Marked for Hussein Mido
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad1 Feb 2027
A knee injury of the worst kind for Mohamed Mohsen
26 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Masr El Makasa lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Boardroom1 Feb 2027
Deadline passes with 0 signed and 0 gone
That is the business done at Masr El Makasa until the window opens again. Whether it was enough will be answered on Saturdays rather than in a column, and the first Saturday is close.
Transfer targets1 Feb 2027
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.
Squad1 Feb 2027
Shikabala Marwan and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad1 Feb 2027
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Ramadan Ghaly was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Transfer targets1 Feb 2027
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Ismaily have kept their man, and Masr El Makasa go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Match30 Jan 2027
Police Union left with the points after a 1‑2 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
The dugout1 Feb 2027
The manager makes an example of Omar Mohsen
“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.
Transfer targets1 Feb 2027
The clock did what ENPPI would not, and ended it. Supporters who watched the countdown will spend the next window doing it again.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad4 Jan 2027
54 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Masr El Makasa lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Player ratings4 Jan 2027
Hussein Mido, 19, steals the show — 7.69
Marked 7.69 at 19, in a side that makes no allowances for age. He did not need any, and he looked the least nervous man on the pitch.
Squad4 Jan 2027
At 22 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.
Market4 Jan 2027
The name of Shikabala Marwan has come up in conversations Masr El Makasa were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Transfer targets4 Jan 2027
Everything agreed with Ismaily, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
Transfer targets4 Jan 2027
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Novorizontino have kept their man, and Masr El Makasa go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad4 Jan 2027
Shikabala Marwan and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
The terraces4 Jan 2027
At 19 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.
Match2 Jan 2027
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Hussein Mido. 1‑0 against Ittihad, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad30 Nov 2026
Mohamed Mohsen damages knee ligaments — 90 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 90 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.
Match28 Nov 2026
The board had gone up, the arguing had started, and then the ball was in the net in the 93th minute. Military Production will replay every second of the added time for a week.
Player ratings30 Nov 2026
At 34 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.27 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Match28 Nov 2026
It finished 3‑2, and it was Ahmed El Sheikh’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Masr El Makasa.
Squad30 Nov 2026
Chisom Onije 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.
The terraces30 Nov 2026
At 18 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.
Match28 Nov 2026
5 without a win is the sort of run that changes how a town talks about its club, and Military Production were the afternoon it stopped. Nothing is fixed by one result and everything feels different by one.
Player ratings30 Nov 2026
A performance of 8.32 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Squad30 Nov 2026
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Austin Osayande was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad16 Nov 2026
A knee injury of the worst kind for Mohamed Mohsen
104 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Masr El Makasa lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
The dugout16 Nov 2026
“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.
Squad16 Nov 2026
Shikabala Marwan 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.
Squad16 Nov 2026
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and El Sayed Osama was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout16 Nov 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Hussein Mido, and the manager let it.
Squad16 Nov 2026
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Mohamed Emad and Masr El Makasa agree another 4 years.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad9 Nov 2026
A knee injury of the worst kind for Mohamed Mohsen
113 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Masr El Makasa lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Match7 Nov 2026
3 games without scoring. Strikers stop looking up, midfielders take the extra touch, and every shot that clears the bar is followed by a groan that has been building since the last goal.
Squad9 Nov 2026
Shikabala Marwan and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Match7 Nov 2026
Beaten 0‑2, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Squad9 Nov 2026
Austin Osayande 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 dugout9 Nov 2026
“I could talk about decisions and I could talk about luck. I will not. We lost.” The manager, 0‑2, and a press conference that lasted four minutes.
Player ratings9 Nov 2026
Successful dribbles: 13. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
The dugout9 Nov 2026
The plan did not have a place for Eromosele Zibiri
Nobody at Masr El Makasa is suggesting he is out of form. The manager simply wanted somebody with a different set of qualities for ninety specific minutes, and there is nothing a player can train to fix that.
The dugout9 Nov 2026
Hussein Mido 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 Masr El Makasa, and both men came out saying it was fine.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Player ratings2 Nov 2026
A brace, and Nicolás Giménez takes the afternoon — 8.42
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Nicolás Giménez provided it, and the 8.42 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Match31 Oct 2026
8 unbeaten for Zamalek
Hard to beat is not the same as winning, but 8 matches without defeat is a foundation Zamalek did not have in the autumn.
Market2 Nov 2026
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Zamalek is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad2 Nov 2026
Kewin 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.
Player ratings2 Nov 2026
Successful dribbles: 22. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
Match31 Oct 2026
Three points for Zamalek, 2‑1 the final word against Aswan in a contest settled by the finer margins.
The dugout2 Nov 2026
The manager makes an example of Chico Banza
“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.
Squad2 Nov 2026
Mohamed Ibrahim 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 watch2 Nov 2026
“I did not go to Masr El Makasa to sit and watch. I want to come back to Zamalek and fight for my place.” 7 appearances in 9 matches say the rest.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad5 Oct 2026
150 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Masr El Makasa lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Ali Gabr is a better footballer than he was
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 21 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.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Chisom Onije 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.
Match3 Oct 2026
0‑1 to Aswan, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Squad5 Oct 2026
El Sayed Osama 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 dugout5 Oct 2026
The manager makes an example of Hussein Mido
“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.
The dugout5 Oct 2026
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 0‑1 Trezeguet El Wensh left the room before anybody could ask which.
The dugout5 Oct 2026
Carlão does not fit this one
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 dugout5 Oct 2026
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.