upgrade and the team can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild that never appears in the transfer-window verdicts.
The dugout28 Sep 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 0‑4 defeat, delivered by Salem Juma to a room that had heard them before.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market7 Sep 2026
“I listened, I thought about it, and I am staying. That is the whole story.” The clubs had agreed a fee. Abderahmane Soussi had not agreed to go, which turned out to be the part that mattered.
Market7 Sep 2026
Al Dhafra say no — this time
The offer from Sharjah for Serafim was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
Market7 Sep 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.
Boardroom7 Sep 2026
Al Dhafra close the window on a squad of their own making
12 in and 5 out, and no more changes for months. The manager has what he has, the supporters have their opinion of it, and the table will have the last word.
Transfer targets7 Sep 2026
Dibba wanted more than $260.0K and the board would not go there. Walked away, for now, which in a transfer window means until somebody blinks.
Squad7 Sep 2026
A move Mohamed Al-Wafi 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. Mohamed Al-Wafi is living that version at Al Dhafra, and it tends to show in the first month.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Rostand Djooh 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.
The dugout7 Sep 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Ibrahim Bayesh, and the manager let it.
Player ratings7 Sep 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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market24 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 Dhafra, and it is not being withdrawn.
Market24 Aug 2026
Add another name to the list: Malavan have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Abderahmane Soussi. The answer from Al Dhafra has not changed — yet.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Words exchanged at Al Dhafra
Jobson 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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
The terraces17 Aug 2026
Al Dhafra sell a favourite for $3.7M
The accountants will call it good business and they will be right, which is not the point anybody outside the boardroom is making. Karim El Berkaoui was one of the reasons people came, and $3.7M does not replace that by itself.
Market17 Aug 2026
Karim El Berkaoui has left for Najran in a $3.7M deal. The accountants are pleased; the supporters are less certain.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Jobson and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Transfer targets17 Aug 2026
Al Dhafra asked and AZ said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Market17 Aug 2026
“We are a long way apart, and pretending otherwise helps nobody.” Neither side is close, and the calendar is not on the club's side.
Transfer targets17 Aug 2026
A loan move for Simon Kalambayi is in the works
Al Dhafra have made the call to Cardiff City. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Yousef Al-Mansoοri 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
Rostand Djooh 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 Rostand Djooh trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Serafim has seen what the next man earns
Numbers do not stay secret in a dressing room and never have. He is not asking for more than he is worth; he is asking why somebody beside him is worth more, and at Al Dhafra that is a harder question to answer.