Marked for Amjad Al-Sayed
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad22 Feb 2027
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 8 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
The dugout22 Feb 2027
“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.
Squad22 Feb 2027
Jobson 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 Dhafra this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Player ratings22 Feb 2027
Successful dribbles: 21. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Match20 Feb 2027
2‑3 to Al Ain, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Squad22 Feb 2027
Words at Al Dhafra training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mohamed El Khaloui 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.
The dugout22 Feb 2027
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 2‑3, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
The dugout22 Feb 2027
The manager makes an example of Marcelinho
“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.
The dugout22 Feb 2027
Mohamed Hussain has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Al Dhafra will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad8 Feb 2027
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 7 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
Market8 Feb 2027
Regi Lushkja 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 Dhafra can pretend not to have heard.
Match6 Feb 2027
The wait goes on for Al Dhafra
5 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
Squad8 Feb 2027
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Ibrahim Bayesh and Al Dhafra agree another 4 years.
Match6 Feb 2027
Al Dhafra leaking at the back
5 matches, two or more conceded in every one of them. Sides that create as much as this can live with it for a while. Nobody lives with it forever.
Transfer targets8 Feb 2027
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Emirates Club have kept their man, and Al Dhafra go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Match6 Feb 2027
Al Wahda left with the points after a 1‑2 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
The dugout8 Feb 2027
No hiding place for Sory Kaba
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Sory Kaba, and the manager let it.
Squad8 Feb 2027
100 games in the shirt. Nobody sets out to build a record like that; it happens to a certain kind of player at a certain kind of club, and this town knows what it has.
In brief
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Squad
Mayed Saeed in a row with a teammate
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The dugout
The manager’s verdict
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The dugout
A promise honoured at Al Dhafra
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match30 Jan 2027
1‑4 to Emirates Club, and it was every bit as bad as the number suggests. There are defeats you argue about and defeats you apologise for; this was the second kind.
Boardroom1 Feb 2027
Al Dhafra close the window on a squad of their own making
1 in and 8 out, and no more changes for months. The manager has what he has, the supporters have their opinion of it, and the table will have the last word.
Match30 Jan 2027
No end in sight to Al Dhafra's wait for a win
4 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Al Dhafra has to find a result from somewhere.
Transfer targets1 Feb 2027
Al Dhafra asked and Emirates Club said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Match30 Jan 2027
No clean sheets in sight for Al Dhafra
4 games now with at least two against. The back line has been rearranged, the goalkeeper has been backed publicly, and the goals keep going in anyway.
Squad1 Feb 2027
Mohamed El Khaloui 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.
Boardroom1 Feb 2027
Nobody left the Al Dhafra dressing room in a hurry
The door stayed shut a long time after the final whistle. What was said in there is between them; whether it worked is between them and Saturday.
The dugout1 Feb 2027
The view from the dugout
“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 1‑4 defeat, delivered by Mahmoud Saeed to a room that had heard them before.
Squad1 Feb 2027
Words exchanged at Al Dhafra
Vitor 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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad25 Jan 2027
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 10 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Match23 Jan 2027
Al Shabab left with the points after a 0‑2 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Market25 Jan 2027
The name of Yousef Al-Mansoοri has come up in conversations Al Dhafra were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
The dugout25 Jan 2027
“I could talk about decisions and I could talk about luck. I will not. We lost.” The manager, 0‑2, and a press conference that lasted four minutes.
The dugout25 Jan 2027
The manager makes an example of Sultan Al-Zaabi
“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.
The dugout25 Jan 2027
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 Mohamed Hussain is on it.
Market25 Jan 2027
The name of Karim El Berkaoui keeps appearing in other people's back pages. Al Dhafra say nothing, which says plenty.
Looking ahead25 Jan 2027
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Feras Saleh’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Al Dhafra needing him to play as if none of it matters.
Player ratings25 Jan 2027
Successful dribbles: 11. 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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match26 Dec 2026
0‑3 to Al Shaab, and it was every bit as bad as the number suggests. There are defeats you argue about and defeats you apologise for; this was the second kind.
Player ratings28 Dec 2026
Successful dribbles: 23. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad28 Dec 2026
Jobson 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 Dhafra this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The dugout28 Dec 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Amjad Al-Sayed, and the manager let it.
