From our football correspondent
Steady
Match6 Feb 2027
Rarely has this fixture seen a display like it: 4‑0 against Al Fujairah, and it could have been more.
Player ratings8 Feb 2027
Two goals and a mark of 9.02 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Player ratings8 Feb 2027
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 8.36, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
Transfer targets8 Feb 2027
No thanks: Sory Kaba rejects the move
Al Nasr had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Al Dhafra, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
Player ratings8 Feb 2027
Successful dribbles: 22. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad8 Feb 2027
Adib Zarei in a row with a teammate
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 Nasr this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad8 Feb 2027
A row about effort at Al Nasr
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Marius Marin was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Market8 Feb 2027
One of our own: Salem Omar joins the Al Nasr first team
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Salem Omar is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Market8 Feb 2027
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Ismail Al Shamsi is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Player ratings1 Feb 2027
Successful dribbles: 37. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Boardroom1 Feb 2027
Window shuts: 2 in, 5 out at Al Nasr
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 2 arrived, 5 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
Loan watch1 Feb 2027
17 appearances away from home and 19 goals to show for them. Every one of them makes next summer's conversation a little more expensive.
Market1 Feb 2027
Al Shaab come back empty-handed
The bid was some way short and Al Nasr did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Transfer targets1 Feb 2027
No thanks: Zayed Ahmed rejects the move
Al Nasr had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Al Wahda, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
Match30 Jan 2027
No end in sight to Al Nasr's wait for a win
4 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Al Nasr has to find a result from somewhere.
Squad1 Feb 2027
A falling-out at Al Nasr
Ramón Mierez and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Match30 Jan 2027
A bad afternoon for Al Nasr against Al Wasl
0‑2 to Al Wasl, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Squad1 Feb 2027
Words at Al Nasr training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. João Moreira 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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Player ratings25 Jan 2027
Jônatas was unplayable
Successful dribbles: 32. 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.
Squad25 Jan 2027
Kevin Agudelo pulls a muscle — 16 days out
The injury that keeps coming back, keeps being rushed back from, and quietly costs more careers than the dramatic ones. 16 days is the estimate; the honest figure depends on whether anybody is patient.
Boardroom25 Jan 2027
The rules permit it and it stings anyway. Salem Sultan has agreed terms with Al Wasl for the summer, and until then he pulls on this shirt as a player who has already chosen his next one.
Squad25 Jan 2027
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 Nasr this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Loan watch25 Jan 2027
16 appearances at Esteghlal and the goals keep coming. Al Nasr are watching this more closely than the borrowing club would like.
Transfer targets25 Jan 2027
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Dibba have kept their man, and Al Nasr go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Market25 Jan 2027
The phone has started ringing about Salem Sultan again, and this time the name on the line is Al Shaab. Al Nasr are listening politely and promising nothing.
Match23 Jan 2027
Al Shaab left with the points after a 0‑1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
The dugout25 Jan 2027
The team sheet said everything about Adib Zarei
Warm-up bib, ninety minutes of watching, and a handshake at the end that fooled nobody. Big matches tell you who a manager trusts; this one told Adib Zarei.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Player ratings18 Jan 2027
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 9.14, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
Market18 Jan 2027
Al Nasr say no — this time
The offer from Foolad for Leonel Wamba 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.
Squad18 Jan 2027
Ramón Mierez 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.
Match16 Jan 2027
A bad afternoon for Al Nasr against Al Ahli
2‑3 to Al Ahli, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Squad18 Jan 2027
Marius Marin 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.
Player ratings18 Jan 2027
Successful dribbles: 20. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Transfer targets18 Jan 2027
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Al-Nassr have kept their man, and Al Nasr go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad18 Jan 2027
Defences have started doubling up on Ramón Mierez
10 goals and a season average of 7.32 will do that. The space he used to find has gone; he keeps scoring anyway, which is the mark of the real thing.
The dugout18 Jan 2027
Falah Waleed gets it from the manager
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market11 Jan 2027
Al Nasr say no — this time
The offer from Zamalek for Ramón Mierez 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.
Transfer targets11 Jan 2027
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Dibba is saying, and nobody at Al Nasr is enjoying the guessing.
