At 34 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 7.90 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Al-Hazem have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
The first defeat in 8 matches. The manager will say it had to come; the dressing room will say it did not have to come against Al-Riyadh; the supporters will say both, in that order, all week.
Sofiane Bendebka scored, and precious little else went right: 1‑2 to Al-Riyadh, and a quiet walk to the dressing room.
Squad15 Feb 2027
Words at Al-Hazem training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Bonheur Mugisha 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.
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 listened, I thought about it, and I am staying. That is the whole story.” The clubs had agreed a fee. Loreintz Rosier had not agreed to go, which turned out to be the part that mattered.
2 behind and going nowhere, until Omar Al-Somah decided otherwise. Al-Diriyah had done the hard part and then watched it come apart, and the noise at the final whistle was the sort a ground keeps.
Player ratings8 Feb 2027
A brace, and Omar Al-Somah takes the afternoon — 9.27
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Omar Al-Somah provided it, and the 9.27 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Mohammed Al-Yami will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Al-Hazem the goodbyes have quietly begun.
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-Hazem this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Two goals and a mark of 9.54 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Al-Hazem people have started saying his name in the past tense.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 10.00 at 36, and nobody on the pitch was better.
“I listened, I thought about it, and I am staying. That is the whole story.” The clubs had agreed a fee. Abdulaziz Al-Harbi had not agreed to go, which turned out to be the part that mattered.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Al-Hazem have lost him in all but the paperwork.
Standard Liege paid $15.8M and Al-Hazem took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
Afimico Pululu has gone, the accounts have $15.8M in them, and the supporters have the feeling of having been sold something themselves. Good business and a good decision are not always the same thing.
Sofiane Bendebka 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 phone has started ringing about Abdulaziz Al-Harbi again, and this time the name on the line is Al-Njoom. Al-Hazem are listening politely and promising nothing.
Successful dribbles: 21. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
Al-Qadisiyah will keep picking him until June and will get nothing for him after it. Adel Al-Mutairi has pre-agreed a move to Al-Hazem, and the only people who lose in that arrangement are the ones who let the contract run down.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Al-Hilal have kept their man, and Al-Hazem go back to a list with one name crossed off 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.
Al-Saudi Al-Watani will want this one forgotten quickly: 5‑0, every duel lost, and a long ride home. Al-Hazem were ruthless in the way good sides are ruthless.
At 37 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 10.00 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
3 wins in a row changes how opponents warm up: quieter, more glances across. Runs end, everybody knows that — but nobody in this dressing room is planning for it.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Al-Hazem this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Al-Fayha will keep picking him until June and will get nothing for him after it. Abdullah Aman has pre-agreed a move to Al-Hazem, and the only people who lose in that arrangement are the ones who let the contract run down.
Al-Hazem 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.
2 goals inside twenty minutes with Omar Al-Somah in the middle of it, and Al-Saudi Al-Watani unable to get near the ball long enough to change anything. Some matches are won before the first drink.
In brief
SquadBonheur Mugisha falls out with a teammate over standards
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 9.83 at 36, and nobody on the pitch was better.
An individual honour is a strange thing in a team game, and the best of them are never argued with. He has had the sort of year that ends with his name being read out, and Al-Hazem have had the benefit of it.
Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 6 goals between Al-Hazem and Al-Mojzel, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.
At 21 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.
Two goals and a mark of 9.50 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Successful dribbles: 23. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
Sofiane Bendebka 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.
6 goals in one match, Afimico Pululu on the scoresheet, and a scoreline that will look like a misprint. Neutrals could not have asked more of Al-Hazem and Al-Jeel.
Squad28 Dec 2026
Words at Al-Hazem training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jindřich Staněk 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.
In brief
BoardroomWages eat 525% of everything Al-Hazem earn
The first defeat in 8 matches. The manager will say it had to come; the dressing room will say it did not have to come against Al-Ettifaq; the supporters will say both, in that order, all 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.
“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 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 Hamad Al-Khaibari left the room before anybody could ask which.
Nobody at Al-Hazem 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.
In brief
SquadGetting past Bruno Varela has become the hardest job in the division
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.30 at 36, and nobody on the pitch was better.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Al-Hazem this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Amir Sayoud. 2‑0 against Al-Shoulla, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Something was said to Omar Al-Somah and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
Position 3, 41 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.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 7.95 at 37, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Sofiane Bendebka 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 Jindřich Staněk was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 7.89 at 37, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Sofiane Bendebka 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.
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.
5 matches without defeat, and then Al-Orobah. Nobody at the ground pretended it would go on forever; nobody expected it to stop here either.
