Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Al-Ettifaq will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Al-Batin waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Al-Ettifaq is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Add another name to the list: Slovan Bratislava have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Ondrej Duda. The answer from Al-Ettifaq has not changed — yet.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Mubarak Al-Buainain is 21, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Georginio Wijnaldum 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Rayane Messi was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“I watch every Al-Ettifaq game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Al-Ittihad runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Al-Ettifaq will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
“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 The request is on a desk at Al-Ettifaq, and it is not being withdrawn.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Al-Ettifaq people have started saying his name in the past tense.
The offer from Najran for Ziyad Al-Ghamdi 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.
The name of Awad Dahal has come up in conversations Al-Ettifaq were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Rayane Messi was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“I respect the manager and I am not going to sit here and pretend I am happy.” It is the most common sentence in football and it has never once been the end of a story.
“I know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” Stade Brestois had the fee agreed and the shirt ready; they did not have the player, and now they will not.
Orkun Kökçü 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.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Mohamed Soumah is 21, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
SC Aubagne Air Bel paid $210.0K and RC Strasbourg took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Idrissa Sabaly and RC Strasbourg agree another 4 years.
Every shape has positions in it and this one does not have his. RC Strasbourg will either change the shape, change his job, or change his club, and he is waiting to hear which.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
Mathematically certain, and nobody in this town is going to bed early. Whatever else happened this season, it finishes a division above where it started.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Al-Ettifaq will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
“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-Ettifaq can pretend not to have heard.
Everything was agreed until it was not, and Abdulbasit Hawsawi reports back to Al-Ettifaq with a summer to forget. Neither club is saying who walked away from the table.
“I want to win things, and I would like to do it here.” Nothing has been demanded and nothing has been threatened — but a boardroom at Al-Ettifaq hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
Georginio Wijnaldum 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Rayane Messi was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at RC Strasbourg is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Orkun Kökçü was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Michel Ndary Adopo 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.
Nobody at RC Strasbourg will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
“I have done everything asked of me in training and it has not changed a thing on a Saturday.” The most familiar complaint in football, and one RC Strasbourg will have to answer with minutes or with a transfer.
Georginio Wijnaldum 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.
Squad10 May 2027
Words at Al-Ettifaq training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mohammed Al-Essa 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.
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 Rayane Messi is on it.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Saud Al-Ruwaili trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
What was a back-page story is now a matter for the terraces, and the terraces do not do nuance. Al-Ettifaq would like it dealt with before it becomes the only question anybody asks.
Georginio Wijnaldum 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.
“I am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at Al-Ettifaq, and 5 appearances in 12 say he has earned the hearing.
8 goals in 28 games at Al-Shoulla — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Al-Ettifaq updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
“I respect the manager and I am not going to sit here and pretend I am happy.” It is the most common sentence in football and it has never once been the end of a story.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at RC Strasbourg is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
At 23 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.
Orkun Kökçü 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.
“Some mornings you wake up and you are still a long way from everything you know.” It is not the football and it never was; RC Strasbourg are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Karl-Johan Johnsson, and the manager let it.
Squad29 Mar 2027
The division's best last weekend was a RC Strasbourg man
It is a small honour and it is not nothing: somebody watched every match in the division and decided that Orkun Kökçü was the best thing in any of them.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. RC Strasbourg know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Nobody at RC Strasbourg will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
36 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Al-Ettifaq lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
9 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.
14 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
The phone has started ringing about Moussa Dembélé again, and this time the name on the line is IFK Norrkoping. Al-Ettifaq are listening politely and promising nothing.
“Some mornings you wake up and you are still a long way from everything you know.” It is not the football and it never was; Al-Ettifaq are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Abdulbasit Hindi 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.
At 19 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.
57 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Al-Ettifaq lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
The offer from Krasnodar for Moussa Dembélé 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.
