Marked for Predrag Rajković
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Squad11 Jan 2027
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 58 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Match9 Jan 2027
Al-Ra'ed will want this one forgotten quickly: 3‑0, every duel lost, and a long ride home. Al-Ittihad were ruthless in the way good sides are ruthless.
Player ratings11 Jan 2027
A brace, and Youssef En-Nesyri takes the afternoon — 8.80
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Youssef En-Nesyri provided it, and the 8.80 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Match9 Jan 2027
The run at home goes on for Al-Ittihad
14 matches unbeaten here. Every visiting manager is asked about it in the week before, which is precisely why it keeps going.
Player ratings11 Jan 2027
Roger Fernandes, 21, plays like he has been here for years — 7.83
A mark of 7.83 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 21-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
Market11 Jan 2027
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Match9 Jan 2027
4 wins on the spin now, and the question has changed from whether the run ends to who ends it. Confidence like this cannot be bought; it has to be earned exactly this way.
Squad11 Jan 2027
Brandon Gómez gets the move he always wanted
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Brandon Gómez has just signed for Al-Ittihad, and for once the answer mattered.
Squad11 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-Ittihad this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Triumph
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-Ittihad will be quietly delighted and privately nervous.
Player ratings4 Jan 2027
No sign of nerves from Roger Fernandes at 21 — 7.85
The hardest thing about being 21 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Roger Fernandes did not need any: 7.85, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Market4 Jan 2027
The offer from Al-Hilal for Hassan Kadish 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.
Squad4 Jan 2027
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Al-Ittihad have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Match2 Jan 2027
3 wins on the spin now, and the question has changed from whether the run ends to who ends it. Confidence like this cannot be bought; it has to be earned exactly this way.
Squad4 Jan 2027
Danilo 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.
Match2 Jan 2027
Another one collected away from home
4 on the bounce on the road for Al-Ittihad. The coaches leave early, arrive at unlovely grounds in the dark, and keep coming home with three points.
Squad4 Jan 2027
Getting past Predrag Rajković has become the hardest job in the division
14 clean sheets and counting. Forwards used to back themselves here; now they shoot early, shoot wide, and look for somebody to blame.
Loan watch4 Jan 2027
“I am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at Al-Ittihad, and 0 appearances in 21 say he has earned the hearing.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Match26 Dec 2026
Still nobody has beaten Al-Ittihad
The unbeaten run reaches 20. Some of them were wins and some were escapes, but a side that refuses to lose is a side other dressing rooms talk about.
Match28 Dec 2026
45 points on the board and a place in the leading group. Nobody at the ground is saying the word out loud yet.
Match26 Dec 2026
The run at home goes on for Al-Ittihad
13 matches unbeaten here. Every visiting manager is asked about it in the week before, which is precisely why it keeps going.
Market28 Dec 2026
“I want to win things, and I would like to do it here.” Nothing has been demanded and nothing has been threatened — but a boardroom at Al-Ittihad hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
Squad28 Dec 2026
Moussa Diaby 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.
Squad28 Dec 2026
Danilo Pereira 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.
Player ratings28 Dec 2026
Successful dribbles: 21. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad28 Dec 2026
13 clean sheets and counting. Strikers leave this ground muttering his name, which is exactly how a goalkeeper measures a good season.
Boardroom28 Dec 2026
139% of the income goes out in wages at Al-Ittihad
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.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match19 Dec 2026
Whatever happens, Al-Ittihad do not lose
19 games unbeaten now. Some were earned and some were survived, but a habit is forming — and habits are the hardest thing in football to play against.
Match19 Dec 2026
Najran will want this one forgotten quickly: 3‑0, every duel lost, and a long ride home. Al-Ittihad were ruthless in the way good sides are ruthless.
Market21 Dec 2026
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Al-Ittihad heard it as anything else.
Squad21 Dec 2026
Danilo 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.
Player ratings21 Dec 2026
22 defensive actions and a clean sheet at the end of them. A defender's afternoon can only be told by what did not happen, which is why nobody makes a highlights package out of one and every manager in the division would take it.
Match19 Dec 2026
Another one collected away from home
3 on the bounce on the road for Al-Ittihad. The coaches leave early, arrive at unlovely grounds in the dark, and keep coming home with three points.
Squad21 Dec 2026
12 shut-outs and counting. Goalkeepers are only noticed when they fail, and Predrag Rajković has given nobody the chance.
