19 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. ENPPI lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Mohamed Shaaban will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around ENPPI the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Ahmed Nader Hawash 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 Mohanad Bakri was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Every run ends on an afternoon somebody had marked down as routine. This one went 4 matches, which is long enough that a town had stopped counting, and short enough that it will remember exactly who stopped it.
A 1‑1 draw with El Masry leaves the dressing room somewhere between relief and regret.
The dugout24 Dec 2029
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Karim El Wensh was not hiding it after 1‑1, and nobody in the ENPPI dressing room was either.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around ENPPI they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at ENPPI this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Arab Contractors will keep picking him until June and will get nothing for him after it. Ahmed Awad has pre-agreed a move to ENPPI, and the only people who lose in that arrangement are the ones who let the contract run down.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Emad Mayhoub 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.
With 4 players away on international duty the sessions are small and the manager can actually hear himself. It is the one break in the season, and it never quite feels like one.
The words a physio says slowly. 26 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.
Ahmed Nader Hawash 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.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Bright Gyamfi is living that version at ENPPI, and it tends to show in the first month.
The paperwork is done long before the player is. Daniel Lajud has agreed terms to come here when his current deal runs out, which means ENPPI have spent a summer's transfer budget on a phone call.
The words a physio says slowly. 36 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, wages agreed, and Ismaily waiting with a shirt. Nobody at ENPPI is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at ENPPI this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad30 Jul 2029
Emad Tarek 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 words a physio says slowly. 42 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.
Ahmed Nader Hawash 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 had been thinking. Emad Mayhoub 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.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at ENPPI, another week without a signature from Marwan Daoud.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager makes an example of Mohab Samy
The dugoutMarwan Daoud knocks on the manager’s door
A shoot-out is remembered by its ending, and this one ends with Mohamed Shaaban: 2 kept out, and a set of supporters who will describe every one of them for the next twenty years.
Cup ties wait for somebody to seize them, and Khaled Ramadan obliged against Al Gaish. 1‑1 on the night, and the name in the next round’s hat is ENPPI.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Abdelaziz El Zoghbi will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around ENPPI the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Ahmed Nader Hawash 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 Emad Mayhoub was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what ENPPI can pretend not to have heard.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around ENPPI they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Ahmed Nader Hawash 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 had been thinking. Emad Tarek 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.
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Body Samir, and the manager let it.
The dugout13 Nov 2028
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 2‑3 Karim El Wensh left the room before anybody could ask which.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 46 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around ENPPI they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Ahmed Nader Hawash 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 had been thinking. Emad Tarek 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.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Karim El Wensh after 1‑2, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
In brief
Squad5 new faces, and ENPPI are still learning each other
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. ENPPI will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Mohamed Makhlouf has just signed for ENPPI, and for once the answer mattered.
“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 ENPPI, and it is not being withdrawn.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. ENPPI have done the hard part with Ismaily, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Abdelaziz El Zoghbi will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around ENPPI the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Ahmed Nader Hawash 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.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason ENPPI 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 Haras El Hodoud waiting with a shirt. Nobody at ENPPI is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” ENPPI have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
The deal with Ismaily 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at ENPPI this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ibrahim Ayoola 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.
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 Ammar Hamdy is on it.
In brief
The dugoutAhmed Shadad knocks on the manager's door