Marked for Ashkan Noorafkan
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Squad21 Dec 2026
A season average of 7.42 with 31 goals behind it. Opponents have started planning around him, which is the sincerest compliment football pays.
Match19 Dec 2026
Going 2 down does something to a side, and what it usually does is finish them. Not here. Padideh rebuilt the afternoon goal by goal, and Esteghlal Ahvaz had no answer to any of it.
Player ratings21 Dec 2026
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 8.45, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
Match19 Dec 2026
Padideh make it 6 in a row
Momentum is a hard thing to buy and an easy thing to lose, and right now Padideh have 6 straight wins of it.
Loan watch21 Dec 2026
17 appearances away from home and 19 goals to show for them. Every one of them makes next summer's conversation a little more expensive.
Market21 Dec 2026
“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.
Match19 Dec 2026
A 4‑3 win over Esteghlal Ahvaz, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Player ratings21 Dec 2026
Nobody's fault and entirely his: a goal that goes into the book with his name against it and nothing about it intended. Padideh deserved better, and so did he.
Squad21 Dec 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.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Squad14 Dec 2026
A season average of 7.38 with 29 goals behind it. Opponents have started planning around him, which is the sincerest compliment football pays.
Player ratings14 Dec 2026
A brace, and Ashkan Noorafkan takes the afternoon — 8.77
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Ashkan Noorafkan provided it, and the 8.77 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Match12 Dec 2026
Nobody wants to play Padideh right now
5 wins in a row changes how opponents warm up: quieter, more glances across. Runs end, everybody knows that — but nobody in this dressing room is planning for it.
Player ratings14 Dec 2026
Successful dribbles: 26. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Loan watch14 Dec 2026
The goals keep arriving from Saman Rezaeian’s exile
18 goals in 16 games at Saipa — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Padideh updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
Match12 Dec 2026
Another one collected away from home
4 on the bounce on the road for Padideh. The coaches leave early, arrive at unlovely grounds in the dark, and keep coming home with three points.
Squad14 Dec 2026
Ehsan Nekounam 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 Dec 2026
Tractor made Padideh work for it, but the scoreboard read 2‑1 at the end and the table does not ask how.
The terraces14 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.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Player ratings7 Dec 2026
Successful dribbles: 37. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Match2 Dec 2026
Padideh march on in the cup
Persepolis are out and Padideh go through, 4‑3 the final word. The bracket opens up a little, and everyone allows themselves a look at it.
Match2 Dec 2026
There is no crueller way to lose a football match. Padideh scored in the 91th minute, the restart barely happened, and the away end was still standing when the whistle went.
Squad7 Dec 2026
Defences have started doubling up on Ashkan Noorafkan
27 goals and a season average of 7.33 will do that. The space he used to find has gone; he keeps scoring anyway, which is the mark of the real thing.
Player ratings7 Dec 2026
A brace, and Ali Taremi takes the afternoon — 8.89
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Ali Taremi provided it, and the 8.89 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Match5 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.
Squad7 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.
Loan watch7 Dec 2026
The goals keep arriving from Saman Rezaeian’s exile
16 goals in 15 games at Saipa — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Padideh updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
Squad7 Dec 2026
Ahmad Shojaei 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
Squad30 Nov 2026
Ashkan Torabi breaks a bone — 14 days out
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 14 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Squad30 Nov 2026
26 goals and a season average of 7.32. Form like that gets noticed well beyond this town.
Match30 Nov 2026
Padideh refuse to drop out of the race
Position 3, 38 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.
Squad30 Nov 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.
Squad30 Nov 2026
The medical room confirms 33 days on the sidelines for Omid Yazdani, and a plan built around him now has to be rebuilt.
Match28 Nov 2026
Three points for Padideh, 3‑1 the final word against Naft Tehran in a contest settled by the finer margins.
The terraces30 Nov 2026
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Saman Vafaei 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.
Player ratings30 Nov 2026
Marked 8.46 — 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.
Player ratings30 Nov 2026
A performance of 8.18 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Player ratings23 Nov 2026
Successful dribbles: 45. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad23 Nov 2026
A fracture rules Ehsan Nekounam out for 18 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.
Squad23 Nov 2026
“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.
Squad23 Nov 2026
Defences have started doubling up on Ashkan Noorafkan
25 goals and a season average of 7.27 will do that. The space he used to find has gone; he keeps scoring anyway, which is the mark of the real thing.
Squad23 Nov 2026
Ehsan Nekounam 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.
Loan watch23 Nov 2026
13 appearances at Saipa and the goals keep coming. Padideh are watching this more closely than the borrowing club would like.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Player ratings16 Nov 2026
Successful dribbles: 38. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad16 Nov 2026
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 26 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Squad16 Nov 2026
24 goals and a season average of 7.27. Form like that gets noticed well beyond this town.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad9 Nov 2026
A fracture rules Ehsan Nekounam out for 36 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 ratings9 Nov 2026
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 8.71, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
Squad9 Nov 2026
23 goals and a season average of 7.26. Form like that gets noticed well beyond this town.