Squad28 Dec 2026
A row about effort at Al Dhafra
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Rostand Djooh was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Boardroom28 Dec 2026
Nobody left the Al Dhafra dressing room in a hurry
The door stayed shut a long time after the final whistle. What was said in there is between them; whether it worked is between them and Saturday.
Boardroom28 Dec 2026
Wages eat 97% of everything Al Dhafra earn
There is a figure at which a wage bill stops being ambitious and becomes the reason nothing else is possible, and this club has reached it. Nothing is left over for a transfer, a stand or a rainy afternoon.
The dugout28 Dec 2026
The view from the dugout
“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 0‑3 defeat, delivered by Mahmoud Saeed to a room that had heard them before.
The dugout28 Dec 2026
Clubs make promises constantly and the page usually only hears about them when they are broken. This one was honoured, and the dressing room noticed that faster than any supporter did.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Player ratings14 Dec 2026
Two goals and a mark of 8.33 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Squad14 Dec 2026
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 7 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
Match12 Dec 2026
The drought breaks for Al Dhafra
6 without a win is the sort of run that changes how a town talks about its club, and Al Wasl were the afternoon it stopped. Nothing is fixed by one result and everything feels different by one.
Match12 Dec 2026
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Karim El Berkaoui. 3‑2 against Al Wasl, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
The terraces14 Dec 2026
He is 22 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.
Squad14 Dec 2026
“Some mornings you wake up and you are still a long way from everything you know.” It is not the football and it never was; Al Dhafra are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
The dugout14 Dec 2026
“That is what I want every week. Not the result, the way they went about it.” The manager, after 3‑2, already talking about the next one.
The dugout14 Dec 2026
The manager makes an example of Sultan Al-Zaabi
“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.
Player ratings14 Dec 2026
Successful dribbles: 14. 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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match5 Dec 2026
0‑7 to Al Nasr, and it was every bit as bad as the number suggests. There are defeats you argue about and defeats you apologise for; this was the second kind.
Match5 Dec 2026
No end in sight to Al Dhafra's wait for a win
6 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Al Dhafra has to find a result from somewhere.
Squad7 Dec 2026
6 saves, and a scoreline the ten men in front of him had no right to. Goalkeepers only get noticed on the bad days; this was one of the other ones.
The dugout7 Dec 2026
“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.
Match5 Dec 2026
Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 7 goals between Al Dhafra and Al Nasr, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.
Match5 Dec 2026
The goals have deserted Al Dhafra
3 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Al Dhafra can tell you which week it ends in.
The dugout7 Dec 2026
The manager makes an example of Abdulla Idrees
“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.
Squad7 Dec 2026
A row about effort at Al Dhafra
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Rostand Djooh was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad7 Dec 2026
“I have given this everything, but my family is not here and neither am I, not really.” A footballer can be coached out of bad form. Nobody has ever been coached out of this, and Al Dhafra know it.
In brief
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Boardroom
Nobody left the Al Dhafra dressing room in a hurry
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The dugout
The manager has not finished forgetting Sory Kaba's mistake
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The dugout
Mahmoud Saeed: “No excuses”
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad23 Nov 2026
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 11 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
The dugout23 Nov 2026
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Al Dhafra may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Match21 Nov 2026
The wait goes on for Al Dhafra
4 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
Squad23 Nov 2026
Words exchanged at Al Dhafra
Ibrahim Bayesh 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.
Match21 Nov 2026
Al Ain left with the points after a 0‑1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
The dugout23 Nov 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.
The dugout23 Nov 2026
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 0‑1, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
Player ratings23 Nov 2026
Successful dribbles: 14. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad23 Nov 2026
“I have done everything asked of me in training and it has not changed a thing on a Saturday.” The most familiar complaint in football, and one Al Dhafra will have to answer with minutes or with a transfer.
From our football correspondent
Steady
The dugout16 Nov 2026
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Al Dhafra may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Squad16 Nov 2026
Words exchanged at Al Dhafra
Jobson 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.
Squad16 Nov 2026
Words at Al Dhafra training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Rostand Djooh 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.
