Marked for Abdullah Khateeb
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad16 Aug 2027
137 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Al-Ettifaq lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Match14 Aug 2027
Another one collected away from home
12 on the bounce on the road for Al-Ettifaq. The coaches leave early, arrive at unlovely grounds in the dark, and keep coming home with three points.
Market16 Aug 2027
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Al-Ettifaq people have started saying his name in the past tense.
Market16 Aug 2027
“It was not right for me. I am not going to explain why to anybody except the people I owe an explanation to.” A deal agreed between two clubs, and a player who declined to be part of it.
Player ratings16 Aug 2027
Successful dribbles: 27. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Market16 Aug 2027
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Al-Ettifaq they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Market16 Aug 2027
The phone has started ringing about Abdoulaye Kanté again, and this time the name on the line is USM Alger. Al-Ettifaq are listening politely and promising nothing.
Squad16 Aug 2027
Yasir Al-Shammari is a better footballer than he was
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 23 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.
Boardroom16 Aug 2027
1 academy graduates step up at Al-Ettifaq
Senior shirt numbers handed to boys the coaches have known since they were twelve. Most will not make it and all of them have already done the hard part.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market19 Jul 2027
“It was not right for me. I am not going to explain why to anybody except the people I owe an explanation to.” A deal agreed between two clubs, and a player who declined to be part of it.
Market19 Jul 2027
The offer from Golden Arrows for Mohau Nkota 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.
Market19 Jul 2027
“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 The request is on a desk at Al-Ettifaq, and it is not being withdrawn.
Market19 Jul 2027
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Al-Ettifaq is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Transfer targets19 Jul 2027
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Al-Fateh keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Squad19 Jul 2027
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-Ettifaq this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Transfer targets19 Jul 2027
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Al-Ta'ee have kept their man, and Al-Ettifaq go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad19 Jul 2027
A row about effort at Al-Ettifaq
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Madallah Al-Olayan was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Transfer targets19 Jul 2027
A loan enquiry to Al-Wehda: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad12 Jul 2027
A knee injury of the worst kind for Marzouq Tambakti
19 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Al-Ettifaq lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Transfer targets12 Jul 2027
Everything was agreed with Al-Nahda and then the doctor spoke. Al-Ettifaq have walked away from a signing on the advice of somebody who never saw him play, which is how it is supposed to work.
Market12 Jul 2027
“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.
Squad12 Jul 2027
Mohau Nkota 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.
Squad12 Jul 2027
Álvaro Medrán 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.
Transfer targets12 Jul 2027
Al-Ettifaq asked and Al-Orobah said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Market12 Jul 2027
Add another name to the list: Al-Shoulla have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Abdulbasit Hawsawi. The answer from Al-Ettifaq has not changed — yet.
Market12 Jul 2027
Al-Mojzel are about to pick up the phone
A conversation is coming this week. Al-Ettifaq will put a number on him, and from there it stops being football and becomes arithmetic.
Squad12 Jul 2027
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Meshal Al-Alaeli commits to Al-Ettifaq for another 4 years.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad21 Jun 2027
A knee injury of the worst kind for Marzouq Tambakti
40 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Al-Ettifaq lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Market21 Jun 2027
“I know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” Al-Jeel had the fee agreed and the shirt ready; they did not have the player, and now they will not.
Squad21 Jun 2027
He is 20, he is averaging 7.29, and older professionals have started passing to him in the difficult minutes. That last part is the real scouting report.
Market21 Jun 2027
Zamalek pay $2.8M, and the deal is done. The number reads well on a balance sheet; whether it reads well on the pitch is next season's question.
Squad21 Jun 2027
At 21 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.
Market21 Jun 2027
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Market21 Jun 2027
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Al-Ettifaq is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad21 Jun 2027
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-Ettifaq this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The dugout21 Jun 2027
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Al-Ettifaq. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad22 Mar 2027
He is 21, he is averaging 7.02, and older professionals have started passing to him in the difficult minutes. That last part is the real scouting report.
Squad22 Mar 2027
Words at Al-Ettifaq training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Álvaro Medrán 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.
Squad22 Mar 2027
Abdulbasit Hindi and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Market22 Mar 2027
The name of Álvaro Medrán keeps appearing in other people's back pages. Al-Ettifaq say nothing, which says plenty.
The dugout22 Mar 2027
“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.
Squad22 Mar 2027
A window away with the national side, and a shirt at Al-Ettifaq that briefly doubles as an advertisement. A call-up flatters the player and the club that built him in the same breath.
The terraces22 Mar 2027
The stands have heard the Abdoulaye Kanté talk too
What was a back-page story is now a matter for the terraces, and the terraces do not do nuance. Al-Ettifaq would like it dealt with before it becomes the only question anybody asks.
