Marked for Mohammad Askari
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Player ratings22 Feb 2027
At 33 every good afternoon gets called a throwback, and this one was: 7.96, and nobody on the pitch better.
Squad22 Feb 2027
Words exchanged at Esteghlal
Antonio Adán 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.
Match20 Feb 2027
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Jaloliddin Masharipov. 3‑1 against Saba, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Match20 Feb 2027
Esteghlal make home a hard place to visit
8 without defeat on their own grass. The pitch has not changed; the crowd has — louder earlier, and quicker to sense when the opposition would rather be somewhere else.
Player ratings22 Feb 2027
Ninety minutes of Jasir Asani at his very best
Marked 8.43. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Esteghlal.
The dugout22 Feb 2027
The view from the dugout
“We controlled it. There were spells I did not like and we will look at them, but the group showed me something.” Ali Taremi, on a 3‑1 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
The dugout22 Feb 2027
Saman Touranian has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Esteghlal will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
The dugout22 Feb 2027
Adib Zarei gets it from the manager
“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.
Squad22 Feb 2027
The division's best last weekend was a Esteghlal man
It is a small honour and it is not nothing: somebody watched every match in the division and decided that Jasir Asani was the best thing in any of them.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market21 Dec 2026
Aref Aghasi 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 Esteghlal can pretend not to have heard.
Squad21 Dec 2026
Antonio Adán and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Match19 Dec 2026
Hard to beat is not the same as winning, but 6 matches without defeat is a foundation Esteghlal did not have in the autumn.
Player ratings21 Dec 2026
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.08, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Squad21 Dec 2026
100 games in this shirt, through managers and relegations and everything else. Service like it is disappearing from the game and the crowd knows what it is watching.
The dugout21 Dec 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 dugout21 Dec 2026
The view from the dugout
“We did not lose. Some weeks that is all you get, and I would rather have the point than not.” Ali Taremi chose the glass-half-full version of 1‑1; the supporters left with the other one.
The dugout21 Dec 2026
Saman Touranian has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Esteghlal will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad23 Nov 2026
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 7 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Squad23 Nov 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 Esteghlal this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Player ratings23 Nov 2026
Successful dribbles: 18. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
The dugout23 Nov 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 dugout23 Nov 2026
Half-satisfied: Ali Taremi on the draw
“There are things I liked and things we will be doing on Tuesday until they are right.” 0‑0, and a manager who had already decided what Tuesday looked like.
Looking ahead23 Nov 2026
A test against the best for Esteghlal
The team at the top of the table next, and the honest measure of where this side actually is. Anybody can beat the club below them; the question is what happens against Persepolis.
The dugout23 Nov 2026
Somebody else is better right now than Mehrdad Rezaei
The team sheet says it in public every week until it changes. The only version of being dropped a footballer cannot argue with, and the one he takes hardest.
Squad23 Nov 2026
One booking too many, and Rustamjon Ashurmatov sits out. Esteghlal lose him for the sort of avoidable reason that makes a manager's week longer.
Match21 Nov 2026
The crowd waited for a goal that never came. Zob Ahan defended in numbers and left with what they came for, and the two sides could be playing still without troubling a scorer.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match24 Oct 2026
The wait goes on for Esteghlal
4 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
Squad26 Oct 2026
Words exchanged at Esteghlal
Hossein Goudarzi 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 dugout26 Oct 2026
The manager makes an example of Rouzbeh Cheshmi
“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.
Match24 Oct 2026
0‑1 to Esteghlal Ahvaz, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
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 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 Ali Taremi left the room before anybody could ask which.
Player ratings26 Oct 2026
Successful dribbles: 14. 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 dugout26 Oct 2026
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
Looking ahead26 Oct 2026
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Saba in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match26 Sep 2026
Still nobody has beaten Esteghlal
The unbeaten run reaches 9. Some of them were wins and some were escapes, but a side that refuses to lose is a side other dressing rooms talk about.
Match26 Sep 2026
The run is over for Esteghlal
8 matches without defeat, and then Sepahan. Nobody at the ground pretended it would go on forever; nobody expected it to stop here either.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Antonio Adán and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
The dugout28 Sep 2026
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Ali Taremi after the 0‑0 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
Match26 Sep 2026
Point won or two lost for Esteghlal?
Ninety minutes, no goals, and the argument started before the car park emptied: a point gained, or two thrown away against Sepahan? Both sides of it will still be going on Thursday.
The dugout28 Sep 2026
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Mohammad Askari is on it.
