Marked for Pejman Rezaeian
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Player ratings10 Jan 2028
Successful dribbles: 42. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Market10 Jan 2028
Rah Ahan say no — this time
The offer from Tractor for Vahid Taremi 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.
Squad10 Jan 2028
Majid Vafaei breaks a bone — 19 days out
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 19 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Market10 Jan 2028
“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.
Market10 Jan 2028
Vahid Hajsafi has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Rah Ahan they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Match8 Jan 2028
The wait goes on for Rah Ahan
4 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.
Squad10 Jan 2028
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.
Market10 Jan 2028
He left as a boy and has come back still knowing where the away end is. Most signings have to be explained to a town; this one needed a photograph and nothing else.
Squad10 Jan 2028
Karim Khodadad gets the move he always wanted
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Karim Khodadad has just signed for Rah Ahan, and for once the answer mattered.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market13 Dec 2027
“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.
Market13 Dec 2027
Vahid Hajsafi has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Rah Ahan they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad13 Dec 2027
Pejman Rezaeian is a better footballer than he was
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 20 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
Squad13 Dec 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.
The terraces13 Dec 2027
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 21-year-old it feels ownership of. Mohamed Abdelnasser 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.
Match11 Dec 2027
Three points for Rah Ahan, 1‑0 the final word against Malavan in a contest settled by the finer margins.
Player ratings13 Dec 2027
Ninety minutes of Hossein Yazdani at his very best
Marked 8.16. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Rah Ahan.
Squad13 Dec 2027
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Masoud Dejagah and Rah Ahan agree another 3 years.
Squad13 Dec 2027
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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Boardroom6 Dec 2027
The board have said in public what they had been saying in private. Results between now and the next meeting decide it, and everybody in the building knows the arithmetic.
Market6 Dec 2027
“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.
Player ratings6 Dec 2027
Successful dribbles: 29. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Match4 Dec 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.
Squad6 Dec 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.
Match4 Dec 2027
0‑2 to Sepahan, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Squad6 Dec 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.
Squad6 Dec 2027
Sardar Ebrahimi loses the manager who believed in him
A change in the dugout is not one story, it is twenty-five of them. This is Sardar Ebrahimi's: he was somebody's player, and now he has to be somebody else's, starting from nothing.
Squad6 Dec 2027
Pejman Rezaeian 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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market29 Nov 2027
“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.
Boardroom29 Nov 2027
Pressure builds in the Rah Ahan boardroom
The directors have stopped offering the manager public warmth. In football that is usually the stage before the short statement.
Match27 Nov 2027
5 matches without a win for Rah Ahan
The run now stands at 5, and the questions being asked around Rah Ahan are no longer polite ones.
Player ratings29 Nov 2027
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.11, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Squad29 Nov 2027
Ramin Dejagah 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.
Match27 Nov 2027
It needed Hossein Yazdani to find the net to bring anything home at all: 1‑1 against Foolad, and half the dressing room will call it a point won.
Squad29 Nov 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.
Player ratings29 Nov 2027
Successful dribbles: 13. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad29 Nov 2027
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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Player ratings15 Nov 2027
Successful dribbles: 31. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Market15 Nov 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.
Market15 Nov 2027
Only the photograph left for Vahid Hajsafi
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Vahid Hajsafi will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Rah Ahan the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad15 Nov 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.
Squad15 Nov 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Karim Hosseini, and the manager let it.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market1 Nov 2027
“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.
Boardroom1 Nov 2027
Pressure builds in the Rah Ahan boardroom
The directors have stopped offering the manager public warmth. In football that is usually the stage before the short statement.
Squad1 Nov 2027
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.
Squad1 Nov 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.
Match30 Oct 2027
Majid Karimi scored, and precious little else went right: 1‑3 to Esteghlal, and a quiet walk to the dressing room.
Squad1 Nov 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Shahriar Noorafkan, and the manager let it.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match2 Oct 2027
The wait goes on for Rah Ahan
13 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.
Match4 Oct 2027
Rah Ahan sink to position 15
3 points, and a fixture list that is running out. The mathematics are not yet cruel, but they are no longer kind.
Player ratings4 Oct 2027
Successful dribbles: 31. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad4 Oct 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.
Match2 Oct 2027
Rah Ahan cannot find the net
3 games without scoring. Strikers stop looking up, midfielders take the extra touch, and every shot that clears the bar is followed by a groan that has been building since the last goal.
Squad4 Oct 2027
A month is long enough that nobody gets in by accident. Pejman Moharrami is in the division's best eleven for it, which is a quieter compliment than an award and a more reliable one.
The terraces4 Oct 2027
Every touch is being weighed now, in print and everywhere else. Some players grow into that and some are quietly ruined by it, and nobody knows which in advance.
Squad4 Oct 2027
The captaincy has been taken off Issa Alekasir. Rah Ahan will call it a decision about the team; a dressing room reads it as a verdict on a man.
Squad4 Oct 2027
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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Player ratings30 Aug 2027
Successful dribbles: 34. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Market30 Aug 2027
“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.
Match28 Aug 2027
7 matches without a win for Rah Ahan
The run now stands at 7, and the questions being asked around Rah Ahan are no longer polite ones.
Market30 Aug 2027
The chase for Morteza Torabi ended with $270.0K changing hands and Saba out of reasons to say no. The supporters will judge the fee the only way that matters: on Saturdays.
Squad30 Aug 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.
Squad30 Aug 2027
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Pejman Rezaeian is 20, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Market30 Aug 2027
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.
The terraces30 Aug 2027
Rah Ahan spend $270.0K on the signing the town wanted
It is the rarest sequence in football: supporters ask for something, and the club goes and does it. $270.0K for Morteza Torabi, and for one week nobody is complaining about anything.
Match28 Aug 2027
Majid Karimi scored, and precious little else went right: 1‑2 to Malavan, and a quiet walk to the dressing room.