16 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Ittihad lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
“I listened, I thought about it, and I am staying. That is the whole story.” The clubs had agreed a fee. Amoory had not agreed to go, which turned out to be the part that mattered.
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.
Successful dribbles: 20. 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.
Mohamed Tony 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.
23 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Ittihad lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Ittihad is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
A new deal for the man in the dugout, and the clearest thing a board can say without calling a press conference about it. Stability is cheap to promise and expensive to deliver.
Boardroom20 Aug 2029
5 academy players handed senior numbers at Ittihad
The morning the pathway stops being a brochure and becomes a team sheet. Most of them will not be here in three years; all of them have already done the hard part, which was getting to today.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Osama Ahmed and Ittihad agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad20 Aug 2029
Words at Ittihad training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mahmoud Shabana 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Ittihad this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The words a physio says slowly. 40 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.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Ittihad people have started saying his name in the past tense.
Transfer targets6 Aug 2029
$740.0K settles it between the clubs for Oufa Shobeir
Zamalek have accepted the money. What Ittihad do not yet have is the man, and between here and the photograph is a conversation about wages that both sides are dreading.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Youssef El Gohary is living that version at Ittihad, and it tends to show in the first month.
The most common injury in the game and the most rushed back from. Ittihad will quote 15 days and will be careful with it, because the second one is always worse than the first.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Ittihad they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
The rules permit it and it stings anyway. Mahmoud Abdelaziz has agreed terms with ENPPI for the summer, and until then he pulls on this shirt as a player who has already chosen his next one.
Some transfers need a press campaign. This one needed a shirt with the old number on it. Mohamed Hamdy Zaky is a Ittihad player again, and the town has its story of the summer.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Al Gaish waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Ittihad is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Ittihad is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
At 22 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.
At 32 the improving is meant to be over. It is not: 3 points better than the mark taken at the start of the year, which is the sort of thing that happens to players who take the boring parts of the job seriously.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Oto John was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Ittihad people have started saying his name in the past tense.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Ittihad can pretend not to have heard.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 22 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.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Ittihad they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Flamengo keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Ittihad asked and Zamalek said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Squad9 Jul 2029
Words at Ittihad training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mahmoud Shabana 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.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Bibo Ahmed Hassan will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Ittihad the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Ittihad and Al Ahly have settled on $180.0K. The rest belongs to the player and his agent, and a supporter who has watched one of these before knows not to buy the shirt yet.
He will play here until the summer and then walk out of the door for free, having already signed elsewhere. Supporters will manage the first part of that sentence; it is the second they will struggle with.
At 21 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Abdelghani Mohamed was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Ittihad asked and Penarol said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Islam Ateya 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
The dugoutThe manager makes an example of Islam Ateya
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Ittihad have lost him in all but the paperwork.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Ittihad have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Ittihad can pretend not to have heard.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Ittihad have done the hard part with Zamalek, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Ittihad is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Ittihad had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Flamengo, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
Osama Ahmed 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.
“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.
Squad11 Jun 2029
Words at Ittihad training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mohamed Tony 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.
Done, and with games to spare. Next season has floodlit nights against clubs from other countries in it, and the accounts have a line they did not have last year.
The offer from El Dakhleya for Omar Kamel 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.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Ittihad can pretend not to have heard.
An individual honour is a strange thing in a team game, and the best of them are never argued with. He has had the sort of year that ends with his name being read out, and Ittihad have had the benefit of it.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Ittihad is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
The rules permit it and it stings anyway. Mostafa Ibrahim has agreed terms with El Masry for the summer, and until then he pulls on this shirt as a player who has already chosen his next one.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Silvio Zinner is living that version at Ittihad, and it tends to show in the first month.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Mahmoud Shabana was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 18 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Ittihad have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Ittihad they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
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.
Osama Ahmed 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.
The manager has re-ordered his thinking and Abbati Abdullahi has come out of it lower. He will be told it is temporary, and the players who have heard that before will avoid his eye.
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.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 49 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Ittihad this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Mohamed Tony was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
In brief
Player ratingsAbdelrahman Magdy was on a different afternoon to everybody else
15 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Ittihad lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Ittihad will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Abdelrahman Magdy provided it, and the 8.11 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Ittihad is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
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.
At 22 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.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Abdelrahman Magdy provided it, and the 8.21 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Position 3, 51 points, and the result everyone checks first is now theirs. The word is still not being said around the ground, which is how you know everyone is thinking it.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Ittihad is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Everything was agreed until it was not, and Charles Tambe reports back to Ittihad with a summer to forget. Neither club is saying who walked away from the table.
The shirt still fits. Karim Yakan is back at Ittihad, and half the ground remembers him in these colours already. Some signings need selling to the town; this one sold itself.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Mahmoud Shabana was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Medeama waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Ittihad is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Add another name to the list: Police Union have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Omar Kamel. The answer from Ittihad has not changed — yet.
Everything was agreed with Aswan and then the doctor spoke. Ittihad have walked away from a signing on the advice of somebody who never saw him play, which is how it is supposed to work.
