From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad28 Dec 2026
Hassan Al-Amri 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 Dec 2026
Words at Al-Ta'ee training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jonata Machado 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.
Boardroom28 Dec 2026
Wages eat 342% of everything Al-Ta'ee 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.
Squad28 Dec 2026
At 38, 3 points below where he was, and a body that has started charging interest. It happens to all of them and it is still the hardest paragraph on this page.
The dugout28 Dec 2026
“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.
Player ratings28 Dec 2026
Marked 7.20. Ask anyone leaving the ground what settled it and you will get one name, which is the only award that has ever really counted.
The dugout28 Dec 2026
“There are things I liked and things we will be doing on Tuesday until they are right.” 0‑0, and a manager who had already decided what Tuesday looked like.
Player ratings28 Dec 2026
Successful dribbles: 13. 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 dugout28 Dec 2026
Fahad Al-Hamad is still being punished for one mistake
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.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Crisis
The dugout21 Dec 2026
“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.
Squad21 Dec 2026
Words exchanged at Al-Ta'ee
Jonata Machado 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.
Match19 Dec 2026
0‑1 to Al-Jeel, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Squad21 Dec 2026
A row about effort at Al-Ta'ee
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Nawaf Al-Quamiri was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout21 Dec 2026
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Yasser Al-Ghamdi after 0‑1, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
The dugout21 Dec 2026
Jonata Machado 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.
Player ratings21 Dec 2026
Successful dribbles: 13. 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 dugout21 Dec 2026
“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.
Market21 Dec 2026
The clock does Nawaf Al-Quamiri’s negotiating for him
6 months left, and both sides know what that means: every week without a signature, the fee Al-Ta'ee could ask drops and the wages Nawaf Al-Quamiri can ask rise.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad14 Dec 2026
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.
Squad14 Dec 2026
A falling-out at Al-Ta'ee
Faisal Al-Abdulwahed and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad14 Dec 2026
A row about effort at Al-Ta'ee
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Jonata Machado was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Match12 Dec 2026
Late, late show earns Al-Ta'ee a point
Minute 88, against Al-Riyadh, and a goal that felt like a win to everybody who had stayed. It was a draw. Nobody leaving the ground will describe it as one.
Match14 Dec 2026
The half-term report on Al-Ta'ee
Position 7, 23 points, and every result so far reduced to one line. The second half of the season starts with the same squad and a different set of expectations.
Match12 Dec 2026
A 1‑1 draw with Al-Riyadh leaves the dressing room somewhere between relief and regret.
The dugout14 Dec 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Hassan Al-Habib, and the manager let it.
Player ratings14 Dec 2026
Successful dribbles: 14. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
The dugout14 Dec 2026
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Yasser Al-Ghamdi after the 1‑1 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad7 Dec 2026
6 saves, and a scoreline the ten men in front of him had no right to. Goalkeepers only get noticed on the bad days; this was one of the other ones.
Match5 Dec 2026
It had gone 7 games. The players did not celebrate like men who had won a match; they celebrated like men who had been let out of something.
Squad7 Dec 2026
Words exchanged at Al-Ta'ee
Faisal Al-Abdulwahed 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.
Squad7 Dec 2026
Words at Al-Ta'ee training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jonata Machado 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.
Loan watch7 Dec 2026
“I watch every Al-Ta'ee game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Al-Nahda runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
The terraces7 Dec 2026
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.
Match5 Dec 2026
Al-Ettifaq made Al-Ta'ee work for it, but the scoreboard read 1‑0 at the end and the table does not ask how.
Squad7 Dec 2026
A month is long enough that nobody gets in by accident. Faisal Al-Abdulwahed is in the division's best eleven for it, which is a quieter compliment than an award and a more reliable one.
The dugout7 Dec 2026
The view from the dugout
“We controlled it. There were spells I did not like and we will look at them, but the group showed me something.” Yasser Al-Ghamdi, on a 1‑0 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match28 Nov 2026
No end in sight to Al-Ta'ee's wait for a win
7 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Al-Ta'ee has to find a result from somewhere.
Squad30 Nov 2026
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 6 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Squad30 Nov 2026
Cristian Peláez 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.
Boardroom30 Nov 2026
Wages swallow 359% of the Al-Ta'ee 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.
