From our football correspondent
Upbeat
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
The paperwork begins on Karim Fouad
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Aswan have done the hard part with Al Ahly, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Squad24 Aug 2026
A falling-out at Aswan
Hesham Balaha and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Transfer targets24 Aug 2026
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Al Wahda have kept their man, and Aswan go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Match22 Aug 2026
It finished 2‑1, and it was Bismark Asante’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Aswan.
The dugout24 Aug 2026
The manager makes an example of Tarik Aoutah
“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.
Player ratings24 Aug 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.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Cyriaque Sylla 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 dugout24 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.” El Sayed Kahraba, on a 2‑1 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match15 Aug 2026
Chastening afternoon for Aswan
A 2‑5 beating by ENPPI was the sort of result that empties a stadium long before the final whistle.
Squad17 Aug 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.
Market17 Aug 2026
Aswan say no — this time
The offer from Zamalek for Julius Ikechukwu 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.
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
A chastening introduction for Ahmed Ibrahim — 5.79
It is a hard way to meet a crowd. Marked 5.79 on the day he was handed the shirt, and the important thing now is what the next one looks like.
Transfer targets17 Aug 2026
The deal with Zamalek 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.
Transfer targets17 Aug 2026
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Al Ahly keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Words exchanged at Aswan
Hesham Balaha 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.
Match15 Aug 2026
Ahmed Hamoudi among the goals in a wild afternoon
7 goals in one match, Ahmed Hamoudi on the scoresheet, and a scoreline that will look like a misprint. Neutrals could not have asked more of Aswan and ENPPI.
Transfer targets17 Aug 2026
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Arab Contractors have kept their man, and Aswan go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad10 Aug 2026
Hesham Balaha gets the move he always wanted
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Hesham Balaha has just signed for Aswan, and for once the answer mattered.
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 Aswan this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Transfer targets10 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.
Market10 Aug 2026
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Abdallah Soliman 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
One of our own: Ibrahim Sobhi joins the Aswan first team
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Ibrahim Sobhi 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
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. El Sayed Trezeguet 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.
Market10 Aug 2026
One of our own: Ashraf Mohsen joins the Aswan first team
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Ashraf Mohsen is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Squad10 Aug 2026
The formation has left Bismark Asante behind
Every shape has positions in it and this one does not have his. Aswan will either change the shape, change his job, or change his club, and he is waiting to hear which.
Transfer targets10 Aug 2026
Al Ahly 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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad3 Aug 2026
Tarik Aoutah 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 Aswan this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad3 Aug 2026
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Cyriaque Sylla and Aswan agree another 4 years.
Transfer targets3 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.
Squad3 Aug 2026
A row about effort at Aswan
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Cyriaque Sylla was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad3 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.
Transfer targets3 Aug 2026
A loan enquiry to Petrojet: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.
Transfer targets3 Aug 2026
A loan move for Ahmed Khodary is in the works
Aswan have made the call to Zamalek. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
Market3 Aug 2026
“There is a gap, and pretending there is not helps nobody.” Neither side has moved, and the calendar is working for exactly one of them.
Market3 Aug 2026
49 months to run and not a word offered. A club that lets the calendar negotiate for it usually ends up losing to the calendar.
In brief
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Market
No place for Belal Gamal in the plan
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Market
Experience through the door at Aswan