Marked for Ehsan Jahanbakhsh
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad23 Nov 2026
Ehsan Jahanbakhsh damages knee ligaments — 14 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 14 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Match21 Nov 2026
The wait goes on for Rah Ahan
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.
Squad23 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 Rah Ahan this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Player ratings23 Nov 2026
Successful dribbles: 20. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Player ratings23 Nov 2026
Ninety minutes of Hossein Yazdani at his very best
Marked 8.20. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Rah Ahan.
Squad23 Nov 2026
The manager makes an example of Ahmad Hosseini
“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.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad16 Nov 2026
Ehsan Jahanbakhsh damages knee ligaments — 21 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 21 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Player ratings16 Nov 2026
Successful dribbles: 32. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Market16 Nov 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 The request is on a desk at Rah Ahan, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad16 Nov 2026
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Rah Ahan may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Match14 Nov 2026
4 matches without a win for Rah Ahan
The run now stands at 4, and the questions being asked around Rah Ahan are no longer polite ones.
Squad16 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.
Squad16 Nov 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Sardar Ebrahimi, and the manager let it.
Match14 Nov 2026
1‑1, and both dressing rooms will call it two points lost. A draw that asked plenty of questions and answered none of them.
The terraces16 Nov 2026
Everybody has an opinion about Sardar Ebrahimi
He is the name in every column and on every phone-in, which is a heavy thing to carry at any age. Some footballers thrive on it; others are quietly finished by it.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad9 Nov 2026
Ehsan Jahanbakhsh damages knee ligaments — 28 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 28 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Match7 Nov 2026
A 2-goal lead gone for Rah Ahan
It is a specific kind of quiet, a ground watching a winning position dissolve. Siah Jamegan kept coming because nothing stopped them, and Rah Ahan will be asked about the last half hour all week.
Player ratings9 Nov 2026
Successful dribbles: 28. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
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 Rah Ahan this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad9 Nov 2026
Nicolás Varela 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.
Squad9 Nov 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Majid Karimi, and the manager let it.
Player ratings9 Nov 2026
Some games turn on a moment; this one turned on a man. 7.81 on the card, and the Rah Ahan support went home talking about one name.
Loan watch9 Nov 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 13 say he has earned the hearing.
Match7 Nov 2026
It finished 2‑2, and it somehow always looked like it would. One of those afternoons where the table moves less than the tempers.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad2 Nov 2026
A knee injury of the worst kind for Ehsan Jahanbakhsh
36 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.
Match31 Oct 2026
Beaten 0‑4 by Persepolis, and beaten everywhere it matters. The inquest starts on the training pitch on Monday morning.
Squad2 Nov 2026
“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.
Squad2 Nov 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.
Boardroom2 Nov 2026
Nobody left the Rah Ahan dressing room in a hurry
The door stayed shut a long time after the final whistle. What was said in there is between them; whether it worked is between them and Saturday.
Loan watch2 Nov 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 1 appearances in 9 say he has earned the hearing.
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.