Marked for Sultan Al-Saadi
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad25 Sep 2028
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.
Squad25 Sep 2028
“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.
Squad25 Sep 2028
Milad Khodadad 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.
Squad25 Sep 2028
Words at Padideh training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Hamad Al-Yami 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.
Match23 Sep 2028
It finished 2‑1, and it was Ehsan Ghoddos’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Padideh.
Player ratings25 Sep 2028
Sardar Hosseini was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.68. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
The terraces25 Sep 2028
Every touch is being weighed now, in print and everywhere else. Some players grow into that and some are quietly ruined by it, and nobody knows which in advance.
Player ratings25 Sep 2028
Successful dribbles: 11. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Market25 Sep 2028
Contract settled, hands shaken, no fee changing hands. Vouria Taremi leaves Padideh the quiet way, and the wage bill breathes a little easier.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad18 Sep 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 Padideh this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Boardroom18 Sep 2028
Nothing happens for months and then he simply arrives, at no cost, having signed a pre-contract while still turning out for somebody else. It is the least dramatic way to sign a footballer and frequently the shrewdest.
The terraces18 Sep 2028
At 23 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.
Squad18 Sep 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.
Player ratings18 Sep 2028
Ninety minutes of Sardar Hosseini at his very best
Marked 8.05. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Padideh.
Squad18 Sep 2028
Federico Flores 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.
Loan watch18 Sep 2028
“I am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at Padideh, and 0 appearances in 9 say he has earned the hearing.
Match16 Sep 2028
It needed Sardar Hosseini to find the net to bring anything home at all: 1‑1 against Rah Ahan, and half the dressing room will call it a point won.
Squad18 Sep 2028
The manager has not finished forgetting Saeid Azmoun'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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market31 Jul 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.
Squad31 Jul 2028
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Saeid Azmoun is 19, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Squad31 Jul 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 Padideh this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad31 Jul 2028
At 36 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.
Market31 Jul 2028
The phone has started ringing about Saeid Azmoun again, and this time the name on the line is Hajer. Padideh are listening politely and promising nothing.
Squad31 Jul 2028
“The easiest signature of my career.” Majid Jahanbakhsh and Padideh agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Boardroom31 Jul 2028
The silence upstairs is getting loud at Sharjah
Nobody on the board has said anything against the manager, which is the point — they have stopped saying anything for him either.
Market31 Jul 2028
Luan Pereira has left for Al Ahly in a $10.3M deal. The accountants are pleased; the supporters are less certain.
The terraces31 Jul 2028
Sharjah sell a favourite for $10.3M
The accountants will call it good business and they will be right, which is not the point anybody outside the boardroom is making. Luan Pereira was one of the reasons people came, and $10.3M does not replace that by itself.
Squad31 Jul 2028
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Ghaith Abdalla is 22, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Squad31 Jul 2028
Caio Lucas 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 Sharjah this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad31 Jul 2028
Words at Sharjah training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Guillermo Maripán 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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market1 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 Sharjah, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad1 May 2028
“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.
Squad1 May 2028
Joseph Aidoo 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 Sharjah this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad24 Apr 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 Padideh this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad24 Apr 2028
Words at Padideh training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Raghid Najjar 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.
Loan watch24 Apr 2028
“I am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at Padideh, and 2 appearances in 14 say he has earned the hearing.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Boardroom3 Apr 2028
Four paragraphs on the club website, none of them about football. The board thanked him, wished him well, and had the search under way before the page went up.
Squad3 Apr 2028
A knee injury of the worst kind for Ousmane Camara
16 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Sharjah lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Squad3 Apr 2028
“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.
Boardroom3 Apr 2028
“Somebody has to pick the team on Saturday, and this week that is me.” An interim appointment with no promises attached, which is how most of them start.
Squad3 Apr 2028
Joseph Aidoo 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 Sharjah this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad3 Apr 2028
Firas Ben Larbi 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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad31 Jan 2028
Morteza Noorafkan damages knee ligaments — 82 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 82 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.
Squad31 Jan 2028
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 69 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Market31 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.
Squad31 Jan 2028
There were 6 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.
Player ratings31 Jan 2028
Mojtaba Fakhrian ran the middle of the pitch — 6.20
He won it back and then made something of it, which is two jobs and the reason the scoreline looks the way it does. 17 combined actions and a mark of 6.20, and not one of them will make a highlights package.
Squad31 Jan 2028
Kaveh Vafaei 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 Padideh this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Loan watch31 Jan 2028
“I am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at Padideh, and 2 appearances in 26 say he has earned the hearing.
Player ratings31 Jan 2028
Successful dribbles: 14. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Match29 Jan 2028
Point won or two lost for Padideh?
Ninety minutes, no goals, and the argument started before the car park emptied: a point gained, or two thrown away against Foolad? Both sides of it will still be going on Thursday.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad24 Jan 2028
Morteza Noorafkan damages knee ligaments — 89 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 89 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.
Squad24 Jan 2028
A fracture rules Hamid Golzari out for 83 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Padideh will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Squad24 Jan 2028
Milad Khodadad 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.
Match22 Jan 2028
A 2‑1 win over Gostaresh Foulad, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Match22 Jan 2028
Padideh keep winning on the road
3 away wins in a row. Travelling support is the truest kind, and this season it is being repaid in the only currency that counts.
Player ratings24 Jan 2028
Ninety minutes of Kaveh Vafaei at his very best
Marked 8.08. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Padideh.
