71 without defeat on their own grass. The pitch has not changed; the crowd has — louder earlier, and quicker to sense when the opposition would rather be somewhere else.
43 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Al Ahly lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
A 1‑0 win over Military Production, a place in the next round, and the quiet arithmetic every supporter does on the walk home: how many more until a final?
Position 2, 37 points, and the result everyone checks first is now theirs. The word is still not being said around the ground, which is how you know everyone is thinking it.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Abdel Rahim Alhassane is living that version at Al Ahly, and it tends to show in the first month.
73 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Al Ahly lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Al Ahly is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
3 wins on the spin now, and the question has changed from whether the run ends to who ends it. Confidence like this cannot be bought; it has to be earned exactly this way.
Two goals and a mark of 8.19 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Malick Yalcouyé is living that version at Al Ahly, and it tends to show in the first month.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Yassin Hatem will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Al Ahly the goodbyes have quietly begun.
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 Ahly this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
16 wins on the spin now, and the question has changed from whether the run ends to who ends it. Confidence like this cannot be bought; it has to be earned exactly this way.
Masr El Makasa will want this one forgotten quickly: 4‑0, every duel lost, and a long ride home. Al Ahly were ruthless in the way good sides are ruthless.
The clubs have shaken hands with Al Jazira; the player has not yet. Personal terms are next, and personal terms are where more deals die than anybody prints.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Al Ahly will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Match25 Aug 2029
Another one collected away from home
7 on the bounce on the road for Al Ahly. The coaches leave early, arrive at unlovely grounds in the dark, and keep coming home with three points.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Al Ahly is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
The offer from ES Setif for Yassin Hatem was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
94 points, and the rest of the division looking up. Every side that finishes first spends the season pretending it is not thinking about it, and this one has started pretending.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Al Ahly will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Al Ahly have lost him in all but the paperwork.
“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 Al Ahly, and it is not being withdrawn.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Al Ahly they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Christopher Bonsu Baah has just signed for Al Ahly, and for once the answer mattered.
Mohamed Ali Ben Romdhane 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.
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.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Al Ahly will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Al Ahly have lost him in all but the paperwork.
“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 Ahly can pretend not to have heard.
The offer from Wadi Degla for Belal Ateya was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Al Ahly is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
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 Ahly this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Ahmed Ashour is 16, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Squad16 Jul 2029
Words at Al Ahly training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Zizo 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 Otávio is on it.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager makes an example of Belal Ateya
The dugoutAmine Aboulfath is still being punished for one mistake
The dugoutMohamed Hany knocks on the manager’s door
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Yassin Hatem will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Al Ahly the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Mohamed Ali Ben Romdhane 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.
Squad21 May 2029
Juan Brunetta 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.
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 Zizo is on it.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Al Ahly know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Al Ahly. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
A year in and the language has not come, the city has not opened up, and he eats alone more often than anybody at Al Ahly would like to admit. It is showing on Saturdays.
In brief
MarketThe clock does Sidnei Tavares’s negotiating for him
“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 Al Ahly, and it is not being withdrawn.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Al Ahly can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Al Ahly is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Mohamed Ali Ben Romdhane 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.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Kévin Zohi is living that version at Al Ahly, and it tends to show in the first month.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Zizo was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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 Zizo is on it.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Al Ahly told Sidnei Tavares something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
61 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
The words a physio says slowly. 27 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.
11 wins on the spin now, and the question has changed from whether the run ends to who ends it. Confidence like this cannot be bought; it has to be earned exactly this way.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Sunusi Ibrahim provided it, and the 9.75 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Player ratings26 Mar 2029
A brace, and Juan Brunetta takes the afternoon — 9.29
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Juan Brunetta provided it, and the 9.29 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Two goals and a mark of 8.29 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
58 without defeat on their own grass. The pitch has not changed; the crowd has — louder earlier, and quicker to sense when the opposition would rather be somewhere else.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Yassin Hatem will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Al Ahly the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Mohamed Ali Ben Romdhane 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 Juan Brunetta was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 6 goals between Al Ahly and Military Production, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Hassan Al-Harbi. 4‑2 against Military Production, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Al Ahly have lost him in all but the paperwork.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Al Ahly they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
4 wins on the spin now, and the question has changed from whether the run ends to who ends it. Confidence like this cannot be bought; it has to be earned exactly this way.
The fee was agreed and the flight was looked at — and then the phone stopped ringing. Al Gaish moved on, Hussein El Shahat reports back to Al Ahly, and everybody pretends Monday is just Monday.
53 without defeat on their own grass. The pitch has not changed; the crowd has — louder earlier, and quicker to sense when the opposition would rather be somewhere else.
Al Ahly have gone to Al Jazira with a bid, and the supporters have gone to the internet with an opinion about it. Whether either changes anything is up to the selling club.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Al Gaish waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Al Ahly is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
The offer from JS Saoura for Yassin Hatem was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
9 straight away victories. Sides that win away are usually sides that can defend and can counter, and the table has begun to reflect what those journeys have earned.
“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 Ahly can pretend not to have heard.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Al Ahly have lost him in all but the paperwork.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Al Ahly they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
At 20 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.
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 Ahly this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Al Ahly have lost him in all but the paperwork.
“It was not right for me. I am not going to explain why to anybody except the people I owe an explanation to.” A deal agreed between two clubs, and a player who declined to be part of it.
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Al Ahly heard it as anything else.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Al Ahly they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 23 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.
Mohamed Ali Ben Romdhane 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.
At 32 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.
In brief
The dugoutZizo has become a man the manager trusts
The dugoutThe manager makes an example of Yassin Hatem
The dugoutNabil Alioui knocks on the manager's door
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Al Ahly have lost him in all but the paperwork.
“I know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” Al Gaish had the fee agreed and the shirt ready; they did not have the player, and now they will not.
“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 Ahly can pretend not to have heard.
Mohamed Ali Ben Romdhane 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.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Moataz Mohamed is 23, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Squad10 Jul 2028
Juan Brunetta 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.
“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 Wadi Degla, and it is not being withdrawn.
At 20 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.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Mahmoud Salah is living that version at Wadi Degla, and it tends to show in the first month.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Wadi Degla this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The name of Kelvin Leku has come up in conversations Wadi Degla were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Signed today, seen by nobody for years, and one of them may one day be the reason the club exists. That is the whole of the argument for an academy, and it is a good one.
“I want to win things, and I would like to do it here.” Nothing has been demanded and nothing has been threatened — but a boardroom at Al Ahly hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
Mohamed Ali Ben Romdhane 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.
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Zizo was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Al Ahly they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
“I have ambitions, and I would like the club to share them.” Nobody has asked to leave and nobody has been shown the door — but a player chooses that sentence carefully, and a boardroom hears it exactly as it was meant.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Zizo was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Clubs make promises constantly and the page usually only hears about them when they are broken. This one was honoured, and the dressing room noticed that faster than any supporter did.
Nobody at Al Ahly will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Zizo was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Achraf Dari 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.
He won it back and then made something of it, which is two jobs and the reason the scoreline looks the way it does. 9 combined actions and a mark of 7.49, and not one of them will make a highlights package.