Marked for Ashkan Noorafkan
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad21 Sep 2026
114 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Padideh lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Player ratings21 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 28. 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.
Squad21 Sep 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.
Match19 Sep 2026
Persepolis left with the points after a 0‑1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
The dugout21 Sep 2026
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Mohammad Ebrahimi after 0‑1, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
The dugout21 Sep 2026
Omid Rezaeian gets picked when it counts
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Omid Rezaeian is on it.
The dugout21 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 dugout21 Sep 2026
Somebody else is better right now than Vahid Nekounam
The team sheet says it in public every week until it changes. The only version of being dropped a footballer cannot argue with, and the one he takes hardest.
Squad21 Sep 2026
Words at Padideh training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ramin Hajsafi 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.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad14 Sep 2026
123 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.
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
Ashkan Noorafkan, 19, plays like he has been here for years — 7.67
A mark of 7.67 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 19-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
Match12 Sep 2026
Still nobody has beaten Padideh
The unbeaten run reaches 7. Some of them were wins and some were escapes, but a side that refuses to lose is a side other dressing rooms talk about.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Words exchanged at Padideh
Mehdi Taremi 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.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Vouria Shojaei is 21, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Transfer targets14 Sep 2026
A deal that was a phone call from completion at lunchtime was dead by midnight. Padideh will try again when the window opens; Zob Ahan may not be selling by then.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Words at Padideh training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mohammad Dejagah 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.
The dugout14 Sep 2026
The manager makes an example of Omid Rezaeian
“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.
Match12 Sep 2026
Padideh caught on 95 minutes
The board was up, the win was priced in, and then Rah Ahan scored. There is no worse minute to concede in and the ground emptied in the silence that follows one.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Player ratings31 Aug 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.
Market31 Aug 2026
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Esteghlal Ahvaz waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Padideh is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Market31 Aug 2026
“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.
Transfer targets31 Aug 2026
The offer went to Zob Ahan 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.
Squad31 Aug 2026
A falling-out at Padideh
Mehdi Moharrami and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Transfer targets31 Aug 2026
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Al-Diriyah have kept their man, and Padideh go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Market31 Aug 2026
Everyone has stopped pretending: Tractor will make the call about Teodoro Gentile this week. Padideh have a number in mind, and the number is not shy.
Squad31 Aug 2026
A row about effort at Padideh
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Mohammad Hossein Moradmand was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout31 Aug 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.