Marked for Mohanad Mohamed
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad14 Dec 2026
77 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Al Gaish lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Squad14 Dec 2026
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.
Player ratings14 Dec 2026
A brace, and Ahmed Khaled takes the afternoon — 9.36
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Ahmed Khaled provided it, and the 9.36 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
The dugout14 Dec 2026
Ahmed Ali keeps the receipts
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Al Gaish may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Squad14 Dec 2026
A falling-out at Al Gaish
Karim Tarek and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad14 Dec 2026
“The easiest signature of my career.” Yehia Mostafa and Al Gaish agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Player ratings14 Dec 2026
Successful dribbles: 16. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
The dugout14 Dec 2026
The manager’s verdict
“I am not going to get carried away and I will not let them either. It was a good day. There will be harder ones.” Mostafa Kahraba kept it short after the 2‑0 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad23 Nov 2026
99 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Al Gaish lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Squad23 Nov 2026
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Al Gaish will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Match18 Nov 2026
Cup progress for Al Gaish
A 2‑1 win over Haras El Hodoud, a place in the next round, and the quiet arithmetic every supporter does on the walk home: how many more until a final?
Player ratings23 Nov 2026
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 8.87, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
Squad23 Nov 2026
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 6 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Player ratings23 Nov 2026
Karim Tarek, 34, rolls back the years — 7.97
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 7.97 at 34, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Squad23 Nov 2026
Karim Tarek 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 Al Gaish this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The terraces23 Nov 2026
At 21 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.
Player ratings23 Nov 2026
Nobody on the pitch touched Mohamed Hany
7.81, and no serious argument from anybody who was there. Al Gaish had eleven men on the pitch and one of them decided how it went.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad16 Nov 2026
107 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.
Squad16 Nov 2026
Camacho 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.
Squad16 Nov 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 Al Gaish this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The dugout16 Nov 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Omar Radwan, and the manager let it.
Looking ahead16 Nov 2026
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Amro Tarek’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Al Gaish needing him to play as if none of it matters.
The dugout16 Nov 2026
Ebuka Okeke has been promised minutes
A conversation in the manager’s office, and a commitment that came out of it. Promises like that are cheap to make and expensive to break, and Ebuka Okeke has written the date down.
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.
Market16 Nov 2026
The shop window has Fares Hatem in it
Al Gaish have let the market know Fares Hatem can be had. No price in the advert, but everyone in the trade knows roughly what it says.
Looking ahead16 Nov 2026
Looking ahead: the trip to Ismaily
Position 9 for the hosts, a long journey for the away end, and a fixture that will look ordinary on paper right up until it is not.