Match19 Dec 2026
2 goals inside twenty minutes with Steven Bergwijn in the middle of it, and Najran unable to get near the ball long enough to change anything. Some matches are won before the first drink.
Squad21 Dec 2026
Words at Al-Ittihad training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mahamadou Doumbia 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
Steady
Match12 Dec 2026
Whatever happens, Al-Ittihad do not lose
18 games unbeaten now. Some were earned and some were survived, but a habit is forming — and habits are the hardest thing in football to play against.
Squad14 Dec 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.
Match12 Dec 2026
The run at home goes on for Al-Ittihad
12 matches unbeaten here. Every visiting manager is asked about it in the week before, which is precisely why it keeps going.
Squad14 Dec 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-Ittihad this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Loan watch14 Dec 2026
“I watch every Al-Ittihad game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Esteghlal Khuzestan runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
Squad14 Dec 2026
Words at Al-Ittihad training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Luis Solignac 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 ratings14 Dec 2026
Successful dribbles: 18. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad14 Dec 2026
Fabinho is still paying for one afternoon at Al-Ittihad
Nobody will confirm this and nothing else explains the last month of selections. A costly error buys a player a period of being second choice that is always longer than the error was.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad7 Dec 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.
Player ratings7 Dec 2026
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 8.09, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
Market7 Dec 2026
The interest is real enough to have reached print. Al-Ittihad have said nothing, which in a transfer window is its own kind of answer.
Player ratings7 Dec 2026
Up for the corner, and Fabinho delivers — 6.32
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Fabinho scored, was marked 6.32, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
Match5 Dec 2026
Nobody wants to play Al-Ittihad 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.
Squad7 Dec 2026
Moussa Diaby 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-Ittihad this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match5 Dec 2026
It finished 4‑3, and it was Moussa Diaby’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Al-Ittihad.
Match5 Dec 2026
Moussa Diaby among the goals in a wild afternoon
7 goals in one match, Moussa Diaby on the scoresheet, and a scoreline that will look like a misprint. Neutrals could not have asked more of Al-Ittihad and Al-Nassr.
Squad7 Dec 2026
Words at Al-Ittihad training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Danilo Pereira 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
Match28 Nov 2026
Hard to beat is not the same as winning, but 16 matches without defeat is a foundation Al-Ittihad did not have in the autumn.
Match30 Nov 2026
Al-Ittihad are in among the leaders
Position 1 and 35 points on the board. Nobody at the ground will say the word out loud yet, and everybody at the ground is thinking it.
Market30 Nov 2026
The general version of this complaint is that a player wants more. The specific version names the thing: he wants to walk out under floodlights against clubs from other countries, and he has stopped pretending otherwise.
Squad30 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-Ittihad this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad30 Nov 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-Ittihad are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Boardroom30 Nov 2026
Wages eat 154% of everything Al-Ittihad 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.
Match28 Nov 2026
It finished 1‑0, and it was Youssef En-Nesyri’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Al-Ittihad.
Squad30 Nov 2026
Muhannad Al-Shanqiti 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.
Squad30 Nov 2026
11 shut-outs and counting. Goalkeepers are only noticed when they fail, and Predrag Rajković has given nobody the chance.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match21 Nov 2026
Whatever happens, Al-Ittihad do not lose
15 games unbeaten now. Some were earned and some were survived, but a habit is forming — and habits are the hardest thing in football to play against.
Squad23 Nov 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 ratings23 Nov 2026
25 defensive actions and a clean sheet at the end of them. A defender's afternoon can only be told by what did not happen, which is why nobody makes a highlights package out of one and every manager in the division would take it.
Match21 Nov 2026
Al-Ittihad make home a hard place to visit
11 without defeat on their own grass. The pitch has not changed; the crowd has — louder earlier, and quicker to sense when the opposition would rather be somewhere else.
Squad23 Nov 2026
Danilo 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.
Squad23 Nov 2026
“The easiest signature of my career.” Roger Fernandes and Al-Ittihad agree another 5 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Player ratings23 Nov 2026
A defender's afternoon for Fabinho
Defensive actions: 20. He was first to everything and second to nothing, and the goalkeeper had an easy day because of it.
Match21 Nov 2026
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Youssef En-Nesyri. 1‑0 against Al-Qadisiyah, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Squad23 Nov 2026
Luis Solignac 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
Squad16 Nov 2026
A shoot-out is remembered by its ending, and this one ends with Predrag Rajković: 5 kept out, and a set of supporters who will describe every one of them for the next twenty years.
