Marked for Khalid Al Hammadi
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad16 Nov 2026
131 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Al Shabab lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Squad16 Nov 2026
Alejandro Otero 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.
Squad16 Nov 2026
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Khalid Al Hammadi and Al Shabab agree another 4 years.
The dugout16 Nov 2026
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Al Shabab told Idir Mokeddem something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
The dugout16 Nov 2026
Sultan Al Hashmi has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Al Shabab will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
Market16 Nov 2026
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Al Shabab know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Market16 Nov 2026
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Nasser Al Hammadi has his answer from Al Shabab; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
The dugout16 Nov 2026
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Nasser Al Hammadi trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Looking ahead16 Nov 2026
Looking ahead: the trip to Al Shaab
Position 10 for the hosts, a long journey for the away end, and a fixture that will look ordinary on paper right up until it is not.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad19 Oct 2026
Mohammed Fawzi damages knee ligaments — 120 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 120 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
Al Shabab through in the cup
A 2‑0 win over Al Shaab, and the draw for the next round can be watched with some interest for once.
Player ratings19 Oct 2026
The hardest thing about being 19 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Khalfan Abdulrahman did not need any: 8.30, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Player ratings19 Oct 2026
At 33 every good afternoon gets called a throwback, and this one was: 7.84, and nobody on the pitch better.
Player ratings19 Oct 2026
Nikola Vukić pops up at the right end — 7.84
7.84, 1 on the scoresheet, and the specific comedy of a back-four player celebrating like somebody who does this every week. He does not, and that is exactly why the ground reacted the way it did.
Squad19 Oct 2026
“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 Al Shabab know it.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Rashid Al Bloushi and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Khalid Al Hammadi 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.
The dugout19 Oct 2026
The manager makes an example of Alejandro Otero
“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
Triumph
Squad21 Sep 2026
151 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Al Shabab lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Match19 Sep 2026
3‑0, and the margin flattered nobody — it could have carried another goal or two without complaint. Afternoons like this are why people keep coming.
Squad21 Sep 2026
A fracture rules Alexandre Dias out for 18 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Al Shabab will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Squad21 Sep 2026
Alejandro Otero 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.
Squad21 Sep 2026
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Khalid Al Hammadi is 19, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
The terraces21 Sep 2026
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.
Player ratings21 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 19. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Player ratings21 Sep 2026
Marked 7.97 on an afternoon he ran from the first whistle to the last. Whatever else went wrong, Al Shabab had the best player on the pitch.
Market21 Sep 2026
He is 19, and the scouting reports agree on the only line that matters: the ceiling. Signings like this are lottery tickets written by professionals.