Marked for Faisal Saeed
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad19 Oct 2026
Khalfan Mabkhout damages knee ligaments — 100 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 100 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.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Yusuf Akçiçek is a better footballer than he was
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 20 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.
Squad19 Oct 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 Al Shabab this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Words at Al Shabab training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Yusuf Akçiçek 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.
Match17 Oct 2026
1‑2 to Sharjah, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Player ratings19 Oct 2026
Successful dribbles: 15. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad12 Oct 2026
A knee injury of the worst kind for Khalfan Mabkhout
108 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Al Shabab lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Match7 Oct 2026
The small margins put Al Shabab out
Out, 1‑3 to Al Shaab, and the long argument about which of the small moments decided it. The league is all there is now, and everybody knows it.
Squad12 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.
The terraces12 Oct 2026
The ground has had enough
“We travel everywhere and we get this.” 10 of the 29 senior players heard it walking off, and the ones who did not hear it were not playing.
Player ratings12 Oct 2026
Faisal Al Kamali, 20, plays like he has been here for years — 8.51
A mark of 8.51 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 20-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
Player ratings12 Oct 2026
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 7.99 at 35, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Player ratings12 Oct 2026
A defender's afternoon for Luis Vargas
Defensive actions: 24. He was first to everything and second to nothing, and the goalkeeper had an easy day because of it.
Squad12 Oct 2026
Hassan Khalfan is a better footballer than he was
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 21 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.
Squad12 Oct 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 Al Shabab this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad5 Oct 2026
Khalfan Mabkhout damages knee ligaments — 116 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 116 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.
Player ratings5 Oct 2026
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.31 at 33, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Bandar Al Hammadi is a better footballer than he was
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 18 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.
Squad5 Oct 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 Al Shabab this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad5 Oct 2026
“The easiest signature of my career.” Majed Al Menhali and Al Shabab agree another 1 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Player ratings5 Oct 2026
Shots: 6, not one of them in. A centre forward is paid for one thing, and on this evidence he has forgotten which thing it is.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad28 Sep 2026
Khalfan Mabkhout damages knee ligaments — 125 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 125 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.
Player ratings28 Sep 2026
No sign of nerves from Faisal Al Kamali at 19 — 8.51
The hardest thing about being 19 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Faisal Al Kamali did not need any: 8.51, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Player ratings28 Sep 2026
At 33 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 9.01 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Ivan Gonzalez is a better footballer than he was
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 20 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.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Bandar Khalfan 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.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Yusuf Akçiçek 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.
Match26 Sep 2026
Al Fujairah made Al Shabab work for it, but the scoreboard read 3‑1 at the end and the table does not ask how.
The terraces28 Sep 2026
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 19-year-old it feels ownership of. Faisal Al Kamali 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.
Player ratings28 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 11. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad7 Sep 2026
Khalfan Mabkhout damages knee ligaments — 148 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 148 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.
The terraces7 Sep 2026
The ground has had enough
“We travel everywhere and we get this.” 8 of the 30 senior players heard it walking off, and the ones who did not hear it were not playing.
Market7 Sep 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.
Market7 Sep 2026
“I have ambitions, and I would like the club to share them.” Nobody has asked to leave and nobody has been shown the door — but a player chooses that sentence carefully, and a boardroom hears it exactly as it was meant.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Hassan Khalfan is 21, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Boardroom7 Sep 2026
5 boys move up, and somewhere in the building the people who coached them at twelve are quietly having the best morning of their working year. Nothing about this shows up in a result and it is why the academy exists.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Words at Al Shabab training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Yusuf Akçiçek 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.
Market7 Sep 2026
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Amer Al Hashmi has been at this club since he was a boy and is now, formally, one of the first-team squad — which for a local readership beats any signing of any size.
Market7 Sep 2026
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Saeed Al Menhali 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.