Marked for Hossein Beiranvand
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad8 Feb 2027
A knee injury of the worst kind for Cristhian Subero
62 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.
Squad8 Feb 2027
There were 8 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.
Squad8 Feb 2027
44 days, the medical staff say, and medical staff are optimists by profession. The team sheet will look wrong without him.
Squad8 Feb 2027
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.
Match6 Feb 2027
A bad afternoon for Padideh against Malavan
1‑2 to Malavan, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad25 Jan 2027
A knee injury of the worst kind for Cristhian Subero
78 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.
Market25 Jan 2027
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Player ratings25 Jan 2027
Successful dribbles: 28. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Market25 Jan 2027
The fee is $190.0K, the contract is signed, and the argument about whether he is worth it can begin. Gostaresh Foulad drove a hard bargain; time will say who won it.
Squad25 Jan 2027
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.
The terraces25 Jan 2027
Boards get told what they have done wrong for years and hear nothing on the days they get it right. This is one of those days: Ramin Yazdani from Gostaresh Foulad for $190.0K, and a ticket office having a very good morning.
Market25 Jan 2027
The Ahmad Vafaei conversation is coming
Everyone has stopped pretending: Foolad will make the call about Ahmad Vafaei this week. Padideh have a number in mind, and the number is not shy.
Squad25 Jan 2027
The manager makes an example of Yousef Vakia
“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.
Squad25 Jan 2027
There is no complaint available here and everybody involved knows it, which does not make the walk to the bench any shorter. Form is the only currency in football that cannot be borrowed against.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad18 Jan 2027
Cristhian Subero damages knee ligaments — 86 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 86 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.
Player ratings18 Jan 2027
A brace, and Hossein Beiranvand takes the afternoon — 8.79
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Hossein Beiranvand provided it, and the 8.79 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Squad18 Jan 2027
Mohammad Daneshgar 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.
Squad18 Jan 2027
Max Guerrero gets the move he always wanted
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Max Guerrero has just signed for Padideh, and for once the answer mattered.
Squad18 Jan 2027
Saeid Jahanbakhsh 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.
Match16 Jan 2027
A 2‑1 win over Gostaresh Foulad, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
The terraces18 Jan 2027
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.
Player ratings18 Jan 2027
Successful dribbles: 16. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Market18 Jan 2027
He is 20, and the scouting reports agree on the only line that matters: the ceiling. Signings like this are lottery tickets written by professionals.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad21 Dec 2026
A knee injury of the worst kind for Cristhian Subero
119 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.
Squad21 Dec 2026
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Padideh may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Match19 Dec 2026
The wait goes on for Padideh
4 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
Player ratings21 Dec 2026
Successful dribbles: 22. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad21 Dec 2026
Mohammad Daneshgar 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 Dec 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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad30 Nov 2026
Cristhian Subero damages knee ligaments — 141 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 141 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.
Squad30 Nov 2026
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 6 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Player ratings2 Nov 2026
Successful dribbles: 28. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Match31 Oct 2026
No end in sight to Padideh's wait for a win
4 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Padideh has to find a result from somewhere.
Squad2 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.
Squad2 Nov 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Mehrdad Abdi, and the manager let it.
Player ratings2 Nov 2026
Marked 7.91 on an afternoon he ran from the first whistle to the last. Whatever else went wrong, Padideh had the best player on the pitch.
Squad2 Nov 2026
10 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
Crisis
Market3 Aug 2026
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Silvio Gentile 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.
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
Shahriar Dejagah 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.
Squad3 Aug 2026
The manager makes an example of Silvio Gentile
“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.
Market3 Aug 2026
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Kaveh Dejagah 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
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Kaveh Khodadad is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Market3 Aug 2026
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Mehdi Taremi 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.