Marked for Igor Coronado
From our football correspondent
Steady
Match15 Feb 2027
Sharjah are in among the leaders
Position 3 and 47 points on the board. Nobody at the ground will say the word out loud yet, and everybody at the ground is thinking it.
Squad15 Feb 2027
A falling-out at Sharjah
Kodjo Laba and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Match13 Feb 2027
A bad afternoon for Sharjah against Al Ain
0‑1 to Al Ain, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
The dugout15 Feb 2027
Maro Katinić 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.
Loan watch15 Feb 2027
“I watch every Sharjah game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Al Fujairah runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
The dugout15 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 0‑1 defeat, delivered by Khalfan Al Naqbi to a room that had heard them before.
Squad15 Feb 2027
“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 Sharjah will have to give him a reason to stay or an exit.
Squad15 Feb 2027
5 new faces, and Sharjah 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.
Squad15 Feb 2027
Defences have started doubling up on Igor Coronado
4 goals and a season average of 7.27 will do that. The space he used to find has gone; he keeps scoring anyway, which is the mark of the real thing.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Player ratings18 Jan 2027
Both of them Saldanha's — 9.44
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 9.44, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
Match18 Jan 2027
Sharjah 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.
Player ratings18 Jan 2027
Age has not caught Igor Coronado yet — 8.42
At 34 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.42 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Squad18 Jan 2027
Defences have started doubling up on Saldanha
17 goals and a season average of 7.39 will do that. The space he used to find has gone; he keeps scoring anyway, which is the mark of the real thing.
Transfer targets18 Jan 2027
Everything agreed with Dibba, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
Squad18 Jan 2027
A falling-out at Sharjah
Kodjo Laba and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Match16 Jan 2027
Three points for Sharjah, 3‑2 the final word against Al Shabab in a contest settled by the finer margins.
Transfer targets18 Jan 2027
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Baniyas have kept their man, and Sharjah go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
The dugout18 Jan 2027
The manager makes an example of Adel Al-Hosani
“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.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Match16 Dec 2026
Sharjah through in the cup
A 2‑1 win over Al Shabab, and the draw for the next round can be watched with some interest for once.
Player ratings21 Dec 2026
Both of them Saldanha's — 9.22
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 9.22, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
Match21 Dec 2026
Sharjah refuse to drop out of the race
Position 3, 33 points, and the result everyone checks first is now theirs. The word is still not being said around the ground, which is how you know everyone is thinking it.
Player ratings21 Dec 2026
Leandrinho, 21, steals the show — 8.21
Marked 8.21 at 21, in a side that makes no allowances for age. He did not need any, and he looked the least nervous man on the pitch.
Player ratings21 Dec 2026
At 34 every good afternoon gets called a throwback, and this one was: 8.57, and nobody on the pitch better.
Squad21 Dec 2026
Kodjo Laba is in the form of his life
A season average of 7.38 with 16 goals behind it. Opponents have started planning around him, which is the sincerest compliment football pays.
Match19 Dec 2026
Nobody wants to play Sharjah right now
3 wins in a row changes how opponents warm up: quieter, more glances across. Runs end, everybody knows that — but nobody in this dressing room is planning for it.
Player ratings21 Dec 2026
Successful dribbles: 21. 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.
Squad21 Dec 2026
Words at Sharjah training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Charles Pickel 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.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Player ratings2 Nov 2026
Both of them Kodjo Laba's — 9.22
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 9.22, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
Player ratings2 Nov 2026
Age has not caught Igor Coronado yet — 8.38
At 34 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.38 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Squad2 Nov 2026
Léo Azevedo 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.
Squad2 Nov 2026
10 goals and a season average of 7.20. Form like that gets noticed well beyond this town.
Match31 Oct 2026
Sharjah rescue it on 94 minutes
Behind, and beaten by any honest reading, until minute 94. Al Wahda had the points in their pocket and a corner of the ground still believed, which is generally when it happens.
Boardroom2 Nov 2026
116% of the income goes out in wages at Sharjah
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.
Match31 Oct 2026
It needed Kodjo Laba to find the net to bring anything home at all: 3‑3 against Al Wahda, and half the dressing room will call it a point won.
