Marked for Ahmad Mohammadi
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Player ratings23 Oct 2028
Successful dribbles: 54. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad23 Oct 2028
Ali Khodadadi damages knee ligaments — 33 days out
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.
Market23 Oct 2028
“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 The request is on a desk at Sepahan, and it is not being withdrawn.
Match21 Oct 2028
Whatever happens, Sepahan do not lose
9 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.
Market23 Oct 2028
The general version of this complaint is that a player wants more. The specific version names the thing: he wants to walk out under floodlights against clubs from other countries, and he has stopped pretending otherwise.
Squad23 Oct 2028
Arash Rezavand 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.
Squad23 Oct 2028
Words at Sepahan training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ricardo Alves 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.
Squad23 Oct 2028
“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.
Loan watch23 Oct 2028
“I did not go to Tractor to sit and watch. I want to come back to Sepahan and fight for my place.” 5 appearances in 15 matches say the rest.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad4 Sep 2028
A knee injury of the worst kind for Ali Khodadadi
92 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Sepahan lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Match2 Sep 2028
Siah Jamegan will want this one forgotten quickly: 6‑1, every duel lost, and a long ride home. Sepahan were ruthless in the way good sides are ruthless.
Squad4 Sep 2028
The match ball belongs to Mohammad Mehdi Mohebi, whose 3 goals turned a difficult afternoon into a procession.
Squad4 Sep 2028
A move Bueno would have made for nothing
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Bueno is living that version at Sepahan, and it tends to show in the first month.
Squad4 Sep 2028
“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.
Market4 Sep 2028
Ahmad Mohammadi wants to know where this is going
“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 Sepahan hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
Match2 Sep 2028
7 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about Sepahan and Siah Jamegan in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
Player ratings4 Sep 2028
A performance of 8.67 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Player ratings4 Sep 2028
A performance of 8.49 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad28 Aug 2028
A knee injury of the worst kind for Ali Khodadadi
101 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Sepahan lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Market28 Aug 2028
“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.
Squad28 Aug 2028
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Leonardo Escalante has just signed for Sepahan, and for once the answer mattered.
Player ratings28 Aug 2028
Successful dribbles: 24. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad28 Aug 2028
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Hossein Kazeminia is 23, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Squad28 Aug 2028
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Sepahan this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Market28 Aug 2028
The name of Seyed Pouria Rafiei has come up in conversations Sepahan were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Match26 Aug 2028
Beaten 0‑1, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Market28 Aug 2028
Both sides expect a conversation in the coming days. Sepahan will name a price, and everything after that is arithmetic.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Player ratings7 Aug 2028
Successful dribbles: 46. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Market7 Aug 2028
$4.9M from Sepahan for Ahmad Mohammadi. Money is money, but the dressing room has lost the man it looked to.
Match5 Aug 2028
There is no crueller way to lose a football match. Padideh scored in the 93th minute, the restart barely happened, and the away end was still standing when the whistle went.
The terraces7 Aug 2028
Padideh sell a favourite for $4.9M
The accountants will call it good business and they will be right, which is not the point anybody outside the boardroom is making. Ahmad Mohammadi was one of the reasons people came, and $4.9M does not replace that by itself.
Squad7 Aug 2028
Ali Kamali is a better footballer than he was
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 23 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
Boardroom7 Aug 2028
Padideh moved before anybody else could: a new deal for Mehdi Rezaeian, agreed quietly and announced loudly. Boards extend managers for many reasons; the good one is the one this looks like.
Squad7 Aug 2028
“The easiest signature of my career.” Reza Rezaeian and Padideh agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad7 Aug 2028
Ehsan Shojaei 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.
Squad7 Aug 2028
Reza Rezaeian has improved at 24, which nobody expected
Careers are supposed to plateau and then decline, and the players who ignore that are always the ones who were listening on the training ground. 4 points of it, over months, at an age where the direction normally only goes one way.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad7 Aug 2028
A knee injury of the worst kind for Ehsan Hajsafi
18 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Sepahan lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Match5 Aug 2028
Still nobody has beaten Sepahan
The unbeaten run reaches 15. Some of them were wins and some were escapes, but a side that refuses to lose is a side other dressing rooms talk about.
Match5 Aug 2028
Some goals win a match and some take one off somebody else. Mohammad Mehdi Mohebi scored in the 89th minute, Tractor had already begun thinking about the journey home, and Sepahan took the lot.
