Zayed Khamis

Central Defender - Al Dhafra
28 Aug 2027
Saturday
Process
Overview Personal Contract News 5 Transfers Relations Events 67 Awards Matches History

Marked for Zayed Khamis

49 Edition

The Al Dhafra Chronicle

5 Jul 2027
From our football correspondent Uneasy

Market5 Jul 2027

Zayed Khamis puts it in writing

“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 The request is on a desk at Al Dhafra, and it is not being withdrawn.

Transfer targets5 Jul 2027

Agustín Cortez due for a Al Dhafra medical

Everything agreed with Vélez, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.

Market5 Jul 2027

Al Dhafra sign Nahyan Al-Mamari for $150.0K

The paperwork is done: Nahyan Al-Mamari joins from Al Ain in a deal worth $150.0K. Now comes the harder part.

Transfer targets5 Jul 2027

PSV tell Al Dhafra: Noah Fernandez is not for sale

The approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.

Squad5 Jul 2027

Rostand Djooh 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.

Boardroom5 Jul 2027

Intake day at the Al Dhafra academy

5 arrivals, an average age nobody would call a squad, and a set of parents being shown around a building their sons will spend more time in than at home. The scouting has already happened; today is only the paperwork.

Squad5 Jul 2027

Serafim moves up the pecking order

Nothing is announced when this happens and everybody knows. He is a bigger part of the plan at Al Dhafra than he was a month ago, and the training ground worked that out before the team sheet said so.

Squad5 Jul 2027

No place for Nahyan Al-Mamari in the new shape

He is not being dropped. There is simply nowhere in the formation Al Dhafra are playing to put a man who does what he does, which is a harder thing to be told than any team sheet.

Market5 Jul 2027

The Sory Kaba talk will not go away

Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Al Dhafra know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.

In brief

Back issues
46 Edition

The Al Dhafra Chronicle

14 Jun 2027
From our football correspondent Uneasy

Squad14 Jun 2027

21 days out for Obaida Al-Najjar after a fracture

A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Al Dhafra will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.

Market14 Jun 2027

Sory Kaba turns Al Ahli down

“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.

Transfer targets14 Jun 2027

Iago turns down Al Dhafra

The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Dibba keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.

Transfer targets14 Jun 2027

Facundo Jáuregui due for a Al Dhafra medical

Everything agreed with Huracán, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.

Transfer targets14 Jun 2027

An offer of $430.0K for Momodou Jatta

Al Dhafra 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.

Squad14 Jun 2027

Sory Kaba 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 Dhafra this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.

Squad14 Jun 2027

The step up is real for Zayed Khamis

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.

Transfer targets14 Jun 2027

Door shut on Nick Homan

Al Dhafra asked and AZ said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.

Squad14 Jun 2027

A late step up for Mazin Saleh

At 24 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

42 Edition

The Al Dhafra Chronicle

17 May 2027
From our football correspondent Uneasy

Squad17 May 2027

Obaida Al-Najjar breaks a bone — 52 days out

Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 52 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.

Squad17 May 2027

A row about effort at Al Dhafra

Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Rostand Djooh was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.

The dugout17 May 2027

Karim El Berkaoui is still paying for one afternoon at Al Dhafra

Nobody will confirm this and nothing else explains the last month of selections. A costly error buys a player a period of being second choice that is always longer than the error was.

Market17 May 2027

Sory Kaba linked with a move away

The name of Sory Kaba keeps appearing in other people's back pages. Al Dhafra say nothing, which says plenty.

The dugout17 May 2027

Arielson asks for a word with the manager

“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.

The dugout17 May 2027

Adel Abubaker Fadaq 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 Adel Abubaker Fadaq has written the date down.

In brief

38 Edition

The Al Dhafra Chronicle

19 Apr 2027
From our football correspondent Uneasy

Squad19 Apr 2027

A falling-out at Al Dhafra

Sory Kaba and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.

The dugout19 Apr 2027

Karim El Berkaoui is still being punished for one mistake

Nobody will confirm it and the team sheets confirm it every week. One error has bought him a spell as second choice that is already longer than the error deserved.

Market19 Apr 2027

The Sory Kaba story refuses to die

It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Sory Kaba signs something — a contract at Al Dhafra or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.

In brief

24 Edition

The Al Dhafra Chronicle

11 Jan 2027
From our football correspondent Upbeat

Player ratings11 Jan 2027

Nobody could get near Ibrahim Bayesh

Successful dribbles: 46. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.

Match9 Jan 2027

Al Dhafra tear Emirates Club apart

Rarely has this fixture seen a display like it: 3‑0 against Emirates Club, and it could have been more.

Market11 Jan 2027

Sharjah come back empty-handed

The bid was some way short and Al Dhafra did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.

Player ratings11 Jan 2027

A brace, and Marcelinho takes the afternoon — 8.37

There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Marcelinho provided it, and the 8.37 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.

Squad11 Jan 2027

Tempers go at Al Dhafra

Ibrahim Bayesh 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.

Market11 Jan 2027

Al Ahly are about to pick up the phone

A conversation is coming this week. Al Dhafra will put a number on him, and from there it stops being football and becomes arithmetic.

Transfer targets11 Jan 2027

Door shut on Adel Abubaker Fadaq

Al Dhafra asked and Baniyas said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.

Squad11 Jan 2027

Words at Al Dhafra training over how hard people work

Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Rostand Djooh 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.

The dugout11 Jan 2027

A satisfied Saeed Abdulrahman

“The players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 3‑0, Saeed Abdulrahman could afford to be generous.

In brief