Squad11 Jan 2027
Words exchanged at Al Nasr
Ramón Mierez 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.
Squad11 Jan 2027
At 22 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.
Market11 Jan 2027
Mohammed Abdulbasit has left for Al Ain in a $460.0K deal. The accountants are pleased; the supporters are less certain.
Market11 Jan 2027
The phone has started ringing about Hussain Mahdi again, and this time the name on the line is Baniyas. Al Nasr are listening politely and promising nothing.
Squad11 Jan 2027
A row about effort at Al Nasr
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Marius Marin was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Loan watch11 Jan 2027
14 appearances away from home and 15 goals to show for them. Every one of them makes next summer's conversation a little more expensive.
Boardroom11 Jan 2027
Nothing happens for months and then he simply arrives, at no cost, having signed a pre-contract while still turning out for somebody else. It is the least dramatic way to sign a footballer and frequently the shrewdest.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Match2 Jan 2027
Cruel end for Dibba as Al Nasr pounce
There is no crueller way to lose a football match. Al Nasr scored in the 96th minute, the restart barely happened, and the away end was still standing when the whistle went.
Player ratings4 Jan 2027
Two goals and a mark of 9.02 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Market4 Jan 2027
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Transfer targets4 Jan 2027
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Al Nasr have done the hard part with Al Fujairah, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Squad4 Jan 2027
A falling-out at Al Nasr
Ramón Mierez and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Player ratings4 Jan 2027
Successful dribbles: 21. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Transfer targets4 Jan 2027
Al Nasr asked and Al Wasl said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Match2 Jan 2027
It finished 2‑1, and it was Chris Bedia’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Al Nasr.
The terraces4 Jan 2027
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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad28 Dec 2026
Marouan Azarkan damages knee ligaments — 18 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 18 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.
Match26 Dec 2026
Nowhere to hide for Al Nasr
0‑4 against Al Wahda, and no complaints that would survive the replay. The manager spoke about character afterwards; the terraces used shorter words.
Squad28 Dec 2026
Adib Zarei is a better footballer than he was
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 23 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.
Squad28 Dec 2026
Ramón Mierez in a row with a teammate
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 Nasr this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad28 Dec 2026
Words at Al Nasr training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Marius Marin 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 dugout28 Dec 2026
The manager makes an example of João Moreira
“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.
Boardroom28 Dec 2026
Nobody left the Al Nasr 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.
Boardroom28 Dec 2026
Wages swallow 104% of the Al Nasr income
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.
The dugout28 Dec 2026
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 0‑4, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Player ratings21 Dec 2026
Successful dribbles: 44. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad21 Dec 2026
A knee injury of the worst kind for Marouan Azarkan
25 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Al Nasr lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Match16 Dec 2026
Al Nasr bow out of the cup
Sharjah go through and Al Nasr go home, 1‑2 the scoreline that did it. The dressing room will call the league the priority now, because that is what dressing rooms say.
Squad21 Dec 2026
A falling-out at Al Nasr
Adib Zarei and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Market21 Dec 2026
The general version of this complaint is that a player wants more. The specific version names the thing: he wants to walk out under floodlights against clubs from other countries, and he has stopped pretending otherwise.
Squad21 Dec 2026
Marius Marin 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.
Squad21 Dec 2026
Defences have started doubling up on Ramón Mierez
8 goals and a season average of 7.27 will do that. The space he used to find has gone; he keeps scoring anyway, which is the mark of the real thing.
The dugout21 Dec 2026
Chris Bedia gets it from the manager
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
The dugout21 Dec 2026
The view from the dugout
“We did not lose. Some weeks that is all you get, and I would rather have the point than not.” Mahmoud Al Bloushi chose the glass-half-full version of 0‑0; the supporters left with the other one.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad14 Dec 2026
32 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Al Nasr lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Squad14 Dec 2026
Words exchanged at Al Nasr
Ramón Mierez 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.
Squad14 Dec 2026
Jônatas is in the form of his life
A season average of 7.23 with 12 goals behind it. Opponents have started planning around him, which is the sincerest compliment football pays.
