Khalid Khalfan

Attacking Midfielder (L) - Free Agent
15 Jun 2033
Wednesday
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Marked for Khalid Khalfan

333 Edition

The Baniyas Gazette

13 Dec 2032
From our football correspondent Uneasy

Squad13 Dec 2032

A knee injury of the worst kind for Sultan Omar

90 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Baniyas lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.

Match11 Dec 2032

6 matches without a win for Baniyas

The run now stands at 6, and the questions being asked around Baniyas are no longer polite ones.

Player ratings13 Dec 2032

Age has not caught Saviour Godwin yet — 8.15

At 36 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.15 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.

The dugout13 Dec 2032

Khalfan Obaid: that is not what I was promised

“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Baniyas have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.

Market13 Dec 2032

Khalid Khalfan puts it in writing

“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Baniyas, and it is not being withdrawn.

Squad13 Dec 2032

Tempers go at Baniyas

Saviour Godwin 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.

Player ratings13 Dec 2032

Nobody could get near Oumar Traoré

Successful dribbles: 22. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.

Squad13 Dec 2032

A row about effort at Baniyas

Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Faisal Al Kamali was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.

The dugout13 Dec 2032

No hiding place for Suhail Al-Noobi

“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Suhail Al-Noobi, and the manager let it.

In brief

Back issues
329 Edition

The Baniyas Gazette

15 Nov 2032
From our football correspondent Crisis

Market15 Nov 2032

Khalid Khalfan hands in a written request

“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Baniyas can pretend not to have heard.

Market15 Nov 2032

João Alves has his eye on Europe

It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether Baniyas can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.

Squad15 Nov 2032

Words exchanged at Baniyas

Saviour Godwin and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.

Squad15 Nov 2032

Bernard Faye 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 ratings15 Nov 2032

Mackenzie Hunt was unplayable

Successful dribbles: 20. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.

Match13 Nov 2032

Baniyas come up short against Al Ahli

Al Ahli left with the points after a 1‑2 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.

The dugout15 Nov 2032

João Victor gets it from the manager

“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.

The dugout15 Nov 2032

Interim Coach: “No excuses”

“I could talk about decisions and I could talk about luck. I will not. We lost.” The manager, 1‑2, and a press conference that lasted four minutes.

The dugout15 Nov 2032

Saviour Godwin gets picked when it counts

Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Saviour Godwin is on it.

In brief