Marked for Luvannor
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad5 Oct 2026
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Al-Faisaly will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Squad5 Oct 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-Faisaly this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad5 Oct 2026
The manager makes an example of Luvannor
“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.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Words at Al-Faisaly training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mohammed Jahfali 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.
Boardroom5 Oct 2026
111% of the income goes out in wages at Al-Faisaly
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
It needed Mouhameth Diop to find the net to bring anything home at all: 1‑1 against Najran, and half the dressing room will call it a point won.
Player ratings5 Oct 2026
Luvannor leaves them behind him
Shots: 5. Goals: none. The chances were there and they were good ones, and they went into the stand, the goalkeeper's arms and the side netting in roughly that order.
Player ratings5 Oct 2026
Successful dribbles: 12. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Player ratings5 Oct 2026
Marked 5.73. 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.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad28 Sep 2026
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Al-Faisaly will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
The terraces28 Sep 2026
The ground has had enough
“We travel everywhere and we get this.” 8 of the 37 senior players heard it walking off, and the ones who did not hear it were not playing.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Eduardo Henrique 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.
Match26 Sep 2026
Mouhameth Diop scored, and precious little else went right: 1‑2 to Al-Ahli, and a quiet walk to the dressing room.
Squad28 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.
Squad28 Sep 2026
5 new faces, and Al-Faisaly are still learning each other
A squad rebuilt inside one window pays for it in a currency nobody budgets for. The football is not worse than the sum of the players; it is worse than the sum of the players who have played together before.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad7 Sep 2026
There were 9 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.
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.
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-Faisaly this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad7 Sep 2026
No hiding place for Luvannor
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Luvannor, and the manager let it.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Words at Al-Faisaly training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mohammed Jahfali 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.
Match5 Sep 2026
The crowd waited for a goal that never came. Al-Qadisiyah defended in numbers and left with what they came for, and the two sides could be playing still without troubling a scorer.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Player ratings31 Aug 2026
Luvannor scores twice — 8.64
Two goals and a mark of 8.64 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
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-Faisaly can pretend not to have heard.
Squad31 Aug 2026
Eduardo Henrique 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.
Match29 Aug 2026
Three points for Al-Faisaly, 2‑1 the final word against Hajer in a contest settled by the finer margins.
Squad31 Aug 2026
Jorge Aquino 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.
Squad31 Aug 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Mohamed Absi, and the manager let it.
Market31 Aug 2026
Nobody sells a season ticket on a signing like this. Every manager who has been through a bad October wants one anyway, and Al-Faisaly have gone and got theirs early.
Squad31 Aug 2026
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.
Player ratings31 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 12. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
In brief
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The terraces
The press cannot get enough of Luvannor
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The terraces
Luvannor has his own song now
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad24 Aug 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.
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-Faisaly, and it is not being withdrawn.
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-Faisaly this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Morato 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.
Match22 Aug 2026
Al-Fateh left with the points after a 0‑1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Words at Al-Faisaly training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Abdullah Al-Mogren 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.