The dugout28 Sep 2026
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Hossein Goudarzi trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Looking ahead28 Sep 2026
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Tractor in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
Market28 Sep 2026
Jasir Asani linked with a move away
The name of Jasir Asani keeps appearing in other people's back pages. Esteghlal say nothing, which says plenty.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Match12 Sep 2026
Esteghlal cannot stop winning
7 wins on the spin now, and the question has changed from whether the run ends to who ends it. Confidence like this cannot be bought; it has to be earned exactly this way.
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
What a way to start for Omid Beiranvand — 7.22
0 on the scoresheet on his first appearance and a mark of 7.22 beside it. Most debuts are got through; this one was enjoyed, by him and by everybody watching it.
Market14 Sep 2026
The Foolad deal is off
Everything was agreed until it was not, and Saleh Hardani reports back to Esteghlal with a summer to forget. Neither club is saying who walked away from the table.
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
Mohammad Askari, 20, plays like he has been here for years — 7.63
A mark of 7.63 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 20-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
Age has not caught Mehrdad Rezaei yet — 8.07
At 36 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.07 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Antonio Adán 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 terraces14 Sep 2026
At 20 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.
Match12 Sep 2026
Esteghlal are at home on the road
3 straight away victories. Sides that win away are usually sides that can defend and can counter, and the table has begun to reflect what those journeys have earned.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market7 Sep 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 Esteghlal can pretend not to have heard.
Market7 Sep 2026
So close: Jasir Asani’s move dies late
The fee was agreed and the flight was looked at — and then the phone stopped ringing. Tractor moved on, Jasir Asani reports back to Esteghlal, and everybody pretends Monday is just Monday.
Boardroom7 Sep 2026
Deadline passes with 16 signed and 8 gone
That is the business done at Esteghlal 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.
Transfer targets7 Sep 2026
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Padideh have kept their man, and Esteghlal go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
The terraces7 Sep 2026
The town asked, and Esteghlal paid $1.1M
Mohammad Askari was the name on every phone-in, and the club has gone and signed him for $1.1M. For one week the board can do no wrong, which is a week most boards never get.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Hossein Goudarzi and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Market7 Sep 2026
He is 20, and the scouting reports agree on the only line that matters: the ceiling. Signings like this are lottery tickets written by professionals.
Boardroom7 Sep 2026
The Esteghlal board find $6.9M for the manager
Money, not words, and it is the only answer a manager ever wants. Spending $6.9M well is entirely his problem now.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Too much change too quickly at Esteghlal
5 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
Uneasy
Transfer targets7 Sep 2026
$4.1M settles it between the clubs for Reza Beiranvand
Gostaresh Foulad have accepted the money. What Sepahan do not yet have is the man, and between here and the photograph is a conversation about wages that both sides are dreading.
Market7 Sep 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 Sepahan, and it is not being withdrawn.
The terraces7 Sep 2026
Sepahan sell a favourite for $1.1M
The accountants will call it good business and they will be right, which is not the point anybody outside the boardroom is making. Mohammad Askari was one of the reasons people came, and $1.1M does not replace that by itself.
Boardroom7 Sep 2026
Window shuts: 10 in, 11 out at Sepahan
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 10 arrived, 11 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
Market7 Sep 2026
The deal that would have taken Mohammad Javad Akbari to Padideh has collapsed at the last stage, and he reports back to Sepahan with a summer to forget and a season still to play. Nobody is saying which side walked away.
Market7 Sep 2026
Mohammad Askari has left for Esteghlal in a $1.1M deal. The accountants are pleased; the supporters are less certain.
Transfer targets7 Sep 2026
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Esteghlal have kept their man, and Sepahan go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Market7 Sep 2026
The name of Aria Shafiedoost has come up in conversations Sepahan were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Squad7 Sep 2026
“The easiest signature of my career.” Milad Rezaeian and Sepahan agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
At 33 every good afternoon gets called a throwback, and this one was: 8.07, and nobody on the pitch better.
Transfer targets24 Aug 2026
Sepahan offered $3.1M; Padideh 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.
Market24 Aug 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.
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
Ali Karimi pops up at the right end — 7.70
7.70, 1 on the scoresheet, and the specific comedy of a back-four player celebrating like somebody who does this every week. He does not, and that is exactly why the ground reacted the way it did.
Transfer targets24 Aug 2026
Sepahan asked and Esteghlal said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
The dugout24 Aug 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.
Match22 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.
The dugout24 Aug 2026
“There are things I liked and things we will be doing on Tuesday until they are right.” 2‑2, and a manager who had already decided what Tuesday looked like.
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
The chances came and went for Kaveh Rezaei
5 shots, and a count that reads like a good afternoon until you check the other column. Strikers survive weeks like this on the understanding that the chances keep arriving; the day they stop is the day it becomes a problem.