From our football correspondent
Triumph
Market17 Aug 2026
Julián Quiñones has left for Valencia in a $15.1M deal. The accountants are pleased; the supporters are less certain.
Transfer targets17 Aug 2026
Al-Qadisiyah asked and Al-Ettifaq 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
The deal with Al Shabab 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.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Nacho 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-Qadisiyah this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The terraces17 Aug 2026
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 21-year-old it feels ownership of. Christopher Bonsu Baah 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.
Match15 Aug 2026
A 2‑0 win over Al-Ra'ed, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Gastón Álvarez was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
Ninety minutes of Tijjani Reijnders at his very best
Marked 8.03. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Al-Qadisiyah.
Squad17 Aug 2026
100 times in these colours, in all weathers and under four or five different managers. That kind of service is quietly disappearing from the game.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market10 Aug 2026
Hertha BSC come back empty-handed
The bid was some way short and Al-Qadisiyah did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Market10 Aug 2026
The phone has started ringing about Mateo Retegui again, and this time the name on the line is Benfica. Al-Qadisiyah are listening politely and promising nothing.
Transfer targets10 Aug 2026
Al-Qadisiyah asked and Al-Taawoun said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Market10 Aug 2026
“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-Qadisiyah heard it as anything else.
Squad10 Aug 2026
Nacho 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.
Market10 Aug 2026
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Faisal Al-Salem 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.
The dugout10 Aug 2026
Gastón Álvarez asks for a word with the manager
“I would rather say it to his face than read about it.” The meeting was requested by the player, which tells you most of what you need to know.
Squad10 Aug 2026
A year in and the city has not opened up, the language has not come, and lunch is eaten alone more often than anybody at Al-Qadisiyah would admit. It shows on Saturdays.
Looking ahead10 Aug 2026
Al-Ra'ed next, and one man in the Al-Qadisiyah dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market3 Aug 2026
“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-Qadisiyah hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Nacho signs a new deal
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Nacho commits to Al-Qadisiyah for another 2 years.
Squad3 Aug 2026
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-Qadisiyah this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad3 Aug 2026
“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-Qadisiyah know it.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Nacho 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.