Market7 Aug 2028
The fee is $4.9M, the contract is signed, and the argument about whether he is worth it can begin. Padideh drove a hard bargain; time will say who won it.
Squad7 Aug 2028
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 23 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
Squad7 Aug 2028
Arash Rezavand 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.
Squad7 Aug 2028
Arash Rezavand has improved at 34, which nobody expected
Careers are supposed to plateau and then decline, and the players who ignore that are always the ones who were listening on the training ground. 3 points of it, over months, at an age where the direction normally only goes one way.
Boardroom7 Aug 2028
Graduation day at Sepahan
5 boys move up, and somewhere in the building the people who coached them at twelve are quietly having the best morning of their working year. Nothing about this shows up in a result and it is why the academy exists.
The terraces7 Aug 2028
Sepahan spend $4.9M on the signing the town wanted
It is the rarest sequence in football: supporters ask for something, and the club goes and does it. $4.9M for Ahmad Mohammadi, and for one week nobody is complaining about anything.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market31 Jul 2028
The name of Ahmad Mohammadi has come up in conversations Padideh were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Squad31 Jul 2028
Pejman Hajsafi is a better footballer than he was
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 21 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
Squad31 Jul 2028
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.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market10 Jul 2028
“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.
Market10 Jul 2028
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Squad10 Jul 2028
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Ali Kamali is 23, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market12 Jun 2028
$810.0K. No player has ever cost Padideh more, and expectation arrives with him.
Market12 Jun 2028
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Padideh can pretend not to have heard.
Squad12 Jun 2028
Ehsan Shojaei 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 terraces12 Jun 2028
Boards get told what they have done wrong for years and hear nothing on the days they get it right. This is one of those days: Sajjad Gholibeigi from Saipa for $810.0K, and a ticket office having a very good morning.
Squad12 Jun 2028
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Pejman Hajsafi commits to Padideh for another 4 years.
Squad12 Jun 2028
Nwanna Okechukwu 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.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad22 May 2028
Amir Taremi breaks a bone — 32 days out
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 32 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Squad22 May 2028
“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.
Market22 May 2028
“I have ambitions, and I would like the club to share them.” Nobody has asked to leave and nobody has been shown the door — but a player chooses that sentence carefully, and a boardroom hears it exactly as it was meant.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad1 May 2028
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 19 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Market1 May 2028
Ahmad Mohammadi wants to know where this is going
“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.
Squad1 May 2028
Ehsan Shojaei 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.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad17 Apr 2028
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 35 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Squad17 Apr 2028
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.
Squad17 Apr 2028
When it matters, Amir Taremi plays
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
Squad20 Mar 2028
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Padideh may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Market20 Mar 2028
The general version of this complaint is that a player wants more. The specific version names the thing: he wants to walk out under floodlights against clubs from other countries, and he has stopped pretending otherwise.
Squad20 Mar 2028
Ehsan Shojaei 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.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match1 Mar 2028
Padideh bow out of the cup
Esteghlal go through and Padideh go home, 1‑3 the scoreline that did it. The dressing room will call the league the priority now, because that is what dressing rooms say.
Squad6 Mar 2028
Ehsan Shojaei 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.
Squad6 Mar 2028
Words at Padideh training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Amir Taremi 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.
Squad6 Mar 2028
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Ahmad Mohammadi, and the manager let it.
Player ratings6 Mar 2028
Ninety minutes of Amir Taremi at his very best
Marked 8.07. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Padideh.
Squad6 Mar 2028
A place in the month's best eleven for Erfan Darvishaali
Four or five weekends of consistency, judged against everybody in the division doing his job. Erfan Darvishaali has come out of that comparison in the side, and Padideh have had the benefit of every one of those afternoons.
Player ratings6 Mar 2028
Successful dribbles: 14. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
The terraces6 Mar 2028
Every touch is being weighed now, in print and everywhere else. Some players grow into that and some are quietly ruined by it, and nobody knows which in advance.
Player ratings6 Mar 2028
Fouls conceded: 5. Some of it was commitment and some of it was frustration, and the free-kick count did not distinguish between the two.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Player ratings28 Feb 2028
Successful dribbles: 76. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Player ratings28 Feb 2028
Two goals and a mark of 8.34 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Match26 Feb 2028
Padideh cannot stop winning
3 wins on the spin now, and the question has changed from whether the run ends to who ends it. Confidence like this cannot be bought; it has to be earned exactly this way.
