15 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Padideh lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Padideh have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Karim Vafaei wants continental football; whether Padideh can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
Karim Vafaei 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.
Squad18 Sep 2034
Words at Padideh training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Moussa Diarra 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.
29 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Padideh lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
The 86th minute, half the ground already edging towards the exits, and Joaquín Barolín decided nobody was going anywhere. Tractor had no time left to answer.
“I want to win things, and I would like to do it here.” Nothing has been demanded and nothing has been threatened — but a boardroom at Padideh hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
Karim Vafaei 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.
Squad4 Sep 2034
Words at Padideh training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Moussa Diarra 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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Joaquín Barolín. 1‑0 against Tractor, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Yadin Lugasi has his answer from Padideh; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
50 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Padideh lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
“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 Padideh, and it is not being withdrawn.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Padideh this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
113 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Padideh lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 21 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Ehsan Hosseini has just signed for Padideh, and for once the answer mattered.
Karim Vafaei 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.
The words a physio says slowly. 33 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.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Mohammad Sharifi provided it, and the 8.39 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Esteghlal Khuzestan is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Mohammad Sharifi 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mohammad Mehdi Ghanbari 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.
A 3‑1 win over Esteghlal Ahvaz, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
55 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Esteghlal Khuzestan lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Match27 Aug 2033
Augusto Lucero wins it after the whistle should have gone
91 minutes played. Augusto Lucero found the finish in time that only existed because of earlier delays, and Naft Tehran went from a point to nothing inside one movement.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Esteghlal Khuzestan they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 6 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Esteghlal Khuzestan this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Augusto Lucero. 2‑1 against Naft Tehran, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Marked 8.16 — 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.
34 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Esteghlal Khuzestan lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Esteghlal Khuzestan is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
209 appearances across 8 seasons in one shirt. Nobody builds a career like that on purpose any more; it happens to a certain kind of footballer at a certain kind of club.
“I have given this everything, but my family is not here and neither am I, not really.” A footballer can be coached out of bad form. Nobody has ever been coached out of this, and Esteghlal Khuzestan know it.
Mohammad Sharifi 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.
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Omid Gholizadeh has his answer from Esteghlal Khuzestan; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
In brief
MarketThe clock does Ehsan Hosseini’s negotiating for him
62 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Esteghlal Khuzestan lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Ehsan Hosseini will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Esteghlal Khuzestan the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Mohammad Sharifi 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.
None of them will be seen by anybody outside the training ground for three years, most of them will never play a senior match, and one of them might change the club. That is the whole proposition, and it is why academies exist.
71 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Esteghlal Khuzestan lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Esteghlal Khuzestan will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Sajjad Danaye Baghaki will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Esteghlal Khuzestan the goodbyes have quietly begun.
He will play here until the summer and then walk out of the door for free, having already signed elsewhere. Supporters will manage the first part of that sentence; it is the second they will struggle with.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Esteghlal Khuzestan this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Padideh go through and Esteghlal Khuzestan go home, 0‑1 the scoreline that did it. The dressing room will call the league the priority now, because that is what dressing rooms say.
“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 Esteghlal Khuzestan, and it is not being withdrawn.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 7 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Esteghlal Khuzestan is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Josh Bauer and Esteghlal Khuzestan agree another 2 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Mohammad Sharifi 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.