33 points on the board and a place in the leading group. Nobody at the ground is saying the word out loud yet.
Player ratings23 Nov 2026
A brace, and Darwin Núñez takes the afternoon — 8.94
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Darwin Núñez provided it, and the 8.94 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Abdulelah Al-Malki scored, was marked 7.92, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
Enzo Millot 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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Darwin Núñez. 3‑2 against Al-Nahda, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
2 goals inside twenty minutes with Darwin Núñez in the middle of it, and Al-Nahda unable to get near the ball long enough to change anything. Some matches are won before the first drink.
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-Diriyah 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-Diriyah heard it as anything else.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Qassem Lajami was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
He asked about his future and was given an answer with minutes in it. The manager has now made a promise in a building where promises are remembered, and the clock on it has started.
“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-Diriyah, and both men came out saying it was fine.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Al-Diriyah have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Berat Djimsiti 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.
“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.
Every run ends on an afternoon somebody had marked down as routine. This one went 7 matches, which is long enough that a town had stopped counting, and short enough that it will remember exactly who stopped it.
Marked 8.14 — 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.
“I could talk about decisions and I could talk about luck. I will not. We lost.” The manager, 2‑3, and a press conference that lasted four minutes.
Squad9 Nov 2026
Qassem Lajami 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.
Al-Fayha will want this one forgotten quickly: 3‑0, every duel lost, and a long ride home. Al-Diriyah were ruthless in the way good sides are ruthless.
7 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.
First, on 30 points. The table is a fact and a fact is allowed to be enjoyed, which is as far as anybody at the club is prepared to go in public.
Player ratings2 Nov 2026
Clayton Diandy, 20, plays like he has been here for years — 7.64
A mark of 7.64 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 20-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
17 goals and a season average of 7.43. Form like that gets noticed well beyond this town.
Player ratings2 Nov 2026
Up for the corner, and Enzo Millot delivers — 7.81
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Enzo Millot scored, was marked 7.81, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
“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.
100 for the club now, each one filed in somebody’s memory with a date and a scoreline. Numbers like this are what supporters argue about in twenty years.
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.
Al-Saudi Al-Watani will want this one forgotten quickly: 3‑0, every duel lost, and a long ride home. Al-Diriyah were ruthless in the way good sides are ruthless.
Position 2, 27 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.
Player ratings26 Oct 2026
A brace, and Darwin Núñez takes the afternoon — 8.99
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Darwin Núñez provided it, and the 8.99 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
6 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.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 6 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
2 goals before the ground had finished arriving. Al-Saudi Al-Watani spent the rest of the afternoon playing a match that had already been decided, and everybody in the stadium knew it.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager makes an example of Ali Lajami
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Al-Diriyah have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
5 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.
Player ratings19 Oct 2026
Clayton Diandy, 20, plays like he has been here for years — 7.69
A mark of 7.69 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 20-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
A season average of 7.34 with 14 goals behind it. Opponents have started planning around him, which is the sincerest compliment football pays.
Player ratings19 Oct 2026
Darwin Núñez was on a different afternoon to everybody else
9.61. 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.
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.
3 goals inside twenty minutes with Darwin Núñez in the middle of it, and Al-Mojzel unable to get near the ball long enough to change anything. Some matches are won before the first drink.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: another club keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Amin Al-Bukhari, and the manager let it.
Squad12 Oct 2026
The division's best last weekend was a Al-Diriyah man
It is a small honour and it is not nothing: somebody watched every match in the division and decided that Darwin Núñez was the best thing in any of them.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Amin Al-Bukhari signs something — a contract at Al-Diriyah or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Numbers do not stay secret in a dressing room and never have. He is not asking for more than he is worth; he is asking why somebody beside him is worth more, and at Al-Diriyah that is a harder question to answer.
The language has come, the shrug has gone, and he argues in training like a man who expects to be here next year. None of it shows up on a fee and all of it shows up on the pitch.
A side in position 16 visits next. The result will not make anybody’s season and it could quietly break the shape of one, which is why the manager has been watching the video since Sunday.
