Marked for Giuseppe Rizzo
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad26 Oct 2026
Ibrahim Al Hashmi damages knee ligaments — 44 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 44 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 ratings26 Oct 2026
Successful dribbles: 38. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad26 Oct 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.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad19 Oct 2026
Ibrahim Al Hashmi damages knee ligaments — 51 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 51 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
A fracture rules Walid Al Hashmi out for 78 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.
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. Giuseppe Rizzo 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
0‑2 to Sharjah, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Loan watch19 Oct 2026
“I did not go to Al-Ittihad to sit and watch. I want to come back to Al Shabab and fight for my place.” 3 appearances in 10 matches say the rest.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match7 Oct 2026
Cup ties wait for somebody to seize them, and Hamdan Hussain obliged against Al Shaab. 2‑0 on the night, and the name in the next round’s hat is Al Shabab.
Squad12 Oct 2026
A fracture rules Walid Al Hashmi out for 85 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.
Player ratings12 Oct 2026
Successful dribbles: 30. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Player ratings12 Oct 2026
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 8.18, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
Player ratings12 Oct 2026
A brace, and Hamdan Hussain takes the afternoon — 8.12
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Hamdan Hussain provided it, and the 8.12 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Squad12 Oct 2026
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Rashid Al Suwaidi is 20, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Match10 Oct 2026
Nobody wants to play Al Shabab right now
3 wins in a row changes how opponents warm up: quieter, more glances across. Runs end, everybody knows that — but nobody in this dressing room is planning for it.
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.
Squad12 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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Player ratings5 Oct 2026
No sign of nerves from Rashid Al Suwaidi at 20 — 7.95
The hardest thing about being 20 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Rashid Al Suwaidi did not need any: 7.95, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Player ratings5 Oct 2026
Successful dribbles: 27. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
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
Words at Al Shabab training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Giuseppe Rizzo 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 terraces5 Oct 2026
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 20-year-old it feels ownership of. Rashid Al Suwaidi 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.
Match3 Oct 2026
Al Dhafra made Al Shabab work for it, but the scoreboard read 1‑0 at the end and the table does not ask how.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad28 Sep 2026
A knee injury of the worst kind for Walid Mabkhout
19 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.
Squad28 Sep 2026
A fracture rules Hamad Khalfan out for 17 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.
Squad28 Sep 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
Crisis
Squad21 Sep 2026
Walid Mabkhout damages knee ligaments — 27 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 27 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.
Squad21 Sep 2026
A fracture rules Hamad Khalfan out for 24 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
Giuseppe Rizzo 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.
Match19 Sep 2026
0‑2 to Al Wasl, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Squad21 Sep 2026
Mario Palomino 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 ratings21 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 17. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad14 Sep 2026
Walid Mabkhout damages knee ligaments — 34 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 34 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.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Juan Deusa gets the move he always wanted
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Juan Deusa has just signed for Al Shabab, and for once the answer mattered.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Giuseppe Rizzo 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: 19. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Match12 Sep 2026
Al Nasr left with the points after a 0‑1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Squad14 Sep 2026
At 24 the improving is meant to be over. It is not: 3 points better than the mark taken at the start of the year, which is the sort of thing that happens to players who take the boring parts of the job seriously.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Squad7 Sep 2026
A knee injury of the worst kind for Ibrahim Al Hashmi
40 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.
Match5 Sep 2026
Al Shabab win it in stoppage time
The board had gone up, the arguing had started, and then the ball was in the net in the 95th minute. Al Ahli will replay every second of the added time for a week.
Player ratings7 Sep 2026
A brace, and Ibrahim Juma takes the afternoon — 8.23
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Ibrahim Juma provided it, and the 8.23 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Market7 Sep 2026
Al-Ittihad come back empty-handed
The bid was some way short and Al Shabab did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
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
The deal that would have taken Ali Al Bloushi to Emirates Club has collapsed at the last stage, and he reports back to Al Shabab with a summer to forget and a season still to play. Nobody is saying which side walked away.
Squad7 Sep 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.
Boardroom7 Sep 2026
4 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. Giuseppe Rizzo 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
Market24 Aug 2026
Sharjah come back empty-handed
The bid was some way short and Al Shabab did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Market24 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.
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.
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 Al Shabab this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Words at Al Shabab training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Giuseppe Rizzo 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
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Salem Al Shamsi, and the manager let it.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market17 Aug 2026
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Market17 Aug 2026
The name of Ali Khalfan has come up in conversations Al Shabab were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Squad17 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 Al Shabab this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad17 Aug 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Walid Mabkhout, and the manager let it.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Words at Al Shabab training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mario Palomino 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.
Squad17 Aug 2026
5 new faces, and Al Shabab are still learning each other
A squad rebuilt inside one window pays for it in a currency nobody budgets for. The football is not worse than the sum of the players; it is worse than the sum of the players who have played together before.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market10 Aug 2026
Al Shabab say no — this time
The offer from Al Dhafra for Giuseppe Rizzo 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.
Market10 Aug 2026
The chase for Simón García ended with $2.5M changing hands and Atletico Nacional out of reasons to say no. The supporters will judge the fee the only way that matters: on Saturdays.
Squad10 Aug 2026
“The easiest signature of my career.” Giuseppe Rizzo and Al Shabab agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad10 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 Al Shabab this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Market10 Aug 2026
Bandar Suqrat has left for Al Ain in a $270.0K deal. The accountants are pleased; the supporters are less certain.
Squad10 Aug 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
Steady
Market3 Aug 2026
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Amer Saeed 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 Shabab this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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
Words at Al Shabab training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Giuseppe Rizzo 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.
Squad3 Aug 2026
There is a level at which a footballer stops being tested and starts being contained, and he reached it some time ago. Al Shabab know it, and so does everybody who watches him.
Market3 Aug 2026
“There is a gap, and pretending there is not helps nobody.” Neither side has moved, and the calendar is working for exactly one of them.