الأهلي.. ما لا أستطيع النجاة منه

Not just a club...

But an integral part of Jeddah,

its beautiful face.. and its vibrant green color.

It is the symbol of patience,

the pride of men,

and the love of the loyal.

Al-Ahli...

The club of the loyal and the great.. starting with Khalid bin Abdullah and not ending with them,

and the club of writers and intellectuals,

Badr bin Abdul Mohsen, Musaad Al-Rasheedi, Mohammed Abdu, Abadi Al-Johar...

That extension that resembles nothing but itself.

A cherished passion...

My father, my brothers, my uncles, my mother, my maternal uncles...

A story that began long ago from a small house and an even smaller screen, and it grew and has not ended.

Al-Ahli resides in me.. as I reside in it,

it chases me everywhere,

I run from it.. to it.

In it are my joys,

and in it are my sorrows..

and those sorrows.. are what I write about it.

I love it sometimes by my own will,

and sometimes against my will..

entangled in it,

and I do not want to escape.

I abandon it to return to it..

and how sweet it is to return to it.

Even as I write now..

and Umm Kulthum is singing:

“My life.. my eyes..

O dearest to me..

O my beloved yesterday and my beloved now,

O my beloved for tomorrow and until the end of my time”..

I find myself writing about Al-Ahli.. nothing else.

Its victory today..

with the second consecutive Asian championship,

seems to say:

I am history.. I am pride.. I am dignity.. I am geography..

I am the champion of the largest continent in the world.. I am Al-Ahli.

For the elite of Asia is a tough and rebellious challenge..

defiant to those who thought that spending is the way, and noise is the means,

and easy.. gracious to its master, to those who know how to seize it.

Clubs of the project left it within two years, one after another..

And Al-Ahli remained savoring the sweetness of its second cup,

leaving the rest to taste its bitterness.

A team that returned from death,

knows well the value of life..

and today grants it to its magnificent stands, and to its literary lovers,

and to Jeddah which will always remain green..

and to the sports project itself.

A whisper:

“Your glory returned in a night

Your night from years.. and their year from nights.”