Match11 Nov 2026
A 0‑0 win over Al-Ettifaq, and the draw for the next round can be watched with some interest for once.
Match14 Nov 2026
Hard to beat is not the same as winning, but 14 matches without defeat is a foundation Al-Ittihad did not have in the autumn.
Market16 Nov 2026
“I have ambitions, and I would like the club to share them.” Nobody has asked to leave and nobody has been shown the door — but a player chooses that sentence carefully, and a boardroom hears it exactly as it was meant.
Squad16 Nov 2026
Moussa Diaby 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.
Match14 Nov 2026
The run at home goes on for Al-Ittihad
10 matches unbeaten here. Every visiting manager is asked about it in the week before, which is precisely why it keeps going.
Squad16 Nov 2026
Danilo Pereira 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.
Squad16 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.
Player ratings16 Nov 2026
Leonel Wamba misses from twelve yards
It was his to settle and he did not settle it. A long walk back to the halfway line, and a considerably longer week.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match7 Nov 2026
Still nobody has beaten Al-Ittihad
The unbeaten run reaches 12. Some of them were wins and some were escapes, but a side that refuses to lose is a side other dressing rooms talk about.
Player ratings9 Nov 2026
Successful dribbles: 27. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Market9 Nov 2026
“I have ambitions, and I would like the club to share them.” Nobody has asked to leave and nobody has been shown the door — but a player chooses that sentence carefully, and a boardroom hears it exactly as it was meant.
Squad9 Nov 2026
Moussa Diaby 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-Ittihad this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match7 Nov 2026
The run at home goes on for Al-Ittihad
9 matches unbeaten here. Every visiting manager is asked about it in the week before, which is precisely why it keeps going.
Squad9 Nov 2026
Words at Al-Ittihad training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mahamadou Doumbia 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
Steven Bergwijn was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.05. 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.
Squad9 Nov 2026
The manager has not finished forgetting Fabinho's mistake
Publicly it is behind everybody. It is not behind the man who picks the team, and the only place that shows is a team sheet. He will get another chance; he will get it in a match that matters less.
Squad9 Nov 2026
8 clean sheets and counting. Strikers leave this ground muttering his name, which is exactly how a goalkeeper measures a good season.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad26 Oct 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.
Match24 Oct 2026
Hard to beat is not the same as winning, but 10 matches without defeat is a foundation Al-Ittihad did not have in the autumn.
Squad26 Oct 2026
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Al-Ittihad may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Squad26 Oct 2026
Fabinho 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-Ittihad this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad26 Oct 2026
Words at Al-Ittihad training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Danilo Pereira 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
8 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
Match24 Oct 2026
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Youssef En-Nesyri. 1‑0 against Al-Hilal, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Player ratings26 Oct 2026
Successful dribbles: 17. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Market26 Oct 2026
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Al-Ittihad know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
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.
Match17 Oct 2026
Still nobody has beaten Al-Ittihad
The unbeaten run reaches 9. Some of them were wins and some were escapes, but a side that refuses to lose is a side other dressing rooms talk about.
Squad19 Oct 2026
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Al-Ittihad may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Moussa Diaby 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.
Squad19 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.
Loan watch19 Oct 2026
“I did not go to Esteghlal Khuzestan to sit and watch. I want to come back to Al-Ittihad and fight for my place.” 0 appearances in 9 matches say the rest.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Squad12 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.
Match10 Oct 2026
Whatever happens, Al-Ittihad do not lose
8 games unbeaten now. Some were earned and some were survived, but a habit is forming — and habits are the hardest thing in football to play against.
Squad12 Oct 2026
Moussa Diaby 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-Ittihad this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match10 Oct 2026
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Luis Solignac. 1‑0 against Al-Ra'ed, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Squad12 Oct 2026
Luis Solignac 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.
Player ratings12 Oct 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.
Squad12 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.
Player ratings12 Oct 2026
Defensive actions: 15. He was first to everything and second to nothing, and the goalkeeper had an easy day because of it.
Player ratings12 Oct 2026
Defensive actions: 15, and a clean sheet at the end of it. A centre-half's best afternoons look like nothing happening, which is precisely the point.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match5 Oct 2026
17 points on the board and a place in the leading group. Nobody at the ground is saying the word out loud yet.
