52 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Al-Faisaly lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
0‑5 to Al-Shabab, and it was every bit as bad as the number suggests. There are defeats you argue about and defeats you apologise for; this was the second kind.
Andrei Girotto 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.
5 boys move up, and somewhere in the building the people who coached them at twelve are quietly having the best morning of their working year. Nothing about this shows up in a result and it is why the academy exists.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Al-Riyadh have kept their man, and Al-Faisaly go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Talal Al-Khaibari 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.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Yasser Al-Hassan is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
The words a physio says slowly. 59 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.
Al-Faisaly asked and Al-Diriyah said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Squad9 Aug 2027
Words at Al-Faisaly training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Abdoulaye Seck 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.
Nobody at Al-Faisaly will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
66 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Al-Faisaly lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Al-Faisaly asked and Al-Diriyah said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
The manager has re-ordered his thinking and Theo Bongonda has come out of it lower. He will be told it is temporary, and the players who have heard that before will avoid his eye.
Every shape has positions in it and this one does not have his. Al-Faisaly will either change the shape, change his job, or change his club, and he is waiting to hear which.
The words a physio says slowly. 74 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.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Al-Faisaly have done the hard part with Al-Nassr, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Abdoulaye Seck was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad26 Jul 2027
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.
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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Fahad Al-Dossari trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
83 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Al-Faisaly lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
“I know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” Al-Batin had the fee agreed and the shirt ready; they did not have the player, and now they will not.
The number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $15.0K — a club that wants Abdulmohsen Fallatah enough to be asked twice.
Theo Bongonda 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.
Al-Faisaly have gone to Al-Wehda with a bid, and the supporters have gone to the internet with an opinion about it. Whether either changes anything is up to the selling club.
Al-Faisaly asked and Lecco said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Squad19 Jul 2027
Words at Al-Faisaly training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Abdoulaye Seck 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. 90 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.
Jaime Seoane 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.
The enquiry everybody at Al-Faisaly was hoping would not arrive has arrived. He has never pretended he did not want to go back, and now there is somewhere to go back to.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Mohammed Al-Shanqiti and Al-Faisaly agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Everyone has stopped pretending: Al-Shoulla will make the call about Yazan Jari this week. Al-Faisaly have a number in mind, and the number is not shy.
Still no offer on the table, and Jean Charles Ahoua’s deal keeps shrinking. In boardroom language, silence this long stops being an oversight and starts being an answer.
97 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Al-Faisaly lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
“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.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Jean Charles Ahoua and Al-Faisaly agree another 4 years.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Al-Faisaly can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Everyone has stopped pretending: Al-Fateh will make the call about Abdullah Al-Mogren this week. Al-Faisaly have a number in mind, and the number is not shy.
In brief
Transfer targetsA loan move for Saleh Al-Shehri is in the works
“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.
It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether Al-Faisaly can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Al-Hazem have kept their man, and Al-Faisaly go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Add another name to the list: Al-Ta'ee have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Fawaz Rabie. The answer from Al-Faisaly has not changed — yet.
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.
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.
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Abdullah Al-Mogren is on it.
A conversation in the manager’s office, and a commitment that came out of it. Promises like that are cheap to make and expensive to break, and Yaseen Barnawi has written the date down.
“I know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” Al-Batin had the fee agreed and the shirt ready; they did not have the player, and now they will not.
The phone has started ringing about Abdullah Al-Mogren again, and this time the name on the line is Al-Riyadh. Al-Faisaly are listening politely and promising nothing.
Al-Faisaly asked and Lecco said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Ayman Fallatah 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.
Al-Faisaly have made the call to Rah Ahan. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Fernando Pacheco is on it.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Al-Faisaly. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
“It was not right for me. I am not going to explain why to anybody except the people I owe an explanation to.” A deal agreed between two clubs, and a player who declined to be part of it.
Theo Bongonda 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-Faisaly asked and Al-Orobah said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Abdoulaye Seck was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The system has changed and his position has not. A footballer can improve his form; he cannot improve the manager’s formation, and that is the whole of the problem.
The offer from Al-Riyadh for Abdullah Al-Mogren 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.
“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-Faisaly heard it as anything 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-Faisaly this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Al-Nahda paid $210.0K and Al-Faisaly took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
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.
Theo Bongonda and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Boardroom31 May 2027
101% 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.
