Marked for Ahmed Hassan
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match9 Jan 2027
17 matches without a win for Al Fujairah
The run now stands at 17, and the questions being asked around Al Fujairah are no longer polite ones.
Squad11 Jan 2027
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 27 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Transfer targets11 Jan 2027
The clubs have shaken hands with Al Ain; the player has not yet. Personal terms are next, and personal terms are where more deals die than anybody prints.
Squad11 Jan 2027
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.
Market11 Jan 2027
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Al Fujairah can pretend not to have heard.
Squad11 Jan 2027
Ahmed Hassan and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Match9 Jan 2027
The goals have deserted Al Fujairah
3 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Al Fujairah can tell you which week it ends in.
Transfer targets11 Jan 2027
Al Fujairah asked and Al Wahda said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Match9 Jan 2027
No clean sheets in sight for Al Fujairah
4 games now with at least two against. The back line has been rearranged, the goalkeeper has been backed publicly, and the goals keep going in anyway.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match2 Jan 2027
16 matches without a win for Al Fujairah
The run now stands at 16, and the questions being asked around Al Fujairah are no longer polite ones.
Squad4 Jan 2027
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Al Fujairah will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Match4 Jan 2027
Al Fujairah are in real trouble now
Position 14, 0 points, and a fixture list with fewer games left in it than excuses. The arithmetic is not cruel yet, but it has stopped being kind.
Match2 Jan 2027
Beaten 0‑3 by Sharjah, and beaten everywhere it matters. The inquest starts on the training pitch on Monday morning.
Market4 Jan 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.
Squad4 Jan 2027
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.
Squad4 Jan 2027
Ahmed Hassan and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Transfer targets4 Jan 2027
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Al Wasl have kept their man, and Al Fujairah go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
The dugout4 Jan 2027
The manager makes an example of Sultan Juma
“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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match5 Dec 2026
No end in sight to Al Fujairah's wait for a win
12 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Al Fujairah has to find a result from somewhere.
Squad7 Dec 2026
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 70 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Squad7 Dec 2026
A knee injury of the worst kind for Omar Khalfan
30 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Al Fujairah lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Match5 Dec 2026
11 matches, two or more conceded in every one of them. Sides that create as much as this can live with it for a while. Nobody lives with it forever.
Match7 Dec 2026
Every point is an argument now for Al Fujairah
Position 14 and 0 points, and the table gets read bottom-up in this part of town. The calendar has stopped being a schedule and started being a countdown.
Squad7 Dec 2026
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 9 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
Match5 Dec 2026
Beaten 0‑3 by Al Wasl, and beaten everywhere it matters. The inquest starts on the training pitch on Monday morning.
Squad7 Dec 2026
Ahmed Hassan and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
The dugout7 Dec 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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad30 Nov 2026
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Al Fujairah will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Match28 Nov 2026
11 matches without a win for Al Fujairah
The run now stands at 11, and the questions being asked around Al Fujairah are no longer polite ones.
Squad30 Nov 2026
A knee injury of the worst kind for Omar Khalfan
37 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Al Fujairah lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Match28 Nov 2026
10 matches, two or more conceded in every one of them. Sides that create as much as this can live with it for a while. Nobody lives with it forever.
The dugout30 Nov 2026
Ismaïla Sonko: that is not what I was promised
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Al Fujairah have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Squad30 Nov 2026
Ahmed Hassan 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
1‑3 to Al Nasr, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Player ratings30 Nov 2026
Sultan Juma beats them one at a time
Successful dribbles: 17. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
The dugout30 Nov 2026
Petar Panić gets it from the manager
“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
Crisis
Squad23 Nov 2026
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 87 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Match21 Nov 2026
10 matches without a win for Al Fujairah
The run now stands at 10, and the questions being asked around Al Fujairah are no longer polite ones.
Match21 Nov 2026
Beaten 0‑4 by Al Ahli, and beaten everywhere it matters. The inquest starts on the training pitch on Monday morning.