Match28 Nov 2026
Beaten 0‑1, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Squad30 Nov 2026
A row about effort at Al-Ta'ee
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Jonata Machado was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout30 Nov 2026
The manager makes an example of Cristian Peláez
“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 dugout30 Nov 2026
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 0‑1, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
The dugout30 Nov 2026
There is no complaint available here and everybody involved knows it, which does not make the walk to the bench any shorter. Form is the only currency in football that cannot be borrowed against.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match21 Nov 2026
The wait goes on for Al-Ta'ee
6 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
The dugout23 Nov 2026
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Al-Ta'ee may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Squad23 Nov 2026
Luis Haquín 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-Ta'ee this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad23 Nov 2026
Jonata Machado 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 dugout23 Nov 2026
“There are things I liked and things we will be doing on Tuesday until they are right.” 0‑0, and a manager who had already decided what Tuesday looked like.
The dugout23 Nov 2026
Cristian Peláez dropped after a run of poor form
The one version of being left out a player cannot argue with, and the one he takes worst. Somebody else has been better and the team sheet says so, in public, every week until it changes.
Looking ahead23 Nov 2026
A test against the best for Al-Ta'ee
The team at the top of the table next, and the honest measure of where this side actually is. Anybody can beat the club below them; the question is what happens against Al-Diriyah.
Player ratings23 Nov 2026
The one thing Törles Knöll could not do
Shots: 13, enough of them from close enough that a striker in form scores two. He is not a striker in form.
Match21 Nov 2026
Ninety minutes, two goalkeepers with clean gloves, and not one finish worth keeping. Al-Shoulla will be the happier side with the point.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad16 Nov 2026
A falling-out at Al-Ta'ee
Hassan Al-Amri and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad16 Nov 2026
A row about effort at Al-Ta'ee
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Cristian Peláez was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Looking ahead16 Nov 2026
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Al-Shoulla in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
The dugout16 Nov 2026
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.
Market16 Nov 2026
Al-Ta'ee have let the market know Abdullah Al-Shammari can be had. No price in the advert, but everyone in the trade knows roughly what it says.
Market16 Nov 2026
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Muhannad Barah signs something — a contract at Al-Ta'ee or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Loan watch16 Nov 2026
10 starts and a season average of 6.47. The loan is doing exactly what it was arranged to do.
Looking ahead16 Nov 2026
Next up on the road: Al-Shoulla, position 11. The supporters who go will talk about it all week and the ones who do not will check their phones at ten to five.
The dugout16 Nov 2026
The manager plants his flag on Törles Knöll
“Judge me on him.” Managers do not say that kind of thing by accident — it moves the pressure from Törles Knöll’s shoulders onto his own, and both of them know it.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Player ratings9 Nov 2026
Marked 7.69 at 21, in a side that makes no allowances for age. He did not need any, and he looked the least nervous man on the pitch.
Match7 Nov 2026
No end in sight to Al-Ta'ee's wait for a win
5 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Al-Ta'ee has to find a result from somewhere.
The dugout9 Nov 2026
“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.
Squad9 Nov 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-Ta'ee this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad9 Nov 2026
A row about effort at Al-Ta'ee
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Cristian Peláez was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Player ratings9 Nov 2026
Marked 8.04 — 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.
Loan watch9 Nov 2026
“I am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at Al-Ta'ee, and 0 appearances in 13 say he has earned the hearing.
Match7 Nov 2026
It needed Törles Knöll to find the net to bring anything home at all: 1‑1 against Al-Nahda, and half the dressing room will call it a point won.
The dugout9 Nov 2026
“It is not the end of the world and it is not good enough. Both of those are true.” The manager, after a 1‑1 draw, said the honest thing and then went to say it again inside.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Match31 Oct 2026
No end in sight to Al-Ta'ee's wait for a win
4 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Al-Ta'ee has to find a result from somewhere.
Match31 Oct 2026
Al-Ta'ee cannot find the net
4 games without scoring. Strikers stop looking up, midfielders take the extra touch, and every shot that clears the bar is followed by a groan that has been building since the last goal.
Squad2 Nov 2026
Cristian Peláez 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.
Boardroom2 Nov 2026
Wages swallow 359% of the Al-Ta'ee 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.
