Marked for Salman Al-Harbi
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Player ratings8 Feb 2027
Thiago Queiroz pops up at the right end — 7.67
7.67, 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.
Match6 Feb 2027
4 matches without a win for Al-Mojzel
The run now stands at 4, and the questions being asked around Al-Mojzel are no longer polite ones.
Squad8 Feb 2027
Thiago Queiroz 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.
Match6 Feb 2027
A bad afternoon for Al-Mojzel against Damac
1‑2 to Damac, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Squad8 Feb 2027
“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.
Squad8 Feb 2027
Words at Al-Mojzel training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mohammed Al-Harbi 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.
Squad8 Feb 2027
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Hassan Al-Zahrani commits to Al-Mojzel for another 1 years.
Loan watch8 Feb 2027
“I am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at Al-Mojzel, and 0 appearances in 26 say he has earned the hearing.
Player ratings8 Feb 2027
Successful dribbles: 12. 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
Upbeat
Player ratings11 Jan 2027
35 times he got in the way of something. Centre-halves get written about when they make mistakes and ignored when they do not, so an afternoon like this needs saying out loud: he is the reason the scoreline reads as it does.
Market11 Jan 2027
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Player ratings11 Jan 2027
Successful dribbles: 22. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad11 Jan 2027
Thiago Queiroz 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.
Match9 Jan 2027
Al-Mojzel are at home on the road
4 straight away victories. Sides that win away are usually sides that can defend and can counter, and the table has begun to reflect what those journeys have earned.
Match9 Jan 2027
Whatever happens, Al-Mojzel do not lose
6 games unbeaten now. Some were earned and some were survived, but a habit is forming — and habits are the hardest thing in football to play against.
Match9 Jan 2027
A 1‑0 win over Al-Nahda, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Player ratings11 Jan 2027
Sultan Al-Sulami was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.14. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
Squad11 Jan 2027
“The easiest signature of my career.” Salman Al-Ahmadi and Al-Mojzel agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad14 Dec 2026
Thiago Queiroz 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.
Squad14 Dec 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Saad Al-Dosari, and the manager let it.
Player ratings14 Dec 2026
Successful dribbles: 18. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Loan watch14 Dec 2026
“I watch every Al-Mojzel game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Al-Riyadh runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
Match12 Dec 2026
1‑1, and both dressing rooms will call it two points lost. A draw that asked plenty of questions and answered none of them.
Squad14 Dec 2026
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad16 Nov 2026
A shoot-out is remembered by its ending, and this one ends with Saad Al-Dosari: 2 kept out, and a set of supporters who will describe every one of them for the next twenty years.
Match11 Nov 2026
Al-Shabab ended it 2‑2. The season narrows to the league now, and everyone in the ground knew it before the final whistle.
Player ratings16 Nov 2026
Two goals and a mark of 8.53 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
The terraces16 Nov 2026
The ground has had enough
“We travel everywhere and we get this.” 10 of the 34 senior players heard it walking off, and the ones who did not hear it were not playing.
Squad16 Nov 2026
Thiago Queiroz 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.
Match14 Nov 2026
Beaten 2‑3, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Squad16 Nov 2026
Words at Al-Mojzel training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Omar Al-Mansour 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.
Squad16 Nov 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.
Match11 Nov 2026
There is a particular helplessness in conceding 2 times before the twentieth minute. Al-Shabab tried to reorganise, Al-Mojzel did not allow it, and the result was written long before it was confirmed.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad19 Oct 2026
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Turki Al-Subaie is 18, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Thiago Queiroz 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.
Match17 Oct 2026
Al-Njoom made Al-Mojzel work for it, but the scoreboard read 2‑1 at the end and the table does not ask how.
The terraces19 Oct 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.
Squad19 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.
Match17 Oct 2026
2 goals inside twenty minutes with Sultan Al-Sulami in the middle of it, and Al-Njoom unable to get near the ball long enough to change anything. Some matches are won before the first drink.
Player ratings19 Oct 2026
Sultan Al-Sulami was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.17. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
Player ratings19 Oct 2026
Omar Al-Mansour was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.10. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
Loan watch19 Oct 2026
“I watch every Al-Mojzel game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Al-Riyadh runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
The terraces21 Sep 2026
The ground has had enough
“We travel everywhere and we get this.” 10 of the 34 senior players heard it walking off, and the ones who did not hear it were not playing.
Squad21 Sep 2026
There were 7 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.
Squad21 Sep 2026
Thiago Queiroz 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
Al-Hazem left with the points after a 0‑1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Squad21 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.
Loan watch21 Sep 2026
“I did not go to Al-Riyadh to sit and watch. I want to come back to Al-Mojzel and fight for my place.” 0 appearances in 6 matches say the rest.
Squad21 Sep 2026
Waleed Al-Qahtani 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: 15. 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 5.30, and generously at that. Nothing came off, and by the end the crowd had stopped expecting it to.