Marked for Arash Hashemi
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad9 Nov 2026
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 13 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
Squad9 Nov 2026
Ali Gholizadeh damages knee ligaments — 44 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 44 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.
Squad9 Nov 2026
The match ball belongs to Majid Torabi, whose 4 goals turned a difficult afternoon into a procession.
Market9 Nov 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 Rah Ahan can pretend not to have heard.
Match7 Nov 2026
There is no crueller way to lose a football match. Rah Ahan scored in the 90th minute, the restart barely happened, and the away end was still standing when the whistle went.
Squad9 Nov 2026
Majid Torabi 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 Rah Ahan this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Player ratings9 Nov 2026
Ninety minutes of Majid Torabi at his very best
Marked 10.00. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Rah Ahan.
Match7 Nov 2026
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Majid Torabi. 4‑3 against Siah Jamegan, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
The terraces9 Nov 2026
He is 22 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad2 Nov 2026
Ahmad Abdollahzadeh 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.
Match31 Oct 2026
Beaten 0‑2, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Squad2 Nov 2026
Iliya Imani 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 Rah Ahan this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Player ratings2 Nov 2026
A midfielder is measured on whether the team functions when he is on the pitch, which is nearly impossible to see and completely obvious in retrospect. 9 actions, 6.90, and a manager who will not be substituting him again in a hurry.
The dugout2 Nov 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Mostafa Ahmadi, and the manager let it.
The dugout2 Nov 2026
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Ashkan Hajsafi after 0‑2, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
Squad2 Nov 2026
A place in the month's best eleven for Hossein Vafaei
Four or five weekends of consistency, judged against everybody in the division doing his job. Hossein Vafaei has come out of that comparison in the side, and Rah Ahan have had the benefit of every one of those afternoons.
The dugout2 Nov 2026
There is no complaint available here and everybody involved knows it, which does not make the walk to the bench any shorter. Form is the only currency in football that cannot be borrowed against.
The dugout2 Nov 2026
Saeid Irankhah knocks on the manager’s door
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Saeid Irankhah trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad26 Oct 2026
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 11 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
Match24 Oct 2026
Chastening afternoon for Rah Ahan
A 0‑3 beating by Esteghlal was the sort of result that empties a stadium long before the final whistle.
Squad26 Oct 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 Rah Ahan this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Boardroom26 Oct 2026
The music was off and the showers ran late. What was said in that dressing room stays there, but Saturday will publish the minutes.
The dugout26 Oct 2026
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 0‑3, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
Squad26 Oct 2026
Words at Rah Ahan training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mehdi Khodadad 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 dugout26 Oct 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.
The dugout26 Oct 2026
Ramin Nekounam dropped after a run of poor form
The one version of being left out a player cannot argue with, and the one he takes worst. Somebody else has been better and the team sheet says so, in public, every week until it changes.
Squad26 Oct 2026
5 shut-outs and counting. Goalkeepers are only noticed when they fail, and Amir Pouraliganji has given nobody the chance.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market14 Sep 2026
The deal that would have taken Mohammad Yazdani to Padideh has collapsed at the last stage, and he reports back to Rah Ahan with a summer to forget and a season still to play. Nobody is saying which side walked away.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Words exchanged at Rah Ahan
Ahmad Abdollahzadeh 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.
Match12 Sep 2026
0‑1 to Padideh, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Rah Ahan are still strangers to each other
7 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.
The dugout14 Sep 2026
The manager’s verdict
“That is on me. I pick the team and I picked wrong.” Managers say that when they mean it and when they need to be seen to, and after 0‑1 Ashkan Hajsafi left the room before anybody could ask which.
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 15. 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.
The dugout14 Sep 2026
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Rah Ahan, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Squad14 Sep 2026
A row about effort at Rah Ahan
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Mehdi Khodadad was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout14 Sep 2026
“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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad17 Aug 2026
10 saves, and a scoreline the ten men in front of him had no right to. Goalkeepers only get noticed on the bad days; this was one of the other ones.
Market17 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 targets17 Aug 2026
Everything agreed with Sepahan, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
Squad17 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 Rah Ahan this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Transfer targets17 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.
The terraces17 Aug 2026
At 22 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
The dugout17 Aug 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Amir Jahanbakhsh, and the manager let it.
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
Marked 8.06 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
Squad17 Aug 2026
He is not being dropped. There is simply nowhere in the formation Rah Ahan are playing to put a man who does what he does, which is a harder thing to be told than any team sheet.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market17 Aug 2026
$5.4M. No player has ever cost Sepahan more, and expectation arrives with him.
Market17 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.
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
Iván Sánchez, 33, rolls back the years — 8.41
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.41 at 33, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Transfer targets17 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.
Transfer targets17 Aug 2026
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Al Shaab is saying, and nobody at Sepahan is enjoying the guessing.
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 23. 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 targets17 Aug 2026
Sepahan offered $540.0K; Persepolis said it was not close. The manager will be told the money is still there for the right player, which is what managers are told.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Kaveh Rezaei 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 Sepahan this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The terraces17 Aug 2026
Boards get told what they have done wrong for years and hear nothing on the days they get it right. This is one of those days: Amir Hossein Hosseinzadeh from Tractor for $5.4M, and a ticket office having a very good morning.