Squad2 Nov 2026
A row about effort at Al-Ta'ee
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Jonata Machado was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout2 Nov 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Cristian Peláez, and the manager let it.
Loan watch2 Nov 2026
“I watch every Al-Ta'ee game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Najran runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
The dugout2 Nov 2026
A promise honoured at Al-Ta'ee
Something was said to Faisal Al-Abdulwahed and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
The dugout2 Nov 2026
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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
The dugout26 Oct 2026
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Al-Ta'ee may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Match24 Oct 2026
The goals have deserted Al-Ta'ee
3 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Al-Ta'ee can tell you which week it ends in.
Squad26 Oct 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-Ta'ee this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match24 Oct 2026
0‑1 to Al-Hazem, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Squad26 Oct 2026
Jonata Machado 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 dugout26 Oct 2026
The manager makes an example of Hassan Al-Amri
“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 dugout26 Oct 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 Yasser Al-Ghamdi to a room that had heard them before.
The dugout26 Oct 2026
Törles Knöll is still being punished for one mistake
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.
Player ratings26 Oct 2026
Marked 4.72, and generously at that. Nothing came off, and by the end the crowd had stopped expecting it to.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match17 Oct 2026
0‑4 to Al-Orobah, and it was every bit as bad as the number suggests. There are defeats you argue about and defeats you apologise for; this was the second kind.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Jonata Machado 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 dugout19 Oct 2026
The manager makes an example of Törles Knöll
“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.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Everybody saw it before anybody said it. At 37 the numbers say 3 points down on what he was, and the question for Al-Ta'ee is how to handle a man they owe a great deal.
Boardroom19 Oct 2026
Nobody left the Al-Ta'ee 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.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Words at Al-Ta'ee training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Nawaf Al-Quamiri 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 dugout19 Oct 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 0‑4 defeat, delivered by Yasser Al-Ghamdi to a room that had heard them before.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Whether it was the goalkeeper or the ten in front of him is the argument that will fill every conversation in town this week. 1 saves does not settle it either way.
The dugout19 Oct 2026
The form table has caught Chuck
Somebody else has been better, the manager has said so with a team sheet, and there is no argument to be had. He will get the shirt back the only way it can be got back.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad12 Oct 2026
A falling-out at Al-Ta'ee
Ibrahim Al-Nakhli and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Loan watch12 Oct 2026
“I watch every Al-Ta'ee game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Al-Nahda runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
Squad12 Oct 2026
The decline has begun for Chuck
Everybody saw it before anybody said it. At 38 the numbers say 3 points down on what he was, and the question for Al-Ta'ee is how to handle a man they owe a great deal.
Squad12 Oct 2026
Words at Al-Ta'ee training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jonata Machado 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.
Squad12 Oct 2026
Too much change too quickly at Al-Ta'ee
10 signings in three months. Every one of them may be an upgrade and the team can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild that never appears in the transfer-window verdicts.
The dugout12 Oct 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Safwan Al-Johani, and the manager let it.
Market12 Oct 2026
Experience through the door at Al-Ta'ee
Diego Tissera arrives at 37 with nothing left to prove and plenty left to pass on. Legs are a young man's currency; knowing where to stand never ages.
Looking ahead12 Oct 2026
Al-Orobah next, and one man in the Al-Ta'ee dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
The dugout12 Oct 2026
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Omar El Hanoudi is on it.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad5 Oct 2026
“Some mornings you wake up and you are still a long way from everything you know.” It is not the football and it never was; Al-Ta'ee are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Luis Haquín 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.
Boardroom5 Oct 2026
Wages eat 479% of everything Al-Ta'ee 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.
Match3 Oct 2026
Al-Fayha left with the points after a 0‑1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Squad5 Oct 2026
A row about effort at Al-Ta'ee
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Jonata Machado was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad5 Oct 2026
The young player of the month award goes to a 21-year-old at Al-Ta'ee who has looked like the finished article for four weekends running. The next four are the ones that decide whether he is.
The dugout5 Oct 2026
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Yasser Al-Ghamdi after 0‑1, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
The dugout5 Oct 2026
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Ibrahim Al-Nakhli is on it.
The dugout5 Oct 2026
“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.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Player ratings28 Sep 2026
Marked 7.81 at 21, in a side that makes no allowances for age. He did not need any, and he looked the least nervous man on the pitch.
