From our football correspondent
Triumph
Market24 Aug 2026
El Masry come back empty-handed
The bid was some way short and Zamalek did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.26 at 41, and nobody on the pitch was better.
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 The request is on a desk at Zamalek, and it is not being withdrawn.
Market24 Aug 2026
Only the photograph left for Ahmed Khodary
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Ahmed Khodary will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Zamalek the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 25. 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.
Transfer targets24 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.
Squad24 Aug 2026
A row about effort at Zamalek
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Juan Bezerra was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Seifeddine Jaziri 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.
Match22 Aug 2026
Three points for Zamalek, 2‑1 the final word against El Dakhleya in a contest settled by the finer margins.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Market17 Aug 2026
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Smouha waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Zamalek is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
At 41 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.25 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Transfer targets17 Aug 2026
Zamalek asked and Persepolis said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Market17 Aug 2026
Zamalek say no — this time
The offer from El Masry for Ahmed Sherif 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.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Words exchanged at Zamalek
Juan Bezerra 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.
Transfer targets17 Aug 2026
$32.0K was the most the club would pay and Haras El Hodoud were asking for more. Deals like this are revived in the last week of a window roughly half the time, and everybody involved knows it.
Boardroom17 Aug 2026
1 academy graduates step up at Zamalek
Senior shirt numbers handed to boys the coaches have known since they were twelve. Most will not make it and all of them have already done the hard part.
Match15 Aug 2026
It finished 3‑1, and it was Oday Dabbagh’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Zamalek.
Market17 Aug 2026
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Ahmed Trezeguet is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market10 Aug 2026
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Aswan waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Zamalek is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Market10 Aug 2026
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Transfer targets10 Aug 2026
$9.8M was the most the club would pay and Goztepe were asking for more. Deals like this are revived in the last week of a window roughly half the time, and everybody involved knows it.
Boardroom10 Aug 2026
The number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $34.1K — a club that wants Mahmoud El Badry enough to be asked twice.
Squad10 Aug 2026
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Mahmoud El Wensh commits to Zamalek for another 3 years.
Transfer targets10 Aug 2026
The offer went to Haras El Hodoud this week and it is theirs to answer. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loud the door closes.
Squad10 Aug 2026
Words at Zamalek training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Juan Bezerra 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.
Squad10 Aug 2026
Words exchanged at Zamalek
Seifeddine Jaziri 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 dugout10 Aug 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Chico Banza, and the manager let it.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Transfer targets3 Aug 2026
The offer went to Goztepe this week and it is theirs to answer. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loud the door closes.
Transfer targets3 Aug 2026
Zamalek have gone to Al Wasl with a bid, and the supporters have gone to the internet with an opinion about it. Whether either changes anything is up to the selling club.
Market3 Aug 2026
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
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 Zamalek know it.
Squad3 Aug 2026
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Ahmed Fatouh and Zamalek agree another 4 years.
Market3 Aug 2026
Add another name to the list: El Dakhleya have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Mohamed Ibrahim. The answer from Zamalek has not changed — yet.
Squad3 Aug 2026
A row about effort at Zamalek
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Juan Bezerra was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Omar Gaber 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 dugout3 Aug 2026
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Mahmoud El Wensh trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.