The offer from Haras El Hodoud for Amoory 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 clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Ittihad people have started saying his name in the past tense.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Ittihad have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Ittihad and Al Ahly have settled on $360.0K. The rest belongs to the player and his agent, and a supporter who has watched one of these before knows not to buy the shirt yet.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Ittihad is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Ittihad can pretend not to have heard.
There are footballers who have a good season and footballers a season is remembered for, and the second kind get their names read out in a hall in the summer. Ittihad will be quietly delighted and privately nervous.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Ittihad have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Mahmoud Shabana was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Mohamed Tony 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.
Clubs make promises constantly and the page usually only hears about them when they are broken. This one was honoured, and the dressing room noticed that faster than any supporter did.
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.
“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.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Ittihad have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Ittihad they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
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.
Marked 8.21 — 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.
Marked 8.06 — 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.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 99 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Ittihad have lost him in all but the paperwork.
5 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.
Successful dribbles: 24. 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 clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Ittihad is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Amoory has it now, and everything he does for the rest of his time here will be measured against the goodwill he was handed for free.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 107 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
There were 88 minutes on the clock and Al Gaish had all but banked the point. Football rarely reads the room, and Ittihad did not stop to explain themselves.
4 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 deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 11 arrived, 5 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
Everything agreed with Arab Contractors, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Ittihad is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Ittihad had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Al Ahly, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
The fee was agreed and the flight was looked at — and then the phone stopped ringing. Haras El Hodoud moved on, Amoory reports back to Ittihad, and everybody pretends Monday is just Monday.
Squad4 Sep 2028
Mohamed Tony has improved at 32, which nobody expected
Careers are supposed to plateau and then decline, and the players who ignore that are always the ones who were listening on the training ground. 3 points of it, over months, at an age where the direction normally only goes one way.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Ittihad 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 Petrojet waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Ittihad is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
At 22 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.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Ittihad is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
At 29 the improving is meant to be over, and it is not: 3 points better than a year ago. It happens to the ones who take the boring parts seriously.
Squad14 Aug 2028
Words at Ittihad training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mahmoud Shabana 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.
Ittihad asked and Al Ahly 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 clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Ittihad people have started saying his name in the past tense.
Position 3, 63 points, and the result everyone checks first is now theirs. The word is still not being said around the ground, which is how you know everyone is thinking it.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Ittihad have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Ittihad is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
At 30 the improving is meant to be over. It is not: 3 points better than the mark taken at the start of the year, which is the sort of thing that happens to players who take the boring parts of the job seriously.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Ittihad this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
In brief
SquadWords at Ittihad training over how hard people work
The dugoutThe manager makes an example of Mahmoud Dunga
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Ittihad have lost him in all but the paperwork.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Ittihad can pretend not to have heard.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Mohamed Tony was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Ittihad have done the hard part with UTC, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
The rules permit it and it stings anyway. Karim Yakan has agreed terms with Al Gaish for the summer, and until then he pulls on this shirt as a player who has already chosen his next one.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Ittihad is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
At 29 the improving is meant to be over. It is not: 3 points better than the mark taken at the start of the year, which is the sort of thing that happens to players who take the boring parts of the job seriously.
Mahmoud Dunga 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.
Squad17 Jul 2028
Mohamed Tony 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.
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.
Mahmoud Dunga 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 Mohamed Tony was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The name of Charles Agbawodikeizu has come up in conversations Ittihad were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Ittihad have made the call to Montevideo City Torque. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
Nobody at Ittihad 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.
“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 Ittihad, and it is not being withdrawn.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Ittihad have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Ittihad is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Mahmoud Dunga 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 Mohamed Tony was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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 Ahmed Hamdi is on it.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Mabululu trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
The words a physio says slowly. 15 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.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Moamen Sherif will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Ittihad the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Mahmoud Dunga 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.
It finished 1‑0, and it was Abdelrahman Magdy’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Ittihad.
Squad21 Feb 2028
Mohamed Tony 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.
A player who expected to start watched it instead. The manager will call it a decision for the team; Abdelghani Mohamed will call it something else in private.
The dugout21 Feb 2028
The manager’s verdict
“I am not going to get carried away and I will not let them either. It was a good day. There will be harder ones.” Mostafa Trezeguet kept it short after the 1‑0 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
24 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Ittihad lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Astra keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Successful dribbles: 22. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad14 Feb 2028
Words at Ittihad training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mahmoud Shabana 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.
Osama Ahmed 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.
33 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Ittihad lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Ittihad people have started saying his name in the past tense.
Successful dribbles: 25. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Boardroom7 Feb 2028
Deadline passes with 3 signed and 2 gone
That is the business done at Ittihad until the window opens again. Whether it was enough will be answered on Saturdays rather than in a column, and the first Saturday is close.
The deal with Astra 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.
Everything was agreed until it was not, and Abdulrahman Muniru reports back to Ittihad with a summer to forget. Neither club is saying who walked away from the table.
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.
Osama Ahmed 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.
In brief
SquadAmir Alaa is the division's best young player this month