It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Haras El Hodoud this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Gigli Ndefe 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.
4 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.
Mourad Kaaouach was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mohamed Magli 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.
Nobody at Haras El Hodoud will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Haras El Hodoud can pretend not to have heard.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Haras El Hodoud this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Gigli Ndefe 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.
Nabil Jaadi 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 Dec 2026
Gigli Ndefe 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.
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.
A month is long enough that nobody gets in by accident. Mahmoud El Zanfaly is in the division's best eleven for it, which is a quieter compliment than an award and a more reliable one.
In brief
Player ratingsLuke Baartman changes it off the bench
“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 Haras El Hodoud, and it is not being withdrawn.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Haras El Hodoud this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad30 Nov 2026
Mohamed Magli 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.
3 wins in a row changes how opponents warm up: quieter, more glances across. Runs end, everybody knows that — but nobody in this dressing room is planning for it.
Amr Gamal 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
Gigli Ndefe 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.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Aziz Abid 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.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.04 at 35, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Gigli Ndefe 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.
Squad16 Nov 2026
Mohamed Magli 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.
15 defensive actions and a clean sheet at the end of them. A defender's afternoon can only be told by what did not happen, which is why nobody makes a highlights package out of one and every manager in the division would take it.
Mourad Kaaouach was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mohamed Magli is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Haras El Hodoud this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Gigli Ndefe 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.
19 defensive actions and a clean sheet at the end of them. A defender's afternoon can only be told by what did not happen, which is why nobody makes a highlights package out of one and every manager in the division would take it.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Haras El Hodoud, another week without a signature from Gigli Ndefe.
7 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.
Ninety minutes, no goals, and the argument started before the car park emptied: a point gained, or two thrown away against Aswan? Both sides of it will still be going on Thursday.
Nabil Jaadi 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.
Squad26 Oct 2026
Gigli Ndefe 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Haras El Hodoud this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 6 goals between Haras El Hodoud and Police Union, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Youssef Sabra is 23, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Mohamed Magli 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.
Every touch is being weighed now, in print and everywhere else. Some players grow into that and some are quietly ruined by it, and nobody knows which in advance.
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.
Nabil Jaadi 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.
Squad12 Oct 2026
Gigli Ndefe 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Haras El Hodoud this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Gigli Ndefe 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.
“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 Haras El Hodoud know it.
14 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Haras El Hodoud lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Haras El Hodoud this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Moataz Mohamed is 21, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mohamed Magli 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.
23 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Haras El Hodoud lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Haras El Hodoud this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Gigli Ndefe 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 words a physio says slowly. 33 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.
“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 Haras El Hodoud, and it is not being withdrawn.
Mourad Kaaouach was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Gigli Ndefe 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.
Marked 4.62. Nothing he attempted worked and by the hour mark he had stopped attempting much, which is the part a manager notices rather than the mistakes.
The words a physio says slowly. 40 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.
There is exactly one of these per career and it does not usually go like this. 1 on the scoresheet, 7.19 beside the name, and a crowd that had never seen him before chanting it by the end.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.48 at 34, and nobody on the pitch was better.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Haras El Hodoud this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The fee was agreed and the flight was looked at — and then the phone stopped ringing. Ghazl El Mahalla moved on, Mohamed El Negely reports back to Haras El Hodoud, and everybody pretends Monday is just Monday.
It finished 3‑2, and it was Samuel Oppong’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Haras El Hodoud.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Mohamed Magli 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.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Moses Twum 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.
The words a physio says slowly. 47 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.
“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 Haras El Hodoud, and it is not being withdrawn.
Okechukwu Azubuike 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.
Squad31 Aug 2026
Gigli Ndefe 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.
“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 Haras El Hodoud, and it is not being withdrawn.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Haras El Hodoud this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Gigli Ndefe 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.
0‑1 to Petrojet, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Squad24 Aug 2026
8 new faces, and Haras El Hodoud 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.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Luke Baartman has just signed for Haras El Hodoud, and for once the answer mattered.
Amr Gamal 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 morning the pathway stops being a brochure and becomes a team sheet. Most of them will not be here in three years; all of them have already done the hard part, which was getting to today.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mohamed Magli 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 academy exists for exactly this morning. Fathy El Nenny 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.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Walid El Nenny is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Ahmed Hamdi 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.
Nabil Jaadi 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.
Squad10 Aug 2026
Gigli Ndefe 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.
Still no offer on the table, and Ziad Tarek’s deal keeps shrinking. In boardroom language, silence this long stops being an oversight and starts being an answer.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Mohamed Abdel Ghany and Haras El Hodoud agree another 2 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Ziad Tarek 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.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Mohamed Magli 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.