Nobody at Al-Faisaly will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Jean Charles Ahoua trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
A conversation in the manager’s office, and a commitment that came out of it. Promises like that are cheap to make and expensive to break, and Hussain Al-Nattar has written the date down.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Yousef Al-Shammari signs something — a contract at Al-Faisaly or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Two hours a week with a tutor, which is the least glamorous thing at Al-Faisaly and the one that decides whether a foreign signing is still here in two years.
21 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Al-Faisaly lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Jaime Seoane 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.
Squad24 May 2027
Words at Al-Faisaly training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Abdoulaye Seck 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.
Nobody at Al-Faisaly will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
The words a physio says slowly. 29 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.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Yazan Jari will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Al-Faisaly the goodbyes have quietly begun.
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.
“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-Faisaly, and both men came out saying it was fine.
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.
In brief
SquadJaime Seoane is the talk of the training ground
37 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Al-Faisaly lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Al-Faisaly they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Ali Hazazi trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
“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 Al-Faisaly know it.
Ali Hazazi and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad3 May 2027
Words at Al-Faisaly training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Abdoulaye Seck 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 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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Luvannor trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether Al-Faisaly can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
Theo Bongonda 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Abdoulaye Seck was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Raphael Silva trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Al-Faisaly they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Theo Bongonda 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.
A conversation in the manager’s office, and a commitment that came out of it. Promises like that are cheap to make and expensive to break, and Jean Charles Ahoua has written the date down.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Al-Faisaly they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
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.
Everybody at Al-Faisaly saw it before anybody said it, which is how this always goes. At 35 the decline is real and measurable — 3 points — and the only question left is how the club handles somebody it owes a great deal to.
Squad5 Apr 2027
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.
“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-Faisaly, and 7 appearances in 11 say he has earned the hearing.
It will be explained as a change for the team and it may even be one. Nobody who has worn one believes that, and neither does the man who has just had it taken away.
“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-Faisaly, and both men came out saying it was fine.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
A conversation in the manager’s office, and a commitment that came out of it. Promises like that are cheap to make and expensive to break, and Ibrahima N'Diaye has written the date down.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Al-Faisaly have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Wilfried Eza 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.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Al-Faisaly have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
At 19 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.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Al-Faisaly is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Cristian Carrara 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.
“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 Mar 2027
Words at Al-Faisaly training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Abdoulaye Seck 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.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Al-Faisaly have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Rayan Fallatah will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Al-Faisaly the goodbyes have quietly begun.
“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 Al-Faisaly know it.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Abdoulaye Seck was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Al-Faisaly can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
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.
“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.
Squad8 Mar 2027
Words at Al-Faisaly training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Hussain Al-Nattar 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 was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Al-Faisaly has been clear about where Hussain Al-Nattar stands, which is more than many ever get.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Al-Faisaly. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Yaseen Barnawi trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
The last league game has been played and the table has stopped moving: 27 points. The summer begins on Monday, and so does the argument about what it all meant.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 8 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Al-Faisaly have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
5 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.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Al-Faisaly can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Theo Bongonda 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
A last season at home is what Romell Quioto is after
It is sentimental, it is completely genuine, and it is the beginning of a departure nobody has announced. The club can be gracious about it or it can pretend not to have heard.
Nobody at Al-Faisaly will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 14 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
1‑4 to Al-Ittihad, and it was every bit as bad as the number suggests. There are defeats you argue about and defeats you apologise for; this was the second kind.
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Jaime Seoane wants continental football; whether Al-Faisaly can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
4 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.
Theo Bongonda 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.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Al-Faisaly is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad22 Feb 2027
Words at Al-Faisaly training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Abdoulaye Seck 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.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Al-Faisaly have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Rayan Fallatah will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Al-Faisaly the goodbyes have quietly begun.
The offer from Al-Njoom for Yazan Jari 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.
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.
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 0‑1, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
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-Khaleej left with the points after a 1‑3 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Squad8 Feb 2027
Words at Al-Faisaly training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Abdoulaye Seck 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.
Successful dribbles: 16. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
The dugout8 Feb 2027
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 1‑3 Saeed Al-Sulami left the room before anybody could ask which.
“I did not come here to warm up in front of people.” He is out of contract eventually, he is old enough to count the weeks, and Al-Faisaly will have to give him a reason to stay or an exit.
Al-Faisaly close the window on a squad of their own making
2 in and 1 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 Ohod for Mohammed Al-Aqeel 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.
“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.
Cristian Carrara 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Abdoulaye Seck was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Behind, and beaten by any honest reading, until minute 86. Al-Taawoun had the points in their pocket and a corner of the ground still believed, which is generally when it happens.