Match21 Nov 2026
Al Fujairah are shipping goals every week
Two or more conceded in each of the last 9 matches. It is not one mistake repeating itself, which would be the easier thing to fix; it is a different one every week.
The dugout23 Nov 2026
“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.
Squad23 Nov 2026
Ahmed Hassan 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 Al Fujairah this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The dugout23 Nov 2026
The manager makes an example of Sultan Juma
“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.
Squad23 Nov 2026
Words at Al Fujairah training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mayed Saeed 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.
Boardroom23 Nov 2026
Nobody left the Al Fujairah dressing room in a hurry
The door stayed shut a long time after the final whistle. What was said in there is between them; whether it worked is between them and Saturday.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad16 Nov 2026
15 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Al Fujairah lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Squad16 Nov 2026
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Al Fujairah will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Squad16 Nov 2026
Ahmed Hassan and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad16 Nov 2026
Meshal Hamad arrives at the club he grew up with
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Meshal Hamad has, at Al Fujairah, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
The dugout16 Nov 2026
Ahmed Hassan gets it from the manager
“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.
Looking ahead16 Nov 2026
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Al Ahli in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad19 Oct 2026
The words a physio says slowly. 47 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.
Match14 Oct 2026
The small margins put Al Fujairah out
Out, 0‑2 to Al Wasl, and the long argument about which of the small moments decided it. The league is all there is now, and everybody knows it.
The dugout19 Oct 2026
“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.
Match17 Oct 2026
No end in sight to Al Fujairah's wait for a win
6 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Al Fujairah has to find a result from somewhere.
Player ratings19 Oct 2026
Up for the corner, and Novak Vuković delivers — 7.57
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Novak Vuković scored, was marked 7.57, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
Match17 Oct 2026
No clean sheets in sight for Al Fujairah
5 games now with at least two against. The back line has been rearranged, the goalkeeper has been backed publicly, and the goals keep going in anyway.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Ahmed Hassan and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Match17 Oct 2026
Beaten 2‑3, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
The dugout19 Oct 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
Uneasy
Squad12 Oct 2026
54 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Al Fujairah lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
The dugout12 Oct 2026
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Al Fujairah may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Squad12 Oct 2026
Ahmed Hassan and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Squad12 Oct 2026
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Mayed Saeed was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad12 Oct 2026
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Al Fujairah can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
The dugout12 Oct 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Novak Vuković, and the manager let it.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad5 Oct 2026
The words a physio says slowly. 63 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.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 10 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
Player ratings5 Oct 2026
Both jobs done by Mayed Saeed — 6.92
A midfielder is measured on whether the team functions when he is on the pitch, which is nearly impossible to see and completely obvious in retrospect. 17 actions, 6.92, and a manager who will not be substituting him again in a hurry.
Match3 Oct 2026
4 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Ahmed Hassan 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.
Match3 Oct 2026
Ahmed Hassan scored, and precious little else went right: 1‑3 to Al Shabab, and a quiet walk to the dressing room.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Words at Al Fujairah training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mayed Saeed 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 dugout5 Oct 2026
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 1‑3, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
The dugout5 Oct 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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad28 Sep 2026
72 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Al Fujairah lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Match26 Sep 2026
0‑3 to Al Jazira, 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.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Ahmed Hassan 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 Al Fujairah this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The dugout28 Sep 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Petar Panić, and the manager let it.
Boardroom28 Sep 2026
The manager kept them in and said what needed saying. A response is expected on Saturday, and if it does not come the questions move upstairs.
Squad28 Sep 2026
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Al Fujairah can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Squad28 Sep 2026
A defender's mistake gets tidied up by somebody else; a goalkeeper's ends up in the net. He knew before the ball crossed the line, and so did everybody in the ground.
The dugout28 Sep 2026
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Nasser Al Menhali after 0‑3, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
The dugout28 Sep 2026
The manager has not finished forgetting Saleh Al-Mesmari's mistake
Publicly it is behind everybody. It is not behind the man who picks the team, and the only place that shows is a team sheet. He will get another chance; he will get it in a match that matters less.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Player ratings21 Sep 2026
Two goals and a mark of 8.80 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Squad21 Sep 2026
6 saves, and a scoreline the ten men in front of him had no right to. Goalkeepers only get noticed on the bad days; this was one of the other ones.