Squad9 Nov 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 ratings9 Nov 2026
Successful dribbles: 26. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad9 Nov 2026
Saman Vafaei 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.
Match7 Nov 2026
It finished 2‑1, and it was Ashkan Noorafkan’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Padideh.
The terraces9 Nov 2026
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 22-year-old it feels ownership of. Masoud Vafaei 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.
Loan watch9 Nov 2026
The goals keep arriving from Saman Rezaeian’s exile
13 goals in 11 games at Saipa — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Padideh updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad2 Nov 2026
A fracture rules Ehsan Nekounam 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.
Squad2 Nov 2026
4 goals in one game. The first was taken well, the second was taken greedily, and by the third the crowd were simply waiting for him to get the ball.
Match31 Oct 2026
Padideh strike at the death to beat Saba
There were 88 minutes on the clock and Saba had all but banked the point. Football rarely reads the room, and Padideh did not stop to explain themselves.
Match2 Nov 2026
Padideh refuse to drop out of the race
Position 3, 29 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.
Squad2 Nov 2026
21 goals and a season average of 7.20. Form like that gets noticed well beyond this town.
Match31 Oct 2026
Three points for Padideh, 6‑5 the final word against Saba in a contest settled by the finer margins.
Market2 Nov 2026
“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.
Squad2 Nov 2026
64 days, the scan says, and scans are kinder than reality. The fixtures in that window have just become somebody else’s job.
Player ratings2 Nov 2026
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 9.74, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Squad5 Oct 2026
The match ball belongs to Ashkan Noorafkan, whose 8 goals turned a difficult afternoon into a procession.
Squad5 Oct 2026
A fracture rules Ehsan Nekounam 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.
Match3 Oct 2026
Rarely has this fixture seen a display like it: 9‑5 against Gostaresh Foulad, and it could have been more.
Match3 Oct 2026
11 unbeaten for Padideh
Hard to beat is not the same as winning, but 11 matches without defeat is a foundation Padideh did not have in the autumn.
Squad5 Oct 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.
Match3 Oct 2026
Padideh are shipping goals every week
Two or more conceded in each of the last 5 matches. It is not one mistake repeating itself, which would be the easier thing to fix; it is a different one every week.
Player ratings5 Oct 2026
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 9.93, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
The terraces5 Oct 2026
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Saman Vafaei 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.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad28 Sep 2026
5 goals in one afternoon from one man. The other players were also present, a witness confirmed.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 85 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Match28 Sep 2026
Padideh refuse to drop out of the race
Position 2, 19 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.
Match26 Sep 2026
There were 85 minutes on the clock and Siah Jamegan had all but banked the point. Football rarely reads the room, and Padideh did not stop to explain themselves.
Player ratings28 Sep 2026
Morteza Rezaeian, 35, rolls back the years — 8.86
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.86 at 35, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Match26 Sep 2026
Whatever happens, Padideh do not lose
10 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.
Match26 Sep 2026
A 6‑5 win over Siah Jamegan, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Ehsan Nekounam 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 Sep 2026
A performance of 9.91 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad14 Sep 2026
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 99 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 33. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
A brace, and Ashkan Noorafkan takes the afternoon — 8.96
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Ashkan Noorafkan provided it, and the 8.96 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Squad14 Sep 2026
There were 7 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.
Market14 Sep 2026
“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.
Match12 Sep 2026
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.
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
A hand in 2 of them from Ali Taremi — 7.85
Marked 7.85. There is a kind of forward whose value only shows up when you count what he was involved in rather than what he finished, and this is the day that argument makes itself.
Match12 Sep 2026
Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 6 goals between Padideh and Rah Ahan, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.
Match12 Sep 2026
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Ashkan Noorafkan. 4‑2 against Rah Ahan, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad31 Aug 2026
A fracture rules Ehsan Nekounam out for 114 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.
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.
Squad31 Aug 2026
Ashkan Noorafkan 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.
Squad31 Aug 2026
Alireza Nazi 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 ratings31 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 15. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad31 Aug 2026
5 new faces, and Padideh are still learning each other
A squad rebuilt inside one window pays for it in a currency nobody budgets for. The football is not worse than the sum of the players; it is worse than the sum of the players who have played together before.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad10 Aug 2026
Ehsan Nekounam breaks a bone — 135 days out
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 135 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Market10 Aug 2026
The phone has started ringing about Fabrizio Santoro again, and this time the name on the line is Dynamo Kyiv. Padideh are listening politely and promising nothing.
Squad10 Aug 2026
Ehsan Nekounam 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 ratings10 Aug 2026
Marked 7.92. There is a kind of forward whose value only shows up when you count what he was involved in rather than what he finished, and this is the day that argument makes itself.
Market10 Aug 2026
Both sides expect a conversation in the coming days. Padideh will name a price, and everything after that is arithmetic.
Match8 Aug 2026
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Ashkan Noorafkan. 3‑2 against Esteghlal Khuzestan, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Squad10 Aug 2026
Ashkan Noorafkan 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.
The terraces10 Aug 2026
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 22-year-old it feels ownership of. Masoud Vafaei 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.
Squad10 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.