Marked for Ahmad Karimi
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Squad28 Dec 2026
A fracture rules Sardar Vafaei out for 45 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.
Match26 Dec 2026
3‑0, and Ashkan Karimi took the headlines on an afternoon when everything Padideh tried came off. Days like this are retold all winter.
Player ratings28 Dec 2026
Ashkan Karimi, 20, plays like he has been here for years — 8.25
A mark of 8.25 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 20-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
Match26 Dec 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.
Squad28 Dec 2026
Alireza Dejagah 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 terraces28 Dec 2026
He is 20 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.
The dugout28 Dec 2026
“That is what I want every week. Not the result, the way they went about it.” The manager, after 3‑0, already talking about the next one.
The dugout28 Dec 2026
Clubs make promises constantly and the page usually only hears about them when they are broken. This one was honoured, and the dressing room noticed that faster than any supporter did.
The dugout28 Dec 2026
The manager makes an example of Mehdi Vafaei
“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.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad30 Nov 2026
A fracture rules Sardar Vafaei out for 77 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 ratings30 Nov 2026
Two goals and a mark of 8.96 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Squad30 Nov 2026
Saman Fallah 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.
Match28 Nov 2026
A 2‑1 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 terraces30 Nov 2026
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Mohammad Yazdani 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.
Match30 Nov 2026
Halfway: Padideh sit in position 11
20 points at the turn. The first half of a season is a promise; the second is a bill, and the town is about to find out which of the two this one was.
The dugout30 Nov 2026
“The players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 2‑1, Pejman Noorafkan could afford to be generous.
The dugout30 Nov 2026
Ahmad Karimi 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.
Squad30 Nov 2026
One yellow too many, and a match watched from the stand. The most avoidable absence in football, and Padideh will feel it on Saturday.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad16 Nov 2026
Sardar Vafaei breaks a bone — 95 days out
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 95 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Squad16 Nov 2026
A falling-out at Padideh
Alireza Dejagah and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
The dugout16 Nov 2026
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 Amir Pouraliganji is on it.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match31 Oct 2026
The goals have deserted Padideh
3 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Padideh can tell you which week it ends in.
Squad2 Nov 2026
Houman Elyasi makes the team of the month
Four or five weekends of consistency, measured against everybody else in the division. A quieter compliment than an award and a more reliable one.
The dugout2 Nov 2026
“There are things I liked and things we will be doing on Tuesday until they are right.” 0‑0, and a manager who had already decided what Tuesday looked like.
The dugout2 Nov 2026
Ahmad Karimi 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 Ahmad Karimi is on it.
Squad2 Nov 2026
Ashkan Karimi moves up the pecking order
Nothing is announced when this happens and everybody knows. He is a bigger part of the plan at Padideh than he was a month ago, and the training ground worked that out before the team sheet said so.
Match31 Oct 2026
The crowd waited for a goal that never came. Sepahan defended in numbers and left with what they came for, and the two sides could be playing still without troubling a scorer.
Looking ahead2 Nov 2026
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Saman Fallah’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Padideh needing him to play as if none of it matters.
Loan watch2 Nov 2026
7 appearances at Al Shaab and the goals keep coming. Padideh are watching this more closely than the borrowing club would like.
The dugout2 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.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad12 Oct 2026
A falling-out at Padideh
Saman Fallah and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
The dugout12 Oct 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Amir Savaed, and the manager let it.
Market12 Oct 2026
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Hossein Karimi has his answer from Padideh; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
Squad12 Oct 2026
A Padideh teenager takes the young player award
Houman Elyasi is 20, and for one weekend he was the best of everybody his age in the division. Nobody should build a career on it and everybody quietly does.
The dugout12 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.
Market12 Oct 2026
Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Ahmad Karimi’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.
Loan watch12 Oct 2026
4 appearances at Al Shaab and the goals keep coming. Padideh are watching this more closely than the borrowing club would like.
The dugout12 Oct 2026
Hossein Karimi knocks on the manager’s door
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Hossein Karimi trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Looking ahead12 Oct 2026
Next up at home: Gostaresh Foulad, who go into it in position 14. The kind of fixture a season is quietly built on or quietly loses its shape in.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad5 Oct 2026
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Saeid Hajsafi is 19, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Ahmad 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.
Match3 Oct 2026
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Mohammad Yazdani. 1‑0 against Siah Jamegan, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Player ratings5 Oct 2026
Marked 8.01 — 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.
Squad5 Oct 2026
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Mehdi Nekounam commits to Padideh for another 3 years.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Ahmad Karimi named in the team of the month
A month is long enough that nobody gets in by accident. Ahmad Karimi is in the division's best eleven for it, which is a quieter compliment than an award and a more reliable one.
The dugout5 Oct 2026
“The players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 1‑0, Pejman Noorafkan could afford to be generous.
The dugout5 Oct 2026
Ahmad Karimi 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.
The dugout5 Oct 2026
No place in the plan for Ali Torabi
The manager wanted a different profile for this opponent, which is a real football reason and no consolation. He did nothing wrong and he did not play.