Squad21 Sep 2026
Hamdan Al Shamsi is a better footballer than he was
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 19 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.
Match19 Sep 2026
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Mahmoud Mabkhout. 3‑2 against Al Nasr, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Squad21 Sep 2026
Khalifa Mubarak 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 terraces21 Sep 2026
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.
Squad21 Sep 2026
Words at Al Shabab training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Alejandro Ramírez 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 ratings21 Sep 2026
A performance of 8.00 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
The terraces21 Sep 2026
Al Shabab's travelling support get something back at Al Nasr
They paid twice — for the ticket and for the journey — and got a 3-2 win for it. Away support is the truest kind precisely because nothing about it is convenient.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad31 Aug 2026
101 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Al Fujairah lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Market31 Aug 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 Fujairah, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad31 Aug 2026
Ahmed Hassan 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 Al Fujairah this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad31 Aug 2026
The system has changed and his position has not. A footballer can improve his form; he cannot improve the manager’s formation, and that is the whole of the problem.
Squad31 Aug 2026
Mayed Saeed 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.
Market31 Aug 2026
A season-long audition: Al Shabab still own him, but the shirt and the minutes are Al Fujairah's to give. A loan is a bet both clubs believe they are winning.
From our football correspondent
Steady
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.
Transfer targets24 Aug 2026
Fee agreed, terms agreed, and a scan that said otherwise. He goes back to Al Nasr; Al Fujairah go back to the market; and both will insist there is no story here.
Transfer targets24 Aug 2026
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Al Fujairah have done the hard part with Al Ain, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Transfer targets24 Aug 2026
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Al Shabab is saying, and nobody at Al Fujairah is enjoying the guessing.
Transfer targets24 Aug 2026
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Al Shabab have kept their man, and Al Fujairah go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Ahmed Hassan and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Transfer targets17 Aug 2026
The deal with Al Nasr is done in every sense but the one that puts him on the pitch. Nothing goes wrong at this stage, except on the occasions when it does.
Transfer targets17 Aug 2026
No thanks: Ahmed Fawzi rejects the move
Al Fujairah had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Baniyas, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Abdallah Al-Blooshi 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
Steady
Squad3 Aug 2026
11 seasons and 127 appearances, all of them here. Careers like this are not designed; they happen to a certain kind of man at a certain kind of club, and this town has one.
Squad3 Aug 2026
“The easiest signature of my career.” Petar Panić and Al Fujairah agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Petar Panić 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
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Al Fujairah can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Transfer targets3 Aug 2026
Al Fujairah have made the call to Dibba. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
Transfer targets3 Aug 2026
A loan enquiry to Al Shabab: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.
Transfer targets3 Aug 2026
A loan enquiry to Al Shabab: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.
Market3 Aug 2026
No place for Naser Salem in the plan
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Naser Salem has his answer from Al Fujairah; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
Market3 Aug 2026
Still no offer on the table, and Gabriel Santini’s deal keeps shrinking. In boardroom language, silence this long stops being an oversight and starts being an answer.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market3 Aug 2026
Al Shabab say no — this time
The offer from Foolad for Ahmed Hussain 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.
Market3 Aug 2026
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Al Shabab heard it as anything else.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Amer Yaqoob and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Sultan Al Bloushi 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.
Transfer targets3 Aug 2026
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Al Wahda have kept their man, and Al Shabab go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Market3 Aug 2026
The interest is real enough to have reached print. Al Shabab have said nothing, which in a transfer window is its own kind of answer.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Every shape has positions in it and this one does not have his. Al Shabab will either change the shape, change his job, or change his club, and he is waiting to hear which.
Transfer targets3 Aug 2026
A loan move for Danial Eiri is in the works
Al Shabab have made the call to Persepolis. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
The dugout3 Aug 2026
Amer Yaqoob knocks on the manager’s door
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Amer Yaqoob trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.