Marked for Mostafa Ashour
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Player ratings15 Feb 2027
Successful dribbles: 48. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Player ratings15 Feb 2027
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 8.69, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
Boardroom15 Feb 2027
Ismaily will keep picking him until June and will get nothing for him after it. Abdallah Gamal has pre-agreed a move to Masr El Makasa, and the only people who lose in that arrangement are the ones who let the contract run down.
Squad15 Feb 2027
Words at Masr El Makasa training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mahmoud El Shenawy 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.
Squad15 Feb 2027
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.
Match13 Feb 2027
Ismaily made Masr El Makasa work for it, but the scoreboard read 2‑0 at the end and the table does not ask how.
Squad15 Feb 2027
Defences have started doubling up on Abdallah El Nenny
9 goals and a season average of 7.20 will do that. The space he used to find has gone; he keeps scoring anyway, which is the mark of the real thing.
Squad15 Feb 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.
Market15 Feb 2027
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Masr El Makasa, another week without a signature from Gustavo Figueiredo.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
Match12 Sep 2026
Police Union will want this one forgotten quickly: 5‑0, every duel lost, and a long ride home. Masr El Makasa were ruthless in the way good sides are ruthless.
Squad14 Sep 2026
A fracture rules El Sayed Soliman out for 86 days
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.
Squad14 Sep 2026
3 goals in one game. The first was taken well, the second was taken greedily, and by the third the crowd were simply waiting for him to get the ball.
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 8.13, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 9.52, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Abdallah El Nenny 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 ratings14 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 20. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Ismail Ashraf 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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad24 Aug 2026
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 108 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Match22 Aug 2026
0‑3 against Al Ahly, and no complaints that would survive the replay. The manager spoke about character afterwards; the terraces used shorter words.
Market24 Aug 2026
The offer from Al Ahly for Trezeguet Trezeguet 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.
Market24 Aug 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.
Market24 Aug 2026
The name of Ali El Hadary has come up in conversations Masr El Makasa were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Squad24 Aug 2026
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.
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 21. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Words at Masr El Makasa training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Abdallah El Nenny 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.
Squad24 Aug 2026
“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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market3 Aug 2026
Add another name to the list: Paradou have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Mohamed Mohsen. The answer from Masr El Makasa has not changed — yet.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Mostafa 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.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Words at Masr El Makasa training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Abdallah El Nenny 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.