The dugout22 Mar 2027
Yahya Abu Dahi knocks on the manager’s door
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Yahya Abu Dahi trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
The dugout22 Mar 2027
The message was aimed at the stands as much as the dressing room: Álvaro Medrán plays, and the argument is closed until the manager decides otherwise.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad4 Jan 2027
Defences have started doubling up on Jordan Larsson
26 goals and a season average of 7.96 will do that. The space he used to find has gone; he keeps scoring anyway, which is the mark of the real thing.
Squad4 Jan 2027
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 9 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Match2 Jan 2027
Beaten 0‑3 by Al-Diriyah, and beaten everywhere it matters. The inquest starts on the training pitch on Monday morning.
Player ratings4 Jan 2027
Successful dribbles: 32. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Match4 Jan 2027
53 points on the board and a place in the leading group. Nobody at the ground is saying the word out loud yet.
Market4 Jan 2027
“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.
Squad4 Jan 2027
There are footballers who have a good season and footballers a season is remembered for, and the second kind get their names read out in a hall in the summer. Al-Ettifaq will be quietly delighted and privately nervous.
Market4 Jan 2027
The interest is real enough to have reached print. Al-Ettifaq have said nothing, which in a transfer window is its own kind of answer.
Squad4 Jan 2027
He is 19, he is averaging 7.16, and older professionals have started passing to him in the difficult minutes. That last part is the real scouting report.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Player ratings26 Oct 2026
Successful dribbles: 36. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Match26 Oct 2026
29 points and nobody above them. The word is not being said around the ground yet, and it is being thought in every seat.
Squad26 Oct 2026
18 goals and a season average of 7.60. Form like that gets noticed well beyond this town.
Match24 Oct 2026
Momentum is a hard thing to buy and an easy thing to lose, and right now Al-Ettifaq have 5 straight wins of it.
Squad26 Oct 2026
Words at Al-Ettifaq training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Álvaro Medrán 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.
Match24 Oct 2026
Another one collected away from home
3 on the bounce on the road for Al-Ettifaq. The coaches leave early, arrive at unlovely grounds in the dark, and keep coming home with three points.
Match24 Oct 2026
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Moussa Dembélé. 1‑0 against Al-Orobah, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
The dugout26 Oct 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Abdullah Khateeb, and the manager let it.
Player ratings26 Oct 2026
A mark of 7.98, and nobody in the ground would argue with it. He was involved in everything that mattered and most of what did not.
In brief
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Squad
8 new faces, and Al-Ettifaq are still learning each other
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Squad
Tempers go at Al-Ettifaq
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The dugout
The manager’s verdict
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad5 Oct 2026
5 goals in one afternoon from one man. The other players were also present, a witness confirmed.
Match3 Oct 2026
7‑1, and Moussa Dembélé took the headlines on an afternoon when everything Al-Ettifaq tried came off. Days like this are retold all winter.
Player ratings5 Oct 2026
A brace, and Jordan Larsson takes the afternoon — 10.00
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Jordan Larsson provided it, and the 10.00 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Player ratings5 Oct 2026
No sign of nerves from Rayane Messi at 19 — 7.88
The hardest thing about being 19 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Rayane Messi did not need any: 7.88, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Defences have started doubling up on Moussa Dembélé
15 goals and a season average of 7.46 will do that. The space he used to find has gone; he keeps scoring anyway, which is the mark of the real thing.
Player ratings5 Oct 2026
Ninety minutes of Moussa Dembélé at his very best
Marked 10.00. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Al-Ettifaq.
Match3 Oct 2026
8 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about Al-Ettifaq and Al-Njoom in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
Squad5 Oct 2026
A row about effort at Al-Ettifaq
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Álvaro Medrán was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Abdulbasit Hindi and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Player ratings31 Aug 2026
Rayane Messi beats them one at a time
Successful dribbles: 28. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Match29 Aug 2026
Momentum is a hard thing to buy and an easy thing to lose, and right now Al-Ettifaq have 3 straight wins of it.
Squad31 Aug 2026
Álvaro Medrán 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.
Match29 Aug 2026
It finished 1‑0, and it was Moussa Dembélé’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Al-Ettifaq.
Player ratings31 Aug 2026
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.33, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
The dugout31 Aug 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.
Squad31 Aug 2026
8 new faces, and Al-Ettifaq 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.
The dugout31 Aug 2026
The manager’s verdict
“I am not going to get carried away and I will not let them either. It was a good day. There will be harder ones.” Ibrahim Al-Nemer kept it short after the 1‑0 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
The dugout31 Aug 2026
Abdullah Khateeb dropped after a run of poor form
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.