From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad6 Sep 2027
Alireza Nazi is the hero from the spot
A shoot-out is remembered by its ending, and this one ends with Alireza Nazi: 2 kept out, and a set of supporters who will describe every one of them for the next twenty years.
Match1 Sep 2027
The cup run ends for Zob Ahan
0-0 against Naft Tehran, and the road stops here. Cup exits are quick deaths — no second leg, no next week, just the league from now until May.
Market6 Sep 2027
“I have ambitions, and I would like the club to share them.” Nobody has asked to leave and nobody has been shown the door — but a player chooses that sentence carefully, and a boardroom hears it exactly as it was meant.
Match4 Sep 2027
Still nobody has beaten Zob Ahan
The unbeaten run reaches 6. Some of them were wins and some were escapes, but a side that refuses to lose is a side other dressing rooms talk about.
Match4 Sep 2027
It finished 1-1, and it somehow always looked like it would. One of those afternoons where the table moves less than the tempers.
Squad6 Sep 2027
“I would rather say it to his face than read about it.” The meeting was requested by the player, which tells you most of what you need to know.
Squad6 Sep 2027
“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.
Market6 Sep 2027
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Zob Ahan know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Squad6 Sep 2027
The first one is the one every signing is asked about until it arrives. It has arrived, and he can stop being asked.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market28 Jun 2027
“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.
Market28 Jun 2027
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Zob Ahan they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Market28 Jun 2027
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market21 Jun 2027
The bid was some way short and Zob Ahan did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Market21 Jun 2027
Both sides expect a conversation in the coming days. Zob Ahan will name a price, and everything after that is arithmetic.
Squad21 Jun 2027
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
Market21 Jun 2027
A season-long audition: Al Nasr still own him, but the shirt and the minutes are Zob Ahan's to give. A loan is a bet both clubs believe they are winning.
Squad21 Jun 2027
A new face in his position, and Seyed Mohammad Hosseini suddenly has to win back what he thought he owned. Zob Ahan have promised nothing — clubs rarely do at this stage.
Market21 Jun 2027
The list is a quiet document with a loud meaning. Facundo González may talk to anybody who asks, and everybody at the club understands what that means.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market7 Jun 2027
“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.
Market7 Jun 2027
The interest is real enough to have reached print. Zob Ahan have said nothing, which in a transfer window is its own kind of answer.
Squad7 Jun 2027
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Ali Eslami commits to Zob Ahan for another 3 years.
Market7 Jun 2027
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Zob Ahan has been clear about where Facundo González stands, which is more than many ever get.
Squad7 Jun 2027
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
Market7 Jun 2027
Nobody at Zob Ahan has picked up the phone to Ali Eslami
36 months to run and not a word offered. A club that lets the calendar negotiate for it usually ends up losing to the calendar.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad14 Sep 2026
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
Match12 Sep 2026
Ninety minutes, two goalkeepers with clean gloves, and not one finish worth keeping. Persepolis will be the happier side with the point.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Asked to play a role that is not his, or taken off before the hour once too often — Abolfazl Hosseinifar has let it be known that he does not like the way Zob Ahan are using him. Managers hear this long before the press does.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Match5 Sep 2026
The cup run ends for Zob Ahan
0-1 against Rah Ahan, and the road stops here. Cup exits are quick deaths — no second leg, no next week, just the league from now until May.
Squad7 Sep 2026
A one-man rearguard from Parsa Jafari
There were 6 saves in it, and at least three that had no business being saves at all. The ten outfield players owe him a drink and they know it.
Market7 Sep 2026
Nima Entezari hands in a written request
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Zob Ahan can pretend not to have heard.
Market7 Sep 2026
Everything was agreed until it was not, and Davoud Noushi Soufiani reports back to Zob Ahan with a summer to forget. Neither club is saying who walked away from the table.
Market7 Sep 2026
The paperwork is done: Alireza Nazi joins from Foolad in a deal worth $360.0K. Now comes the harder part.
Boardroom7 Sep 2026
370% of the income goes out in wages at Zob Ahan
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.
Squad7 Sep 2026
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
Squad7 Sep 2026
“I would rather say it to his face than read about it.” The meeting was requested by the player, which tells you most of what you need to know.
Squad7 Sep 2026
A first senior shirt for Hesam Nafari
Every debut is a small story about the future: Hesam Nafari, 20 years old, off the academy pitches and into the first team. The parents in the stand will keep the programme.