“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.
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.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 19 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.
Squad21 Sep 2026
Words at Al Ahly training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Aliou Dieng 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.
“I watch every Al Ahly game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Ittihad runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
“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.
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.
Marked 8.84 — 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.
Aswan made Al Ahly work for it, but the scoreboard read 1‑0 at the end and the table does not ask how.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Aliou Dieng 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.
Shots: 10. Goals: none. The chances were there and they were good ones, and they went into the stand, the goalkeeper's arms and the side netting in roughly that order.
“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 The request is on a desk at Al Ahly, and it is not being withdrawn.
Emam Ashour 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.
Beaten 0‑1, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Squad31 Aug 2026
Aliou Dieng 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 one version of being left out a player cannot argue with, and the one he takes worst. Somebody else has been better and the team sheet says so, in public, every week until it changes.
Masr El Makasa did not want to sell and the number is why they did. $5.6M for Ramadan Elneny, and the expectation that arrives with him is the kind no amount of settling-in period softens.
Emam Ashour 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 fee is $210.0K, the contract is signed, and the argument about whether he is worth it can begin. El Masry drove a hard bargain; time will say who won it.
2 boys move up, and somewhere in the building the people who coached them at twelve are quietly having the best morning of their working year. Nothing about this shows up in a result and it is why the academy exists.
Add another name to the list: Military Production have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Hady Reyad. The answer from Al Ahly has not changed — yet.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Words at Al Ahly training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ieltsin Camões 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.
There is a level at which a footballer stops being tested and starts being contained, and he reached it some time ago. Al Ahly know it, and so does everybody who watches him.
$5.6M from Al Ahly for Ramadan Elneny. Money is money, but the dressing room has lost the man it looked to.
Match15 Aug 2026
Mostafa Hegazi wins it after the whistle should have gone
95 minutes played. Mostafa Hegazi found the finish in time that only existed because of earlier delays, and Ittihad went from a point to nothing inside one movement.
The offer from Military Production for Hossam El Mohamady 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.
Two goals and a mark of 8.51 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Everything was agreed until it was not, and Trezeguet El Shenawy reports back to Masr El Makasa with a summer to forget. Neither club is saying who walked away from the table.
The accountants will call it good business and they will be right, which is not the point anybody outside the boardroom is making. Ramadan Elneny was one of the reasons people came, and $5.6M does not replace that by itself.
Trezeguet El Shenawy 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.
Boardroom17 Aug 2026
5 academy players handed senior numbers at Masr El Makasa
The morning the pathway stops being a brochure and becomes a team sheet. Most of them will not be here in three years; all of them have already done the hard part, which was getting to today.
The phone has started ringing about Ramadan Elneny again, and this time the name on the line is Al Ahly. Masr El Makasa are listening politely and promising nothing.
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Masr El Makasa heard it as anything else.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Ramadan Elneny and Masr El Makasa agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Trezeguet El Shenawy 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.
In brief
SquadAli Fathi falls out with a teammate over standards
The offer from Enyimba for Bassem El Hadary 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Masr El Makasa this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
In brief
SquadWords at Masr El Makasa training over how hard people work