Marked for Salem Sultan
From our football correspondent
Steady
Match18 Jan 2027
Al Nasr up to position 3
40 points on the board and a place in the leading group. Nobody at the ground is saying the word out loud yet.
Match16 Jan 2027
Nobody wins at Al Nasr
12 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
Market18 Jan 2027
The phone has started ringing about João Moreira again, and this time the name on the line is Hajer. Al Nasr are listening politely and promising nothing.
Market18 Jan 2027
Al Nasr say no — this time
The offer from Sharjah for Salem Sultan 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.
Squad18 Jan 2027
Ramón Mierez 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.
Squad18 Jan 2027
Marius Marin 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.
Match16 Jan 2027
Al Ahli made Al Nasr work for it, but the scoreboard read 1‑0 at the end and the table does not ask how.
Player ratings18 Jan 2027
A performance of 8.05 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Player ratings18 Jan 2027
Successful dribbles: 17. 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
Crisis
Market11 Jan 2027
Al Nasr say no — this time
The offer from Rah Ahan for Leonel Wamba 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.
Boardroom11 Jan 2027
The rules permit it and it stings anyway. Salem Sultan has agreed terms with Al Wasl for the summer, and until then he pulls on this shirt as a player who has already chosen his next one.
Squad11 Jan 2027
Ramón Mierez 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 Nasr this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad11 Jan 2027
Words at Al Nasr training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Marius Marin 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.
Match9 Jan 2027
Al Ain left with the points after a 0‑1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Player ratings11 Jan 2027
Successful dribbles: 18. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Market11 Jan 2027
Both sides expect a conversation in the coming days. Al Nasr will name a price, and everything after that is arithmetic.
Squad11 Jan 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Gustavo Mueller, and the manager let it.
Squad11 Jan 2027
The one version of being left out a player cannot argue with, and the one he takes worst. Somebody else has been better and the team sheet says so, in public, every week until it changes.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Player ratings4 Jan 2027
Successful dribbles: 41. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Market4 Jan 2027
Al Nasr say no — this time
The offer from Al Wahda for Marouan Azarkan 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.
Squad4 Jan 2027
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Al Nasr may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Match2 Jan 2027
The run at home goes on for Al Nasr
11 matches unbeaten here. Every visiting manager is asked about it in the week before, which is precisely why it keeps going.
Squad4 Jan 2027
Ramón Mierez 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.
Squad4 Jan 2027
Marius Marin 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.
Boardroom4 Jan 2027
Al Wasl will keep picking him until June and will get nothing for him after it. Faris Khalil has pre-agreed a move to Al Nasr, and the only people who lose in that arrangement are the ones who let the contract run down.
Market4 Jan 2027
The name of Salem Sultan has come up in conversations Al Nasr were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Squad4 Jan 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Jean Pierre Fuentes, and the manager let it.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 45. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Market14 Sep 2026
Salem Sultan 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 Al Nasr can pretend not to have heard.
Market14 Sep 2026
Mehdi Ghayedi wants to know where this is going
“I want to win things, and I would like to do it here.” Nothing has been demanded and nothing has been threatened — but a boardroom at Al Nasr hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
Squad14 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 Nasr this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Saeed Maqdami is a better footballer than he was
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 22 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.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Marius Marin 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.
Match12 Sep 2026
Al Shabab made Al Nasr work for it, but the scoreboard read 3‑1 at the end and the table does not ask how.
Market14 Sep 2026
Both sides expect a conversation in the coming days. Al Nasr will name a price, and everything after that is arithmetic.
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
Marked 7.95. Ask anyone leaving the ground what settled it and you will get one name, which is the only award that has ever really counted.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market24 Aug 2026
“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 Al Nasr, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Ramón Mierez 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 Nasr this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Words at Al Nasr training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Marius Marin 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.
Market24 Aug 2026
The name of Salem Sultan has come up in conversations Al Nasr were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Market24 Aug 2026
Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Ramón Mierez’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.
Squad24 Aug 2026
He trains hard, says the right things and goes home to an empty flat. Nobody at Al Nasr has done anything wrong, which is exactly what makes it so difficult to fix.