Marked for Ramadan Warda
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad18 Jan 2027
Ali Ashour 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 Masr El Makasa this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad18 Jan 2027
Emad El Wensh 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 terraces18 Jan 2027
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.
Match16 Jan 2027
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Valentino Pereyra. 2‑0 against Al Gaish, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Squad18 Jan 2027
“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.
Squad18 Jan 2027
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Ken-Gaston Koumous and Masr El Makasa agree another 4 years.
Player ratings18 Jan 2027
Defensive actions: 17. He was first to everything and second to nothing, and the goalkeeper had an easy day because of it.
Player ratings18 Jan 2027
16 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.
Market18 Jan 2027
He is 20, and the scouting reports agree on the only line that matters: the ceiling. Signings like this are lottery tickets written by professionals.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad23 Nov 2026
A knee injury of the worst kind for Bassem Marwan
42 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Masr El Makasa lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Match21 Nov 2026
Abdallah Warda had done his part in building a 2-goal cushion. What happened after that was collective, and ENPPI were allowed back into a match that had been finished with.
Market23 Nov 2026
“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 Masr El Makasa, and it is not being withdrawn.
Match21 Nov 2026
No end in sight to Masr El Makasa's wait for a win
7 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Masr El Makasa has to find a result from somewhere.
Squad23 Nov 2026
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Masr El Makasa may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Squad23 Nov 2026
Ali Ashour 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 Masr El Makasa this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad23 Nov 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Dokou Dodo, and the manager let it.
Player ratings23 Nov 2026
Marked 8.03 — 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.
Player ratings23 Nov 2026
Ali Ashour runs at them all day
Successful dribbles: 17. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad9 Nov 2026
A knee injury of the worst kind for Bassem Marwan
56 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Masr El Makasa lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Market9 Nov 2026
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Match7 Nov 2026
No end in sight to Masr El Makasa's wait for a win
5 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Masr El Makasa has to find a result from somewhere.
Squad9 Nov 2026
Ali Ashour 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 Masr El Makasa this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad9 Nov 2026
Emad El Wensh 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.
Player ratings9 Nov 2026
19 times he got in the way of something. Centre-halves get written about when they make mistakes and ignored when they do not, so an afternoon like this needs saying out loud: he is the reason the scoreline reads as it does.
Squad9 Nov 2026
Too much change too quickly at Masr El Makasa
8 signings in three months. Every one of them may be an upgrade and the team can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild that never appears in the transfer-window verdicts.
Player ratings9 Nov 2026
Nobody could get near Ali Ashour
Successful dribbles: 15. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Match7 Nov 2026
Ninety minutes, two goalkeepers with clean gloves, and not one finish worth keeping. Military Production will be the happier side with the point.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad28 Sep 2026
A knee injury of the worst kind for Bassem Marwan
100 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Masr El Makasa lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Market28 Sep 2026
Ali Ashour hands in a written request
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Masr El Makasa can pretend not to have heard.
Squad28 Sep 2026
There were 6 saves in it, and at least three that had no business being saves at all. The ten outfield players owe him a drink and they know it.
Match26 Sep 2026
The run now stands at 5, and the questions being asked around Masr El Makasa are no longer polite ones.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Ali Ashour 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 Masr El Makasa this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Words at Masr El Makasa training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Isaiah Ejeh 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.
Player ratings28 Sep 2026
Nobody could get near Ali Ashour
Successful dribbles: 19. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Player ratings28 Sep 2026
Headers, blocks, tackles, interceptions — 14 of them, and not one goal behind him. The sort of performance that never makes a highlight reel and wins football matches.
Match26 Sep 2026
The crowd waited for a goal that never came. Aswan defended in numbers and left with what they came for, and the two sides could be playing still without troubling a scorer.