Market14 Dec 2026
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Mahmoud Al Menhali is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Match12 Dec 2026
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Jônatas. 1‑0 against Al Shabab, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Player ratings14 Dec 2026
Successful dribbles: 16. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Player ratings14 Dec 2026
Jônatas stands above it all
Some games turn on a moment; this one turned on a man. 7.76 on the card, and the Al Nasr support went home talking about one name.
The dugout14 Dec 2026
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Mahmoud Al Bloushi on a 1‑0 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
Squad14 Dec 2026
Words at Al Nasr training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mayed Saeed 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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad7 Dec 2026
40 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Al Nasr lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Squad7 Dec 2026
7 saves: Adib Zarei was the team
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.
Squad7 Dec 2026
A falling-out at Al Nasr
Kevin Agudelo and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad7 Dec 2026
Words at Al Nasr training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Marius Marin is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Match5 Dec 2026
Al Jazira left with the points after a 0‑1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Loan watch7 Dec 2026
9 appearances away from home and 13 goals to show for them. Every one of them makes next summer's conversation a little more expensive.
The dugout7 Dec 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 0‑1 defeat, delivered by Mahmoud Al Bloushi to a room that had heard them before.
The dugout7 Dec 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Abdoulaye Touré, and the manager let it.
The dugout7 Dec 2026
Clubs make promises constantly and the page usually only hears about them when they are broken. This one was honoured, and the dressing room noticed that faster than any supporter did.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad30 Nov 2026
Marouan Azarkan damages knee ligaments — 49 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 49 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.
Match30 Nov 2026
Al Nasr up to position 3
28 points on the board and a place in the leading group. Nobody at the ground is saying the word out loud yet.
Player ratings30 Nov 2026
Successful dribbles: 29. 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.
Squad30 Nov 2026
Ramón Mierez in a row with a teammate
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 Nasr this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad30 Nov 2026
Words at Al Nasr training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Marius Marin 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.
Squad30 Nov 2026
Jônatas is in the form of his life
A season average of 7.23 with 11 goals behind it. Opponents have started planning around him, which is the sincerest compliment football pays.
Looking ahead30 Nov 2026
The big one: Al Jazira come into view
Two sides from the top of the table, one afternoon, and a month of talk decided in ninety minutes. Al Nasr will not use the word title this week and will not stop thinking it.
Loan watch30 Nov 2026
The goals keep arriving from Mehdi Ghayedi’s exile
12 goals in 8 games at Esteghlal — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Al Nasr updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
Match30 Nov 2026
Halfway: Al Nasr sit in position 3
28 points at the turn. The first half of a season is a promise; the second is a bill, and the town is about to find out which of the two this one was.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad23 Nov 2026
57 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Al Nasr lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Match21 Nov 2026
Chastening afternoon for Al Nasr
A 0‑3 beating by Baniyas was the sort of result that empties a stadium long before the final whistle.
Squad23 Nov 2026
Ramón Mierez 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.
Squad23 Nov 2026
Ramón Mierez is in the form of his life
A season average of 7.34 with 8 goals behind it. Opponents have started planning around him, which is the sincerest compliment football pays.
Boardroom23 Nov 2026
Nobody left the Al Nasr 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.
Player ratings23 Nov 2026
Successful dribbles: 16. 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.
The dugout23 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 Mahmoud Al Bloushi to a room that had heard them before.
The dugout23 Nov 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Hussain Mahdi, and the manager let it.
Squad23 Nov 2026
Words at Al Nasr training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mayed Saeed 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.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Squad16 Nov 2026
A knee injury of the worst kind for Marouan Azarkan
64 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Al Nasr lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Squad16 Nov 2026
A day Jônatas will not forget
3 goals in one game. The first was taken well, the second was taken greedily, and by the third the crowd were simply waiting for him to get the ball.
Squad16 Nov 2026
A one-man rearguard from Adib Zarei
There were 7 saves in it, and at least three that had no business being saves at all. The ten outfield players owe him a drink and they know it.
Squad16 Nov 2026
Words exchanged at Al Nasr
Ramón Mierez 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.
Player ratings16 Nov 2026
One of those days for Jônatas
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 9.52, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Match14 Nov 2026
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Jônatas. 3‑2 against Al Dhafra, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Player ratings16 Nov 2026
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 dugout16 Nov 2026
“That is what I want every week. Not the result, the way they went about it.” The manager, after 3‑2, already talking about the next one.
