Marked for Ehsan Gholizadeh
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad13 Dec 2027
Ehsan Gholizadeh damages knee ligaments — 15 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 15 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.
Squad13 Dec 2027
A fracture rules Ramin Shojaei out for 40 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.
Match11 Dec 2027
Padideh make home a hard place to visit
12 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.
Squad13 Dec 2027
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Álvaro Busso is 21, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Match11 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.
Squad13 Dec 2027
Ehsan Karimi in a row with a teammate
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.
Match11 Dec 2027
Saipa made Padideh work for it, but the scoreboard read 3‑1 at the end and the table does not ask how.
Player ratings13 Dec 2027
Marked 8.37. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Padideh.
Player ratings13 Dec 2027
Marked 8.07 — 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.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
Match4 Dec 2027
22 unbeaten for Padideh
Hard to beat is not the same as winning, but 22 matches without defeat is a foundation Padideh did not have in the autumn.
Match1 Dec 2027
Cup progress for Padideh
A 1‑0 win over Gostaresh Foulad, a place in the next round, and the quiet arithmetic every supporter does on the walk home: how many more until a final?
Squad6 Dec 2027
Ehsan Gholizadeh damages knee ligaments — 22 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 22 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.
Squad6 Dec 2027
Ramin Shojaei breaks a bone — 48 days out
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 48 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Market6 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.
Match4 Dec 2027
The run at home goes on for Padideh
11 matches unbeaten here. Every visiting manager is asked about it in the week before, which is precisely why it keeps going.
Squad6 Dec 2027
Ehsan 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.
Player ratings6 Dec 2027
The chances came and went for Ehsan Karimi
7 shots, and a count that reads like a good afternoon until you check the other column. Strikers survive weeks like this on the understanding that the chances keep arriving; the day they stop is the day it becomes a problem.
Player ratings6 Dec 2027
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 9.07, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match27 Nov 2027
Still nobody has beaten Padideh
The unbeaten run reaches 20. Some of them were wins and some were escapes, but a side that refuses to lose is a side other dressing rooms talk about.
Squad29 Nov 2027
Ehsan Gholizadeh damages knee ligaments — 31 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 31 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.
Match29 Nov 2027
Padideh up to position 1
31 points on the board and a place in the leading group. Nobody at the ground is saying the word out loud yet.
Match27 Nov 2027
5 matches without a win for Padideh
The run now stands at 5, and the questions being asked around Padideh are no longer polite ones.
Market29 Nov 2027
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Padideh heard it as anything else.
Squad29 Nov 2027
Ehsan Karimi in a row with a teammate
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.
Match27 Nov 2027
Nobody wins at Padideh
10 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
Squad29 Nov 2027
Words at Padideh training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Reza Vafaei 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.
Squad29 Nov 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Ehsan Karimi, and the manager let it.