Squad28 Feb 2028
Ahmad Mohammadi 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.
Match26 Feb 2028
The run at home goes on for Padideh
9 matches unbeaten here. Every visiting manager is asked about it in the week before, which is precisely why it keeps going.
Squad28 Feb 2028
Amir Taremi 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.
Match26 Feb 2028
A 3‑1 win over Zob Ahan, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
The terraces28 Feb 2028
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Mehdi Khoshbakht 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.
Squad28 Feb 2028
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Alejandro Contreras, and the manager let it.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match5 Feb 2028
Chastening afternoon for Padideh
A 1‑4 beating by Sepahan was the sort of result that empties a stadium long before the final whistle.
Squad7 Feb 2028
A fracture rules Majid Gholizadeh out for 34 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Padideh will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Market7 Feb 2028
Ahmad Mohammadi wants to know where this is going
“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.
Squad7 Feb 2028
Ehsan Shojaei 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.
Player ratings7 Feb 2028
Ehsan Shojaei was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.02. 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.
Boardroom7 Feb 2028
Doors closed at Padideh
The music was off and the showers ran late. What was said in that dressing room stays there, but Saturday will publish the minutes.
Squad7 Feb 2028
Ehsan Shojaei is in the form of his life
A season average of 7.30 with 5 goals behind it. Opponents have started planning around him, which is the sincerest compliment football pays.
Squad7 Feb 2028
Koshaim Al-Qahtani 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.
Player ratings7 Feb 2028
He was not in the side at half past three and he had settled it before five. Half an hour, and Padideh had a different afternoon.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Player ratings17 Jan 2028
Successful dribbles: 61. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad17 Jan 2028
Saman Ghoddos 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.
Squad17 Jan 2028
A fracture rules Majid Gholizadeh out for 57 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Padideh will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Player ratings17 Jan 2028
At 33 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.14 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Market17 Jan 2028
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Ahmad Mohammadi wants continental football; whether Padideh can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
Squad17 Jan 2028
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.
Squad17 Jan 2028
The manager makes an example of Ali Kamali
“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.
Player ratings17 Jan 2028
There was one mistake and it ended in the net. Defenders are judged on the worst thing they did rather than on the eighty-nine minutes either side of it, which is unfair and is also the job.
Match15 Jan 2028
1‑1, and both dressing rooms will call it two points lost. A draw that asked plenty of questions and answered none of them.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad10 Jan 2028
Saman Ghoddos damages knee ligaments — 35 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 35 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.
Squad10 Jan 2028
Géiler Mosquera: that is not what I was promised
“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.
Squad10 Jan 2028
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.
Match8 Jan 2028
Three points for Padideh, 2‑1 the final word against Persepolis in a contest settled by the finer margins.
The terraces10 Jan 2028
The crowd has taken to Ali Kamali
At 23 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
Player ratings10 Jan 2028
One of those days for Ali Kamali
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.18, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Player ratings10 Jan 2028
A performance of 8.13 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Player ratings10 Jan 2028
Successful dribbles: 17. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad10 Jan 2028
The manager makes an example of Ali Ebrahimi
“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.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad3 Jan 2028
A knee injury of the worst kind for Saman Ghoddos
44 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.
Match1 Jan 2028
2‑5 to Rah Ahan, and it was every bit as bad as the number suggests. There are defeats you argue about and defeats you apologise for; this was the second kind.
Player ratings3 Jan 2028
A brace, and Amir Taremi takes the afternoon — 8.66
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Amir Taremi provided it, and the 8.66 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Squad3 Jan 2028
There were 6 saves in it, and at least three that had no business being saves at all. The ten outfield players owe him a drink and they know it.
Market3 Jan 2028
“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.
Squad3 Jan 2028
Ehsan Shojaei 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.
Match1 Jan 2028
Amir Taremi among the goals in a wild afternoon
7 goals in one match, Amir Taremi on the scoresheet, and a scoreline that will look like a misprint. Neutrals could not have asked more of Padideh and Rah Ahan.
Boardroom3 Jan 2028
Nobody left the Padideh 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.
Squad3 Jan 2028
Pejman Hajsafi named in the team of the month
A month is long enough that nobody gets in by accident. Pejman Hajsafi is in the division's best eleven for it, which is a quieter compliment than an award and a more reliable one.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Player ratings20 Dec 2027
Successful dribbles: 51. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad20 Dec 2027
Amir Hosseini damages knee ligaments — 24 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 24 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.
