Marked for Abdalla Ramadan
From our football correspondent
Steady
Transfer targets7 Sep 2026
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Al Wasl keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Boardroom7 Sep 2026
Al Jazira close the window on a squad of their own making
13 in and 17 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.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Mamadou Ndiaye is 19, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Vinicius Mello 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.
Squad7 Sep 2026
It will be explained as a change for the team and it may even be one. Nobody who has worn one believes that, and neither does the man who has just had it taken away.
Boardroom7 Sep 2026
Al Jazira say no to the training-ground money
The plan went upstairs and came back down. Nothing about that will make a headline anywhere else, and everybody who works at the training ground will remember it for years.
Market7 Sep 2026
Both sides expect a conversation in the coming days. Al Jazira will name a price, and everything after that is arithmetic.
Squad7 Sep 2026
It is a strip of cloth and it decides nothing on a Saturday. It still tells the dressing room exactly whose opinion the manager values, which is the whole point of it.
Market7 Sep 2026
The shop window has Meshal Hamad in it
Al Jazira have let the market know Meshal Hamad can be had. No price in the advert, but everyone in the trade knows roughly what it says.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market24 Aug 2026
Al Jazira say no — this time
The offer from Zob Ahan for Mats Bångsbo 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.
Market24 Aug 2026
Al Jazira may not be able to give Malcom what he wants
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Malcom wants continental football; whether Al Jazira can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
Squad24 Aug 2026
A row about effort at Al Jazira
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Vinicius Mello was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market10 Aug 2026
Al Ain come back empty-handed
The bid was some way short and Al Jazira did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Transfer targets10 Aug 2026
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Al Wasl is saying, and nobody at Al Jazira is enjoying the guessing.
Boardroom10 Aug 2026
The number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $784.1K — a club that wants Mohamed Ali enough to be asked twice.
Squad10 Aug 2026
Willyan Rocha 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.
Market10 Aug 2026
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Mohamed Al Hashmi has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.
Market10 Aug 2026
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Abdullah Al Bloushi has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.
Market10 Aug 2026
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Majed Al Hammadi has been at this club since he was a boy and is now, formally, one of the first-team squad — which for a local readership beats any signing of any size.
The dugout10 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.
The dugout10 Aug 2026
Milson 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 Jazira, and both men came out saying it was fine.