Marked for Omid Pouraliganji
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market18 Jan 2027
“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 The request is on a desk at Gostaresh Foulad, and it is not being withdrawn.
Market18 Jan 2027
The offer from Naft Tehran for Ali 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.
Match16 Jan 2027
No end in sight to Gostaresh Foulad's wait for a win
7 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Gostaresh Foulad has to find a result from somewhere.
Transfer targets18 Jan 2027
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Al Nasr is saying, and nobody at Gostaresh Foulad is enjoying the guessing.
Squad18 Jan 2027
Majid Karimi 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.
Transfer targets18 Jan 2027
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Krasnodar have kept their man, and Gostaresh Foulad go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad18 Jan 2027
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.
Player ratings18 Jan 2027
Successful dribbles: 17. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad18 Jan 2027
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Omid Pouraliganji and Gostaresh Foulad agree another 3 years.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market4 Jan 2027
Majid Karimi 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 Gostaresh Foulad can pretend not to have heard.
Market4 Jan 2027
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
The dugout4 Jan 2027
Alireza Karimi: 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.
Match2 Jan 2027
5 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.
Squad4 Jan 2027
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.
Squad4 Jan 2027
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Omid Pouraliganji is 19, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Player ratings4 Jan 2027
Successful dribbles: 20. 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.
Match2 Jan 2027
Ali Pouraliganji scored, and precious little else went right: 1‑2 to Foolad, and a quiet walk to the dressing room.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Squad9 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 Gostaresh Foulad this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad9 Nov 2026
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Majid Karimi was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Match7 Nov 2026
Three points for Gostaresh Foulad, 2‑0 the final word against Saipa in a contest settled by the finer margins.
Match7 Nov 2026
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.
Player ratings9 Nov 2026
Marked 8.24 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
Player ratings9 Nov 2026
Ali Pouraliganji was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.09. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
Squad9 Nov 2026
“The easiest signature of my career.” Omid Pouraliganji and Gostaresh Foulad agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
The dugout9 Nov 2026
“The players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 2‑0, Amir Jahanbakhsh could afford to be generous.
The dugout9 Nov 2026
Falah Daram 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.