From our football correspondent
Steady
Market7 Sep 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.
Boardroom7 Sep 2026
Deadline passes with 13 signed and 1 gone
That is the business done at Haras El Hodoud 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
The offer from Zamalek for Mahmoud El Badry 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 targets7 Sep 2026
Everything agreed with Porto, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
Transfer targets7 Sep 2026
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Al Ahli keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Transfer targets7 Sep 2026
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Al Jazira have kept their man, and Haras El Hodoud go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Match5 Sep 2026
Behind, and beaten by any honest reading, until minute 87. Ghazl El Mahalla had the points in their pocket and a corner of the ground still believed, which is generally when it happens.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Roqa 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 Haras El Hodoud this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Somebody has moved past him. It is not a dropping and it is worse than one, because a dropping is about a Saturday and this is about where he stands.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Player ratings31 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 35. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Player ratings31 Aug 2026
Both of them Amr Gamal's — 9.22
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 9.22, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
Market31 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 The request is on a desk at Haras El Hodoud, and it is not being withdrawn.
Transfer targets31 Aug 2026
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Al-Hilal keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Transfer targets31 Aug 2026
Haras El Hodoud 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.
Market31 Aug 2026
The name of Mahmoud El Badry has come up in conversations Haras El Hodoud were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Squad31 Aug 2026
Roqa 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.
Match29 Aug 2026
2‑2, and both dressing rooms will call it two points lost. A draw that asked plenty of questions and answered none of them.
Squad31 Aug 2026
Too much change too quickly at Haras El Hodoud
6 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.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Match22 Aug 2026
4‑1, and Moses Twum took the headlines on an afternoon when everything Haras El Hodoud tried came off. Days like this are retold all winter.
Market24 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 Haras El Hodoud can pretend not to have heard.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Moses Twum takes the match ball home
3 goals in one afternoon from one man. The other players were also present, a witness confirmed.
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 29. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
At 34 every good afternoon gets called a throwback, and this one was: 8.76, and nobody on the pitch better.
Squad24 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.
Transfer targets24 Aug 2026
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Al Jazira is saying, and nobody at Haras El Hodoud is enjoying the guessing.
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
A performance of 9.63 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Transfer targets24 Aug 2026
Haras El Hodoud asked and Al Ain said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 35. 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.
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
At 35 every good afternoon gets called a throwback, and this one was: 8.29, and nobody on the pitch better.
Market17 Aug 2026
The offer from Smouha for Mohamed Mostafa 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 targets17 Aug 2026
The deal with Real Madrid 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
No thanks: Siaka Sidibé rejects the move
Haras El Hodoud had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Al Wasl, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
Transfer targets17 Aug 2026
Haras El Hodoud 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.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Fawzi El Henawy 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 terraces17 Aug 2026
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.
Match15 Aug 2026
A 1‑0 win over Military Production, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Transfer targets10 Aug 2026
Haras El Hodoud had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Al Ain, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
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 Haras El Hodoud this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Market10 Aug 2026
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Hossam Zaki 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. Mostafa El Mohamady 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. Fathy Sobhi 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
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Amr El Hadary 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
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Aziz Abid and Haras El Hodoud agree another 4 years.
The dugout10 Aug 2026
No hiding place for Aziz Abid
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Aziz Abid, and the manager let it.
Looking ahead10 Aug 2026
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Military Production in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad3 Aug 2026
“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.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Fawzi El Henawy 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.
Market3 Aug 2026
24 months left and silence from upstairs — no offer, no talks, nothing for his people to answer. Clubs that let a calendar do their negotiating usually end up negotiating with the calendar.
Transfer targets3 Aug 2026
A loan move for Majed Yaqoob is in the works
Haras El Hodoud 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
Haras El Hodoud are still strangers to each other
6 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.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Mohamed Magli was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.