Marked for Youssef Oubaba
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad12 Jul 2027
71 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. ENPPI lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Market12 Jul 2027
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around ENPPI people have started saying his name in the past tense.
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 The request is on a desk at ENPPI, and it is not being withdrawn.
Transfer targets12 Jul 2027
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at River Plate is saying, and nobody at ENPPI is enjoying the guessing.
Squad12 Jul 2027
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Ahmed Nader Hawash commits to ENPPI for another 4 years.
Market12 Jul 2027
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at ENPPI is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad12 Jul 2027
Words exchanged at ENPPI
Rafik Kabou 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.
Transfer targets12 Jul 2027
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Corinthians have kept their man, and ENPPI go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad12 Jul 2027
Words at ENPPI training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mohamed Hathout 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
Upbeat
Market8 Feb 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.
Squad8 Feb 2027
A falling-out at ENPPI
Rafik Kabou and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad8 Feb 2027
Kahraba is in the form of his life
A season average of 7.21 with 16 goals behind it. Opponents have started planning around him, which is the sincerest compliment football pays.
Squad8 Feb 2027
A row about effort at ENPPI
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Kahraba was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Match6 Feb 2027
It finished 3‑1, and it was Kahraba’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to ENPPI.
Transfer targets8 Feb 2027
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. San Telmo have kept their man, and ENPPI go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Player ratings8 Feb 2027
One of those days for Kahraba
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.45, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Player ratings8 Feb 2027
A performance of 8.16 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
The dugout8 Feb 2027
Ziad Kamal 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.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
The dugout16 Nov 2026
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” ENPPI may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Squad16 Nov 2026
A falling-out at ENPPI
Rafik Kabou and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad16 Nov 2026
Kahraba 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
The manager makes an example of Youssef Oubaba
“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.
Looking ahead16 Nov 2026
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Ittihad in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
The dugout16 Nov 2026
Emad Mayhoub knocks on the manager's door
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at ENPPI, and both men came out saying it was fine.
The dugout16 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.
Market16 Nov 2026
The list is a quiet document with a loud meaning. Ziad Kamal may talk to anybody who asks, and everybody at the club understands what that means.
Looking ahead16 Nov 2026
An away day at Ittihad next for ENPPI
They sit in position 4 and they will be waiting. Away form is where a season shows its true character, and this side has a point to make about its own.