Market5 Oct 2026
The general version of this complaint is that a player wants more. The specific version names the thing: he wants to walk out under floodlights against clubs from other countries, and he has stopped pretending otherwise.
Player ratings5 Oct 2026
Successful dribbles: 23. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Moussa Diaby 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.
Match3 Oct 2026
Whatever happens, Al-Ittihad do not lose
7 games unbeaten now. Some were earned and some were survived, but a habit is forming — and habits are the hardest thing in football to play against.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Danilo Pereira 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.
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-Ittihad are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Boardroom5 Oct 2026
199% of the income goes out in wages at Al-Ittihad
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.
Match3 Oct 2026
A 2‑0 win over Al-Khaleej, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Player ratings21 Sep 2026
No sign of nerves from Ryan Francisco at 19 — 8.14
The hardest thing about being 19 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Ryan Francisco did not need any: 8.14, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Market21 Sep 2026
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Al-Ittihad heard it as anything else.
Match19 Sep 2026
Momentum is a hard thing to buy and an easy thing to lose, and right now Al-Ittihad have 3 straight wins of it.
Squad21 Sep 2026
Moussa Diaby 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 ratings21 Sep 2026
21 times he got in the way of something. Centre-halves get written about when they make mistakes and ignored when they do not, so an afternoon like this needs saying out loud: he is the reason the scoreline reads as it does.
Match19 Sep 2026
It finished 2‑0, and it was Houssem Aouar’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Al-Ittihad.
Squad21 Sep 2026
Words at Al-Ittihad training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Luis Solignac 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.
Squad21 Sep 2026
The manager has not finished forgetting Youssef En-Nesyri's mistake
Publicly it is behind everybody. It is not behind the man who picks the team, and the only place that shows is a team sheet. He will get another chance; he will get it in a match that matters less.
Loan watch21 Sep 2026
“I am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at Al-Ittihad, and 0 appearances in 5 say he has earned the hearing.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Match9 Sep 2026
A 4‑0 win over Al-Diriyah, a place in the next round, and the quiet arithmetic every supporter does on the walk home: how many more until a final?
Market14 Sep 2026
The deal that would have taken Youssef En-Nesyri to CSKA Moscow has collapsed at the last stage, and he reports back to Al-Ittihad with a summer to forget and a season still to play. Nobody is saying which side walked away.
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
A brace, and Stephane Keller takes the afternoon — 8.31
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Stephane Keller provided it, and the 8.31 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 8.15, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
Squad14 Sep 2026
There were 6 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.
Market14 Sep 2026
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Al-Ittihad heard it as anything else.
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 22. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
22 defensive actions and a clean sheet at the end of them. A defender's afternoon can only be told by what did not happen, which is why nobody makes a highlights package out of one and every manager in the division would take it.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Words at Al-Ittihad training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Danilo Pereira 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
Triumph
Market17 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.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Moussa Diaby 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-Ittihad this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Boardroom17 Aug 2026
5 academy players handed senior numbers at Al-Ittihad
The morning the pathway stops being a brochure and becomes a team sheet. Most of them will not be here in three years; all of them have already done the hard part, which was getting to today.
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 20. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Match15 Aug 2026
It finished 2‑1, and it was Youssef En-Nesyri’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Al-Ittihad.
Squad17 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.
Market17 Aug 2026
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Salman Al-Ghamdi 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.
Market17 Aug 2026
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Ahmed Al-Sulami 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.
Market17 Aug 2026
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Saeed Al-Shehri is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
In brief
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Squad
Words at Al-Ittihad training over how hard people work
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Player ratings
Steven Bergwijn was on a different afternoon to everybody else
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Boardroom
Al-Ittihad are making the ground bigger
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market10 Aug 2026
The offer from Arsenal for Roger Fernandes 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.
Market10 Aug 2026
“I have ambitions, and I would like the club to share them.” Nobody has asked to leave and nobody has been shown the door — but a player chooses that sentence carefully, and a boardroom hears it exactly as it was meant.
Squad10 Aug 2026
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Youssef En-Nesyri commits to Al-Ittihad for another 4 years.
Squad10 Aug 2026
Moussa Diaby 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-Ittihad this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad10 Aug 2026
Words at Al-Ittihad training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Predrag Rajković 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.
Market10 Aug 2026
Add another name to the list: Al-Batin have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Osama Al-Mermesh. The answer from Al-Ittihad has not changed — yet.