Marked for Amer Al Shamsi
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Player ratings8 Feb 2027
Successful dribbles: 50. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Market8 Feb 2027
“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.
Match6 Feb 2027
Hard to beat is not the same as winning, but 7 matches without defeat is a foundation Al Shabab did not have in the autumn.
Squad8 Feb 2027
Words at Al Shabab training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Youssef Al Bloushi 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.
Match6 Feb 2027
A 1‑0 win over Emirates Club, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Player ratings8 Feb 2027
Ninety minutes of Ibrahim Al Shamsi at his very best
Marked 8.32. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Al Shabab.
Loan watch8 Feb 2027
“I watch every Al Shabab game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Sharjah runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
Squad8 Feb 2027
A place in the month's best eleven for Walid Rashid
Four or five weekends of consistency, judged against everybody in the division doing his job. Walid Rashid has come out of that comparison in the side, and Al Shabab have had the benefit of every one of those afternoons.
Squad8 Feb 2027
A player who expected to start watched it instead. The manager will call it a decision for the team; Ismail Al Menhali will call it something else in private.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Player ratings30 Nov 2026
Successful dribbles: 41. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad30 Nov 2026
Ibrahim Nader damages knee ligaments — 37 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 37 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.
Match28 Nov 2026
There is no crueller way to lose a football match. Al Shabab scored in the 96th minute, the restart barely happened, and the away end was still standing when the whistle went.
Player ratings30 Nov 2026
No sign of nerves from Walid Rashid at 21 — 7.84
The hardest thing about being 21 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Walid Rashid did not need any: 7.84, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Squad30 Nov 2026
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Al Shabab may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Squad30 Nov 2026
Ibrahim Al Shamsi 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.
Match28 Nov 2026
A 3‑2 win over Al Ain, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
The terraces30 Nov 2026
At 21 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.
Squad30 Nov 2026
Words at Al Shabab training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Walid Rashid 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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad12 Oct 2026
Ibrahim Nader damages knee ligaments — 90 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 90 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.
Match10 Oct 2026
Nowhere to hide for Al Shabab
1‑6 against Baniyas, and no complaints that would survive the replay. The manager spoke about character afterwards; the terraces used shorter words.
Match7 Oct 2026
Cup ties wait for somebody to seize them, and Amer Al Shamsi obliged against Al Shaab. 5‑2 on the night, and the name in the next round’s hat is Al Shabab.
Player ratings12 Oct 2026
There is exactly one of these per career and it does not usually go like this. 0 on the scoresheet, 7.64 beside the name, and a crowd that had never seen him before chanting it by the end.
Squad12 Oct 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.
Player ratings12 Oct 2026
Age has not caught Amer Al Shamsi yet — 8.51
At 34 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.51 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Player ratings12 Oct 2026
Successful dribbles: 24. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Match7 Oct 2026
Amer Al Shamsi among the goals in a wild afternoon
7 goals in one match, Amer Al Shamsi on the scoresheet, and a scoreline that will look like a misprint. Neutrals could not have asked more of Al Shabab and Al Shaab.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market7 Sep 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 Al Shabab, and it is not being withdrawn.
Boardroom7 Sep 2026
2 academy players handed senior numbers at Al Shabab
The morning the pathway stops being a brochure and becomes a team sheet. Most of them will not be here in three years; all of them have already done the hard part, which was getting to today.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Words at Al Shabab training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ibrahim Al Shamsi 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.
Match5 Sep 2026
Amer Al Shamsi scored, and precious little else went right: 1‑3 to Al Ahli, and a quiet walk to the dressing room.
Squad7 Sep 2026
“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.
Market7 Sep 2026
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Hamdan Juma has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.
Market7 Sep 2026
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Hamdan Al Shamsi has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.
Boardroom7 Sep 2026
Al Shabab turn down the training-ground plan
It is the quietest way a club tells you what its ambitions are. The money was asked for, the money was refused, and the people who work there every day now know exactly where they stand.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Every debut is a small story about the future: Hamdan Rashid, 17 years old, off the academy pitches and into the first team. The parents in the stand will keep the programme.