“The easiest signature of my career.” Ibrahim Aboul-Yazid and Masr El Makasa agree another 2 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Ibrahim Aboul-Yazid 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.
Squad9 Oct 2028
Bassem Hassan 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.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 11 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Everything was agreed until it was not, and Mostafa Ghaly reports back to Masr El Makasa with a summer to forget. Neither club is saying who walked away from the table.
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.
Squad11 Sep 2028
Words at Masr El Makasa training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Bassem Hassan 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.
1‑4 to Ittihad, 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.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Ibrahim Ashour will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Masr El Makasa the goodbyes have quietly begun.
The hardest thing about being 18 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Mostafa Ghaly did not need any: 8.02, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
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.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Bassem Hassan is 23, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Ibrahim Aboul-Yazid 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.
At 36 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.
5 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.
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.
Aswan pay $30.0K, and the deal is done. The number reads well on a balance sheet; whether it reads well on the pitch is next season's question.
Squad9 Aug 2027
Words at Masr El Makasa training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Shikabala Trezeguet 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.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Abdallah Elneny and Masr El Makasa agree another 2 years.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
Ibrahim Aboul-Yazid 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 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.
“I have given this everything, but my family is not here and neither am I, not really.” A footballer can be coached out of bad form. Nobody has ever been coached out of this, and Masr El Makasa know it.
“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.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Ibrahim Elneny will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Masr El Makasa the goodbyes have quietly begun.
The name of Bassem Hassan has come up in conversations Masr El Makasa were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Ramadan Trezeguet is 23, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
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.
Ittihad paid $22.0K and Masr El Makasa took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
In brief
SquadWords at Masr El Makasa training over how hard people work
The accountants will call it good business and they will be right, which is not the point anybody outside the boardroom is making. Karim Trezeguet was one of the reasons people came, and $3.2M does not replace that by itself.
Zamalek paid $3.2M and Masr El Makasa took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
Ibrahim Aboul-Yazid 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.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Ibrahim Elneny will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Masr El Makasa the goodbyes have quietly begun.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Masr El Makasa have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
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.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 32 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Ibrahim Aboul-Yazid 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 easiest signature of my career.” Bassem Hassan and Masr El Makasa agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
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.
Ibrahim Aboul-Yazid 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 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.
“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.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 54 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Ibrahim Aboul-Yazid 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.
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.
“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.
The chances are being made and something is happening between the making and the finishing. 6 matches now, and the anxiety in the ground arrives a little earlier every week.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Ibrahim Elneny will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Masr El Makasa the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Ibrahim Aboul-Yazid 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 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 words a physio says slowly. 55 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.
Ibrahim Aboul-Yazid 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.
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.
The words a physio says slowly. 62 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.
The hardest thing about being 19 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Abdelrahman Mano did not need any: 7.81, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
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.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 19-year-old it feels ownership of. Abdelrahman Mano has it now, and everything he does for the rest of his time here will be measured against the goodwill he was handed for free.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Abdelrahman Mano. 1‑0 against Ismaily, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Squad15 Feb 2027
Words at Masr El Makasa training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Shikabala Trezeguet 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.
79 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.
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.
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Ali Mohsen commits to Masr El Makasa for another 1 years.
Squad1 Feb 2027
Words at Masr El Makasa training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Shikabala Trezeguet 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 words a physio says slowly. 87 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.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Masr El Makasa they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Ibrahim Aboul-Yazid 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.
Two or more conceded in each of the last 4 matches. It is not one mistake repeating itself, which would be the easier thing to fix; it is a different one every week.