The Al Ain Chronicle
Market7 Sep 2026
Ittihad come back empty-handed
The bid was some way short and Al Ain did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Valentino Lazaro 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 Ain this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Eid Al-Hammadi 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.
Boardroom7 Sep 2026
Graduation day at Al Ain
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
Soufiane Rahimi 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.
Market7 Sep 2026
One of our own: Hamdan Khalfan joins the Al Ain first team
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Hamdan Khalfan is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Market7 Sep 2026
Al Ain promote Majed Rashid from within
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Majed Rashid 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.
Market7 Sep 2026
Mohamed Abdulrahman steps up from the Al Ain academy
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Mohamed Abdulrahman 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.
Match5 Sep 2026
Al Ain find a way past Emirates Club
Emirates Club made Al Ain work for it, but the scoreboard read 1‑0 at the end and the table does not ask how.
In brief
- Player ratings Mohamed Awad Alla runs at them all day
- Squad Kouamé Autonne signs a new deal
- Player ratings Soufiane Rahimi was the difference for Al Ain