Squad24 Jan 2028
The manager makes an example of Majid Ghoddos
“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 Jan 2028
Successful dribbles: 15. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
The terraces24 Jan 2028
Everybody has an opinion about Majid Ghoddos
He is the name in every column and on every phone-in, which is a heavy thing to carry at any age. Some footballers thrive on it; others are quietly finished by it.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match8 Jan 2028
Nowhere to hide for Sharjah
0‑4 against Al Jazira, and no complaints that would survive the replay. The manager spoke about character afterwards; the terraces used shorter words.
Match8 Jan 2028
The wait goes on for Sharjah
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.
Market10 Jan 2028
The chase for Zayed Ahmed ended with $360.0K changing hands and Al Wahda out of reasons to say no. The supporters will judge the fee the only way that matters: on Saturdays.
Squad10 Jan 2028
Caio Lucas 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.
Market10 Jan 2028
The name of Sultan Al-Saadi has come up in conversations Sharjah were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Squad10 Jan 2028
Words at Sharjah training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Talal Haji 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.
Player ratings10 Jan 2028
Successful dribbles: 20. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad10 Jan 2028
“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.
Boardroom10 Jan 2028
Nobody left the Sharjah dressing room in a hurry
The door stayed shut a long time after the final whistle. What was said in there is between them; whether it worked is between them and Saturday.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match20 Nov 2027
Beaten 0‑3 by Al Ahli, and beaten everywhere it matters. The inquest starts on the training pitch on Monday morning.
The terraces22 Nov 2027
The ground has had enough
“We travel everywhere and we get this.” 6 of the 28 senior players heard it walking off, and the ones who did not hear it were not playing.
Squad22 Nov 2027
Caio Lucas 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.
Squad22 Nov 2027
Guillermo Maripán 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.
Squad22 Nov 2027
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Sultan Al-Saadi and Sharjah agree another 4 years.
Squad22 Nov 2027
“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 ratings22 Nov 2027
Successful dribbles: 18. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Boardroom22 Nov 2027
The manager kept them in and said what needed saying. A response is expected on Saturday, and if it does not come the questions move upstairs.
Player ratings22 Nov 2027
An afternoon Igor Coronado will want back
Marked 4.17. Nothing he attempted worked and by the hour mark he had stopped attempting much, which is the part a manager notices rather than the mistakes.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Player ratings13 Sep 2027
Igor Coronado, 35, rolls back the years — 8.69
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.69 at 35, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Market13 Sep 2027
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Squad13 Sep 2027
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Leandrinho is 22, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Squad13 Sep 2027
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Sharjah this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Player ratings13 Sep 2027
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.85, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Match11 Sep 2027
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Igor Coronado. 2‑0 against Al Fujairah, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Squad13 Sep 2027
Rafael Pereira has improved at 27, 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.
Squad13 Sep 2027
Firas Ben Larbi 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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market16 Aug 2027
Dibba come back empty-handed
The bid was some way short and Sharjah did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Squad16 Aug 2027
Leandrinho 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.
Squad16 Aug 2027
Caio Lucas 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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market9 Aug 2027
The bid was some way short and Sharjah did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Squad9 Aug 2027
Sultan Al-Saadi 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.
Squad9 Aug 2027
Caio Lucas 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 Sharjah this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad7 Jun 2027
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Sharjah will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Market7 Jun 2027
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Market7 Jun 2027
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Sharjah can pretend not to have heard.
Squad7 Jun 2027
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Sultan Al-Saadi is 20, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Squad7 Jun 2027
Caio Lucas 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.
Market7 Jun 2027
The interest is real enough to have reached print. Sharjah have said nothing, which in a transfer window is its own kind of answer.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad5 Apr 2027
Majed Hassan breaks a bone — 83 days out
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 83 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Squad5 Apr 2027
“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.
Squad5 Apr 2027
Joseph Aidoo 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 Sharjah this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad29 Mar 2027
Sultan Al-Saadi: that is not what I was promised
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Al Jazira have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Squad29 Mar 2027
The medical room confirms 17 days on the sidelines for Ali Khaseif, and a plan built around him now has to be rebuilt.
Squad29 Mar 2027
Willyan Rocha 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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Match24 Feb 2027
Al Jazira bow out of the cup
Al Shaab go through and Al Jazira go home, 2‑2 the scoreline that did it. The dressing room will call the league the priority now, because that is what dressing rooms say.
Squad1 Mar 2027
354 appearances across 16 seasons in these colours. Careers like that are not built any more, and Al Jazira know what they have.
Squad1 Mar 2027
Ali Khaseif is the hero from the spot
A shoot-out is remembered by its ending, and this one ends with Ali Khaseif: 1 kept out, and a set of supporters who will describe every one of them for the next twenty years.
Squad1 Mar 2027
Willyan Rocha 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.
Match27 Feb 2027
1‑2 to Al Ahli, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Squad1 Mar 2027
The manager makes an example of Willyan Rocha
“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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad15 Feb 2027
A fracture rules Ryan Andrews out for 18 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Al Jazira will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Player ratings15 Feb 2027
Milson runs at them all day
Successful dribbles: 29. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Market15 Feb 2027
Igor Serrote 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 Al Jazira can pretend not to have heard.
Squad15 Feb 2027
Willyan Rocha 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.
Match13 Feb 2027
Hard to beat is not the same as winning, but 6 matches without defeat is a foundation Al Jazira did not have in the autumn.
Squad15 Feb 2027
Milson 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.
Squad15 Feb 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Milton Maciel, and the manager let it.
Match13 Feb 2027
It finished 1‑1, and it somehow always looked like it would. One of those afternoons where the table moves less than the tempers.
Player ratings15 Feb 2027
An afternoon Milton Maciel will want back
Marked 5.78. Nothing he attempted worked and by the hour mark he had stopped attempting much, which is the part a manager notices rather than the mistakes.