Marked for Pablo Marí
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Loan watch1 Mar 2027
The goals keep arriving from Saïmon Bouabré’s exile
27 goals in 15 games at Khazar — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Al-Hilal updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
Squad1 Mar 2027
Sergej Milinković-Savić 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.
Squad1 Mar 2027
Mohamed Kanno pulls a muscle — 14 days out
The injury that keeps coming back, keeps being rushed back from, and quietly costs more careers than the dramatic ones. 14 days is the estimate; the honest figure depends on whether anybody is patient.
Squad1 Mar 2027
Salem Al-Dawsari 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.
Market1 Mar 2027
A season away well spent by Mohamed Meïté
20 games, 21 goals, and a squad option that has arrived without a fee attached. The interesting question at Al-Hilal now is not whether he plays but who he displaces.
Squad1 Mar 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Cristián Blanco, and the manager let it.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match20 Feb 2027
No end in sight to Emirates Club's wait for a win
12 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Emirates Club has to find a result from somewhere.
Match20 Feb 2027
12 games without scoring. Strikers stop looking up, midfielders take the extra touch, and every shot that clears the bar is followed by a groan that has been building since the last goal.
Squad22 Feb 2027
Jorge Bosmediano 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 ratings22 Feb 2027
Successful dribbles: 20. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad22 Feb 2027
Diogo Capitão 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.
Squad22 Feb 2027
The manager makes an example of Walid Khalfan
“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.
Squad22 Feb 2027
There is no complaint available here and everybody involved knows it, which does not make the walk to the bench any shorter. Form is the only currency in football that cannot be borrowed against.
Match20 Feb 2027
Point won or two lost for Emirates Club?
Ninety minutes, no goals, and the argument started before the car park emptied: a point gained, or two thrown away against Al Wahda? Both sides of it will still be going on Thursday.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match13 Feb 2027
11 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.
Match13 Feb 2027
11 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Emirates Club can tell you which week it ends in.
Match15 Feb 2027
Position 13, 12 points, and a fixture list with fewer games left in it than excuses. The arithmetic is not cruel yet, but it has stopped being kind.
Squad15 Feb 2027
Hamad Mohammad 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 ratings15 Feb 2027
Successful dribbles: 19. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad15 Feb 2027
A player who expected to start watched it instead. The manager will call it a decision for the team; Jorge Bosmediano will call it something else in private.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match6 Feb 2027
No end in sight to Emirates Club's wait for a win
10 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Emirates Club has to find a result from somewhere.
Match6 Feb 2027
10 games without scoring. Strikers stop looking up, midfielders take the extra touch, and every shot that clears the bar is followed by a groan that has been building since the last goal.
Boardroom8 Feb 2027
The board’s statement ran to three sentences and one of them mentioned results. Fahad Al Bloushi has managed long enough to translate: win soon, or the next statement is shorter.
Market8 Feb 2027
“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 Emirates Club, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad8 Feb 2027
“I have given this everything, but my family is not here and neither am I, not really.” A footballer can be coached out of bad form. Nobody has ever been coached out of this, and Emirates Club know it.
Match6 Feb 2027
Al Shabab left with the points after a 0‑1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Squad8 Feb 2027
Diogo Capitão 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.
Squad8 Feb 2027
“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.
Squad8 Feb 2027
Pablo Marí loses the manager who believed in him
A change in the dugout is not one story, it is twenty-five of them. This is Pablo Marí's: he was somebody's player, and now he has to be somebody else's, starting from nothing.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
The terraces1 Feb 2027
The mood at Emirates Club has turned into something else
Supporters who sing when it goes badly are supporters. Supporters who gather afterwards are a problem, and everybody inside the building knows which of the two this now is.
Boardroom1 Feb 2027
Nobody upstairs has said anything, which is the loudest thing they could do. Results buy silence in this game; the account at Emirates Club is running low.
Match30 Jan 2027
No end in sight to Emirates Club's wait for a win
9 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Emirates Club has to find a result from somewhere.
Match30 Jan 2027
9 games without scoring. Strikers stop looking up, midfielders take the extra touch, and every shot that clears the bar is followed by a groan that has been building since the last goal.
Market1 Feb 2027
Ahmed Ibrahim hands in a written request
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Emirates Club can pretend not to have heard.
Market1 Feb 2027
Saud Al-Hosani has left for Dibba in a $340.0K deal. The accountants are pleased; the supporters are less certain.
Match30 Jan 2027
Al Jazira left with the points after a 0‑2 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Squad1 Feb 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Emiliano González, and the manager let it.
Squad1 Feb 2027
Words at Emirates Club training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Diogo Capitão 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
Match23 Jan 2027
The run at home goes on for Al-Hilal
15 matches unbeaten here. Every visiting manager is asked about it in the week before, which is precisely why it keeps going.
Player ratings25 Jan 2027
Successful dribbles: 30. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Match23 Jan 2027
Al-Hilal cannot stop winning
6 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.
Match25 Jan 2027
Al-Hilal up to position 3
50 points on the board and a place in the leading group. Nobody at the ground is saying the word out loud yet.
Market25 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.
Market25 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-Hilal can pretend not to have heard.
Loan watch25 Jan 2027
16 appearances away from home and 19 goals to show for them. Every one of them makes next summer's conversation a little more expensive.
Squad25 Jan 2027
Rúben Neves 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-Hilal this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad25 Jan 2027
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
Upbeat
Squad21 Dec 2026
João Cancelo breaks a bone — 32 days out
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 32 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Squad21 Dec 2026
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Al-Hilal have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Loan watch21 Dec 2026
11 appearances at Zob Ahan and the goals keep coming. Al-Hilal are watching this more closely than the borrowing club would like.
Market21 Dec 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.
