Marked for Bismark Asante
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad28 Dec 2026
A one-man rearguard from Tarik Aoutah
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.
Match26 Dec 2026
No end in sight to Aswan's wait for a win
5 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Aswan has to find a result from somewhere.
Squad28 Dec 2026
Words exchanged at Aswan
Islam Gamal 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.
Match26 Dec 2026
Aswan hit back inside 4 minutes
Petrojet held the lead for 4 minutes, which is not long enough to enjoy it. Aswan answered before the celebration had properly finished, and the shape of the afternoon changed with it.
Player ratings28 Dec 2026
Successful dribbles: 17. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Match28 Dec 2026
Aswan at the halfway mark
Half the programme played, position 15, 16 on the board. Doubling it is the sum every supporter has done and the only one nobody at the club will do out loud.
The dugout28 Dec 2026
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.
Squad28 Dec 2026
Words at Aswan training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Cyriaque Sylla 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.
Match26 Dec 2026
It needed Bismark Asante to find the net to bring anything home at all: 2‑2 against Petrojet, and half the dressing room will call it a point won.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
The dugout21 Dec 2026
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Aswan may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Match19 Dec 2026
The wait goes on for Aswan
4 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.
Squad21 Dec 2026
At 20 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.
Squad21 Dec 2026
A falling-out at Aswan
Islam Gamal and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad21 Dec 2026
100 games in these colours. Service of that kind gets rarer every season, and the crowd knows it.
Match19 Dec 2026
A point taken on 89 minutes is worth exactly one point and considerably more than that to a dressing room. This side does not stop, which is a reputation worth more than the result.
The dugout21 Dec 2026
The manager makes an example of Abdelaziz Mousa
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
Player ratings21 Dec 2026
A mark of 7.99, and nobody in the ground would argue with it. He was involved in everything that mattered and most of what did not.
Squad21 Dec 2026
A row about effort at Aswan
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Cyriaque Sylla was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market14 Dec 2026
“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.
Match12 Dec 2026
Bismark Asante scored, and precious little else went right: 1‑2 to Smouha, and a quiet walk to the dressing room.
Squad14 Dec 2026
A falling-out at Aswan
Mostafa Anani and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
The dugout14 Dec 2026
Tarik Aoutah 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.
Player ratings14 Dec 2026
A performance of 8.00 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
The dugout14 Dec 2026
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 1‑2, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
Market14 Dec 2026
“They were honest with me, and I would rather know.” Khaled Walid has been informed he is not in the manager's thinking at Aswan.
Looking ahead14 Dec 2026
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Abdelaziz Mousa’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Aswan needing him to play as if none of it matters.
Player ratings14 Dec 2026
Successful dribbles: 11. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad19 Oct 2026
7 saves, and a scoreline the ten men in front of him had no right to. Goalkeepers only get noticed on the bad days; this was one of the other ones.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Ahmed Ibrahim is a better footballer than he was
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 20 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.
Squad19 Oct 2026
A falling-out at Aswan
Hesham Balaha and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Match17 Oct 2026
Beaten 1‑3, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
The dugout19 Oct 2026
The manager makes an example of Tarik Aoutah
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Everybody at Aswan saw it before anybody said it, which is how this always goes. At 36 the decline is real and measurable — 3 points — and the only question left is how the club handles somebody it owes a great deal to.
The dugout19 Oct 2026
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 1‑3, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
Player ratings19 Oct 2026
Successful dribbles: 13. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Looking ahead19 Oct 2026
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Al Gaish in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
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.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market24 Aug 2026
“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.
Transfer targets24 Aug 2026
The paperwork begins on Karim Fouad
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Aswan have done the hard part with Al Ahly, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Squad24 Aug 2026
A falling-out at Aswan
Hesham Balaha and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Transfer targets24 Aug 2026
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Al Wahda have kept their man, and Aswan go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Match22 Aug 2026
It finished 2‑1, and it was Bismark Asante’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Aswan.
The dugout24 Aug 2026
The manager makes an example of Tarik Aoutah
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
A performance of 8.13 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Cyriaque Sylla 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 dugout24 Aug 2026
The view from the dugout
“We controlled it. There were spells I did not like and we will look at them, but the group showed me something.” El Sayed Kahraba, on a 2‑1 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad10 Aug 2026
Hesham Balaha gets the move he always wanted
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Hesham Balaha has just signed for Aswan, and for once the answer mattered.
Squad10 Aug 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.
Transfer targets10 Aug 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.
Market10 Aug 2026
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Abdallah Soliman is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Market10 Aug 2026
One of our own: Ibrahim Sobhi joins the Aswan first team
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Ibrahim Sobhi is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Market10 Aug 2026
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. El Sayed Trezeguet has been at this club since he was a boy and is now, formally, one of the first-team squad — which for a local readership beats any signing of any size.
Market10 Aug 2026
One of our own: Ashraf Mohsen joins the Aswan first team
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Ashraf Mohsen is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Squad10 Aug 2026
The formation has left Bismark Asante behind
Every shape has positions in it and this one does not have his. Aswan will either change the shape, change his job, or change his club, and he is waiting to hear which.
Transfer targets10 Aug 2026
Al Ahly have been asked whether they would lend him. Loans are agreed quickly or not at all, and this one will be one or the other by the weekend.