Marked for Karim Yazdani
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad28 Sep 2026
A knee injury of the worst kind for Reza Khodadad
19 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 Sep 2026
There were 9 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.
Squad28 Sep 2026
A fracture rules Mehdi Beiranvand out for 26 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.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match19 Sep 2026
Nowhere to hide for Padideh
2‑6 against Persepolis, and no complaints that would survive the replay. The manager spoke about character afterwards; the terraces used shorter words.
Squad21 Sep 2026
Reza Khodadad damages knee ligaments — 27 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 27 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.
Squad21 Sep 2026
A fracture rules Mehdi Beiranvand out for 33 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 ratings21 Sep 2026
Pejman Noorafkan, 20, plays like he has been here for years — 8.15
A mark of 8.15 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.
Squad21 Sep 2026
Karim Yazdani 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.
Match19 Sep 2026
8 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about Padideh and Persepolis in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
Player ratings21 Sep 2026
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.
Squad21 Sep 2026
“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.
Boardroom21 Sep 2026
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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 75. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 41 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Market14 Sep 2026
“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.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Karim Yazdani 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.
Match12 Sep 2026
0‑1 to Rah Ahan, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Aref Gholami has had enough of the bench
“I did not come here to warm up in front of people.” He is out of contract eventually, he is old enough to count the weeks, and Padideh will have to give him a reason to stay or an exit.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Match5 Sep 2026
6‑0, and Saeid Noorafkan took the headlines on an afternoon when everything Padideh tried came off. Days like this are retold all winter.
Match2 Sep 2026
The cup run ends for Padideh
0‑3 against Naft Tehran, and the road stops here. Cup exits are quick deaths — no second leg, no next week, just the league from now until May.
Squad7 Sep 2026
3 goals in one afternoon from one man. The other players were also present, a witness confirmed.
Player ratings7 Sep 2026
A brace, and Karim Yazdani takes the afternoon — 8.32
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Karim Yazdani provided it, and the 8.32 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
The terraces7 Sep 2026
Padideh are taken apart by Naft Tehran — and the town wants answers
It finished 0-3. A cup exit is a disappointment; this was a public dismantling, and the difference between the two is the number of people who will still be talking about it in August.
Market7 Sep 2026
“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.
Squad7 Sep 2026
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.
Player ratings7 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 23. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Karim Yazdani 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
Player ratings31 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 34. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Player ratings31 Aug 2026
At 33 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.56 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
The terraces31 Aug 2026
Padideh sell a favourite for $160.0K
The accountants will call it good business and they will be right, which is not the point anybody outside the boardroom is making. Saeid Karimi was one of the reasons people came, and $160.0K does not replace that by itself.
The terraces31 Aug 2026
The boos come down from three sides
“We pay for this every fortnight. The least we want is somebody who looks like he cares.” 6 of the 28 senior players walked off into it; the rest were not playing.
Market31 Aug 2026
“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.
Match29 Aug 2026
Beaten 3‑5, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Player ratings31 Aug 2026
One scored and one made, which is a different afternoon from scoring twice and an easier one to overlook. Marked 7.57, and involved in 2 of his side's goals.
Squad31 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 Padideh this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match29 Aug 2026
Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 8 goals between Padideh and Tractor, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 50. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Market24 Aug 2026
“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.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Words at Padideh training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Karim Yazdani 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.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Shahriar Torabi 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.
Match22 Aug 2026
Saipa left with the points after a 0‑1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Squad24 Aug 2026
“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
Upbeat
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 8.55, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
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 Padideh this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Words at Padideh training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Saeid Noorafkan 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.
Match15 Aug 2026
Naft Tehran made Padideh work for it, but the scoreboard read 3‑1 at the end and the table does not ask how.
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 18. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
A performance of 8.20 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
A performance of 8.15 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Squad17 Aug 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Shahriar Torabi, and the manager let it.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Hossein Saki 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.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Player ratings10 Aug 2026
Two goals and a mark of 8.18 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Squad10 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 Padideh this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match8 Aug 2026
A 3‑1 win over Esteghlal Khuzestan, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Squad10 Aug 2026
The manager makes an example of Karim Yazdani
“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.
Squad10 Aug 2026
Shahriar Torabi 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 ratings10 Aug 2026
Ninety minutes of Shahriar Torabi at his very best
Marked 8.18. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Padideh.
Player ratings10 Aug 2026
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.14, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Squad10 Aug 2026
Vahid Hosseini knocks on the manager's door
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Padideh, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Market10 Aug 2026
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Padideh has been clear about where Pejman Noorafkan stands, which is more than many ever get.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market3 Aug 2026
“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 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 Padideh this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Boardroom3 Aug 2026
Graduation day at Padideh
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.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Words at Padideh training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Karim Yazdani 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.
Market3 Aug 2026
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Morteza Noorafkan has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.
Market3 Aug 2026
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Kaveh Cheshmi has been at this club since he was a boy and is now, formally, one of the first-team squad — which for a local readership beats any signing of any size.
Market3 Aug 2026
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Sardar Shojaei has been at this club since he was a boy and is now, formally, one of the first-team squad — which for a local readership beats any signing of any size.
Match1 Aug 2026
0‑1 to Esteghlal, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Player ratings3 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 15. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.