Marked for Ehsan Azmoun
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market21 Dec 2026
$16.0M from Racing Club for Majid Karimi. Money is money, but the dressing room has lost the man it looked to.
The terraces21 Dec 2026
Supporters turn on the $16.0M sale of Majid Karimi
He is going to Racing Club, the club has $16.0M it did not have on Friday, and the phone-ins have already decided how they feel about that. Selling well and selling somebody they loved are not the same skill.
Match19 Dec 2026
It finished 1‑1, and it somehow always looked like it would. One of those afternoons where the table moves less than the tempers.
Squad21 Dec 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Ehsan Azmoun, and the manager let it.
Squad21 Dec 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.
Player ratings21 Dec 2026
The substitution nobody applauded turned out to be the whole story. Gostaresh Foulad were going nowhere until he came on.
Squad21 Dec 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.
Player ratings21 Dec 2026
Successful dribbles: 9. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad21 Dec 2026
“If we are going to be beaten, let it not be because somebody in here could not be bothered.” He stood up and said it in front of everybody, which is a thing a squad remembers about a man for years.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market7 Dec 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.
Squad7 Dec 2026
Masoud Azmoun: that is not what I was promised
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Gostaresh Foulad have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Squad7 Dec 2026
Ahmad Shojaei 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.
Squad7 Dec 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Sardar Gholizadeh, and the manager let it.
Match5 Dec 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.
Squad7 Dec 2026
A place in the month's best eleven for Ashkan Hajsafi
Four or five weekends of consistency, judged against everybody in the division doing his job. Ashkan Hajsafi has come out of that comparison in the side, and Gostaresh Foulad have had the benefit of every one of those afternoons.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Player ratings28 Sep 2026
A brace, and Hossein Karimi takes the afternoon — 8.96
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Hossein Karimi provided it, and the 8.96 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Majid Karimi 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 Gostaresh Foulad this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match26 Sep 2026
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Hossein Karimi. 2‑1 against Zob Ahan, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Sardar Dejagah 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.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Ashkan Hajsafi knocks on the manager's door
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Gostaresh Foulad, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Squad28 Sep 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.
Player ratings28 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 11. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Market28 Sep 2026
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Morteza Mohammadi signs something — a contract at Gostaresh Foulad or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Boardroom28 Sep 2026
A squad written off a fortnight ago has closed ranks. Whatever was said behind that door, it has held so far.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match12 Sep 2026
A 3‑1 win over Malavan, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
The terraces14 Sep 2026
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 22-year-old it feels ownership of. Iliya Imani has it now, and everything he does for the rest of his time here will be measured against the goodwill he was handed for free.
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
Marked 7.97 on an afternoon he ran from the first whistle to the last. Whatever else went wrong, Gostaresh Foulad had the best player on the pitch.
Squad14 Sep 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.
Squad14 Sep 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.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Iliya Imani finally opens his account
He wheeled away like a man who had been carrying it for months, because he had. Gostaresh Foulad have their signing off the mark and one press-conference question retired.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Ehsan Azmoun finally opens his account
He wheeled away like a man who had been carrying it for months, because he had. Gostaresh Foulad have their signing off the mark and one press-conference question retired.