Two goals and a mark of 8.29 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Morten Frendrup 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.
Al Wahda made Al Ain work for it, but the scoreboard read 3‑2 at the end and the table does not ask how.
Squad11 Sep 2028
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.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 22-year-old it feels ownership of. Modou Niang has it now, and everything he does for the rest of his time here will be measured against the goodwill he was handed for free.
3 straight away victories. Sides that win away are usually sides that can defend and can counter, and the table has begun to reflect what those journeys have earned.
“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 Ain can pretend not to have heard.
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.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Khauan is 22, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Squad5 Jun 2028
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.
“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.
Everyone has stopped pretending: Al Nasr will make the call about Mohamed Awad Alla this week. Al Ain have a number in mind, and the number is not shy.
The board have answered with money instead of encouragement, which is the only answer a manager ever wants. Spending it well is now entirely his problem.
“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.
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.
Squad10 Apr 2028
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.
3 goals in 29 games at Naft Tehran — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Al Ain updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
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.
“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 Ain heard it as anything else.
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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Modou Niang. 2‑1 against Al Jazira, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
At 22 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
“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 Nov 2027
The manager has not finished forgetting Matías Palacios'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.
“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.
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.
6 goals in one match, Luciano Ferreyra on the scoresheet, and a scoreline that will look like a misprint. Neutrals could not have asked more of Al Ain and Al Ahli.
“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 Ain hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
This is the season the town will measure the next twenty against. The trophy travels home with the squad, and the route through the streets was agreed days ago.
An individual honour is a strange thing in a team game, and the best of them are never argued with. He has had the sort of year that ends with his name being read out, and Al Ain have had the benefit of it.
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.
In brief
SquadWords at Al Ain training over how hard people work
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 61 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
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.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Al Ain will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
The words a physio says slowly. 14 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
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 Ain will be quietly delighted and privately nervous.
At 34 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 7.85 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
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.
The board have answered with money instead of encouragement, which is the only answer a manager ever wants. Spending it well is now entirely his problem.
“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 Ain, and 4 appearances in 17 say he has earned the hearing.
22 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Al Ain lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 9.67 at 34, and nobody on the pitch was better.
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.
7 goals in one match, Kodjo Laba on the scoresheet, and a scoreline that will look like a misprint. Neutrals could not have asked more of Al Ain and Al Shaab.
At 23 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
29 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Al Ain lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Al Shaab go through and Al Ain go home, 0‑2 the scoreline that did it. The dressing room will call the league the priority now, because that is what dressing rooms say.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 9.00 at 34, and nobody on the pitch was better.
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.
Squad21 Dec 2026
Words at Al Ain training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Kodjo Laba 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 words a physio says slowly. 37 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
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.
Every touch is being weighed now, in print and everywhere else. Some players grow into that and some are quietly ruined by it, and nobody knows which in advance.
Marked 5.65. Nothing he attempted worked and by the hour mark he had stopped attempting much, which is the part a manager notices rather than the mistakes.
45 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Al Ain lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
At 34 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.19 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
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.
Squad7 Dec 2026
Words at Al Ain training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Kodjo Laba 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.
“I watch every Al Ain game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Al-Fateh runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
Player ratings7 Dec 2026
Kouamé Autonne was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.39. 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.
The board have answered with money instead of encouragement, which is the only answer a manager ever wants. Spending it well is now entirely his problem.
The words a physio says slowly. 53 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Kouamé Autonne provided it, and the 9.18 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
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.
“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 Ain are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
At 23 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
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.
63 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Al Ain lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Position 1 and 26 points on the board. Nobody at the ground will say the word out loud yet, and everybody at the ground is thinking it.
Player ratings23 Nov 2026
Up for the corner, and Park Yong-Woo delivers — 7.42
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Park Yong-Woo scored, was marked 7.42, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
Soufiane Rahimi 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.
Clubs make promises constantly and the page usually only hears about them when they are broken. This one was honoured, and the dressing room noticed that faster than any supporter did.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Kodjo Laba signs something — a contract at Al Ain or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
In brief
The terracesEverybody has an opinion about Marcel Ratnik
Player ratingsAn afternoon Davud Alibašić will want back
70 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Al Ain lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
It is a specific kind of quiet, a ground watching a winning position dissolve. Sharjah kept coming because nothing stopped them, and Al Ain will be asked about the last half hour all week.
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.
Squad16 Nov 2026
Kodjo Laba 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.
The words a physio says slowly. 78 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
31 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.
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.
The hardest thing about being 21 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Modou Niang did not need any: 8.26, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.62 at 34, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Soufiane Rahimi 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.
The words a physio says slowly. 85 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
At 34 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 9.56 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
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.
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.
Three points for Al Ain, 3‑2 the final word against Al Dhafra in a contest settled by the finer margins.
Squad2 Nov 2026
Hazim Abbas is the division's best young player this month
At 21 he has spent a month being better than everybody his age in the league, which is a different and harder thing than one good afternoon. Al Ain will try very hard not to make too much of it.
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.
The words a physio says slowly. 92 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Position 1, 19 points, and the result everyone checks first is now theirs. The word is still not being said around the ground, which is how you know everyone is thinking it.
The hardest thing about being 21 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Hazim Abbas did not need any: 8.45, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
At 34 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.11 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Soufiane Rahimi 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.
Squad26 Oct 2026
Words at Al Ain training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Kodjo Laba 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.
21 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.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 21-year-old it feels ownership of. Hazim Abbas has it now, and everything he does for the rest of his time here will be measured against the goodwill he was handed for free.
104 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Al Ain lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Player ratings19 Oct 2026
A brace, and Kodjo Laba takes the afternoon — 9.26
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Kodjo Laba provided it, and the 9.26 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 20 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
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.
7 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about Al Ain and Al Wasl in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
Marked 8.51 — 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.
Marked 8.18 — 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.