Marked for Abdallah Hassan
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 The request is on a desk at Al Gaish, and it is not being withdrawn.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.
Back issues
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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad12 Jul 2027
Mohamed Zidan damages knee ligaments — 53 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 53 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.
Market12 Jul 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 Ismaily, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad12 Jul 2027
Éric Traoré in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Ismaily this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Transfer targets12 Jul 2027
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.
Market12 Jul 2027
The interest is real enough to have reached print. Ismaily have said nothing, which in a transfer window is its own kind of answer.
Transfer targets12 Jul 2027
A loan move for Bruce Bvuma is in the works
Ismaily have made the call to Kaizer Chiefs. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
Transfer targets12 Jul 2027
Ismaily have made the call to Atletico Nacional. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
The dugout12 Jul 2027
Ahmed Ayman 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 Ahmed Ayman trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Market12 Jul 2027
Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Ibrahim El Nagaawy’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad7 Jun 2027
90 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Ismaily lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Market7 Jun 2027
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Wadi Degla waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Ismaily is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
The dugout7 Jun 2027
This is not rotation. Éric Traoré has not been in the manager's plans for some time, and nobody at Ismaily is pretending otherwise.
Market7 Jun 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.
Squad7 Jun 2027
At 18 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.
Squad7 Jun 2027
Words exchanged at Ismaily
Canaria 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.
Squad7 Jun 2027
Words at Ismaily training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Éric Traoré 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.
Transfer targets7 Jun 2027
Ismaily 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.
Transfer targets7 Jun 2027
A loan move for Ali Hussein is in the works
Ismaily have made the call to Wadi Degla. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad29 Mar 2027
82 days out for Mohamed Ammar after a fracture
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Ismaily will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
The dugout29 Mar 2027
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Ismaily may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Market29 Mar 2027
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Abdelrahman Mahrous will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Ismaily the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad29 Mar 2027
A falling-out at Ismaily
Canaria and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad29 Mar 2027
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Abdallah Hassan is 22, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Squad29 Mar 2027
A row about effort at Ismaily
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Hassan Saber was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout29 Mar 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Hassan Saber, and the manager let it.
Looking ahead29 Mar 2027
Aswan next, and one man in the Ismaily dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
The dugout29 Mar 2027
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Ismaily. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad4 Jan 2027
A one-man rearguard from Ahmed Adel
There were 7 saves in it, and at least three that had no business being saves at all. The ten outfield players owe him a drink and they know it.
Market4 Jan 2027
Mohamed Wagdi 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.
Squad4 Jan 2027
Ahmed Ayman is a better footballer than he was
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.
Squad4 Jan 2027
A falling-out at Ismaily
Canaria and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Market4 Jan 2027
The name of Anwar Abdelsalam has come up in conversations Ismaily were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Transfer targets4 Jan 2027
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 terraces4 Jan 2027
He is 23 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.
Match2 Jan 2027
Three points for Ismaily, 2‑0 the final word against Smouha in a contest settled by the finer margins.
Match2 Jan 2027
Ismaily settle it inside twenty minutes
2 goals before the ground had finished arriving. Smouha spent the rest of the afternoon playing a match that had already been decided, and everybody in the stadium knew it.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match12 Dec 2026
The wait goes on for Ismaily
5 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 Dec 2026
Words exchanged at Ismaily
Canaria 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.
Squad14 Dec 2026
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Abdallah Hassan is 21, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Match12 Dec 2026
Haras El Hodoud left with the points after a 1‑2 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Player ratings14 Dec 2026
Successful dribbles: 19. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
The dugout14 Dec 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Ahmed Adel, and the manager let it.
The dugout14 Dec 2026
The manager’s verdict
“That is on me. I pick the team and I picked wrong.” Managers say that when they mean it and when they need to be seen to, and after 1‑2 Omar El Wensh left the room before anybody could ask which.
Looking ahead14 Dec 2026
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Zamalek in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
The dugout14 Dec 2026
Mohamed Ammar asks for a word with the manager
“I would rather say it to his face than read about it.” The meeting was requested by the player, which tells you most of what you need to know.
From our football correspondent
Steady
The dugout16 Nov 2026
“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.
Squad16 Nov 2026
Words exchanged at Ismaily
Canaria 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.
Squad16 Nov 2026
Éric Traoré 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 dugout16 Nov 2026
Ahmed Ayman 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.
The dugout16 Nov 2026
“I would rather say it to his face than read about it.” The meeting was requested by the player, which tells you most of what you need to know.
Looking ahead16 Nov 2026
Home comforts ahead for Ismaily
Al Gaish, position 7, come to town on Saturday. Nobody will call it a big game and nobody at the club will be treating it as anything else.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad14 Sep 2026
The knee: Nader Farag out for 23 days
23 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Ismaily lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
A defender's goal wins it for Ismaily — 7.73
1 for Canaria, marked 7.73, and a centre-half's name in the part of the report he normally only reaches by mistake. He will not be allowed to forget it in the dressing room for a month.
Transfer targets14 Sep 2026
Everything was agreed with San Lorenzo and then the doctor spoke. Ismaily have walked away from a signing on the advice of somebody who never saw him play, which is how it is supposed to work.
Squad14 Sep 2026
A falling-out at Ismaily
Canaria and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Abdallah Hassan is 21, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Match12 Sep 2026
A bad afternoon for Ismaily against ENPPI
2‑3 to ENPPI, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Éric Traoré 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 targets14 Sep 2026
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 dugout14 Sep 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.
In brief
-
The dugout
The view from the dugout
-
Market
Still no ink between Ismaily and Konta
-
The dugout
Konta knocks on the manager’s door