26 matches unbeaten here. Every visiting manager is asked about it in the week before, which is precisely why it keeps going.
Match30 Oct 2027
Sory Kaba wins it after the whistle should have gone
92 minutes played. Sory Kaba found the finish in time that only existed because of earlier delays, and Ghazl El Mahalla went from a point to nothing inside one movement.
7 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.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 7.91 at 36, and nobody on the pitch was better.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Zamalek this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Sory Kaba. 2‑1 against Ghazl El Mahalla, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
“I watch every Zamalek game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at CR Belouizdad runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.00 at 36, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Ahmed Fatouh 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.
Match23 Oct 2027
Another one collected away from home
3 on the bounce on the road for Zamalek. The coaches leave early, arrive at unlovely grounds in the dark, and keep coming home with three points.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Riyad Mahrez. 1‑0 against Aswan, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Squad25 Oct 2027
Words at Zamalek training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Junior Onana 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.
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.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Farid El Melali provided it, and the 8.42 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Moustapha Zeghba and CR Belouizdad agree another 2 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Naoufel Khacef 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.
Squad4 Oct 2027
Words at CR Belouizdad training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Chouaib Keddad 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.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Gopolang Taunyane signs something — a contract at CR Belouizdad or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at CR Belouizdad this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
At 26 the improving is meant to be over. It is not: 4 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.
Headers, blocks, tackles, interceptions — 13 of them, and not one goal behind him. The sort of performance that never makes a highlight reel and wins football matches.
In brief
Player ratingsYousri Bouzok changes it off the bench
At 36 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.31 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Zamalek this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Player ratings27 Sep 2027
Sory Kaba was on a different afternoon to everybody else
10.00. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
9 goals in one match, Sory Kaba on the scoresheet, and a scoreline that will look like a misprint. Neutrals could not have asked more of Zamalek and Police Union.
8.53. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Moussa Dembélé provided it, and the 8.99 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Abdelmalek Kelaleche is 22, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
10 without defeat on their own grass. The pitch has not changed; the crowd has — louder earlier, and quicker to sense when the opposition would rather be somewhere else.
Naoufel Khacef 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.
Squad20 Sep 2027
Youcef Laouafi has improved at 31, which nobody expected
Careers are supposed to plateau and then decline, and the players who ignore that are always the ones who were listening on the training ground. 3 points of it, over months, at an age where the direction normally only goes one way.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Moussa Dembélé. 2‑1 against ES Mostaganem, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Marked 8.28 — 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.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 23 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.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 7.82 at 36, and nobody on the pitch was better.
3 wins on the spin now, and the question has changed from whether the run ends to who ends it. Confidence like this cannot be bought; it has to be earned exactly this way.
Ahmed Fatouh 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.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 22 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.
At 28 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.
A performance of 8.48 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Squad30 Aug 2027
Words at Zamalek training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Omar Gaber 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 offer from ENPPI for John Okoli 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.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Gopolang Taunyane is 21, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
In brief
SquadWords at CR Belouizdad training over how hard people work
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at CR Belouizdad is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad26 Jul 2027
Words at CR Belouizdad training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Chouaib Keddad 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.
Bassem Gabr 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.
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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Zamalek this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad26 Jul 2027
Omar Gaber 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.
“I watch every Zamalek game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at CR Belouizdad runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
Naoufel Khacef 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.
Squad14 Jun 2027
Words at CR Belouizdad training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Chouaib Keddad 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 name of Mohamed Slimi has come up in conversations CR Belouizdad were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
There is a level at which a footballer stops being tested and starts being contained, and he reached it some time ago. CR Belouizdad know it, and so does everybody who watches him.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Zamalek have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Ahmed Fatouh 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 interest is real enough to have reached print. Zamalek have said nothing, which in a transfer window is its own kind of answer.
Squad7 Jun 2027
Words at Zamalek training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Omar Gaber 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.
Bassem Gabr 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.
Squad12 Apr 2027
Junior Onana 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.
Bassem Gabr 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.
“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.
