Marked for Marcel Ratnik
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market11 Jan 2027
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Al Ain have lost him in all but the paperwork.
Squad11 Jan 2027
A one-man rearguard from Khalid Eisa
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.
Transfer targets11 Jan 2027
Al Ain and Al Wasl have settled on $110.0K. The rest belongs to the player and his agent, and a supporter who has watched one of these before knows not to buy the shirt yet.
Market11 Jan 2027
MC Alger come back empty-handed
The bid was some way short and Al Ain did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Transfer targets11 Jan 2027
Al Wahda wanted more than $1.3M and the board would not go there. Walked away, for now, which in a transfer window means until somebody blinks.
Market11 Jan 2027
The fee is $460.0K, the contract is signed, and the argument about whether he is worth it can begin. Al Nasr drove a hard bargain; time will say who won it.
Squad11 Jan 2027
Words exchanged at Al Ain
Valentino Lazaro 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.
Market11 Jan 2027
Add another name to the list: Saba have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Baba Bello Ilou. The answer from Al Ain has not changed — yet.
Loan watch11 Jan 2027
The goals keep arriving from Jônatas’s exile
12 goals in 17 games at Al Nasr — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Al Ain updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match9 Jan 2027
5‑2, and Facundo Kruspzky took the headlines on an afternoon when everything Al Wahda tried came off. Days like this are retold all winter.
Squad11 Jan 2027
The match ball belongs to Facundo Kruspzky, whose 3 goals turned a difficult afternoon into a procession.
Player ratings11 Jan 2027
A brace, and Gerónimo Rivera takes the afternoon — 8.34
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Gerónimo Rivera provided it, and the 8.34 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Match11 Jan 2027
Al Wahda are in among the leaders
Position 3 and 39 points on the board. Nobody at the ground will say the word out loud yet, and everybody at the ground is thinking it.
Player ratings11 Jan 2027
Age has not caught Omar Khribin yet — 9.07
At 33 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 9.07 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Market11 Jan 2027
Al Wahda say no — this time
The offer from Al Ain for Lautaro Montenegro 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.
Market11 Jan 2027
Jadsom wants to know where this is going
“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 Wahda hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
Transfer targets11 Jan 2027
Everything agreed with Al Ain, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
Squad11 Jan 2027
Dušan Tadić 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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Transfer targets4 Jan 2027
$1.2M on the table at Al Wahda. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
Transfer targets4 Jan 2027
The offer went to Al Nasr 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.
Squad4 Jan 2027
A falling-out at Al Ain
Valentino Lazaro and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad4 Jan 2027
A season average of 7.27 with 15 goals behind it. Opponents have started planning around him, which is the sincerest compliment football pays.
Transfer targets4 Jan 2027
$69.0K on the table at Al Wasl. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
Squad4 Jan 2027
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. João Marcos is 21, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Market4 Jan 2027
The phone has started ringing about Marcel Ratnik again, and this time the name on the line is Al Wahda. Al Ain are listening politely and promising nothing.
Squad4 Jan 2027
Words at Al Ain training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Matías Palacios 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
Squad28 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 Ain this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad28 Dec 2026
14 goals and a season average of 7.25. Form like that gets noticed well beyond this town.
Match26 Dec 2026
Al Shaab left with the points after a 0‑1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Squad28 Dec 2026
“The easiest signature of my career.” Marcel Ratnik and Al Ain agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad28 Dec 2026
Words at Al Ain training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Houssine Rahimi 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 dugout28 Dec 2026
No hiding place for Kaku
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Kaku, and the manager let it.
Boardroom28 Dec 2026
Wages swallow 107% of the Al Ain 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.
Boardroom28 Dec 2026
Nobody left the Al Ain 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 dugout28 Dec 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 0‑1 Mahmoud Al Hammadi left the room before anybody could ask which.
From our football correspondent
Steady
The dugout30 Nov 2026
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Al Ain have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
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 Ain this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad30 Nov 2026
12 goals and a season average of 7.31. Form like that gets noticed well beyond this town.
The terraces30 Nov 2026
He is 23 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.
Match28 Nov 2026
A 2‑0 win over Al Shabab, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Player ratings30 Nov 2026
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.
Match30 Nov 2026
The half-term report on Al Ain
Position 8, 20 points, and every result so far reduced to one line. The second half of the season starts with the same squad and a different set of expectations.
Boardroom30 Nov 2026
Wages swallow 109% of the Al Ain 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.
Loan watch30 Nov 2026
11 appearances away from home and 11 goals to show for them. Every one of them makes next summer's conversation a little more expensive.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Match26 Sep 2026
Al Ain cannot stop winning
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.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Tempers go at Al Ain
Valentino Lazaro 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 Sep 2026
At 18 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.
Match26 Sep 2026
It finished 2‑1, and it was Soufiane Rahimi’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Al Ain.
Player ratings28 Sep 2026
Ninety minutes of Soufiane Rahimi at his very best
Marked 8.51. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Al Ain.
Player ratings28 Sep 2026
One of those days for Caio Lucas
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.43, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
The dugout28 Sep 2026
The manager makes an example of Marcel Ratnik
“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 dugout28 Sep 2026
The manager’s verdict
“I am not going to get carried away and I will not let them either. It was a good day. There will be harder ones.” Mahmoud Al Hammadi kept it short after the 2‑1 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
The dugout28 Sep 2026
“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 Ain, and both men came out saying it was fine.