Marked for Mohammed Suhluli
From our football correspondent
Steady
Player ratings7 Dec 2026
Nobody could get near Trezeguet
Successful dribbles: 28. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
The dugout7 Dec 2026
Yazan Jari: that is not what I was promised
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Al-Riyadh have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Squad7 Dec 2026
Rodrigo Abascal and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad7 Dec 2026
Words at Al-Riyadh training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Yoann Barbet 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.
Loan watch7 Dec 2026
12 appearances away from home and 15 goals to show for them. Every one of them makes next summer's conversation a little more expensive.
Player ratings7 Dec 2026
Marked 8.16 — 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.
Squad7 Dec 2026
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Mohammed Suhluli and Al-Riyadh agree another 4 years.
Match5 Dec 2026
A goal on 92 minutes turned three points into one and a good afternoon into an argument about game management that will run until Saturday.
Squad7 Dec 2026
Four or five weekends of consistency, measured against everybody else in the division. A quieter compliment than an award and a more reliable one.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
The dugout2 Nov 2026
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Al-Riyadh have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Match31 Oct 2026
Hard to beat is not the same as winning, but 8 matches without defeat is a foundation Al-Riyadh did not have in the autumn.
Squad2 Nov 2026
Hamad Al-Khorayef 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 ratings2 Nov 2026
Trezeguet was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.13. 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.
Squad2 Nov 2026
100 times in these colours, in all weathers and under four or five different managers. That kind of service is quietly disappearing from the game.
Match31 Oct 2026
Level with 91 minutes on the clock, after an afternoon Al-Riyadh had all but put away. Al-Hazem will call it a point earned; the home dressing room will call it two given away, and both of them are right.
Squad2 Nov 2026
Trezeguet named in the team of the month
A month is long enough that nobody gets in by accident. Trezeguet is in the division's best eleven for it, which is a quieter compliment than an award and a more reliable one.
The dugout2 Nov 2026
“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.
Match31 Oct 2026
It needed Trezeguet to find the net to bring anything home at all: 1‑1 against Al-Hazem, and half the dressing room will call it a point won.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market7 Sep 2026
Al-Riyadh say no — this time
The offer from Al-Ta'ee for Mohammed Suhluli 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 nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Al-Riyadh can pretend not to have heard.
Boardroom7 Sep 2026
Al-Riyadh close the window on a squad of their own making
20 in and 11 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
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Al-Qadisiyah keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Squad7 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-Riyadh this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad7 Sep 2026
He is not being dropped. There is simply nowhere in the formation Al-Riyadh are playing to put a man who does what he does, which is a harder thing to be told than any team sheet.
Squad7 Sep 2026
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Hassan Al-Dosari and Al-Riyadh agree another 4 years.
Squad7 Sep 2026
A place in the month's best eleven for Sulaiman Hazazi
Four or five weekends of consistency, judged against everybody in the division doing his job. Sulaiman Hazazi has come out of that comparison in the side, and Al-Riyadh have had the benefit of every one of those afternoons.
The dugout7 Sep 2026
“There are things I liked and things we will be doing on Tuesday until they are right.” 0‑0, and a manager who had already decided what Tuesday looked like.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market31 Aug 2026
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Al-Riyadh have lost him in all but the paperwork.
Match29 Aug 2026
4‑0, and the margin flattered nobody — it could have carried another goal or two without complaint. Afternoons like this are why people keep coming.
Player ratings31 Aug 2026
Tozé scores twice — 8.25
Two goals and a mark of 8.25 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Market31 Aug 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-Riyadh can pretend not to have heard.
Market31 Aug 2026
CR Belouizdad pay $3.0M, 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.
Transfer targets31 Aug 2026
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Al-Riyadh have done the hard part with Al-Taawoun, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Squad31 Aug 2026
Mamadou Sylla and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Market31 Aug 2026
Business is business: Jan Petek goes
Al-Fateh paid $190.0K and Al-Riyadh took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
Transfer targets31 Aug 2026
Al-Riyadh asked and Al-Qadisiyah said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market3 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.
Squad3 Aug 2026
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Mamadou Sylla and Al-Riyadh agree another 2 years.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Words exchanged at Al-Riyadh
Mamadou Sylla 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.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Words at Al-Riyadh training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Yoann Barbet 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.
Market3 Aug 2026
“There is a gap, and pretending there is not helps nobody.” Neither side has moved, and the calendar is working for exactly one of them.
Market3 Aug 2026
The clock runs on Mamadou Sylla's contract
24 months left and silence from upstairs — no offer, no talks, nothing for his people to answer. Clubs that let a calendar do their negotiating usually end up negotiating with the calendar.
Transfer targets3 Aug 2026
A loan enquiry to Al-Orobah: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Al-Riyadh are still strangers to each other
6 new signings in one window. Every one may be an upgrade and the side can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild the verdicts never mention.
Market3 Aug 2026
“They were honest with me, and I would rather know.” Abdullah Hassoun has been informed he is not in the manager's thinking at Al-Riyadh.
In brief
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The dugout
Trezeguet knocks on the manager’s door
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The terraces
Supporters make their feelings known about Leandro Antunes