The dugout16 Nov 2026
Issam Faiz gets it from the manager
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Squad9 Nov 2026
A knee injury of the worst kind for Marouan Azarkan
72 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Al Nasr lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Player ratings9 Nov 2026
Successful dribbles: 25. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad9 Nov 2026
Gláuber signs a new deal
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Gláuber commits to Al Nasr for another 3 years.
Squad9 Nov 2026
A falling-out at Al Nasr
Ramón Mierez and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Match7 Nov 2026
Al Nasr keep winning on the road
4 away wins in a row. Travelling support is the truest kind, and this season it is being repaid in the only currency that counts.
Squad9 Nov 2026
A row about effort at Al Nasr
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Marius Marin was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Player ratings9 Nov 2026
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.91, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Match7 Nov 2026
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Ramón Mierez. 2‑0 against Al Fujairah, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Market9 Nov 2026
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Faisal Ismail 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.
In brief
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Player ratings
One of those days for Jônatas
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The dugout
A promise honoured for Adib Zarei
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Player ratings
Nothing got past Gláuber
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad2 Nov 2026
79 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Al Nasr lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Match2 Nov 2026
Al Nasr refuse to drop out of the race
Position 3, 21 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.
Squad2 Nov 2026
Words exchanged at Al Nasr
Adib Zarei 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.
Match31 Oct 2026
Al Wasl left with the points after a 1‑2 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Match31 Oct 2026
After 5 games, Al Nasr finally taste it again
The first defeat in 5 matches. The manager will say it had to come; the dressing room will say it did not have to come against Al Wasl; the supporters will say both, in that order, all week.
The dugout2 Nov 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Zayed Sultan, and the manager let it.
Squad2 Nov 2026
Ramón Mierez is in the form of his life
A season average of 7.26 with 7 goals behind it. Opponents have started planning around him, which is the sincerest compliment football pays.
Loan watch2 Nov 2026
The goals keep arriving from Mehdi Ghayedi’s exile
11 goals in 6 games at Esteghlal — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Al Nasr updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
Boardroom2 Nov 2026
103% of the income goes out in wages at Al Nasr
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.
In brief
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The dugout
The view from the dugout
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Squad
A place in the month's best eleven for Ramón Mierez
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The dugout
Adib Zarei has become a man the manager trusts
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Squad26 Oct 2026
86 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Al Nasr lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Match26 Oct 2026
21 points and nobody above them. The word is not being said around the ground yet, and it is being thought in every seat.
Match24 Oct 2026
Al Nasr make it 5 in a row
Momentum is a hard thing to buy and an easy thing to lose, and right now Al Nasr have 5 straight wins of it.
The dugout26 Oct 2026
Mayed Saeed: that is not what I was promised
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Al Nasr have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Squad26 Oct 2026
Ramón Mierez 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.
Player ratings26 Oct 2026
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.
Squad26 Oct 2026
Words at Al Nasr training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Marius Marin 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.
Match24 Oct 2026
A 3‑1 win over Al Shaab, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
The terraces26 Oct 2026
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.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Squad19 Oct 2026
The match ball belongs to Jônatas, whose 3 goals turned a difficult afternoon into a procession.
Player ratings19 Oct 2026
Successful dribbles: 28. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Match17 Oct 2026
Al Nasr make it 4 in a row
Momentum is a hard thing to buy and an easy thing to lose, and right now Al Nasr have 4 straight wins of it.
Squad19 Oct 2026
38 days, the medical staff say, and medical staff are optimists by profession. The team sheet will look wrong without him.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Words exchanged at Al Nasr
Kevin Agudelo 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.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Omar Ahmed Mohammed is 20, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Match17 Oct 2026
6 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about Al Nasr and Al Ahli in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
Market19 Oct 2026
The general version of this complaint is that a player wants more. The specific version names the thing: he wants to walk out under floodlights against clubs from other countries, and he has stopped pretending otherwise.
Match17 Oct 2026
It finished 4‑2, and it was Jônatas’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Al Nasr.
In brief
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Player ratings
A masterclass from Jônatas
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Player ratings
Ramón Mierez was on a different afternoon to everybody else
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Match
Another one collected away from home
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Match7 Oct 2026
Al Nasr march on in the cup
Emirates Club are out and Al Nasr go through, 2‑0 the final word. The bracket opens up a little, and everyone allows themselves a look at it.
