Marked for Hamad Yaqoob
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad26 Apr 2027
Salem Al Kamali damages knee ligaments — 21 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 21 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.
Squad26 Apr 2027
A falling-out at Al Shaab
Ibrahim Bayesh and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad26 Apr 2027
Words at Al Shaab training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Hamad Yaqoob 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 dugout26 Apr 2027
Amer Yaqoob knocks on the manager’s door
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Amer Yaqoob trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Market26 Apr 2027
Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Khalid Al Bloushi’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.
Match26 Apr 2027
Continental football is in reach for Al Shaab
50 points from position 5. The title is somebody else’s business and the drop is somebody else’s problem; what is left is the argument about passports.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Squad18 Jan 2027
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 10 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Squad18 Jan 2027
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 41 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Player ratings18 Jan 2027
Two goals and a mark of 8.67 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Match16 Jan 2027
Nobody wants to play Al Shaab right now
4 wins in a row changes how opponents warm up: quieter, more glances across. Runs end, everybody knows that — but nobody in this dressing room is planning for it.
The dugout18 Jan 2027
“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.
Transfer targets18 Jan 2027
The deal with Al Dhafra 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.
Squad18 Jan 2027
Words exchanged at Al Shaab
Ibrahim Bayesh 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.
Match16 Jan 2027
Three points for Al Shaab, 3‑2 the final word against Al Ain in a contest settled by the finer margins.
Transfer targets18 Jan 2027
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.
In brief
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Squad
Words at Al Shaab training over how hard people work
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The dugout
The manager makes an example of Amer Yaqoob
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The dugout
Amer Juma has his say
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad7 Dec 2026
87 days out for Carlos Mosquera after a fracture
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Al Shaab will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Player ratings7 Dec 2026
A brace, and Khalid Al Bloushi takes the afternoon — 8.73
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Khalid Al Bloushi provided it, and the 8.73 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Squad7 Dec 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 Shaab this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Market7 Dec 2026
The interest is real enough to have reached print. Al Shaab have said nothing, which in a transfer window is its own kind of answer.
Match5 Dec 2026
Three points for Al Shaab, 4‑2 the final word against Emirates Club in a contest settled by the finer margins.
The terraces7 Dec 2026
At 22 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.
Market7 Dec 2026
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Tiago Batista wants continental football; whether Al Shaab can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
Player ratings7 Dec 2026
Marked 8.18 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
In brief
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Player ratings
Ibrahim Bayesh was on a different afternoon to everybody else
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Player ratings
Nobody could get near João Freitas
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Squad
Words at Al Shaab training over how hard people work
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad9 Nov 2026
25 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Al Shaab lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Match7 Nov 2026
0‑3 to Al Nasr, and it was every bit as bad as the number suggests. There are defeats you argue about and defeats you apologise for; this was the second kind.
Squad9 Nov 2026
Words exchanged at Al Shaab
Amer Yaqoob 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.
Boardroom9 Nov 2026
Nobody left the Al Shaab dressing room in a hurry
The door stayed shut a long time after the final whistle. What was said in there is between them; whether it worked is between them and Saturday.
Squad9 Nov 2026
Hamad Yaqoob 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
Amer Juma faces the questions
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Amer Juma after 0‑3, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
Squad9 Nov 2026
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Abdelilah Hafidi commits to Al Shaab for another 1 years.
The dugout9 Nov 2026
The manager makes an example of Nasser Obaid
“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.
Market9 Nov 2026
At 34, he has seen every situation this season can produce, twice. The legs will be managed; the head is the purchase.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad26 Oct 2026
A knee injury of the worst kind for Mohamed Al Hashmi
41 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Al Shaab lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Match24 Oct 2026
A 2‑0 win over Al Ahli, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Squad26 Oct 2026
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Stefano Monti and Al Shaab agree another 3 years.
Player ratings26 Oct 2026
Marked 7.76. Ask anyone leaving the ground what settled it and you will get one name, which is the only award that has ever really counted.
The dugout26 Oct 2026
The view from the dugout
“We controlled it. There were spells I did not like and we will look at them, but the group showed me something.” Amer Juma, on a 2‑0 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
Squad26 Oct 2026
Words at Al Shaab training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Tiago Batista 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 dugout26 Oct 2026
“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.
Squad26 Oct 2026
A Al Shaab teenager takes the young player award
Abdullah Al Naqbi is 19, and for one weekend he was the best of everybody his age in the division. Nobody should build a career on it and everybody quietly does.
Player ratings26 Oct 2026
Off the bench and decisive: Hamad Yaqoob
The substitution nobody applauded turned out to be the whole story. Al Shaab were going nowhere until he came on.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad19 Oct 2026
48 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Al Shaab lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Match14 Oct 2026
Al Shabab ended it 0‑1. The season narrows to the league now, and everyone in the ground knew it before the final whistle.
Squad19 Oct 2026
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.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Stefano Monti 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.
Squad19 Oct 2026
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Al Shaab can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Match17 Oct 2026
Beaten 0‑1, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
The dugout19 Oct 2026
The manager makes an example of Alassane Diallo
“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 dugout19 Oct 2026
Amer Juma faces the questions
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Amer Juma after 0‑1, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
The dugout19 Oct 2026
The plan did not have a place for Ibrahim Bayesh
Nobody at Al Shaab 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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad17 Aug 2026
Mohamed Al Hashmi damages knee ligaments — 115 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 115 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.
Market17 Aug 2026
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Market17 Aug 2026
“I know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” Al Wahda had the fee agreed and the shirt ready; they did not have the player, and now they will not.
Market17 Aug 2026
The chase for Ibrahim Bayesh ended with $2.8M changing hands and Al Dhafra out of reasons to say no. The supporters will judge the fee the only way that matters: on Saturdays.
Transfer targets17 Aug 2026
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.
Boardroom17 Aug 2026
The number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $471.5K — a club that wants Alassane Diallo enough to be asked twice.
Market17 Aug 2026
The chase for Alassane Diallo ended with $440.0K changing hands and Baniyas out of reasons to say no. The supporters will judge the fee the only way that matters: on Saturdays.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Tiago Batista 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 terraces17 Aug 2026
Al Shaab spend $2.8M on the signing the town wanted
It is the rarest sequence in football: supporters ask for something, and the club goes and does it. $2.8M for Ibrahim Bayesh, and for one week nobody is complaining about anything.