Marked for Karim Khodadad
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match21 Aug 2027
6 matches without a win for Rah Ahan
The run now stands at 6, and the questions being asked around Rah Ahan are no longer polite ones.
Player ratings23 Aug 2027
Successful dribbles: 24. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad23 Aug 2027
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Eid Al-Hammadi is 21, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Match21 Aug 2027
3 matches without a goal for Rah Ahan
The chances are being made and something is happening between the making and the finishing. 3 matches now, and the anxiety in the ground arrives a little earlier every week.
Squad23 Aug 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 Rah Ahan this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad23 Aug 2027
“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.
Squad23 Aug 2027
“The easiest signature of my career.” Masoud Taremi and Rah Ahan agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Player ratings23 Aug 2027
Defensive actions: 14, and a clean sheet at the end of it. A centre-half's best afternoons look like nothing happening, which is precisely the point.
Match21 Aug 2027
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 Sepahan? Both sides of it will still be going on Thursday.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Boardroom21 Jun 2027
The scrutiny sharpens at Rah Ahan
Nobody upstairs has said anything, which is the loudest thing they could do. Results buy silence in this game; the account at Rah Ahan is running low.
Market21 Jun 2027
The Saipa deal is off
Everything was agreed until it was not, and Ehsan Beiranvand reports back to Rah Ahan with a summer to forget. Neither club is saying who walked away from the table.
Squad21 Jun 2027
Shahriar Noorafkan 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.
Squad21 Jun 2027
Ramin Torabi has improved at 24, which nobody expected
Careers are supposed to plateau and then decline, and the players who ignore that are always the ones who were listening on the training ground. 3 points of it, over months, at an age where the direction normally only goes one way.
Squad21 Jun 2027
“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.
Market21 Jun 2027
The name of Ahmad Hosseini keeps appearing in other people's back pages. Rah Ahan say nothing, which says plenty.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market15 Mar 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 Rah Ahan, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad15 Mar 2027
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Rah Ahan may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Squad15 Mar 2027
The medical room confirms 33 days on the sidelines for Majid Vafaei, and a plan built around him now has to be rebuilt.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match28 Nov 2026
0‑3 to Sepahan, and it was every bit as bad as the number suggests. There are defeats you argue about and defeats you apologise for; this was the second kind.
Match28 Nov 2026
6 matches without a win for Rah Ahan
The run now stands at 6, and the questions being asked around Rah Ahan are no longer polite ones.
Squad30 Nov 2026
“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.
Squad30 Nov 2026
Shahriar Noorafkan 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.
Squad30 Nov 2026
The manager makes an example of Ali Torabi
“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.
Player ratings30 Nov 2026
Successful dribbles: 19. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad26 Oct 2026
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 12 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Squad26 Oct 2026
A knee injury of the worst kind for Ehsan Jahanbakhsh
43 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Rah Ahan lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Match17 Oct 2026
The 89th minute, half the ground already edging towards the exits, and Parham Movaghari decided nobody was going anywhere. Esteghlal Ahvaz had no time left to answer.
Player ratings19 Oct 2026
Successful dribbles: 30. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Player ratings19 Oct 2026
A brace, and Parham Movaghari takes the afternoon — 8.10
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Parham Movaghari provided it, and the 8.10 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Squad19 Oct 2026
“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Words at Rah Ahan training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Nicolás Varela 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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Player ratings5 Oct 2026
Successful dribbles: 36. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Shahriar Noorafkan 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.
Match3 Oct 2026
It finished 1‑0, and it was Majid Karimi’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Rah Ahan.
Squad5 Oct 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Vahid Taremi, and the manager let it.
Player ratings5 Oct 2026
Some games turn on a moment; this one turned on a man. 7.79 on the card, and the Rah Ahan support went home talking about one name.
Loan watch5 Oct 2026
“I watch every Rah Ahan game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Naft Tehran runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Karim Khodadad 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.
Squad5 Oct 2026
When it matters, Ali Torabi plays
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
Player ratings5 Oct 2026
Headers, blocks, tackles, interceptions — 10 of them, and not one goal behind him. The sort of performance that never makes a highlight reel and wins football matches.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad14 Sep 2026
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 8 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 26. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Match12 Sep 2026
Padideh left with the points after a 1‑2 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Squad14 Sep 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.
Loan watch14 Sep 2026
“I am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at Rah Ahan, and 0 appearances in 5 say he has earned the hearing.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Words at Rah Ahan training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Karim Khodadad 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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
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.
Match29 Aug 2026
Three points for Rah Ahan, 2‑1 the final word against Saba in a contest settled by the finer margins.
The terraces31 Aug 2026
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 20-year-old it feels ownership of. Saman Azmoun 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.
Squad31 Aug 2026
The manager makes an example of Ahmad Rezaeian
“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.
Squad31 Aug 2026
Words at Rah Ahan training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Vahid Hajsafi 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.
Match29 Aug 2026
Conceding is one thing; the response is what tells you about a dressing room. Mehdi Mohammadi had Rah Ahan level again within 4 minutes, and Saba never got to play with a lead at all.
Player ratings31 Aug 2026
Marked 7.87. Ask anyone leaving the ground what settled it and you will get one name, which is the only award that has ever really counted.
Market31 Aug 2026
Both sides expect a conversation in the coming days. Rah Ahan will name a price, and everything after that is arithmetic.
Squad31 Aug 2026
He wheeled away like a man who had been carrying it for months, because he had. Rah Ahan have their signing off the mark and one press-conference question retired.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 42. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
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.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Shahriar Noorafkan 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.
Squad24 Aug 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Mehdi Mohammadi, and the manager let it.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Vahid Hajsafi 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.
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
Some games turn on a moment; this one turned on a man. 7.93 on the card, and the Rah Ahan support went home talking about one name.
Match22 Aug 2026
It needed Mehdi Mohammadi to find the net to bring anything home at all: 1‑1 against Malavan, and half the dressing room will call it a point won.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Karim Khodadad dropped after a run of poor form
The one version of being left out a player cannot argue with, and the one he takes worst. Somebody else has been better and the team sheet says so, in public, every week until it changes.
Market24 Aug 2026
Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Ahmad Hosseini’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Player ratings3 Aug 2026
Two goals and a mark of 8.98 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Player ratings3 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 26. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Mehdi Mohammadi 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.
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.
Match1 Aug 2026
It finished 2‑0, and it was Mehdi Mohammadi’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Rah Ahan.
Market3 Aug 2026
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Karim Mohammadi is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Market3 Aug 2026
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Ashkan Azmoun has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Vahid Hajsafi 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.