Squad12 Oct 2026
A falling-out at Al Nasr
Ramón Mierez and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad12 Oct 2026
At 23 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.
Match10 Oct 2026
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Jônatas. 2‑1 against Al Ain, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Player ratings12 Oct 2026
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.92, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
The terraces12 Oct 2026
He is 23 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.
Player ratings12 Oct 2026
Successful dribbles: 19. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Market12 Oct 2026
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Mahmoud Suqrat is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Market12 Oct 2026
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Khalid Al Bloushi is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Player ratings5 Oct 2026
Successful dribbles: 32. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Player ratings5 Oct 2026
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 8.93, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Ramón Mierez in a row with a teammate
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 Nasr this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Saeed Maqdami is a better footballer than he was
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.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Marius Marin 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.
Match3 Oct 2026
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Ramón Mierez. 3‑1 against Dibba, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Squad5 Oct 2026
200 games in these colours. Service of that kind gets rarer every season, and the crowd knows it.
Boardroom5 Oct 2026
Wages eat 121% of everything Al Nasr earn
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 dugout5 Oct 2026
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Mahmoud Al Bloushi on a 3‑1 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad28 Sep 2026
A knee injury of the worst kind for Salem Abdullah
18 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Al Nasr lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Player ratings28 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 26. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Ramón Mierez 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.
Squad28 Sep 2026
At 20 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.
Match26 Sep 2026
Abdoulaye Touré scored, and precious little else went right: 2‑3 to Al Wahda, and a quiet walk to the dressing room.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Marius Marin 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.
Player ratings28 Sep 2026
Ninety minutes of Ramón Mierez at his very best
Marked 8.62. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Al Nasr.
Player ratings28 Sep 2026
Ninety minutes of Abdoulaye Touré at his very best
Marked 8.01. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Al Nasr.
The dugout28 Sep 2026
“I could talk about decisions and I could talk about luck. I will not. We lost.” The manager, 2‑3, and a press conference that lasted four minutes.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Squad21 Sep 2026
26 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Al Nasr lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Match19 Sep 2026
Some goals win a match and some take one off somebody else. Ramón Mierez scored in the 85th minute, Emirates Club had already begun thinking about the journey home, and Al Nasr took the lot.
Match19 Sep 2026
Al Nasr make it 3 in a row
Momentum is a hard thing to buy and an easy thing to lose, and right now Al Nasr have 3 straight wins of it.
Squad21 Sep 2026
72 days, the scan says, and scans are kinder than reality. The fixtures in that window have just become somebody else’s job.
Squad21 Sep 2026
Words exchanged at Al Nasr
Ramón Mierez 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.
Player ratings21 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 22. 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.
The terraces21 Sep 2026
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.
Match19 Sep 2026
A 1‑0 win over Emirates Club, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Player ratings21 Sep 2026
A performance of 8.34 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
In brief
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The dugout
The view from the dugout
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The dugout
No hiding place for Marius Høibråten
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Squad
Mayed Saeed falls out with a teammate over standards
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Squad14 Sep 2026
A knee injury of the worst kind for Salem Abdullah
33 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Al Nasr lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 20 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.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Marius Marin 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.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Nassim Chadli 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 terraces14 Sep 2026
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Cheickna Doumbia 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.
Match12 Sep 2026
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Chris Bedia. 2‑0 against Al Shabab, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Market14 Sep 2026
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Ibrahim Juma 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.
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 18. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
Ninety minutes of Chris Bedia at his very best
Marked 8.23. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Al Nasr.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Player ratings7 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 41. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad7 Sep 2026
40 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Al Nasr lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Player ratings7 Sep 2026
A brace, and Ramón Mierez takes the afternoon — 9.05
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Ramón Mierez provided it, and the 9.05 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Market7 Sep 2026
“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.
Boardroom7 Sep 2026
Deadline passes with 18 signed and 5 gone
That is the business done at Al Nasr until the window opens again. Whether it was enough will be answered on Saturdays rather than in a column, and the first Saturday is close.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Ramón Mierez in a row with a teammate
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 Nasr this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad7 Sep 2026
At 22 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.