The dugout16 Nov 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Abderahmane Soussi, and the manager let it.
Looking ahead16 Nov 2026
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Al Ain in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
The dugout16 Nov 2026
Rayan Yaslam has been promised minutes
A conversation in the manager’s office, and a commitment that came out of it. Promises like that are cheap to make and expensive to break, and Rayan Yaslam has written the date down.
Loan watch16 Nov 2026
8 appearances away from home and 2 goals to show for them. Every one of them makes next summer's conversation a little more expensive.
Looking ahead16 Nov 2026
They sit in position 2 and they will be waiting. Away form is where a season shows its true character, and this side has a point to make about its own.
The dugout16 Nov 2026
The message was aimed at the stands as much as the dressing room: Ibrahim Bayesh plays, and the argument is closed until the manager decides otherwise.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Match7 Nov 2026
A 2-goal lead gone for Al Dhafra
It is a specific kind of quiet, a ground watching a winning position dissolve. Dibba kept coming because nothing stopped them, and Al Dhafra will be asked about the last half hour all week.
Squad9 Nov 2026
Jobson and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
The dugout9 Nov 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Amjad Al-Sayed, and the manager let it.
Squad9 Nov 2026
Words at Al Dhafra training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Rostand Djooh 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.
Player ratings9 Nov 2026
Marked 8.09 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
Player ratings9 Nov 2026
Ninety minutes of Sory Kaba at his very best
Marked 8.04. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Al Dhafra.
Match7 Nov 2026
It finished 2‑2, and it somehow always looked like it would. One of those afternoons where the table moves less than the tempers.
The dugout9 Nov 2026
Half-satisfied: Mahmoud Saeed on the draw
“There are things I liked and things we will be doing on Tuesday until they are right.” 2‑2, and a manager who had already decided what Tuesday looked like.
Player ratings9 Nov 2026
Successful dribbles: 12. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad2 Nov 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.
Squad2 Nov 2026
Jobson 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 Dhafra this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Player ratings2 Nov 2026
A performance of 8.01 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Boardroom2 Nov 2026
Wages swallow 100% of the Al Dhafra income
Every club pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time it has been tried.
Match31 Oct 2026
2‑2, and both dressing rooms will call it two points lost. A draw that asked plenty of questions and answered none of them.
The dugout2 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.
The dugout2 Nov 2026
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Mahmoud Saeed after the 2‑2 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
Squad2 Nov 2026
“I did not come here to warm up in front of people.” He is out of contract eventually, he is old enough to count the weeks, and Al Dhafra will have to give him a reason to stay or an exit.
Player ratings2 Nov 2026
Successful dribbles: 12. 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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad26 Oct 2026
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 8 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Squad26 Oct 2026
Words at Al Dhafra training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Rostand Djooh 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.
Player ratings26 Oct 2026
Marked 8.19 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
Match24 Oct 2026
A goal on 87 minutes turned three points into one and a good afternoon into an argument about game management that will run until Saturday.
The dugout26 Oct 2026
Clubs make promises constantly and the page usually only hears about them when they are broken. This one was honoured, and the dressing room noticed that faster than any supporter did.
The dugout26 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.
Match24 Oct 2026
It finished 1‑1, and it somehow always looked like it would. One of those afternoons where the table moves less than the tempers.
The dugout26 Oct 2026
The view from the dugout
“We did not lose. Some weeks that is all you get, and I would rather have the point than not.” Mahmoud Saeed chose the glass-half-full version of 1‑1; the supporters left with the other one.
Market26 Oct 2026
“They were honest with me, and I would rather know.” Abdulla Al-Hosani has been informed he is not in the manager's thinking at Al Dhafra.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match14 Oct 2026
The cup run ends for Al Dhafra
1‑2 against Sharjah, and the road stops here. Cup exits are quick deaths — no second leg, no next week, just the league from now until May.
Squad19 Oct 2026
There were 8 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.
Player ratings19 Oct 2026
Both of them Sory Kaba's — 8.79
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 8.79, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
Player ratings19 Oct 2026
A brace, and Karim El Berkaoui takes the afternoon — 8.34
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Karim El Berkaoui provided it, and the 8.34 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
The dugout19 Oct 2026
Ali Al Suwaidi: 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.” Al Dhafra have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Serafim 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.