He is not being dropped. There is simply nowhere in the formation Al-Faisaly are playing to put a man who does what he does, which is a harder thing to be told than any team sheet.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Al-Njoom waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Al-Faisaly is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
At 34 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 7.80 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Theo Bongonda 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.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 9 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
“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.
The deal with Al-Qadisiyah is done in every sense but the one that puts him on the pitch. Nothing goes wrong at this stage, except on the occasions when it does.
He will play here until the summer and then walk out of the door for free, having already signed elsewhere. Supporters will manage the first part of that sentence; it is the second they will struggle with.
4 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Al-Faisaly can tell you which week it ends in.
“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.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Al-Faisaly is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
The rules permit it and it stings anyway. Rayan Fallatah has agreed terms with Al-Nahda for the summer, and until then he pulls on this shirt as a player who has already chosen his next one.
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.
“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.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 6 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Theo Bongonda 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-Faisaly asked and Al-Nassr said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Add another name to the list: Al-Nahda have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Abdullah Al-Rashidi. The answer from Al-Faisaly has not changed — yet.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Al-Faisaly can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
A month is long enough that nobody gets in by accident. Abdoulaye Seck is in the division's best eleven for it, which is a quieter compliment than an award and a more reliable one.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Al-Faisaly have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Jaime Seoane 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.
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.
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Fernando Pacheco, and the manager let it.
Squad28 Dec 2026
Words at Al-Faisaly training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Abdoulaye Seck 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.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Saeed Al-Sulami after 1‑3, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Jaime Seoane wants continental football; whether Al-Faisaly can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
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.
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.
“It is not the end of the world and it is not good enough. Both of those are true.” The manager, after a 1‑1 draw, said the honest thing and then went to say it again inside.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Al-Faisaly have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
He is 22 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.
It finished 1‑0, and it was Mohamed Absi’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Al-Faisaly.
Player ratings14 Dec 2026
Jaime Seoane was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.05. 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.
Rayan Fallatah 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 dugout14 Dec 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.” Saeed Al-Sulami, on a 1‑0 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Munif Doshi’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Al-Faisaly needing him to play as if none of it matters.
Two or more conceded in each of the last 4 matches. It is not one mistake repeating itself, which would be the easier thing to fix; it is a different one every week.
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 dugout7 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 1‑2 Saeed Al-Sulami left the room before anybody could ask which.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 13 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Theo Bongonda 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.
Boardroom30 Nov 2026
160% 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.
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.
Half the programme played, position 9, 17 on the board. Doubling it is the sum every supporter has done and the only one nobody at the club will do out loud.
2 kept out from twelve yards, and a stadium that will describe each of them for twenty years. A goalkeeper needs one night like this in a career, and this was it.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Abdullah Al-Mogren provided it, and the 9.02 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Minute 122, against Al-Wehda, and a goal that felt like a win to everybody who had stayed. It was a draw. Nobody leaving the ground will describe it as one.
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.
Squad16 Nov 2026
Words at Al-Faisaly training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Abdoulaye Seck 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.
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Al-Ittihad in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Al-Faisaly. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
The most common injury in the game and the most rushed back from. Al-Faisaly will quote 18 days and will be careful with it, because the second one is always worse than the first.
“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-Faisaly heard it as anything else.
Jaime Seoane 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.
A performance of 8.06 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Squad9 Nov 2026
Words at Al-Faisaly training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Yaseen Barnawi 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 dugout9 Nov 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.” Saeed Al-Sulami kept it short after the 2‑0 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
0‑3 to Al-Khaleej, and it was every bit as bad as the number suggests. There are defeats you argue about and defeats you apologise for; this was the second kind.
“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-Faisaly hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
Boardroom2 Nov 2026
160% 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.
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Fernando Pacheco, and the manager let it.
Boardroom2 Nov 2026
Nobody left the Al-Faisaly 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.
Squad2 Nov 2026
Fawaz Rabie 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 dugout2 Nov 2026
The view from the dugout
“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 0‑3 defeat, delivered by Saeed Al-Sulami to a room that had heard them before.
Abdulrahman Al-Sherif 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.
Every touch weighed, every quote parsed, every mistake replayed. Some players grow into that; some are quietly finished by it; nobody knows which until afterwards.
Some goals win a match and some take one off somebody else. Theo Bongonda scored in the 89th minute, Al-Taawoun had already begun thinking about the journey home, and Al-Faisaly took the lot.
