Some goals win a match and some take one off somebody else. Mourad Batna scored in the 86th minute, Al-Qadisiyah had already begun thinking about the journey home, and Al-Fateh took the lot.
“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.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.24 at 36, and nobody on the pitch was better.
The offer from Koper for Jan Petek 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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Mourad Batna. 2‑1 against Al-Qadisiyah, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
“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.
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.” Abdullah Al-Juhani, on a 2‑1 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
Nobody will confirm it and the team sheets confirm it every week. One error has bought him a spell as second choice that is already longer than the error deserved.
In brief
SquadA Al-Fateh teenager takes the young player award
“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-Fateh heard it as anything else.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 19-year-old it feels ownership of. Mohamed Refat 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.
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.
Conceding is one thing; the response is what tells you about a dressing room. Mohamed Refat had Al-Fateh level again within 1 minutes, and Al-Ta'ee never got to play with a lead at all.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager makes an example of Mihai Lixandru
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Al-Hilal is saying, and nobody at Al-Fateh is enjoying the guessing.
The phone has started ringing about Zaydou Youssouf again, and this time the name on the line is Union SG. Al-Fateh are listening politely and promising nothing.
“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-Fateh can pretend not to have heard.
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 14 arrived, 2 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
$190.0K was the most the club would pay and Al-Taawoun were asking for more. Deals like this are revived in the last week of a window roughly half the time, and everybody involved knows 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.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Sattam Al-Tumbukti and Al-Fateh agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad7 Sep 2026
9 new faces, and Al-Fateh 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.
Squad7 Sep 2026
A place in the month's best eleven for Robin Kelder
Four or five weekends of consistency, judged against everybody in the division doing his job. Robin Kelder has come out of that comparison in the side, and Al-Fateh have had the benefit of every one of those afternoons.
Beaten 0‑3 by Al-Shabab, and beaten everywhere it matters. The inquest starts on the training pitch on Monday morning.
Transfer targets31 Aug 2026
$2.4M settles it between the clubs for Haman Mandjan
Al-Hilal have accepted the money. What Al-Fateh do not yet have is the man, and between here and the photograph is a conversation about wages that both sides are dreading.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Fahad Al-Zubaidi will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Al-Fateh the goodbyes have quietly begun.
“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-Fateh, and it is not being withdrawn.
The number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $193.4K — a club that wants Moustapha Sémbène enough to be asked twice.
Al-Fateh have gone to Al-Taawoun 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.
$98.0K was the most the club would pay and Al-Ittihad were asking for more. Deals like this are revived in the last week of a window roughly half the time, and everybody involved knows it.
Al-Fateh have gone to Al-Hilal 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.
The number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $108.1K — a club that wants Sami Al-Naji enough to be asked twice.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Jan Petek has just signed for Al-Fateh, and for once the answer mattered.
$100.0K was the most the club would pay and Al-Nassr were asking for more. Deals like this are revived in the last week of a window roughly half the time, and everybody involved knows it.
Al-Fateh asked and Al Ahli 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 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 clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Al-Fateh people have started saying his name in the past tense.
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 number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $284.4K — a club that wants Jan Petek enough to be asked twice.
Al-Fateh had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Al Ahli, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
$270.0K on the table at Al-Riyadh. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
Mourad Batna 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 offer went to Al-Nassr this week and it is theirs to answer. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loud 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-Fateh heard it as anything else.
Add another name to the list: Al-Nassr have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Fahad Al-Zubaidi. The answer from Al-Fateh has not changed — yet.
The number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $108.1K — a club that wants Ibrahim Al-Shuail enough to be asked twice.
Al-Fateh have gone to Al-Taawoun 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Al-Khaleej have kept their man, and Al-Fateh go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Hassan Al-Shehri is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
“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-Fateh hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
Zaydou Youssouf 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 Mourad Batna was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Add another name to the list: Najran have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Faisal Al-Abdulwahed. The answer from Al-Fateh has not changed — yet.