4 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-Diriyah this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Player ratings5 Oct 2026
Darwin Núñez was on a different afternoon to everybody else
9.47. 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.
Boardroom5 Oct 2026
210% of the income goes out in wages at Al-Diriyah
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.
At 20 he was better than everybody his age in the division for four weeks running, which is harder than one good afternoon. Al-Diriyah will try not to make too much of it.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 7 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
The hardest thing about being 20 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Clayton Diandy did not need any: 8.09, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Berat Djimsiti and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Player ratings28 Sep 2026
Darwin Núñez was on a different afternoon to everybody else
9.68. 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.
At 20 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.
Squad28 Sep 2026
8 new faces, and Al-Diriyah 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.
Rarely has this fixture seen a display like it: 6‑0 against Al-Shoulla, and it could have been more.
Player ratings21 Sep 2026
A brace, and Darwin Núñez takes the afternoon — 9.45
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Darwin Núñez provided it, and the 9.45 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Two goals and a mark of 8.16 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
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-Diriyah this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 6 goals between Al-Diriyah and Al-Shoulla, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.
8.37. 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.
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Ali Lajami, and the manager let it.
The dugout21 Sep 2026
The view from the dugout
“We controlled it. There were spells I did not like and we will look at them, but the group showed me something.” Fahad Al-Salem, on a 6‑0 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
A defender on the scoresheet, which happens rarely enough that everybody in the ground remembers who took the corner. 1 for him, and a mark of 5.86 for the rest of it.
7.80, 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.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Nasser Al-Mansour is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
8.22. 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.
“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-Diriyah heard it as anything else.
“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
The dugoutThe manager’s verdict
The dugoutThe manager has not finished forgetting Omar Colley's mistake
SquadQassem Lajami falls out with a teammate over standards
6Edition
The Al-Diriyah Sentinel
7 Sep 2026
From our football correspondentUpbeat
Boardroom7 Sep 2026
Al-Diriyah close the window on a squad of their own making
9 in and 9 out, and no more changes for months. The manager has what he has, the supporters have their opinion of it, and the table will have the last word.
The offer from Al-Fayha for Abdullah Al-Dossari 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.
Four or five weekends of consistency, judged against everybody in the division doing his job. Chancel Mbemba has come out of that comparison in the side, and Al-Diriyah have had the benefit of every one of those afternoons.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Words at Al-Diriyah training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Qassem Lajami 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 offer from Malavan for Amin Al-Bukhari 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.
10 new signings in one window. Every one may be an upgrade and the side can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild the verdicts never mention.
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Chancel Mbemba scored, was marked 7.90, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
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.
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Fahad Al-Salem on a 3‑0 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Words at Al-Diriyah training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Qassem Lajami 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.
One weekend, judged against everybody else's. Darwin Núñez has come out on top of it, and for most footballers a weekly award is the only silverware a career ever produces.
Shots: 9. 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.
“I know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” Al-Nahda had the fee agreed and the shirt ready; they did not have the player, and now they will not.
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
Clayton Diandy, 20, plays like he has been here for years — 8.08
A mark of 8.08 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 20-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
7.67, 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.
Al-Khaleej paid $770.0K and Al-Diriyah took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 6 goals between Al-Diriyah and Damac, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Racing Genk waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Al-Diriyah is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
“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-Diriyah heard it as anything else.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Rashid Al-Nemer 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.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Nasser Al-Subaie 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.
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Damac in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
“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-Diriyah, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Numbers do not stay secret in a dressing room. He is not asking for more than he is worth; he is asking why somebody beside him is worth more, and Al-Diriyah have no good answer.
In brief
The terracesSupporters make their feelings known about Gaëtan Laborde
“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-Diriyah hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
Berat Djimsiti 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.
“135 caps is more than I ever expected, and it is time somebody else had them.” At 36 he is finished with his country and nowhere near finished with Al-Diriyah.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Al-Diriyah, another week without a signature from Nikola Vasilj.
10 new signings in one window. Every one may be an upgrade and the side can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild the verdicts never mention.