Marked for Ali Ezzat
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad30 Nov 2026
Tempers go at Aswan
Hesham Balaha 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.
Match28 Nov 2026
Ismaily left with the points after a 0‑1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
The dugout30 Nov 2026
“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 dugout30 Nov 2026
A promise honoured at Aswan
Something was said to Ali Ezzat and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
Looking ahead30 Nov 2026
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Wadi Degla in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
The dugout30 Nov 2026
Ninety specific minutes wanted a different sort of player, and the manager picked one. He is not out of form and he is not in the side, and both are true.
The dugout30 Nov 2026
He asked about his future and was given an answer with minutes in it. The manager has now made a promise in a building where promises are remembered, and the clock on it has started.
Player ratings30 Nov 2026
The pass was always on for Semo
Chances created: 7. Somebody has to open a door before anybody can walk through it, and he spent the afternoon opening doors.
Player ratings30 Nov 2026
Successful dribbles: 9. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market12 Oct 2026
Only the photograph left for Tolba Mohamed
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Tolba Mohamed will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Aswan the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad12 Oct 2026
Words exchanged at Aswan
Hesham Balaha 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.
Squad12 Oct 2026
It happens to all of them and it is still the hardest paragraph a local paper has to write. 33 years old, 3 points down on where he was, and a body that has started charging interest on a career.
Squad12 Oct 2026
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Ali Ezzat commits to Aswan for another 2 years.
Squad12 Oct 2026
No place for Youssef Oggadi in the new shape
He is not being dropped. There is simply nowhere in the formation Aswan are playing to put a man who does what he does, which is a harder thing to be told than any team sheet.
The dugout12 Oct 2026
Ali Ezzat 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 Ali Ezzat trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad5 Oct 2026
Tempers go at Aswan
Hesham Balaha 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.
Squad5 Oct 2026
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Islam Gamal commits to Aswan for another 1 years.
Squad5 Oct 2026
It happens to all of them and it is still the hardest paragraph a local paper has to write. 37 years old, 3 points down on where he was, and a body that has started charging interest on a career.
Player ratings5 Oct 2026
Marked 7.99 on an afternoon he ran from the first whistle to the last. Whatever else went wrong, Aswan had the best player on the pitch.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Aswan are still strangers to each other
8 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.
The dugout5 Oct 2026
The manager has not finished forgetting Sayed El Shabrawy's mistake
Publicly it is behind everybody. It is not behind the man who picks the team, and the only place that shows is a team sheet. He will get another chance; he will get it in a match that matters less.
The dugout5 Oct 2026
“It is not the end of the world and it is not good enough. Both of those are true.” The manager, after a 0‑0 draw, said the honest thing and then went to say it again inside.
The dugout5 Oct 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.
Market5 Oct 2026
Aswan bring in an old head
Youssef Oggadi is 37 and has run out of things to prove. What he has left is where to stand, when to slow it down and what to say at half-time, and none of that is on a fitness chart.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Match26 Sep 2026
No mercy from Aswan
El Dakhleya will want this one forgotten quickly: 3‑0, every duel lost, and a long ride home. Aswan were ruthless in the way good sides are ruthless.
Player ratings28 Sep 2026
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 8.68, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
Squad28 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 Aswan this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Player ratings28 Sep 2026
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.30, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
The dugout28 Sep 2026
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” El Sayed Kahraba on a 3‑0 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
Squad28 Sep 2026
One weekend, judged against everybody else's. Bismark Asante has come out on top of it, and for most footballers a weekly award is the only silverware a career ever produces.
The dugout28 Sep 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Momen Samir, and the manager let it.
The dugout28 Sep 2026
Ali Ezzat dropped after a run of poor form
The one version of being left out a player cannot argue with, and the one he takes worst. Somebody else has been better and the team sheet says so, in public, every week until it changes.
The dugout28 Sep 2026
The shape wanted a different profile against this opponent, which is a real football answer and no comfort at all to the man it is about. He did nothing wrong and he did not play.