Marked for Gregorio Benedetti
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad14 Jun 2027
Vouria Torabi damages knee ligaments — 19 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 19 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.
Market14 Jun 2027
$740.0K from Tractor for Masoud Moharrami. Money is money, but the dressing room has lost the man it looked to.
The terraces14 Jun 2027
Supporters turn on the $740.0K sale of Masoud Moharrami
He is going to Tractor, the club has $740.0K it did not have on Friday, and the phone-ins have already decided how they feel about that. Selling well and selling somebody they loved are not the same skill.
Squad14 Jun 2027
Tempers go at Saba
Vouria Gholizadeh 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.
Squad14 Jun 2027
Favio Durán 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.
Squad14 Jun 2027
Ahmad Hosseini 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.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad24 May 2027
A knee injury of the worst kind for Saman Yazdani
38 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Siah Jamegan lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Squad24 May 2027
Omid Afshin in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Siah Jamegan this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad24 May 2027
Words at Siah Jamegan training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Morteza Ebrahimi 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
Upbeat
Squad26 Apr 2027
A knee injury of the worst kind for Saman Yazdani
68 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Siah Jamegan lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Squad26 Apr 2027
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Siah Jamegan have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Squad26 Apr 2027
Words at Siah Jamegan training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Morteza Ebrahimi 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
Upbeat
Squad29 Mar 2027
Hossein Baghlani damages knee ligaments — 16 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 16 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.
Squad29 Mar 2027
Omid Afshin 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.
Squad29 Mar 2027
18 days, the scan says, and scans are kinder than reality. The fixtures in that window have just become somebody else’s job.
Squad29 Mar 2027
Words at Siah Jamegan training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mohammad Javad Akbari 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 watch29 Mar 2027
“I watch every Siah Jamegan game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Al-Shabab runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
Market29 Mar 2027
He is 20, and the scouting reports agree on the only line that matters: the ceiling. Signings like this are lottery tickets written by professionals.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Player ratings9 Nov 2026
Successful dribbles: 34. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Match7 Nov 2026
Beaten 1‑3, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Player ratings9 Nov 2026
A performance of 8.23 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Squad9 Nov 2026
Words at Siah Jamegan training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Alireza Azmoun 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.
Squad9 Nov 2026
Ehsan Karimi 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.
Loan watch9 Nov 2026
“I did not go to Al-Shabab to sit and watch. I want to come back to Siah Jamegan and fight for my place.” 3 appearances in 13 matches say the rest.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad12 Oct 2026
Words at Siah Jamegan training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mohammad Javad Akbari 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 watch12 Oct 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 Siah Jamegan, and 1 appearances in 9 say he has earned the hearing.
Player ratings12 Oct 2026
The afternoon belonged to Reza Yazdani
A mark of 7.71, and nobody in the ground would argue with it. He was involved in everything that mattered and most of what did not.
Squad12 Oct 2026
The manager has not finished forgetting Mehdi Jahanbakhsh's mistake
Publicly it is behind everybody. It is not behind the man who picks the team, and the only place that shows is a team sheet. He will get another chance; he will get it in a match that matters less.
Player ratings12 Oct 2026
1 error, one goal, and a night in front of the same three seconds. He will see it tonight, tomorrow and probably in February, and everybody who has played knows exactly which frame he keeps stopping on.
Squad12 Oct 2026
Morteza Ebrahimi has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Siah Jamegan will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 31. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Match12 Sep 2026
Beaten 1‑3, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
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.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Words at Siah Jamegan training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mohammad Javad Akbari 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 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 Siah Jamegan, and 1 appearances in 5 say he has earned the hearing.
Squad14 Sep 2026
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 ratings17 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 46. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Match15 Aug 2026
1‑2 to Gostaresh Foulad, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Squad17 Aug 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Morteza Ebrahimi, and the manager let it.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Words at Siah Jamegan training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Alireza Azmoun 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.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Saeid Nekounam 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.
Squad17 Aug 2026
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.