Marked for Mehdi Gholizadeh
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad9 Nov 2026
Sardar Cheshmi damages knee ligaments — 106 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 106 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.
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 Padideh this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match7 Nov 2026
Beaten 0‑1, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
The dugout9 Nov 2026
“I could talk about decisions and I could talk about luck. I will not. We lost.” The manager, 0‑1, and a press conference that lasted four minutes.
Player ratings9 Nov 2026
Shots: 9, enough of them from close enough that a striker in form scores two. He is not a striker in form.
Market9 Nov 2026
The name of Mohammad Beiranvand keeps appearing in other people's back pages. Padideh say nothing, which says plenty.
Squad9 Nov 2026
He goes off to be somebody else’s player for a fortnight. Padideh lose him for the window and would like him returned in the condition he left.
Squad9 Nov 2026
Hossein Torabi joins up with his country. Padideh lose him for the window and would like him back in one piece.
The dugout9 Nov 2026
Ninety specific minutes wanted a different sort of player, and the manager picked one. He is not out of form and he is not in the side, and both are true.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad26 Oct 2026
A knee injury of the worst kind for Sardar Cheshmi
122 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.
Squad26 Oct 2026
Words exchanged at Padideh
Mohammad Beiranvand and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Match24 Oct 2026
Beaten 0‑1, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
The dugout26 Oct 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Hamid Reza Shamsipour, and the manager let it.
The dugout26 Oct 2026
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 0‑1, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
Player ratings26 Oct 2026
Successful dribbles: 14. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad26 Oct 2026
Pejman Nekounam 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.
Market26 Oct 2026
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Padideh know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
The dugout26 Oct 2026
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.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
The dugout12 Oct 2026
“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.
Squad12 Oct 2026
Morteza 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.
Squad12 Oct 2026
Pejman Nekounam 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 dugout12 Oct 2026
Morteza Ghoddos asks for a word with the manager
“I would rather say it to his face than read about it.” The meeting was requested by the player, which tells you most of what you need to know.
Market12 Oct 2026
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Padideh know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Squad12 Oct 2026
The shrug has gone, the language is coming, and he now argues in training like somebody who expects to be here next year. Half a signing's value is this and none of it appears on a fee.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Match5 Oct 2026
Padideh are in among the leaders
Position 2 and 19 points on the board. Nobody at the ground will say the word out loud yet, and everybody at the ground is thinking it.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Mohammad Beiranvand is 23, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Squad5 Oct 2026
A falling-out at Padideh
Mohammad Beiranvand and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Match3 Oct 2026
Whatever happens, Padideh do not lose
6 games unbeaten now. Some were earned and some were survived, but a habit is forming — and habits are the hardest thing in football to play against.
The terraces5 Oct 2026
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Mohammad Beiranvand 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.
Match3 Oct 2026
It finished 2‑0, and it was Mohammad Beiranvand’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Padideh.
Player ratings5 Oct 2026
Milad Moharrami was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.35. 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 ratings5 Oct 2026
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.00, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Four or five weekends of consistency, measured against everybody else in the division. A quieter compliment than an award and a more reliable one.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Player ratings21 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 26. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Match19 Sep 2026
Padideh make it 4 in a row
Momentum is a hard thing to buy and an easy thing to lose, and right now Padideh have 4 straight wins of it.
Squad21 Sep 2026
Mohammad Beiranvand 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.
Match19 Sep 2026
Rah Ahan made Padideh work for it, but the scoreboard read 1‑0 at the end and the table does not ask how.
Player ratings21 Sep 2026
Hossein Torabi was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.08. 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.
The dugout21 Sep 2026
“That is what I want every week. Not the result, the way they went about it.” The manager, after 1‑0, already talking about the next one.
Looking ahead21 Sep 2026
The leaders are next for Padideh
Persepolis top the table and they are coming into view. Nothing to lose, which is what every manager says before losing.
Squad21 Sep 2026
Pejman Nekounam 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 dugout21 Sep 2026
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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market24 Aug 2026
Padideh say no — this time
The offer from Persepolis for Mehdi Gholizadeh 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.
Market24 Aug 2026
“It was not right for me. I am not going to explain why to anybody except the people I owe an explanation to.” A deal agreed between two clubs, and a player who declined to be part of it.
Market24 Aug 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.
Boardroom24 Aug 2026
The number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $126.5K — a club that wants Hamid Reza Shamsipour enough to be asked twice.
Transfer targets24 Aug 2026
The offer went to Malavan this week and it is theirs to answer. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loud the door closes.
Transfer targets24 Aug 2026
$89.0K on the table at Rah Ahan. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
Transfer targets24 Aug 2026
Padideh offered $100.0K; Esteghlal said it was not close. The manager will be told the money is still there for the right player, which is what managers are told.
Transfer targets24 Aug 2026
The approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.
Squad24 Aug 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 Padideh this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.