Squad30 Nov 2026
Words at Al-Hazem training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Aboubacar Bah 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.
5 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.
1 for Aboubacar Bah, marked 7.96, and a centre-half's name in the part of the report he normally only reaches by mistake. He will not be allowed to forget it in the dressing room for a month.
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.
At 22 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
In brief
SquadDefences have started doubling up on Omar Al-Somah
Some goals win a match and some take one off somebody else. Elton Acolatse scored in the 89th minute, Damac had already begun thinking about the journey home, and Al-Hazem took the lot.
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-Hazem this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Marked 9.87 — 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.
In brief
SquadJindřich Staněk falls out with a teammate over standards
Position 3, 31 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.
Sofiane Bendebka 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 academy exists for exactly this morning. Yasser Al-Ghamdi 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.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Ali Al-Otaibi 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.
Player ratings9 Nov 2026
Elton Acolatse was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.29. 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.
5 straight away victories. Sides that win away are usually sides that can defend and can counter, and the table has begun to reflect what those journeys have earned.
Sofiane Bendebka 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.
Squad2 Nov 2026
Words at Al-Hazem training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jindřich Staněk 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.
A month is long enough that nobody gets in by accident. Miguel Carvalho is in the division's best eleven for it, which is a quieter compliment than an award and a more reliable one.
Afimico Pululu 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.
8 goals and a season average of 7.21 will do that. The space he used to find has gone; he keeps scoring anyway, which is the mark of the real thing.
The dugout26 Oct 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 1‑3 Hamad Al-Khaibari left the room before anybody could ask which.
Nobody at Al-Hazem 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.
Two goals and a mark of 9.84 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 9.44 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Afimico Pululu 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.
Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 9 goals between Al-Hazem and Al-Nahda, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.
He is 21 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.
Position 3, 22 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.
Successful dribbles: 23. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Jindřich Staněk was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Match10 Oct 2026
Another one collected away from home
3 on the bounce on the road for Al-Hazem. The coaches leave early, arrive at unlovely grounds in the dark, and keep coming home with three points.
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-Hazem this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Jindřich Staněk was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
There is a figure at which a wage bill stops being ambitious and becomes the reason nothing else is possible, and this club has reached it. Nothing is left over for a transfer, a stand or a rainy afternoon.
The board have answered with money instead of encouragement, which is the only answer a manager ever wants. Spending it well is now entirely his problem.
“The 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.
A month is long enough that nobody gets in by accident. Sultan Tanker is in the division's best eleven for it, which is a quieter compliment than an award and a more reliable one.
At 36 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 9.72 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Afimico Pululu 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.
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Hamad Al-Khaibari on a 5‑0 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
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.
Afimico Pululu 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.
He is 21 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.
Successful dribbles: 18. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Player ratings21 Sep 2026
Afimico Pululu was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.15. 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.
2 kept out in the shoot-out, and a stadium that will still be describing them in twenty years. A goalkeeper only needs one of these to be remembered forever.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Afimico Pululu provided it, and the 8.68 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Sofiane Bendebka 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.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Words at Al-Hazem training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jindřich Staněk 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.
“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.
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 14 arrived, 6 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed 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-Hazem this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Words at Al-Hazem training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Aboubacar Bah 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.
At 21 he was better than everybody his age in the division for four weeks running, which is harder than one good afternoon. Al-Hazem will try not to make too much of it.
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Hamad Al-Khaibari after the 0‑0 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Afimico Pululu provided it, and the 7.92 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
At 35 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.97 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Afimico Pululu 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.
8 goals in one match, Afimico Pululu on the scoresheet, and a scoreline that will look like a misprint. Neutrals could not have asked more of Al-Hazem and Al-Shoulla.
Squad31 Aug 2026
Words at Al-Hazem training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jindřich Staněk 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.
Two goals and a mark of 8.93 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-Hazem can pretend not to have heard.
Afimico Pululu 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.
He is 21 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Bonheur Mugisha was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Two goals and a mark of 8.84 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
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.
Al-Hazem 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 shortfall was covered from upstairs again. Supporters are entitled to be relieved and entitled to ask what happens the month it is not, and both feelings usually arrive together.
2 goals before the ground had finished arriving. Al-Orobah spent the rest of the afternoon playing a match that had already been decided, and everybody in the stadium knew it.
Afimico Pululu 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.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Saad Al-Rashid is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Saeed Al-Enezi is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Ali Al-Qahtani is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Mohammed 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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Bonheur Mugisha trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Al-Orobah next, and one man in the Al-Hazem dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of 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-Hazem this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Omar Al-Somah 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 name of Nawaf Al-Bishri has come up in conversations Al-Hazem were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.