Market7 Sep 2026
The name of Abdoulaye Touré has come up in conversations Al Nasr were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Boardroom7 Sep 2026
1 academy graduates step up at Al Nasr
Senior shirt numbers handed to boys the coaches have known since they were twelve. Most will not make it and all of them have already done the hard part.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad31 Aug 2026
Salem Abdullah damages knee ligaments — 49 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 49 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.
Market31 Aug 2026
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Al Nasr can pretend not to have heard.
Market31 Aug 2026
Al Nasr say no — this time
The offer from Al-Faisaly for Leonel Wamba 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.
Transfer targets31 Aug 2026
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Al Nasr have done the hard part with Universitatea Craiova, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Transfer targets31 Aug 2026
No thanks: Lucas Cuevas rejects the move
Al Nasr had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Rosario Central, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
Squad31 Aug 2026
Kevin Agudelo 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.
Transfer targets31 Aug 2026
Al Nasr asked and Monza said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Squad31 Aug 2026
Al Nasr are still strangers to each other
10 new signings in one window. Every one may be an upgrade and the side can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild the verdicts never mention.
Squad31 Aug 2026
Mayed Saeed 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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market24 Aug 2026
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Transfer targets24 Aug 2026
Al Nasr had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Vicenza, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Words exchanged at Al Nasr
Ramón Mierez 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.
Market24 Aug 2026
Al Nasr may not be able to give João Moreira what he wants
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. João Moreira wants continental football; whether Al Nasr can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
Squad24 Aug 2026
A row about effort at Al Nasr
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Marius Marin was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Transfer targets24 Aug 2026
The approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.
Market24 Aug 2026
The interest is real enough to have reached print. Al Nasr have said nothing, which in a transfer window is its own kind of answer.
Transfer targets24 Aug 2026
Tractor have been asked whether they would lend him. Loans are agreed quickly or not at all, and this one will be one or the other by the weekend.
Transfer targets24 Aug 2026
A loan move for Lucas Cuevas is in the works
Al Nasr have made the call to Rosario Central. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Transfer targets17 Aug 2026
Al Nasr had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Al Shabab, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
Market17 Aug 2026
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Transfer targets17 Aug 2026
No deal for Majid Surour at that price
Al Nasr offered $660.0K; Sharjah said it was not close. The manager will be told the money is still there for the right player, which is what managers are told.
Squad17 Aug 2026
A falling-out at Al Nasr
Ramón Mierez and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad17 Aug 2026
A row about effort at Al Nasr
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Marius Marin was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Transfer targets17 Aug 2026
Al Nasr asked and Trabzonspor said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Transfer targets17 Aug 2026
A loan enquiry to Vicenza: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.
Squad17 Aug 2026
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.
Squad17 Aug 2026
A new face in his position and a shirt he thought he owned suddenly up for discussion. Al Nasr have promised nothing, which is what clubs promise at this stage.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market10 Aug 2026
Al Nasr say no — this time
The offer from Al Ahli for Salem Sultan 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.
Transfer targets10 Aug 2026
The offer went to Al Shabab 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.
Transfer targets10 Aug 2026
$660.0K on the table at Sharjah. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
Squad10 Aug 2026
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Kevin Agudelo commits to Al Nasr for another 3 years.
Squad10 Aug 2026
Ramón Mierez 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.
Transfer targets10 Aug 2026
Al Nasr asked and Al Jazira 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 dugout10 Aug 2026
The manager makes an example of Kevin Agudelo
“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.
Market10 Aug 2026
The phone has started ringing about Mateo Karamatić again, and this time the name on the line is Al Wahda. Al Nasr are listening politely and promising nothing.
Market10 Aug 2026
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Walid Al Bloushi 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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad3 Aug 2026
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Marius Marin commits to Al Nasr for another 4 years.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Ramón Mierez in a row with a teammate
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 Nasr this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Market3 Aug 2026
“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.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Words at Al Nasr training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Marius Marin 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.
Transfer targets3 Aug 2026
Al Nasr asked and Catania said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Market3 Aug 2026
Add another name to the list: Al Ahli have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Salem Sultan. The answer from Al Nasr has not changed — yet.