Market20 Dec 2027
“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.
Market20 Dec 2027
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Squad20 Dec 2027
“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.
Squad20 Dec 2027
Ehsan Shojaei 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.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Match1 Dec 2027
Padideh through in the cup
A 4‑2 win over Zob Ahan, and the draw for the next round can be watched with some interest for once.
Player ratings6 Dec 2027
A brace, and Koshaim Al-Qahtani takes the afternoon — 8.59
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Koshaim Al-Qahtani provided it, and the 8.59 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Player ratings6 Dec 2027
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 8.32, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
Player ratings6 Dec 2027
Two goals and a mark of 8.32 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Player ratings6 Dec 2027
Successful dribbles: 29. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Match4 Dec 2027
Padideh make it 3 in a row
Momentum is a hard thing to buy and an easy thing to lose, and right now Padideh have 3 straight wins of it.
Squad6 Dec 2027
Ehsan Shojaei 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.
Match1 Dec 2027
Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 6 goals between Padideh and Zob Ahan, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.
Match4 Dec 2027
Three points for Padideh, 2‑1 the final word against Naft Tehran in a contest settled by the finer margins.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Player ratings22 Nov 2027
Successful dribbles: 41. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Market22 Nov 2027
“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.
Squad22 Nov 2027
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.
Match20 Nov 2027
1‑2 to Esteghlal, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Squad22 Nov 2027
Ahmad Mohammadi has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Padideh 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.
Squad22 Nov 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Erfan Darvishaali, and the manager let it.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Player ratings25 Oct 2027
Successful dribbles: 59. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Match23 Oct 2027
The run at home goes on for Padideh
16 matches unbeaten here. Every visiting manager is asked about it in the week before, which is precisely why it keeps going.
Squad25 Oct 2027
Ehsan Shojaei 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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match2 Oct 2027
4‑1, and the margin flattered nobody — it could have carried another goal or two without complaint. Afternoons like this are why people keep coming.
Player ratings4 Oct 2027
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 8.94, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
Player ratings4 Oct 2027
Masoud Khodadad, 33, rolls back the years — 8.03
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.03 at 33, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Squad4 Oct 2027
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Padideh may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Squad4 Oct 2027
Ahmad Mohammadi 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 terraces4 Oct 2027
Padideh supporters have found a favourite in Ali Kamali
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Ali Kamali 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.
Match2 Oct 2027
There is a particular helplessness in conceding 3 times before the twentieth minute. Siah Jamegan tried to reorganise, Padideh did not allow it, and the result was written long before it was confirmed.
Player ratings4 Oct 2027
Ninety minutes of Ehsan Shojaei at his very best
Marked 8.19. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Padideh.
Player ratings4 Oct 2027
A performance of 8.09 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
In brief
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Squad
Words at Padideh training over how hard people work
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Squad
A place in the month's best eleven for Pejman Hajsafi
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The terraces
The press have found their man in Morteza Azmoun
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Player ratings27 Sep 2027
Successful dribbles: 29. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Match25 Sep 2027
The wait goes on for Padideh
6 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.
Squad27 Sep 2027
Ehsan Shojaei 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.
Match25 Sep 2027
0‑1 to Persepolis, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Squad27 Sep 2027
Koshaim Al-Qahtani 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.
Player ratings27 Sep 2027
Amir Taremi ran the middle of the pitch — 6.80
He won it back and then made something of it, which is two jobs and the reason the scoreline looks the way it does. 9 combined actions and a mark of 6.80, and not one of them will make a highlights package.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad6 Sep 2027
A shoot-out is remembered by its ending, and this one ends with Ahmad Mohammadi: 4 kept out, and a set of supporters who will describe every one of them for the next twenty years.
Match1 Sep 2027
Cup progress for Padideh
A 1‑1 win over Rah Ahan, a place in the next round, and the quiet arithmetic every supporter does on the walk home: how many more until a final?
Match4 Sep 2027
The run at home goes on for Padideh
13 matches unbeaten here. Every visiting manager is asked about it in the week before, which is precisely why it keeps going.
Player ratings6 Sep 2027
Amirhossein Azizi, 21, plays like he has been here for years — 7.66
A mark of 7.66 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 21-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
Squad6 Sep 2027
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.
The terraces6 Sep 2027
At 23 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
Player ratings6 Sep 2027
Ali Kamali runs at them all day
Successful dribbles: 19. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Player ratings6 Sep 2027
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.11, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Player ratings6 Sep 2027
It was his to settle and he did not settle it. A long walk back to the halfway line, and a considerably longer week.