Squad29 Mar 2027
Words at Dinamo Tbilisi training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Welton Júnior 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 am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at Dinamo Tbilisi, and 0 appearances in 10 say he has earned the hearing.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Dinamo Tbilisi have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Gerónimo Rivera provided it, and the 8.48 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
10 without defeat on their own grass. The pitch has not changed; the crowd has — louder earlier, and quicker to sense when the opposition would rather be somewhere 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 Dinamo Tbilisi this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 6 goals between Dinamo Tbilisi and Chikhura, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.
Squad22 Mar 2027
Words at Dinamo Tbilisi training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mathew Gbomadu 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.
Momentum is a hard thing to buy and an easy thing to lose, and right now Zamalek have 13 straight wins of it.
Player ratings8 Mar 2027
A brace, and Adam Kaied takes the afternoon — 8.03
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Adam Kaied provided it, and the 8.03 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Monsef Bakrar 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.
Arab Contractors made Zamalek work for it, but the scoreboard read 2‑1 at the end and the table does not ask how.
Squad8 Mar 2027
Words at Zamalek training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Junior Onana 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.
Masr El Makasa will want this one forgotten quickly: 6‑1, every duel lost, and a long ride home. Zamalek were ruthless in the way good sides are ruthless.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 23 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Two goals and a mark of 9.19 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.48 at 35, and nobody on the pitch was better.
An individual honour is a strange thing in a team game, and the best of them are never argued with. He has had the sort of year that ends with his name being read out, and Zamalek have had the benefit of it.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Zamalek can pretend not to have heard.
12 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Zamalek will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Two goals and a mark of 8.07 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Juan Bezerra 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.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Bassem Gabr 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.
Squad16 Nov 2026
Words at Zamalek training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Junior Onana 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.
At 35 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.02 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Juan Bezerra 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 23 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.
Three points for Zamalek, 1‑0 the final word against Al Gaish in a contest settled by the finer margins.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Words at Zamalek training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Junior Onana 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.
Marked 8.22 — 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.
A brace, and Juan Bezerra takes the afternoon — 8.35
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Juan Bezerra provided it, and the 8.35 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Franck Boli 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.
A 3‑1 win over Masr El Makasa, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Still no offer on the table, and Franck Boli’s deal keeps shrinking. In boardroom language, silence this long stops being an oversight and starts being an answer.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Words at Zamalek training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mohamed Shehata 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 no complaint available here and everybody involved knows it, which does not make the walk to the bench any shorter. Form is the only currency in football that cannot be borrowed against.
Two goals and a mark of 8.10 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
The offer from BATE for Bassem Gabr 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.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Junior Onana has just signed for Zamalek, and for once the answer mattered.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.12 at 35, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Wadi Degla did not want to sell and the number is why they did. $600.0K for Franck Boli, and the expectation that arrives with him is the kind no amount of settling-in period softens.
Ismaël Bennacer 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.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Zamalek they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Nobody at the club will say out loud who this signing is for, which is how you know exactly who it is for. Ahmed Fouad has been brought in to take a shirt somebody is still wearing.
Zamalek arrived with $1.7M and left with the best player in the building. The board will call it business; the queue at the ticket office will use other words.
He is going to Zamalek, the club has $1.7M it did not have on Friday, and the phone-ins have already decided how they feel about that. Selling well and selling somebody they loved are not the same skill.
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.
Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 7 goals between Masr El Makasa and Al Ahly, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.
Everyone has stopped pretending: Al Ahly will make the call about El Sayed Trezeguet this week. Masr El Makasa have a number in mind, and the number is not shy.
Beaten 7 times, with 3 saves for company. Goalkeepers carry these scorelines on their record whoever actually caused them, which is the quiet injustice of the job.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Words at Masr El Makasa training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Alexander Jakobsen 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 board had gone up, the arguing had started, and then the ball was in the net in the 92th minute. El Dakhleya will replay every second of the added time for a week.
The offer from Grasshopper for Mahmoud El Wensh 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.
“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 Zamalek, and it is not being withdrawn.
Masr El Makasa did not want to sell and the number is why they did. $1.7M for Bassem Gabr, and the expectation that arrives with him is the kind no amount of settling-in period softens.
Juan Bezerra 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.
A 1‑0 win over El Dakhleya, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Words at Zamalek training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Omar Gaber 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.
In brief
Squad8 new faces, and Zamalek are still learning each other