Marked for Abdallah Hassan
From our football correspondent
Steady
Transfer targets6 Aug 2029
Fee done, terms next for Hamza Alaa
Ismaily and Al Ahly have settled on $310.0K. 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.
Market6 Aug 2029
The phone has started ringing about Stephen Odey again, and this time the name on the line is ZTE. Ismaily are listening politely and promising nothing.
Market6 Aug 2029
Ahmed Tarek 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 Ismaily can pretend not to have heard.
Market6 Aug 2029
Ismaily say no — this time
The offer from El Masry for David Benjamin 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.
Squad6 Aug 2029
Amr Khaled gets the move he always wanted
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Amr Khaled has just signed for Ismaily, and for once the answer mattered.
Boardroom6 Aug 2029
There is no worse way to lose a footballer. Benjamin Tetteh has pre-agreed a move away, which means every appearance between now and June is made by a man the club can no longer sell, and somebody upstairs will be asked why the contract was allowed to get here.
Squad6 Aug 2029
Ibrahim El Nagaawy 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.
Market6 Aug 2029
Some transfers need a press campaign. This one needed a shirt with the old number on it. Abdallah Hassan is a Ismaily player again, and the town has its story of the summer.
Squad6 Aug 2029
Words at Ismaily training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Benjamin Tetteh 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.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad29 May 2028
Hassan Saber breaks a bone — 57 days out
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 57 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Market29 May 2028
“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 Gaish, and it is not being withdrawn.
The dugout29 May 2028
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Al Gaish may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Squad29 May 2028
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 Gaish this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad29 May 2028
A muscle injury sidelines Islam Mohareb for 14 days
Nobody makes a documentary about a hamstring and everybody in the game fears one. Al Gaish will be careful with the return date, because the second one is always worse than the first.
Squad29 May 2028
The decline has begun for Karim Tarek
Everybody saw it before anybody said it. At 36 the numbers say 3 points down on what he was, and the question for Al Gaish is how to handle a man they owe a great deal.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad3 Apr 2028
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Al Gaish will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
The dugout3 Apr 2028
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Al Gaish may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Match1 Apr 2028
4 matches without a win for Al Gaish
The run now stands at 4, and the questions being asked around Al Gaish are no longer polite ones.
Player ratings3 Apr 2028
Successful dribbles: 23. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad3 Apr 2028
Karim Tarek 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.
Squad3 Apr 2028
Words at Al Gaish training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Tawfik Mohamed 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.
Squad3 Apr 2028
Riga is slowing down
At 34, 3 points below where he was, and a body that has started charging interest. It happens to all of them and it is still the hardest paragraph on this page.
The dugout3 Apr 2028
“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.
Match1 Apr 2028
1‑1, and both dressing rooms will call it two points lost. A draw that asked plenty of questions and answered none of them.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad24 Jan 2028
56 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Al Gaish lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Market24 Jan 2028
“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.
Player ratings24 Jan 2028
Camacho, 34, rolls back the years — 8.11
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.11 at 34, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Transfer targets24 Jan 2028
Everything agreed with Wadi Degla, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
Squad24 Jan 2028
51 days, the medical staff say, and medical staff are optimists by profession. The team sheet will look wrong without him.
Squad24 Jan 2028
Words exchanged at Al Gaish
Tawfik Mohamed 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.
Squad24 Jan 2028
A move Abdallah Hassan would have made for nothing
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Abdallah Hassan is living that version at Al Gaish, and it tends to show in the first month.
Transfer targets24 Jan 2028
The approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.
The dugout24 Jan 2028
This is not rotation. Khaled Aboziada has not been in the manager's plans for some time, and nobody at Al Gaish is pretending otherwise.