Player ratings19 Oct 2026
A goal and an assist for Mohamed Hussain — 7.26
Involvement in 2 goals, from a player who spent the ninety minutes doing the thing a manager actually wants: being where the ball was going to end up. 7.26 beside his name.
Match17 Oct 2026
It finished 4‑3, and it was Sory Kaba’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Al Dhafra.
Match17 Oct 2026
Sory Kaba among the goals in a wild afternoon
7 goals in one match, Sory Kaba on the scoresheet, and a scoreline that will look like a misprint. Neutrals could not have asked more of Al Dhafra and Al Shabab.
In brief
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Squad
Words at Al Dhafra training over how hard people work
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Squad
Appearance number 100 for Abdulla Al-Karbi
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The dugout
The manager’s verdict
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Squad5 Oct 2026
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.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Ibrahim Bayesh and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Match3 Oct 2026
A 2‑1 win over Al Jazira, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Boardroom5 Oct 2026
134% of the income goes out in wages at Al Dhafra
Every club in football pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time somebody has tried it.
Squad5 Oct 2026
A row about effort at Al Dhafra
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Rostand Djooh was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Player ratings5 Oct 2026
Ninety minutes of Ibrahim Bayesh at his very best
Marked 8.15. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Al Dhafra.
The dugout5 Oct 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.
Squad5 Oct 2026
“Some mornings you wake up and you are still a long way from everything you know.” It is not the football and it never was; Al Dhafra are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
The dugout5 Oct 2026
“The players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 2‑1, Mahmoud Saeed could afford to be generous.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Player ratings28 Sep 2026
Sory Kaba scores twice — 8.50
Two goals and a mark of 8.50 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 7 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Player ratings28 Sep 2026
Up for the corner, and Rostand Djooh delivers — 7.62
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Rostand Djooh scored, was marked 7.62, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Jobson 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.
Match26 Sep 2026
Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 6 goals between Al Dhafra and Sharjah, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.
Match26 Sep 2026
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Sory Kaba. 4‑2 against Sharjah, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
The terraces28 Sep 2026
At 22 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.
Squad28 Sep 2026
“Some mornings you wake up and you are still a long way from everything you know.” It is not the football and it never was; Al Dhafra are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Regi Lushkja 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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Match19 Sep 2026
Beaten 2‑6 by Baniyas, and beaten everywhere it matters. The inquest starts on the training pitch on Monday morning.
Squad21 Sep 2026
Words exchanged at Al Dhafra
Jobson 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.
Match19 Sep 2026
8 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about Al Dhafra and Baniyas in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
Player ratings21 Sep 2026
A masterclass from Jobson
Marked 8.11 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
Squad21 Sep 2026
Beaten 6 times, 2 saves, and an afternoon that will go on his record whether it was his fault or the defence’s. It is the quiet unfairness of the position.
The dugout21 Sep 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.
Boardroom21 Sep 2026
Nobody left the Al Dhafra dressing room in a hurry
The door stayed shut a long time after the final whistle. What was said in there is between them; whether it worked is between them and Saturday.
The dugout21 Sep 2026
The manager’s verdict
“That is on me. I pick the team and I picked wrong.” Managers say that when they mean it and when they need to be seen to, and after 2‑6 Mahmoud Saeed left the room before anybody could ask which.
The dugout21 Sep 2026
Ibrahim Bayesh 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 Ibrahim Bayesh trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market3 Aug 2026
El Masry come back empty-handed
The bid was some way short and Al Dhafra did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Squad3 Aug 2026
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Karim El Berkaoui commits to Al Dhafra for another 3 years.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Jobson 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 Dhafra this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad3 Aug 2026
A row about effort at Al Dhafra
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Rostand Djooh was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad3 Aug 2026
“I have given this everything, but my family is not here and neither am I, not really.” A footballer can be coached out of bad form. Nobody has ever been coached out of this, and Al Dhafra know it.
Market3 Aug 2026
The clock runs on Jobson's contract
36 months left and silence from upstairs — no offer, no talks, nothing for his people to answer. Clubs that let a calendar do their negotiating usually end up negotiating with the calendar.