In brief
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Squad
Words at Padideh training over how hard people work
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Market
Vahid Cheshmi is free to find somewhere else
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Squad
Ehsan Shojaei has become a man the manager trusts
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Player ratings30 Aug 2027
Successful dribbles: 58. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
The terraces30 Aug 2027
Padideh sell a favourite for $250.0K
The accountants will call it good business and they will be right, which is not the point anybody outside the boardroom is making. Vouria Shojaei was one of the reasons people came, and $250.0K does not replace that by itself.
Squad30 Aug 2027
Ahmad Mohammadi is a better footballer than he was
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 23 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
Squad30 Aug 2027
Ehsan Shojaei 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.
Squad30 Aug 2027
The manager makes an example of Ahmad Mohammadi
“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.
Squad30 Aug 2027
Lius Dadong has improved at 27, which nobody expected
Careers are supposed to plateau and then decline, and the players who ignore that are always the ones who were listening on the training ground. 3 points of it, over months, at an age where the direction normally only goes one way.
Match28 Aug 2027
A bad afternoon for Padideh against Saipa
0‑1 to Saipa, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Market30 Aug 2027
A season-long look at somebody else’s player: Lius Dadong arrives from Paradou with something to prove and a return ticket in the drawer. Good loans make everybody richer; this one starts Saturday.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad23 Aug 2027
Vouria Shojaei damages knee ligaments — 44 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 44 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 Aug 2027
Rarely has this fixture seen a display like it: 5‑0 against Naft Tehran, and it could have been more.
Player ratings23 Aug 2027
Two goals and a mark of 9.31 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Player ratings23 Aug 2027
A brace, and Ehsan Shojaei takes the afternoon — 8.30
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Ehsan Shojaei provided it, and the 8.30 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Player ratings23 Aug 2027
Successful dribbles: 24. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Match21 Aug 2027
Padideh make home a hard place to visit
11 without defeat on their own grass. The pitch has not changed; the crowd has — louder earlier, and quicker to sense when the opposition would rather be somewhere else.
Squad23 Aug 2027
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.
Player ratings23 Aug 2027
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 9.45, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Squad23 Aug 2027
Nwanna Okechukwu has improved at 24, which nobody expected
Careers are supposed to plateau and then decline, and the players who ignore that are always the ones who were listening on the training ground. 3 points of it, over months, at an age where the direction normally only goes one way.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Player ratings16 Aug 2027
Successful dribbles: 50. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad16 Aug 2027
A knee injury of the worst kind for Vouria Shojaei
52 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 terraces16 Aug 2027
Padideh sell a favourite for $170.0K
The accountants will call it good business and they will be right, which is not the point anybody outside the boardroom is making. Shahriar Karimi was one of the reasons people came, and $170.0K does not replace that by itself.
Squad16 Aug 2027
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Ehsan Shojaei commits to Padideh for another 4 years.
Squad16 Aug 2027
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.
Market16 Aug 2027
Shahriar Karimi has left for Saipa in a $170.0K deal. The accountants are pleased; the supporters are less certain.
Match14 Aug 2027
It finished 1‑0, and it was Amir Taremi’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Padideh.
Player ratings16 Aug 2027
Marked 8.04 — 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.
Squad16 Aug 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Alejandro Contreras, and the manager let it.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad26 Jul 2027
A knee injury of the worst kind for Vouria Shojaei
73 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 Jul 2027
“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.
Squad26 Jul 2027
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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad28 Jun 2027
A knee injury of the worst kind for Vouria Shojaei
107 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.
Squad28 Jun 2027
Omid Karimi is a better footballer than he was
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 22 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
Squad28 Jun 2027
Ahmad Mohammadi 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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad14 Jun 2027
Vouria Shojaei damages knee ligaments — 122 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 122 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.
Squad14 Jun 2027
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Ahmad Mohammadi is 23, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Market14 Jun 2027
Ali Kamali arrives at Padideh in a $410.0K statement of intent
There comes a point where a club either backs its own ambition or admits it does not have any. Padideh have paid $410.0K for Ali Kamali, which is the loudest way there is of saying which one it chose.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad17 May 2027
Vouria Shojaei damages knee ligaments — 152 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 152 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.
Squad17 May 2027
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.
