Marked for Sofiane Dia
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match2 Jan 2027
19 matches without a win for Al-Jeel
The run now stands at 19, and the questions being asked around Al-Jeel are no longer polite ones.
Match4 Jan 2027
Every point is an argument now for Al-Jeel
Position 16 and 11 points, and the table gets read bottom-up in this part of town. The calendar has stopped being a schedule and started being a countdown.
Market4 Jan 2027
“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-Jeel can pretend not to have heard.
Squad4 Jan 2027
103 days, the scan says, and scans are kinder than reality. The fixtures in that window have just become somebody else’s job.
Player ratings4 Jan 2027
Successful dribbles: 23. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad4 Jan 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-Jeel this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match2 Jan 2027
Beaten 0‑1, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Squad4 Jan 2027
“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 ratings4 Jan 2027
Shots: 11, not one of them in. A centre forward is paid for one thing, and on this evidence he has forgotten which thing it is.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match21 Nov 2026
The wait goes on for Al-Jeel
13 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
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-Jeel this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match21 Nov 2026
Beaten 0‑2, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Squad23 Nov 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Nafea Al-Sumairi, and the manager let it.
Player ratings23 Nov 2026
Successful dribbles: 12. 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
Sofiane Dia knocks on the manager's door
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Al-Jeel, and both men came out saying it was fine.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match31 Oct 2026
10 matches without a win for Al-Jeel
The run now stands at 10, and the questions being asked around Al-Jeel are no longer polite ones.
Market2 Nov 2026
“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-Jeel can pretend not to have heard.
Player ratings2 Nov 2026
Defensive actions: 23. He was first to everything and second to nothing, and the goalkeeper had an easy day because of it.
Squad2 Nov 2026
Bernardo Liste 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 ratings2 Nov 2026
Headers, blocks, tackles, interceptions — 22 of them, and not one goal behind him. The sort of performance that never makes a highlight reel and wins football matches.
Boardroom2 Nov 2026
Wages eat 546% of everything Al-Jeel 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.
Squad2 Nov 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Sofiane Dia, and the manager let it.
Squad2 Nov 2026
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Falah Al-Shamri trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Player ratings2 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
Crisis
Match9 Sep 2026
The cup run ends for Al-Jeel
0‑1 against Al-Ahli, and the road stops here. Cup exits are quick deaths — no second leg, no next week, just the league from now until May.
Market14 Sep 2026
“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-Jeel can pretend not to have heard.
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-Jeel this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad14 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.
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 16. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad14 Sep 2026
An error at the back is a moment; an error in goal is a goal. Sattam Al-Shammari knows it, the crowd knew it instantly, and there was nobody behind him to make it anything else.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Falah Al-Shamri asks for a word with the manager
“I would rather say it to his face than read about it.” The meeting was requested by the player, which tells you most of what you need to know.
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
5.55 on the card. Some afternoons a footballer looks like a man who has only just been introduced to the game, and this was one of them.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market7 Sep 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-Jeel, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Haythem Ayouni 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.
Match5 Sep 2026
Al-Fayha left with the points after a 1‑2 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Boardroom7 Sep 2026
537% of the income goes out in wages at Al-Jeel
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.
Squad7 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.
Player ratings7 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 17. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
The terraces24 Aug 2026
The ground has had enough
“We travel everywhere and we get this.” 6 of the 24 senior players heard it walking off, and the ones who did not hear it were not playing.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Haythem Ayouni 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.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Anaël Bakaki 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.
Market24 Aug 2026
Al-Jeel have let the market know Thamer Al-Arjan can be had. No price in the advert, but everyone in the trade knows roughly what it says.
Squad24 Aug 2026
The first one is the one every signing is asked about until it arrives. It has arrived, and he can stop being asked.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Yousef Fawaz has outgrown this division
There is a level at which a footballer stops being tested and starts being contained, and he reached it some time ago. Al-Jeel know it, and so does everybody who watches him.
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 11. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Market24 Aug 2026
The name of Nafea Al-Sumairi keeps appearing in other people's back pages. Al-Jeel say nothing, which says plenty.