Marked for David Gondim
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market23 Aug 2027
Al Dhafra come back empty-handed
The bid was some way short and Sharjah did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Market23 Aug 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.
Transfer targets23 Aug 2027
Sharjah have gone to Al Jazira with a bid, and the supporters have gone to the internet with an opinion about it. Whether either changes anything is up to the selling club.
Squad23 Aug 2027
Charles Pickel 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.
Transfer targets23 Aug 2027
Sharjah asked and Levante said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Squad23 Aug 2027
Maro Katinić 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.
Squad23 Aug 2027
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Suhail Abdulla and Sharjah agree another 4 years.
Squad23 Aug 2027
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Sharjah can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Market23 Aug 2027
Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Luan Pereira’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
Transfer targets14 Jun 2027
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Al Ain is saying, and nobody at Sharjah is enjoying the guessing.
Market14 Jun 2027
“It was not right for me. I am not going to explain why to anybody except the people I owe an explanation to.” A deal agreed between two clubs, and a player who declined to be part of it.
Transfer targets14 Jun 2027
$4.6M on the table at Al Ain. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
Market14 Jun 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 Sharjah, and it is not being withdrawn.
Market14 Jun 2027
The paperwork is done: Mats Bångsbo joins from Al Jazira in a deal worth $1.2M. Now comes the harder part.
Market14 Jun 2027
Al Wahda come back empty-handed
The bid was some way short and Sharjah did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Transfer targets14 Jun 2027
Sharjah asked and Al Jazira said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Transfer targets14 Jun 2027
$810.0K on the table at Al Jazira. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
Squad14 Jun 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 Sharjah this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market12 Apr 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 Sharjah, and it is not being withdrawn.
Market12 Apr 2027
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Sharjah is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad12 Apr 2027
Words at Sharjah training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Charles Pickel 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.
Squad12 Apr 2027
A falling-out at Sharjah
Kodjo Laba and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
The dugout12 Apr 2027
Kodjo Laba 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.
Squad12 Apr 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 Sharjah know it.
Squad12 Apr 2027
Leandrinho has had enough of the bench
“I did not come here to warm up in front of people.” He is out of contract eventually, he is old enough to count the weeks, and Sharjah will have to give him a reason to stay or an exit.
Market12 Apr 2027
The Erik talk will not go away
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Sharjah know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
The dugout12 Apr 2027
The manager makes Saldanha a promise
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Sharjah. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market8 Feb 2027
Adel Taarabt 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 Sharjah can pretend not to have heard.
The dugout8 Feb 2027
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Sharjah have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Transfer targets8 Feb 2027
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Al Jazira keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Squad8 Feb 2027
Charles Pickel 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.
Transfer targets8 Feb 2027
Sharjah asked and Al Dhafra said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
The dugout8 Feb 2027
No hiding place for Saldanha
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Saldanha, and the manager let it.
Match6 Feb 2027
Al Shabab left with the points after a 0‑1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Loan watch8 Feb 2027
“I did not go to Al Nasr to sit and watch. I want to come back to Sharjah and fight for my place.” 3 appearances in 22 matches say the rest.
The dugout8 Feb 2027
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Mohamed Nader after 0‑1, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad7 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 Sharjah this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match5 Dec 2026
Still nobody has beaten Sharjah
The unbeaten run reaches 6. Some of them were wins and some were escapes, but a side that refuses to lose is a side other dressing rooms talk about.
Squad7 Dec 2026
Charles Pickel 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.
Loan watch7 Dec 2026
“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 Sharjah, and 3 appearances in 13 say he has earned the hearing.
Squad7 Dec 2026
Luan Pereira named in the team of the month
A month is long enough that nobody gets in by accident. Luan Pereira is in the division's best eleven for it, which is a quieter compliment than an award and a more reliable one.
Squad7 Dec 2026
“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; Sharjah are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Match5 Dec 2026
A 1‑1 draw with Al Ain leaves the dressing room somewhere between relief and regret.
Player ratings7 Dec 2026
Successful dribbles: 14. 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.
The dugout7 Dec 2026
Half-satisfied: Mohamed Nader on the draw
“There are things I liked and things we will be doing on Tuesday until they are right.” 1‑1, and a manager who had already decided what Tuesday looked like.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Player ratings28 Sep 2026
At 34 every good afternoon gets called a throwback, and this one was: 8.20, and nobody on the pitch better.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Words exchanged at Sharjah
Charles Pickel 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.
Match26 Sep 2026
2‑3 to Al Dhafra, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
The dugout28 Sep 2026
Majid Rashid 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.
The dugout28 Sep 2026
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Mohamed Nader after 2‑3, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
Squad28 Sep 2026
“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; Sharjah are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Dhari Fahad 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.
Market28 Sep 2026
Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Majed Al Suwaidi’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Transfer targets10 Aug 2026
Sharjah have gone to Al Nasr with a bid, and the supporters have gone to the internet with an opinion about it. Whether either changes anything is up to the selling club.
Boardroom10 Aug 2026
The number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $1.3M — a club that wants Felipe Motta enough to be asked twice.
Squad10 Aug 2026
A falling-out at Sharjah
Kodjo Laba and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Transfer targets10 Aug 2026
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Al Jazira have kept their man, and Sharjah go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad10 Aug 2026
“The easiest signature of my career.” Majid Rashid and Sharjah agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Market10 Aug 2026
The phone has started ringing about Abdalla Ghanim again, and this time the name on the line is Al Wahda. Sharjah are listening politely and promising nothing.
Market10 Aug 2026
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Ahmed Al Suwaidi has been at this club since he was a boy and is now, formally, one of the first-team squad — which for a local readership beats any signing of any size.
Market10 Aug 2026
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Majed Al Suwaidi has been at this club since he was a boy and is now, formally, one of the first-team squad — which for a local readership beats any signing of any size.
Market10 Aug 2026
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Mohamed Hassan 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.