Squad21 Dec 2026
Words at Al-Hilal training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Sergej Milinković-Savić 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.
Match19 Dec 2026
Al-Ahli left with the points after a 0‑1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Squad21 Dec 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 watch21 Dec 2026
“I did not go to Al Wasl to sit and watch. I want to come back to Al-Hilal and fight for my place.” 6 appearances in 18 matches say the rest.
Player ratings21 Dec 2026
Successful dribbles: 15. 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
Triumph
Squad14 Dec 2026
A fracture rules João Cancelo out for 40 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Al-Hilal will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Player ratings14 Dec 2026
Age has not caught Karim Benzema yet — 7.99
At 39 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 7.99 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Match12 Dec 2026
Al-Hilal cannot stop winning
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.
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-Hilal this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match12 Dec 2026
Another one collected away from home
4 on the bounce on the road for Al-Hilal. The coaches leave early, arrive at unlovely grounds in the dark, and keep coming home with three points.
Loan watch14 Dec 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-Hilal, and 5 appearances in 15 say he has earned the hearing.
Match12 Dec 2026
A 1‑0 win over Al-Nassr, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Loan watch14 Dec 2026
The goals keep arriving from Mohamed Meïté’s exile
13 goals in 10 games at Zob Ahan — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Al-Hilal updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
Squad14 Dec 2026
Pablo Marí 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.
In brief
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Player ratings
Nobody could get near Malcom
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Squad
Words at Al-Hilal training over how hard people work
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Player ratings
A day to forget for Rúben Neves
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad21 Sep 2026
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 48 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Squad21 Sep 2026
A muscle injury sidelines Karim Benzema for 17 days
Nobody makes a documentary about a hamstring and everybody in the game fears one. Al-Hilal will be careful with the return date, because the second one is always worse than the first.
Match19 Sep 2026
4 matches without a win for Al-Hilal
The run now stands at 4, and the questions being asked around Al-Hilal are no longer polite ones.
Squad21 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-Hilal this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match19 Sep 2026
4 matches without a goal for Al-Hilal
The chances are being made and something is happening between the making and the finishing. 4 matches now, and the anxiety in the ground arrives a little earlier every week.
Player ratings21 Sep 2026
Malcom runs at them all day
Successful dribbles: 19. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad21 Sep 2026
Words at Al-Hilal training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Nasser Al-Dawsari 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.
Loan watch21 Sep 2026
“I watch every Al-Hilal game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Al Wasl runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
Loan watch21 Sep 2026
The goals keep arriving from Saïmon Bouabré’s exile
8 goals in 3 games at Khazar — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Al-Hilal updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad7 Sep 2026
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Al-Hilal will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Market7 Sep 2026
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Market7 Sep 2026
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Player ratings7 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 28. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Market7 Sep 2026
Abdulkarim Darisi has left for Al-Nassr in a $3.5M deal. The accountants are pleased; the supporters are less certain.
Market7 Sep 2026
The fee was agreed and the flight was looked at — and then the phone stopped ringing. Al-Nassr moved on, Mohammed Al-Yami reports back to Al-Hilal, and everybody pretends Monday is just Monday.
Squad7 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-Hilal this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Yassine Bounou 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
“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.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad31 Aug 2026
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Al-Hilal will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Market31 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.
Market31 Aug 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-Hilal can pretend not to have heard.
Market31 Aug 2026
The name of Pablo Marí has come up in conversations Al-Hilal were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Squad31 Aug 2026
Sergej Milinković-Savić 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 ratings31 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 20. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad31 Aug 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.
Market31 Aug 2026
Everyone has stopped pretending: MB Rouissat will make the call about Sultan Mandash this week. Al-Hilal have a number in mind, and the number is not shy.
Player ratings31 Aug 2026
Some games turn on a moment; this one turned on a man. 7.55 on the card, and the Al-Hilal support went home talking about one name.
In brief
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Squad
Words at Al-Hilal training over how hard people work
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Match
Point won or two lost for Al-Hilal?
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Player ratings
Rúben Neves spends the afternoon fouling
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Squad24 Aug 2026
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 80 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Match22 Aug 2026
Hajer will want this one forgotten quickly: 4‑1, every duel lost, and a long ride home. Al-Hilal were ruthless in the way good sides are ruthless.
Market24 Aug 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-Hilal, and it is not being withdrawn.
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
Karim Benzema, 38, rolls back the years — 8.01
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.01 at 38, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Market24 Aug 2026
Al-Hilal say no — this time
The offer from Al-Orobah for Abdulkarim Darisi 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.
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
Rúben Neves pops up at the right end — 7.71
7.71, 1 on the scoresheet, and the specific comedy of a back-four player celebrating like somebody who does this every week. He does not, and that is exactly why the ground reacted the way it did.
Squad24 Aug 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-Hilal this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Market24 Aug 2026
Add another name to the list: MB Rouissat have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Sultan Mandash. The answer from Al-Hilal has not changed — yet.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Yassine Bounou 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.
In brief
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Market
Ismaily are about to pick up the phone
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Player ratings
One of those days for Darwin Núñez
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Player ratings
Ninety minutes of Malcom at his very best
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Squad17 Aug 2026
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Al-Hilal will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 33. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Market17 Aug 2026
The bid was some way short and Al-Hilal did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
Karim Benzema, 38, rolls back the years — 7.90
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 7.90 at 38, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Market17 Aug 2026
The interest is real enough to have reached print. Al-Hilal have said nothing, which in a transfer window is its own kind of answer.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Sergej Milinković-Savić 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.
Boardroom17 Aug 2026
1 academy players handed senior numbers at Al-Hilal
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.
Match15 Aug 2026
Three points for Al-Hilal, 2‑0 the final word against Al-Fateh in a contest settled by the finer margins.
Market17 Aug 2026
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Saad 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.