Marked for Mohammad Ebrahimi
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match12 Sep 2026
The run now stands at 8, and the questions being asked around Gostaresh Foulad are no longer polite ones.
Market14 Sep 2026
Najran come back empty-handed
The bid was some way short and Gostaresh Foulad did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Mahan Sadeghi 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.
Match12 Sep 2026
0‑1 to Malavan, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
The dugout14 Sep 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 ratings14 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 13. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Squad14 Sep 2026
“I respect the manager and I am not going to sit here and pretend I am happy.” It is the most common sentence in football and it has never once been the end of a story.
The dugout14 Sep 2026
“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.
The dugout14 Sep 2026
Morteza Khodadad 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.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market17 Aug 2026
The offer from Foolad for Vahid Vafaei 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.
Squad17 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 Gostaresh Foulad this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match15 Aug 2026
Beaten 1‑3, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
The dugout17 Aug 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Mohammad Ebrahimi, and the manager let it.
The dugout17 Aug 2026
“I could talk about decisions and I could talk about luck. I will not. We lost.” The manager, 1‑3, and a press conference that lasted four minutes.
The dugout17 Aug 2026
Morteza Khodadad 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.
Squad17 Aug 2026
The system has changed and his position has not. A footballer can improve his form; he cannot improve the manager’s formation, and that is the whole of the problem.
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 11. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Player ratings3 Aug 2026
A debut Saeid Azmoun will not forget — 7.24
There is exactly one of these per career and it does not usually go like this. 0 on the scoresheet, 7.24 beside the name, and a crowd that had never seen him before chanting it by the end.
Market3 Aug 2026
The offer from Arab Contractors for Saman Cheshmi 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.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Majid Hajsafi and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Player ratings3 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 21. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
Boardroom3 Aug 2026
5 academy players handed senior numbers at Gostaresh Foulad
The morning the pathway stops being a brochure and becomes a team sheet. Most of them will not be here in three years; all of them have already done the hard part, which was getting to today.
Squad3 Aug 2026
“The easiest signature of my career.” Mehdi Shojaei and Gostaresh Foulad agree another 2 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Market3 Aug 2026
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Omid Ebrahimi is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Market3 Aug 2026
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Vahid Cheshmi is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Market3 Aug 2026
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Milad Torabi is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.