Squad17 May 2027
Words at Padideh training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Hugo Flores 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
Steady
Match10 May 2027
Padideh are in among the leaders
Position 1 and 62 points on the board. Nobody at the ground will say the word out loud yet, and everybody at the ground is thinking it.
Squad10 May 2027
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.
Squad10 May 2027
“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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad29 Mar 2027
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 60 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Squad29 Mar 2027
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.
Squad29 Mar 2027
“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.
In brief
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Squad
Words at Padideh training over how hard people work
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Boardroom
Padideh board back the manager
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad22 Mar 2027
A fracture rules Hossein Shojaei out for 68 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Padideh will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Squad22 Mar 2027
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.
Squad22 Mar 2027
Words at Padideh training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ali Karimi 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
Match15 Feb 2027
Padideh refuse to drop out of the race
Position 1, 61 points, and the result everyone checks first is now theirs. The word is still not being said around the ground, which is how you know everyone is thinking it.
Squad15 Feb 2027
A fracture rules Vouria Shojaei out for 39 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Padideh will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Player ratings15 Feb 2027
Successful dribbles: 30. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad15 Feb 2027
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.
Match13 Feb 2027
Iliya Imani scored, and precious little else went right: 1‑3 to Saba, and a quiet walk to the dressing room.
Squad15 Feb 2027
The manager makes an example of Ahmad Mohammadi
“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.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market1 Feb 2027
$8.6M is a serious amount of money and it does not play centre-forward. Everybody in the dressing room knows who used to be looked at when it went wrong.
Squad1 Feb 2027
A fracture rules Vouria Shojaei out for 55 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Padideh will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Squad1 Feb 2027
There were 6 saves in it, and at least three that had no business being saves at all. The ten outfield players owe him a drink and they know it.
The terraces1 Feb 2027
Supporters turn on the $8.6M sale of Vahid Torabi
He is going to Partizan, the club has $8.6M 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.
Squad1 Feb 2027
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.
Player ratings1 Feb 2027
Successful dribbles: 21. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Match30 Jan 2027
Sepahan left with the points after a 0‑2 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Squad1 Feb 2027
Alejandro Contreras 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.
Market1 Feb 2027
Everyone has stopped pretending: Saipa will make the call about Shahriar Karimi this week. Padideh have a number in mind, and the number is not shy.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad11 Jan 2027
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 77 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Player ratings11 Jan 2027
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 8.68, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
Squad11 Jan 2027
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Ahmad Mohammadi is 22, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Market11 Jan 2027
Padideh say no — this time
The offer from Gostaresh Foulad for Majid Ebrahimi 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.
Player ratings11 Jan 2027
Successful dribbles: 23. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad11 Jan 2027
Ehsan Shojaei 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.
Squad11 Jan 2027
Amir Taremi is in the form of his life
A season average of 7.20 with 17 goals behind it. Opponents have started planning around him, which is the sincerest compliment football pays.
Match9 Jan 2027
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Amir Taremi. 4‑3 against Siah Jamegan, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Match9 Jan 2027
Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 7 goals between Padideh and Siah Jamegan, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad28 Dec 2026
A knee injury of the worst kind for Shahriar Taremi
25 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.
Squad28 Dec 2026
A fracture rules Vouria Shojaei out for 92 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Padideh will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Player ratings28 Dec 2026
Two goals and a mark of 8.71 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Squad28 Dec 2026
Ehsan Shojaei 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.
Player ratings28 Dec 2026
Successful dribbles: 18. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad28 Dec 2026
Words at Padideh training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Alejandro Contreras 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.
Match26 Dec 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.
The terraces28 Dec 2026
Every touch is being weighed now, in print and everywhere else. Some players grow into that and some are quietly ruined by it, and nobody knows which in advance.
Player ratings28 Dec 2026
Chances created: 7. Not on the scoresheet and not remotely anonymous — a passing performance that pulled a defence apart without leaving a mark on the column that gets read.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad21 Dec 2026
A fracture rules Vouria Shojaei out for 101 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Padideh will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Match21 Dec 2026
Padideh up to position 2
45 points on the board and a place in the leading group. Nobody at the ground is saying the word out loud yet.
Player ratings21 Dec 2026
Successful dribbles: 28. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad21 Dec 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.
The terraces21 Dec 2026
At 22 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
Match19 Dec 2026
Esteghlal Ahvaz made Padideh work for it, but the scoreboard read 2‑0 at the end and the table does not ask how.