The offer from USM Alger for Ali Majrashi 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.
Boardroom1 Feb 2027
Al-Ahli close the window on a squad of their own making
4 in and 6 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.
“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-Ahli hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Al-Shabab keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Artem Bondarenko 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.
In brief
MatchAfter 6 games, Al-Ahli finally taste it again
Rarely has this fixture seen a display like it: 3‑0 against Al-Ittihad, and it could have been more.
Player ratings14 Dec 2026
A brace, and Ivan Toney takes the afternoon — 9.01
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Ivan Toney provided it, and the 9.01 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
The hardest thing about being 21 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Matheus Gonçalves did not need any: 8.05, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
A season average of 7.12 at an age when most of his year group are still in the youth team. Al-Ahli know what they have, and so, by now, does everybody else.
“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-Ahli, and 0 appearances in 18 say he has earned the hearing.
He is 21 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.
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-Ahli can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
Roger Ibañez 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-Ahli, and 0 appearances in 8 say he has earned the hearing.
Chances created: 12. Nothing on the scoresheet and everything in the match: the pass before the pass, over and over, until the defence stopped guessing right.
Every club in football pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time somebody has tried 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 Hajer this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Shahab Zahedi 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 supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 0‑1, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
The manager wanted a different profile for this opponent, which is a real football reason and no consolation. He did nothing wrong and he did not play.
“Nobody outside is coming to save us.” It was short, it was not comfortable, and by all accounts the Hajer squad were quieter afterwards than they had been all season.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 8 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
6 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.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Shahab Zahedi 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 academy exists for exactly this morning. Saad Al-Salem 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.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Yasser Al-Salem 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.
0‑9 to Al-Hilal, and it was every bit as bad as the number suggests. There are defeats you argue about and defeats you apologise for; this was the second kind.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 10 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 9 goals between Hajer and Al-Hilal, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Shahab Zahedi 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.
Hajer asked and Rosario Central said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Abdullah Abdo 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.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Nima Mirzazad has just signed for Hajer, and for once the answer mattered.
Albert Amoah 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 Shahab Zahedi was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Hajer has been clear about where Sultan Al-Shammari stands, which is more than many ever get.