Two goals and a mark of 9.02 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
6 wins in a row changes how opponents warm up: quieter, more glances across. Runs end, everybody knows that — but nobody in this dressing room is planning for it.
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-Ettifaq this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The words a physio says slowly. 64 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
There were 85 minutes on the clock and Damac had all but banked the point. Football rarely reads the room, and Al-Ettifaq did not stop to explain themselves.
Two goals and a mark of 8.42 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
5 wins in a row changes how opponents warm up: quieter, more glances across. Runs end, everybody knows that — but nobody in this dressing room is planning for it.
12 without defeat on their own grass. The pitch has not changed; the crowd has — louder earlier, and quicker to sense when the opposition would rather be somewhere else.
Georginio Wijnaldum 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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Georginio Wijnaldum. 2‑1 against Damac, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
He is 19 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.
94 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Al-Ettifaq lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
The bid was some way short and Al-Ettifaq did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Player ratings18 Jan 2027
Rayane Messi, 19, plays like he has been here for years — 8.09
A mark of 8.09 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 19-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Al-Ettifaq have done the hard part with Al-Ahli, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Mubarak Al-Buainain and Al-Ettifaq agree another 3 years.
The words a physio says slowly. 102 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
11 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.
The offer from Al-Ra'ed for Khalid Al-Ghannam 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.
Two goals and a mark of 8.93 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
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 deal with Al-Riyadh is done in every sense but the one that puts him on the pitch. Nothing goes wrong at this stage, except on the occasions when it does.
9 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
Two goals and a mark of 9.28 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
4 wins in a row changes how opponents warm up: quieter, more glances across. Runs end, everybody knows that — but nobody in this dressing room is planning for it.
Abdulbasit Hindi 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.
He is 19 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.
Georginio Wijnaldum 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.
“I watch every Al-Ettifaq game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Al-Mojzel runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
“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-Ettifaq, and both men came out saying it was fine.
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 Rayane Messi is on it.
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Abdullah Al-Bishi has his answer from Al-Ettifaq; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Al-Ettifaq know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Radhi Al-Otaibi’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Al-Ettifaq needing him to play as if none of it matters.
Loan watch16 Nov 2026
Marek Rodák’s loan is measured in nothing happening
6 clean sheets from 7 appearances at Spartak Moscow. That is the whole of a goalkeeper’s job done properly, and it is being done a long way from the club that owns him.
3 goals in 10 games at Al-Shoulla — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Al-Ettifaq updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Al-Ettifaq people have started saying his name in the past tense.
Going 2 down does something to a side, and what it usually does is finish them. Not here. Al-Ettifaq rebuilt the afternoon goal by goal, and Ohod had no answer to any of it.
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 8.27, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
Ziyad Al-Ghamdi, 21, plays like he has been here for years — 7.82
A mark of 7.82 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.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 7.98 at 35, and nobody on the pitch was better.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Matija Gluščević and Al-Ettifaq agree another 4 years.
He is 19 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.
In brief
Player ratingsNobody on the pitch touched Jordan Larsson
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Al-Fayha waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Al-Ettifaq is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
“I know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” Al-Mojzel had the fee agreed and the shirt ready; they did not have the player, and now they will not.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.11 at 35, and nobody on the pitch was better.
The shortfall was covered from upstairs again. Supporters are entitled to be relieved and entitled to ask what happens the month it is not, and both feelings usually arrive together.
He is 19 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.
“I have ambitions, and I would like the club to share them.” Nobody has asked to leave and nobody has been shown the door — but a player chooses that sentence carefully, and a boardroom hears it exactly as it was meant.
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-Ettifaq this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Add another name to the list: Al-Shoulla have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Jalal Al-Salem. The answer from Al-Ettifaq has not changed — yet.
Still no offer on the table, and Marek Rodák’s deal keeps shrinking. In boardroom language, silence this long stops being an oversight and starts being an answer.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Words at Al-Ettifaq training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Rayane Messi 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.