Marked for Ahmad Jahanbakhsh
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market4 Jan 2027
Saba come back empty-handed
The bid was some way short and Rah Ahan did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Market4 Jan 2027
“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.
Squad4 Jan 2027
At 20 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.
Squad4 Jan 2027
Words exchanged at Rah Ahan
Karim Ebrahimi 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.
Boardroom4 Jan 2027
Nothing happens for months and then he simply arrives, at no cost, having signed a pre-contract while still turning out for somebody else. It is the least dramatic way to sign a footballer and frequently the shrewdest.
Transfer targets4 Jan 2027
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Persepolis have kept their man, and Rah Ahan go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Match2 Jan 2027
It finished 2‑1, and it was Saeid Cheshmi’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Rah Ahan.
Market4 Jan 2027
“They were honest with me, and I would rather know.” Vouria Rezaeian has been informed he is not in the manager's thinking at Rah Ahan.
The terraces4 Jan 2027
At 23 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.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
Player ratings2 Nov 2026
Amir Karimi beats them one at a time
Successful dribbles: 27. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
The terraces2 Nov 2026
At 21 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.
Match31 Oct 2026
A 1‑0 win over Esteghlal Ahvaz, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Squad2 Nov 2026
“The easiest signature of my career.” Morteza Ebrahimi and Rah Ahan agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Player ratings2 Nov 2026
Marked 7.60. Ask anyone leaving the ground what settled it and you will get one name, which is the only award that has ever really counted.
Squad2 Nov 2026
Amir Karimi makes the team of the month
Four or five weekends of consistency, measured against everybody else in the division. A quieter compliment than an award and a more reliable one.
The dugout2 Nov 2026
“The players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 1‑0, Kaveh Hosseini could afford to be generous.
The dugout2 Nov 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Vouria Cheshmi, and the manager let it.
Squad2 Nov 2026
Ramin Taremi slips down the pecking order
The demotion a club never announces and a dressing room always notices. Ramin Taremi is further from the side than he was, and the reason will not be given until he asks.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match12 Sep 2026
The cup run ends for Rah Ahan
0‑1 against Zob Ahan, and the road stops here. Cup exits are quick deaths — no second leg, no next week, just the league from now until May.
Market14 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 Rah Ahan, and it is not being withdrawn.
The terraces14 Sep 2026
A cup embarrassment at Zob Ahan follows Rah Ahan home
0-3. Going out of a cup is one afternoon; going out like that is a week of phone-ins, and the manager will hear every one of them.
Transfer targets14 Sep 2026
$4.6M was the most the club would pay and Siah Jamegan 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.
Market14 Sep 2026
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Match12 Sep 2026
Rah Ahan cannot find the net
3 games without scoring. Strikers stop looking up, midfielders take the extra touch, and every shot that clears the bar is followed by a groan that has been building since the last goal.
Transfer targets14 Sep 2026
Rah Ahan asked and Sepahan said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 17. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Boardroom14 Sep 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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
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 Rah Ahan, and it is not being withdrawn.
Transfer targets7 Sep 2026
The offer went to Siah Jamegan 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.
Boardroom7 Sep 2026
Window shuts: 5 in, 4 out at Rah Ahan
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 5 arrived, 4 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
Market7 Sep 2026
The interest is real enough to have reached print. Rah Ahan have said nothing, which in a transfer window is its own kind of answer.
Transfer targets7 Sep 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.
Squad7 Sep 2026
It will be explained as a change for the team and it may even be one. Nobody who has worn one believes that, and neither does the man who has just had it taken away.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Somebody has moved past him. It is not a dropping and it is worse than one, because a dropping is about a Saturday and this is about where he stands.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Ali Rezaeian moves up the pecking order
Nothing is announced when this happens and everybody knows. He is a bigger part of the plan at Rah Ahan than he was a month ago, and the training ground worked that out before the team sheet said so.
Market7 Sep 2026
Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Vouria Rezaeian’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market31 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 ratings31 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 20. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Transfer targets31 Aug 2026
Rah Ahan asked and Crvena Zvezda said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Squad31 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 targets31 Aug 2026
A loan move for Mohammed Abbas is in the works
Rah Ahan have made the call to Al Ain. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
The dugout31 Aug 2026
“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.
Match29 Aug 2026
Point won or two lost for Rah Ahan?
Ninety minutes, no goals, and the argument started before the car park emptied: a point gained, or two thrown away against Saba? Both sides of it will still be going on Thursday.
The dugout31 Aug 2026
The plan did not have a place for Saeid Irankhah
Nobody at Rah Ahan is suggesting he is out of form. The manager simply wanted somebody with a different set of qualities for ninety specific minutes, and there is nothing a player can train to fix that.
Squad31 Aug 2026
At 26 he has made the position his own, and the man he took it from has to find something to say about it. Rah Ahan have a decision that made itself.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market24 Aug 2026
$2.9M from Sepahan for Pejman Cheshmi. Money is money, but the dressing room has lost the man it looked to.
Market24 Aug 2026
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Rah Ahan have lost him in all but the paperwork.
Market24 Aug 2026
Rah Ahan say no — this time
The offer from Tractor for Mehdi Karimi 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.
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 28. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
No sign of nerves from Ahmad Jahanbakhsh at 20 — 7.97
The hardest thing about being 20 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Ahmad Jahanbakhsh did not need any: 7.97, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
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.
The terraces24 Aug 2026
Rah Ahan sell a favourite for $2.9M
The accountants will call it good business and they will be right, which is not the point anybody outside the boardroom is making. Pejman Cheshmi was one of the reasons people came, and $2.9M does not replace that by itself.
Transfer targets24 Aug 2026
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Hapoel Tel Aviv is saying, and nobody at Rah Ahan is enjoying the guessing.
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.