Marked for Ehsan Hajsafi
From our football correspondent
Steady
Match5 Sep 2026
Cup progress for Rah Ahan
A 2‑3 win over Zob Ahan, a place in the next round, and the quiet arithmetic every supporter does on the walk home: how many more until a final?
Match2 Sep 2026
Rah Ahan march on in the cup
Zob Ahan are out and Rah Ahan go through, 3‑1 the final word. The bracket opens up a little, and everyone allows themselves a look at it.
Player ratings7 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 34. 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.
Squad7 Sep 2026
A fracture rules Vahid Cheshmi out for 79 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.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 6 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Boardroom7 Sep 2026
Deadline passes with 4 signed and 4 gone
That is the business done at Rah Ahan 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
The clock did what Persepolis would not, and ended it. Supporters who watched the countdown will spend the next window doing it again.
Squad7 Sep 2026
A falling-out at Rah Ahan
Ehsan Hajsafi 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
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.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match29 Aug 2026
Rarely has this fixture seen a display like it: 4‑0 against Saba, and it could have been more.
Squad31 Aug 2026
Vahid Cheshmi breaks a bone — 87 days out
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 87 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Market31 Aug 2026
Rah Ahan say no — this time
The offer from Sepahan for Alireza Pouraliganji 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.
Squad31 Aug 2026
3 goals in one game. The first was taken well, the second was taken greedily, and by the third the crowd were simply waiting for him to get the ball.
Transfer targets31 Aug 2026
$1.8M settles it between the clubs for Yaghoub Barage
Persepolis have accepted the money. What Rah Ahan do not yet have is the man, and between here and the photograph is a conversation about wages that both sides are dreading.
Player ratings31 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 26. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
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.
Transfer targets31 Aug 2026
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Al-Diriyah is saying, and nobody at Rah Ahan is enjoying the guessing.
Squad31 Aug 2026
Words exchanged at Rah Ahan
Ehsan Hajsafi 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.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad24 Aug 2026
95 days out for Vahid Cheshmi after a fracture
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Rah Ahan will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
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.
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Alireza Pouraliganji provided it, and the 9.02 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Market24 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.
Market24 Aug 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 targets24 Aug 2026
Rah Ahan have gone to Persepolis with a bid, and the supporters have gone to the internet with an opinion about it. Whether either changes anything is up to the selling club.
Transfer targets24 Aug 2026
Rah Ahan offered $1.2M; Foolad 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.
Transfer targets24 Aug 2026
Everything agreed with Al-Diriyah, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
Transfer targets24 Aug 2026
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Al-Diriyah keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad17 Aug 2026
103 days out for Vahid Cheshmi after a fracture
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Rah Ahan will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Market17 Aug 2026
Rah Ahan say no — this time
The offer from Saba for Ehsan Hajsafi 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 ratings17 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 28. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Market17 Aug 2026
The chase for Reza Taremi ended with $3.5M changing hands and Siah Jamegan out of reasons to say no. The supporters will judge the fee the only way that matters: on Saturdays.
Transfer targets17 Aug 2026
$1.9M was the most the club would pay and Padideh 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.
Transfer targets17 Aug 2026
$1.2M on the table at Foolad. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
Transfer targets17 Aug 2026
The deal with Al-Diriyah is done in every sense but the one that puts him on the pitch. Nothing goes wrong at this stage, except on the occasions when it does.
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.
The dugout17 Aug 2026
Majid Taremi 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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad10 Aug 2026
Vahid Cheshmi breaks a bone — 110 days out
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 110 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Transfer targets10 Aug 2026
The clubs have shaken hands with Siah Jamegan; the player has not yet. Personal terms are next, and personal terms are where more deals die than anybody prints.
Squad10 Aug 2026
8 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.
Player ratings10 Aug 2026
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Alireza Pouraliganji provided it, and the 8.77 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Player ratings10 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 28. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Market10 Aug 2026
The name of Shahriar Torabi has come up in conversations Rah Ahan were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Squad10 Aug 2026
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Alireza Pouraliganji and Rah Ahan agree another 4 years.
Squad10 Aug 2026
Words exchanged at Rah Ahan
Ehsan Hajsafi 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.
Match8 Aug 2026
A 2‑2 draw with Foolad leaves the dressing room somewhere between relief and regret.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Player ratings3 Aug 2026
Two goals and a mark of 9.34 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Squad3 Aug 2026
7 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.
Market3 Aug 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.
Market3 Aug 2026
The phone has started ringing about Reza Hosseini again, and this time the name on the line is Al-Wehda. Rah Ahan are listening politely and promising nothing.
Squad3 Aug 2026
A falling-out at Rah Ahan
Ehsan Hajsafi and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Match1 Aug 2026
9 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about Rah Ahan and Gostaresh Foulad in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
Boardroom3 Aug 2026
2 academy players handed senior numbers at Rah Ahan
The morning the pathway stops being a brochure and becomes a team sheet. Most of them will not be here in three years; all of them have already done the hard part, which was getting to today.
Player ratings3 Aug 2026
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 9.27, and no argument anywhere in the ground.