Eromosele Zibiri 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.
Squad17 May 2027
Words at Masr El Makasa training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ramadan Ghaly 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 Masr El Makasa game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Police Union runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
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 Eromosele Zibiri is on it.
He asked about his future and was given an answer with minutes in it. The manager has now made a promise in a building where promises are remembered, and the clock on it has started.
“I did not come here to warm up in front of people.” He is out of contract eventually, he is old enough to count the weeks, and Masr El Makasa will have to give him a reason to stay or an exit.
“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.
The standards have slipped, and in a building where everybody watches everybody it has not gone unremarked. This is how a player loses a place before he loses one.
25 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.
The last league game has been played and the table has stopped moving: 44 points. The summer begins on Monday, and so does the argument about what it all meant.
Shikabala Marwan 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.
Marked 6.77 on 14 actions at both ends of the pitch. Midfielders like this get described as unspectacular by people who have never tried to play against one.
11 combined actions and 6.77. The job he did is the one that shows up as other people looking good, and the only reliable way to notice it is to watch what happens on the afternoons he is missing.
The injury that keeps coming back, keeps being rushed back from, and quietly costs more careers than the dramatic ones. 15 days is the estimate; the honest figure depends on whether anybody is patient.
Eromosele Zibiri 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.
Squad29 Mar 2027
Ramadan Ghaly 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 Mahmoud Soliman is on it.
“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.
The words a physio says slowly. 136 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.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Masr El Makasa will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 7 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. El Sayed Osama is 21, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Marked 8.21. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Masr El Makasa.
The dugout19 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.” Trezeguet El Wensh, on a 1‑0 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
12 defensive actions and a clean sheet at the end of them. A defender's afternoon can only be told by what did not happen, which is why nobody makes a highlights package out of one and every manager in the division would take it.
In brief
The dugoutThe plan did not have a place for Carlão
Cup ties wait for somebody to seize them, and Bassem Sobhi obliged against El Dakhleya. 3‑1 on the night, and the name in the next round’s hat is Masr El Makasa.
Police Union will want this one forgotten quickly: 3‑0, every duel lost, and a long ride home. Masr El Makasa were ruthless in the way good sides are ruthless.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 6 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
At 34 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.30 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Player ratings21 Sep 2026
Up for the corner, and Bassem Sobhi delivers — 7.35
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Bassem Sobhi scored, was marked 7.35, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Ali Gabr scored, was marked 7.28, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
He is 21 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.
In brief
SquadAustin Osayande falls out with a teammate over standards