Marked for Ehsan Nekounam
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad23 Nov 2026
A fracture rules Ahmad Moharrami out for 71 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Rah Ahan will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Player ratings23 Nov 2026
A brace, and Mehdi Hajsafi takes the afternoon — 8.89
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Mehdi Hajsafi provided it, and the 8.89 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Squad23 Nov 2026
A falling-out at Rah Ahan
Vahid Khodadad and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Match21 Nov 2026
Foolad made Rah Ahan work for it, but the scoreboard read 3‑1 at the end and the table does not ask how.
Squad23 Nov 2026
10 goals and a season average of 7.28. Form like that gets noticed well beyond this town.
The dugout23 Nov 2026
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Karim Vafaei on a 3‑1 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
Squad23 Nov 2026
Words at Rah Ahan training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ehsan Nekounam 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.
Looking ahead23 Nov 2026
Sepahan next, and one man in the Rah Ahan dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
Market23 Nov 2026
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Ramin Jahanbakhsh signs something — a contract at Rah Ahan or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad12 Oct 2026
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 8 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
Match10 Oct 2026
Beaten 0‑2, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
The dugout12 Oct 2026
The view from the dugout
“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 0‑2 defeat, delivered by Karim Vafaei to a room that had heard them before.
Squad12 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.
Player ratings12 Oct 2026
Successful dribbles: 15. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad12 Oct 2026
A row about effort at Rah Ahan
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Ehsan Nekounam was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout12 Oct 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.
Market12 Oct 2026
The name of Shahriar Yazdani keeps appearing in other people's back pages. Rah Ahan say nothing, which says plenty.
The dugout12 Oct 2026
The shape wanted a different profile against this opponent, which is a real football answer and no comfort at all to the man it is about. He did nothing wrong and he did not play.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Match19 Sep 2026
3‑0, and Shahriar Yazdani took the headlines on an afternoon when everything Rah Ahan tried came off. Days like this are retold all winter.
Player ratings21 Sep 2026
Two goals and a mark of 8.49 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Player ratings21 Sep 2026
Farjad Fayaz, 20, steals the show — 8.05
Marked 8.05 at 20, in a side that makes no allowances for age. He did not need any, and he looked the least nervous man on the pitch.
Squad21 Sep 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.
Player ratings21 Sep 2026
Defensive actions: 21, and a clean sheet at the end of it. A centre-half's best afternoons look like nothing happening, which is precisely the point.
The terraces21 Sep 2026
He is 20 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.
The dugout21 Sep 2026
The manager’s verdict
“I am not going to get carried away and I will not let them either. It was a good day. There will be harder ones.” Karim Vafaei kept it short after the 3‑0 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
Squad21 Sep 2026
Words at Rah Ahan training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ehsan Nekounam 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.
Player ratings21 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 12. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.