Marked for Ali Moharrami
From our football correspondent
Steady
Match15 Feb 2027
53 points on the board and a place in the leading group. Nobody at the ground is saying the word out loud yet.
Squad15 Feb 2027
Ali Pouraliganji 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.
Squad15 Feb 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.
The terraces15 Feb 2027
At 22 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
Player ratings15 Feb 2027
Sardar Karimi was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.22. 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.
Squad15 Feb 2027
Words at Gostaresh Foulad training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Alireza Ramezani 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.
Loan watch15 Feb 2027
“I did not go to Naft Tehran to sit and watch. I want to come back to Gostaresh Foulad and fight for my place.” 3 appearances in 25 matches say the rest.
Match13 Feb 2027
It needed Sardar Karimi to find the net to bring anything home at all: 1‑1 against Tractor, and half the dressing room will call it a point won.
Squad15 Feb 2027
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.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad7 Dec 2026
A knee injury of the worst kind for Ashkan Yazdani
34 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Gostaresh Foulad lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Match5 Dec 2026
2 in front and in complete control, and it finished with Esteghlal the happier side. There is no version of this afternoon that Gostaresh Foulad will enjoy reviewing.
Match5 Dec 2026
The unbeaten run reaches 8. Some of them were wins and some were escapes, but a side that refuses to lose is a side other dressing rooms talk about.
Squad7 Dec 2026
Mohammad Reza Bordbar 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
Words at Gostaresh Foulad training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Amir Rezaeian 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 ratings7 Dec 2026
Morteza Shojaei was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.18. 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.
Player ratings7 Dec 2026
A performance of 8.09 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Squad7 Dec 2026
The manager makes an example of Reza Vafaei
“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 ratings7 Dec 2026
The chances came and went for Morteza Karimi
6 shots, and a count that reads like a good afternoon until you check the other column. Strikers survive weeks like this on the understanding that the chances keep arriving; the day they stop is the day it becomes a problem.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad19 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 Gostaresh Foulad this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The terraces19 Oct 2026
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Reza Vafaei 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 ratings19 Oct 2026
Milad Gholizadeh was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.72. 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.
Player ratings19 Oct 2026
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.28, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Alireza 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.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Clubs make promises constantly and the page usually only hears about them when they are broken. This one was honoured, and the dressing room noticed that faster than any supporter did.
Squad19 Oct 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.
Player ratings19 Oct 2026
Marked 5.63. Nothing he attempted worked and by the hour mark he had stopped attempting much, which is the part a manager notices rather than the mistakes.
From our football correspondent
Steady
The terraces21 Sep 2026
The ground has had enough
“We travel everywhere and we get this.” 7 of the 25 senior players heard it walking off, and the ones who did not hear it were not playing.
Player ratings21 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 23. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
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 Gostaresh Foulad this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad21 Sep 2026
The manager makes an example of Amir 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.
Match19 Sep 2026
Beaten 0‑2, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Squad21 Sep 2026
Milad Cheshmi pulls a muscle — 14 days out
The injury that keeps coming back, keeps being rushed back from, and quietly costs more careers than the dramatic ones. 14 days is the estimate; the honest figure depends on whether anybody is patient.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
Two goals and a mark of 8.61 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Squad14 Sep 2026
There were 6 saves in it, and at least three that had no business being saves at all. The ten outfield players owe him a drink and they know it.
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.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Words at Gostaresh Foulad training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Amir Rezaeian 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.
Match12 Sep 2026
Malavan made Gostaresh Foulad work for it, but the scoreboard read 2‑1 at the end and the table does not ask how.
The terraces14 Sep 2026
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 22-year-old it feels ownership of. Mohammad Reza Bordbar 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
8 attempts, none of them in. He got into the right places all afternoon, which is the hard part, and did the easy part badly — and that is the version of a bad day a manager can live with.
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.02, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
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.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match2 Sep 2026
Persepolis go through and Gostaresh Foulad go home, 2‑2 the scoreline that did it. The dressing room will call the league the priority now, because that is what dressing rooms say.
Market7 Sep 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 Sep 2026
Amir Rezaeian 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.
The terraces7 Sep 2026
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 22-year-old it feels ownership of. Farzin Moamelegari 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.
Squad7 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.
Player ratings7 Sep 2026
Marked 8.47 — 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 ratings7 Sep 2026
Ninety minutes of Amir Rezaeian at his very best
Marked 8.38. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Gostaresh Foulad.
Player ratings7 Sep 2026
A performance of 8.03 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.