Match26 Sep 2026
Al-Batin made Al-Ta'ee work for it, but the scoreboard read 2‑0 at the end and the table does not ask how.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Appearance number 200 for Törles Knöll
200 games in this shirt, through managers and relegations and everything else. Service like it is disappearing from the game and the crowd knows what it is watching.
Player ratings28 Sep 2026
Ninety minutes of Hassan Al-Amri at his very best
Marked 8.17. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Al-Ta'ee.
Squad28 Sep 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-Ta'ee this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Jonata Machado 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 dugout28 Sep 2026
Nobody will confirm this and nothing else explains the last month of selections. A costly error buys a player a period of being second choice that is always longer than the error was.
The dugout28 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.” Yasser Al-Ghamdi, on a 2‑0 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
The dugout28 Sep 2026
The manager makes an example of Hassan Al-Habib
“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.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match19 Sep 2026
Rarely has this fixture seen a display like it: 4‑1 against Al-Saudi Al-Watani, and it could have been more.
Squad21 Sep 2026
The match ball belongs to Faisal Al-Abdulwahed, whose 3 goals turned a difficult afternoon into a procession.
Player ratings21 Sep 2026
Marked 8.15 at 21, in a side that makes no allowances for age. He did not need any, and he looked the least nervous man on the pitch.
Squad21 Sep 2026
A falling-out at Al-Ta'ee
Luis Haquín and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
The terraces21 Sep 2026
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 21-year-old it feels ownership of. Faisal Al-Abdulwahed 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.
Player ratings21 Sep 2026
A performance of 8.13 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Player ratings21 Sep 2026
Marked 7.28 on 9 actions at both ends of the pitch. Midfielders like this get described as unspectacular by people who have never tried to play against one.
The dugout21 Sep 2026
“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.
Squad21 Sep 2026
Words at Al-Ta'ee training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jonata Machado 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
Upbeat
Match9 Sep 2026
The small margins put Al-Ta'ee out
Out, 2‑3 to Al-Fateh, and the long argument about which of the small moments decided it. The league is all there is now, and everybody knows it.
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 8.65, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Words exchanged at Al-Ta'ee
Faisal Al-Abdulwahed 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 dugout14 Sep 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Törles Knöll, and the manager let it.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Jonata Machado 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.
Loan watch14 Sep 2026
“I am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at Al-Ta'ee, and 0 appearances in 5 say he has earned the hearing.
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
Some games turn on a moment; this one turned on a man. 7.54 on the card, and the Al-Ta'ee support went home talking about one name.
The dugout14 Sep 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.” Yasser Al-Ghamdi chose the glass-half-full version of 0‑0; the supporters left with the other one.
The dugout14 Sep 2026
No place in the plan for Luis Haquín
The manager wanted a different profile for this opponent, which is a real football reason and no consolation. He did nothing wrong and he did not play.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Boardroom7 Sep 2026
Deadline passes with 19 signed and 6 gone
That is the business done at Al-Ta'ee 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.
Market7 Sep 2026
Al-Khaleej come back empty-handed
The bid was some way short and Al-Ta'ee did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Transfer targets7 Sep 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.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Faisal Al-Abdulwahed 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.
Squad7 Sep 2026
A row about effort at Al-Ta'ee
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Jonata Machado was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Al-Ta'ee are still strangers to each other
7 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.
Squad7 Sep 2026
A place in the month's best eleven for Ibrahim Al-Nakhli
Four or five weekends of consistency, judged against everybody in the division doing his job. Ibrahim Al-Nakhli has come out of that comparison in the side, and Al-Ta'ee have had the benefit of every one of those afternoons.
The dugout7 Sep 2026
Törles Knöll knocks on the manager’s door
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Törles Knöll trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Looking ahead7 Sep 2026
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Damac in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Player ratings31 Aug 2026
Two goals and a mark of 8.64 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Match29 Aug 2026
Al-Ta'ee make it 3 in a row
Momentum is a hard thing to buy and an easy thing to lose, and right now Al-Ta'ee have 3 straight wins of it.
Transfer targets31 Aug 2026
Al-Ta'ee asked and Al-Riyadh said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Match29 Aug 2026
Al-Mojzel made Al-Ta'ee work for it, but the scoreboard read 2‑0 at the end and the table does not ask how.