Squad2 Nov 2026
Kodjo Laba named in the team of the month
A month is long enough that nobody gets in by accident. Kodjo Laba is in the division's best eleven for it, which is a quieter compliment than an award and a more reliable one.
Player ratings2 Nov 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
Upbeat
Match26 Oct 2026
Sharjah refuse to drop out of the race
Position 3, 16 points, and the result everyone checks first is now theirs. The word is still not being said around the ground, which is how you know everyone is thinking it.
Player ratings26 Oct 2026
Age has not caught Igor Coronado yet — 8.12
At 34 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.12 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Player ratings26 Oct 2026
Successful dribbles: 26. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad26 Oct 2026
Charles Pickel 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.
Match24 Oct 2026
Emirates Club made Sharjah work for it, but the scoreboard read 1‑0 at the end and the table does not ask how.
Squad26 Oct 2026
50 goals in the shirt for Saldanha
50 for the club now, each one filed in somebody’s memory with a date and a scoreline. Numbers like this are what supporters argue about in twenty years.
Squad26 Oct 2026
A falling-out at Sharjah
Shaheen Abdulrahman and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
The dugout26 Oct 2026
“The players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 1‑0, Khalfan Al Naqbi could afford to be generous.
Squad26 Oct 2026
The weekend belonged to Kodjo Laba
Player of the week, judged against every other man in the division. A small award, and one most careers never collect.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Player ratings28 Sep 2026
At 34 every good afternoon gets called a throwback, and this one was: 8.04, and nobody on the pitch better.
Squad28 Sep 2026
At 22 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.
Squad28 Sep 2026
A falling-out at Sharjah
Kodjo Laba and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Player ratings28 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 17. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad28 Sep 2026
A row about effort at Sharjah
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Feta Fetai was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Match26 Sep 2026
1‑1, and both dressing rooms will call it two points lost. A draw that asked plenty of questions and answered none of them.
The dugout28 Sep 2026
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Khalfan Al Naqbi after the 1‑1 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
Looking ahead28 Sep 2026
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Juan Pablo Cohen’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Sharjah needing him to play as if none of it matters.
The dugout28 Sep 2026
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 Firas Ben Larbi has written the date down.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
Age has not caught Igor Coronado yet — 8.31
At 34 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.31 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Ghaith Abdalla is 20, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Transfer targets14 Sep 2026
Sharjah offered $52.0K; Al Wahda said it was not close. The manager will be told the money is still there for the right player, which is what managers are told.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Charles Pickel 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
A 2‑1 win over Al Fujairah, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 19. 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.
Transfer targets14 Sep 2026
The clock did what Al Shaab would not, and ended it. Supporters who watched the countdown will spend the next window doing it again.
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
Luan Pereira was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.08. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
A masterclass from Saldanha
Marked 8.03 — 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.
In brief
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Squad
9 new faces, and Sharjah are still learning each other
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The dugout
Somebody else is better right now than Firas Ben Larbi
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Squad
A falling-out at Sharjah
From our football correspondent
Steady
Transfer targets24 Aug 2026
The offer went to Al Jazira this week and it is theirs to answer. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loud the door closes.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Luan Pereira 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.
Market24 Aug 2026
Dibba pay $290.0K, 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.
Squad24 Aug 2026
A row about effort at Sharjah
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Charles Pickel was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Transfer targets24 Aug 2026
The approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.
Squad24 Aug 2026
“The easiest signature of my career.” Abdullah Al Shamsi and Sharjah agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market3 Aug 2026
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Squad3 Aug 2026
197 appearances across 14 seasons in one shirt. Nobody builds a career like that on purpose any more; it happens to a certain kind of footballer at a certain kind of club.
Squad3 Aug 2026
“The easiest signature of my career.” Kodjo Laba and Sharjah agree another 2 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Words exchanged at Sharjah
Kodjo Laba 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.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Charles Pickel 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 targets3 Aug 2026
The approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.
Market3 Aug 2026
“We are a long way apart, and pretending otherwise helps nobody.” Neither side is close, and the calendar is not on the club's side.
Market3 Aug 2026
24 months to run and not a word offered. A club that lets the calendar negotiate for it usually ends up losing to the calendar.
Transfer targets3 Aug 2026
A loan enquiry to Cortulua: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.