Two goals and a mark of 8.33 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Theo Bongonda. 2‑1 against Al-Taawoun, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Squad26 Oct 2026
Words at Al-Faisaly training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Abdoulaye Seck 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 dugout26 Oct 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.” Saeed Al-Sulami kept it short after the 2‑1 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
The team sheet says it in public every week until it changes. The only version of being dropped a footballer cannot argue with, and the one he takes hardest.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Luvannor provided it, and the 8.56 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Jaime Seoane wants continental football; whether Al-Faisaly can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 22 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Abdoulaye Seck was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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.
The dugout19 Oct 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.” Saeed Al-Sulami, on a 2‑0 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
Theo Bongonda 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.
11 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.
Najran next, and one man in the Al-Faisaly dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
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.
The shrug has gone, the language is coming, and he now argues in training like somebody who expects to be here next year. Half a signing's value is this and none of it appears on a fee.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 11 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Al-Faisaly can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Theo Bongonda 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.
Boardroom5 Oct 2026
215% 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.
Al-Ahli left with the points after a 0‑1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Words at Al-Faisaly training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Abdoulaye Seck 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.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Saeed Al-Sulami after 0‑1, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Yaseen Barnawi was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout28 Sep 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 1‑4 Saeed Al-Sulami left the room before anybody could ask which.
Whether it was the goalkeeper or the ten in front of him is the argument that will fill every conversation in town this week. 4 saves does not settle it either way.
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Eid Al-Muwallad’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Al-Faisaly needing him to play as if none of it matters.
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.07, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
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.” Saeed Al-Sulami, on a 2‑0 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
14 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.
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Mohammed Al-Shanqiti’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Al-Faisaly needing him to play as if none of it matters.
“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-Faisaly, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Ibrahima N'Diaye is on it.
Ninety specific minutes wanted a different sort of player, and the manager picked one. He is not out of form and he is not in the side, and both are true.
It is a specific kind of quiet, a ground watching a winning position dissolve. Al-Qadisiyah kept coming because nothing stopped them, and Al-Faisaly will be asked about the last half hour all week.
Two goals and a mark of 8.73 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Two goals and a mark of 8.48 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Words at Al-Faisaly training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Abdoulaye Seck 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.
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Saeed Al-Sulami after the 3‑3 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
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.
“I know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” Al-Batin had the fee agreed and the shirt ready; they did not have the player, and now they will not.
“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.
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 11 arrived, 5 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Words at Al-Faisaly training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Abdoulaye Seck 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.
11 signings in three months. Every one of them may be an upgrade and the team can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild that never appears in the transfer-window verdicts.
A month is long enough that nobody gets in by accident. Wilfried Eza is in the division's best eleven for it, which is a quieter compliment than an award and a more reliable one.
The manager has re-ordered his thinking and Fahad Al-Dossari has come out of it lower. He will be told it is temporary, and the players who have heard that before will avoid his eye.
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Al-Qadisiyah in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
Two goals and a mark of 8.42 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
“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.
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.
7.91, 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-Ra'ed paid $870.0K and Al-Faisaly took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Saeed Al-Sulami on a 3‑1 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager makes an example of Fawaz Rabie
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Al-Faisaly people have started saying his name in the past tense.
It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether Al-Faisaly can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
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.
The name of Abdullah Al-Rashidi has come up in conversations Al-Faisaly were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Abdoulaye Seck was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
1‑4 to Al-Shabab, and it was every bit as bad as the number suggests. There are defeats you argue about and defeats you apologise for; this was the second kind.
The offer from Al-Ra'ed for Ahmed Al-Mhemaid 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.
17 combined actions and 6.76. The job he did is the one that shows up as other people looking good, and the only reliable way to notice it is to watch what happens on the afternoons he is missing.
Theo Bongonda 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 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.
Boardroom17 Aug 2026
Nobody left the Al-Faisaly 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.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Saeed Al-Sulami after 1‑4, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
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.
“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.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Salem Al-Mansour has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Waleed Al-Nemer is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
11 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.
The team at the top of the table next, and the honest measure of where this side actually is. Anybody can beat the club below them; the question is what happens against Al-Shabab.
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Al-Shabab in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Jean Charles Ahoua trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
“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-Faisaly heard it as anything else.
Theo Bongonda 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.
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.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Al-Faisaly, another week without a signature from Fernando Pacheco.
In brief
Transfer targetsA loan move for Yael Trepy is in the works