Squad31 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-Ta'ee this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Transfer targets31 Aug 2026
Al-Ta'ee have made the call to Al-Orobah. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
The dugout31 Aug 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.” Yasser Al-Ghamdi, on a 2‑0 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
Squad31 Aug 2026
A row about effort at Al-Ta'ee
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Jonata Machado was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout31 Aug 2026
The one version of being left out a player cannot argue with, and the one he takes worst. Somebody else has been better and the team sheet says so, in public, every week until it changes.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Market24 Aug 2026
“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-Ta'ee, and it is not being withdrawn.
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
Yasir Al-Sinan pops up at the right end — 7.83
7.83, 1 on the scoresheet, and the specific comedy of a back-four player celebrating like somebody who does this every week. He does not, and that is exactly why the ground reacted the way it did.
Transfer targets24 Aug 2026
Everything agreed with Al-Fateh, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
Transfer targets24 Aug 2026
Al-Ta'ee asked and Al-Fateh said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Match22 Aug 2026
Three points for Al-Ta'ee, 2‑1 the final word against Al-Njoom in a contest settled by the finer margins.
The dugout24 Aug 2026
The manager makes an example of Luis Haquín
“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.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Words exchanged at Al-Ta'ee
Ibrahim Al-Nakhli 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 ratings24 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 15. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
The dugout24 Aug 2026
“That is what I want every week. Not the result, the way they went about it.” The manager, after 2‑1, already talking about the next one.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Transfer targets17 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.
Match15 Aug 2026
It finished 1‑0, and it was Hassan Al-Amri’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Al-Ta'ee.
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
A midfielder is measured on whether the team functions when he is on the pitch, which is nearly impossible to see and completely obvious in retrospect. 11 actions, 6.81, and a manager who will not be substituting him again in a hurry.
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
Chances created: 12. The column nobody reads carried the whole story of the match, and his name was at the top of it.
Squad17 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-Ta'ee this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
Some games turn on a moment; this one turned on a man. 7.84 on the card, and the Al-Ta'ee support went home talking about one name.
Transfer targets17 Aug 2026
Al-Ta'ee have made the call to Al-Riyadh. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
Squad17 Aug 2026
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Sibongakonke Nkosi commits to Al-Ta'ee for another 3 years.
The dugout17 Aug 2026
The manager’s verdict
“I am not going to get carried away and I will not let them either. It was a good day. There will be harder ones.” Yasser Al-Ghamdi kept it short after the 1‑0 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Transfer targets10 Aug 2026
Everything agreed with Al-Shabab, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
Transfer targets10 Aug 2026
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Al-Shabab keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Market10 Aug 2026
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Hassan Al-Shammari is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Market10 Aug 2026
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Talal Al-Enezi is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Market10 Aug 2026
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Abdullah Al-Harbi 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.
Market10 Aug 2026
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Talal Al-Dawsari 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.
Squad10 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-Ta'ee this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Loan watch10 Aug 2026
“I did not go to Najran to sit and watch. I want to come back to Al-Ta'ee and fight for my place.” 0 appearances in 0 matches say the rest.
Squad10 Aug 2026
6 new faces, and Al-Ta'ee 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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad3 Aug 2026
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Luis Haquín and Al-Ta'ee agree another 4 years.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Luis Haquín 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 targets3 Aug 2026
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Al-Riyadh have kept their man, and Al-Ta'ee go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Market3 Aug 2026
The interest is real enough to have reached print. Al-Ta'ee have said nothing, which in a transfer window is its own kind of answer.
Market3 Aug 2026
“We are a long way apart, and pretending otherwise helps nobody.” Neither side is close, and the calendar is not on the club's side.
Market3 Aug 2026
Signings arrive with a picture of the club in their head, and this one’s picture was bigger than the building. He will play well and he will be gone, in that order, and everybody knows it.
Transfer targets3 Aug 2026
Al-Ta'ee have made the call to Al-Shabab. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
Transfer targets3 Aug 2026
A loan move for Abdullah Abdo is in the works
Al-Ta'ee have made the call to Al-Ahli. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
Squad3 Aug 2026
A row about effort at Al-Ta'ee
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Jonata Machado was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.