Marked for Kaveh Taremi
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market14 Feb 2028
The deal that would have taken Davoud Noushi Soufiani to Sepahan has collapsed at the last stage, and he reports back to Zob Ahan with a summer to forget and a season still to play. Nobody is saying which side walked away.
Squad14 Feb 2028
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Zob Ahan this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad14 Feb 2028
At 21, Kasra Taheri is already the best thing here
An average of 7.05 in a first team he is several years too young for. Zob Ahan have something, and by now the whole division has noticed.
Squad14 Feb 2028
Words at Zob Ahan training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Shayan Mosleh 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.
Squad14 Feb 2028
10 goals and a season average of 7.31. Form like that gets noticed well beyond this town.
Player ratings14 Feb 2028
Successful dribbles: 18. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
The dugout14 Feb 2028
Parsa Jafari gets it from the manager
“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.
Player ratings14 Feb 2028
A mark of 7.99, and nobody in the ground would argue with it. He was involved in everything that mattered and most of what did not.
Loan watch14 Feb 2028
“I am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at Zob Ahan, and 2 appearances in 32 say he has earned the hearing.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Player ratings24 Jan 2028
Two goals and a mark of 8.34 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Market24 Jan 2028
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Padideh people have started saying his name in the past tense.
The dugout24 Jan 2028
“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.
Market24 Jan 2028
The paperwork is done: Ahmad Savari joins from Naft Tehran in a deal worth $510.0K. Now comes the harder part.
Match22 Jan 2028
The drought breaks for Padideh
7 without a win is the sort of run that changes how a town talks about its club, and Rah Ahan were the afternoon it stopped. Nothing is fixed by one result and everything feels different by one.
Squad24 Jan 2028
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.
Squad24 Jan 2028
Words at Padideh training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Amir Gholizadeh 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.
The terraces24 Jan 2028
The town asked, and Padideh paid $510.0K
Ahmad Savari was the name on every phone-in, and the club has gone and signed him for $510.0K. For one week the board can do no wrong, which is a week most boards never get.
Squad24 Jan 2028
13 goals and a season average of 7.26. Form like that gets noticed well beyond this town.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad20 Dec 2027
Ehsan Pahlevan damages knee ligaments — 25 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 25 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.
Match18 Dec 2027
2 goals to the good, and then a slow surrender of everything that had been earned. Rahman Jafari will not be the one blamed for it, but nobody at Zob Ahan escapes the conversation that follows a collapse like this.
Squad20 Dec 2027
Amir Hossein Hosseinzadeh 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.
Squad20 Dec 2027
Shayan Mosleh 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 ratings20 Dec 2027
A performance of 8.38 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Squad20 Dec 2027
200 games in the shirt. Nobody sets out to build a record like that; it happens to a certain kind of player at a certain kind of club, and this town knows what it has.
Player ratings20 Dec 2027
8.08. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
The dugout20 Dec 2027
The manager makes an example of Omid Latifi
“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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad13 Dec 2027
The knee: Reza Yazdani out for 17 days
17 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Padideh lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Squad13 Dec 2027
Reza 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.
Squad13 Dec 2027
Amir Gholizadeh 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 ratings13 Dec 2027
Successful dribbles: 20. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
Match11 Dec 2027
Esteghlal left with the points after a 0‑2 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
The dugout13 Dec 2027
The manager makes an example of Parham Ghannad
“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.
The dugout13 Dec 2027
The manager’s verdict
“That is on me. I pick the team and I picked wrong.” Managers say that when they mean it and when they need to be seen to, and after 0‑2 Mohammad Shojaei left the room before anybody could ask which.
The dugout13 Dec 2027
Somebody else is better right now than Reza Pouraliganji
The team sheet says it in public every week until it changes. The only version of being dropped a footballer cannot argue with, and the one he takes hardest.
The dugout13 Dec 2027
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 Aria Shafiedoost is on it.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad22 Nov 2027
55 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Zob Ahan lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Squad22 Nov 2027
Amir Hossein Hosseinzadeh 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.
Squad22 Nov 2027
Shayan Mosleh 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 ratings22 Nov 2027
Marked 6.75 on 12 actions at both ends of the pitch. Midfielders like this get described as unspectacular by people who have never tried to play against one.
Player ratings22 Nov 2027
Successful dribbles: 18. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
Loan watch22 Nov 2027
“I did not go to Padideh to sit and watch. I want to come back to Zob Ahan and fight for my place.” 0 appearances in 20 matches say the rest.
Squad22 Nov 2027
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Saman Ebrahimi commits to Zob Ahan for another 3 years.
The dugout22 Nov 2027
Parsa Jafari 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 Parsa Jafari trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
The dugout22 Nov 2027
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Ramin Noorafkan after the 0‑0 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Squad25 Oct 2027
A knee injury of the worst kind for Ehsan Pahlevan
86 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Zob Ahan lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Player ratings25 Oct 2027
Kasra Taheri, 21, plays like he has been here for years — 7.87
A mark of 7.87 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 21-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
Player ratings25 Oct 2027
Successful dribbles: 25. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Match23 Oct 2027
Nobody wants to play Zob Ahan right now
3 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.
Squad25 Oct 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 Zob Ahan this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match23 Oct 2027
A 1‑0 win over Foolad, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Looking ahead25 Oct 2027
The big one: Sepahan come into view
Two sides from the top of the table, one afternoon, and a month of talk decided in ninety minutes. Zob Ahan will not use the word title this week and will not stop thinking it.
Squad25 Oct 2027
Nima Entezari 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.
Loan watch25 Oct 2027
“I am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at Zob Ahan, and 0 appearances in 16 say he has earned the hearing.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
The dugout11 Oct 2027
“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.
Squad11 Oct 2027
A row about effort at Padideh
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Amir Gholizadeh was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad11 Oct 2027
Words exchanged at Padideh
Abouazar Safarzadeh and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
The dugout11 Oct 2027
The manager makes an example of Kim Moon Hyeon
“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.
Market11 Oct 2027
The name of Amir Gholizadeh keeps appearing in other people's back pages. Padideh say nothing, which says plenty.
The dugout11 Oct 2027
“I would rather say it to his face than read about it.” The meeting was requested by the player, which tells you most of what you need to know.
Squad11 Oct 2027
Kaveh Taremi 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.
The dugout11 Oct 2027
He asked about his future and was given an answer with minutes in it. The manager has now made a promise in a building where promises are remembered, and the clock on it has started.
Squad11 Oct 2027
He looks like a man who lives here now rather than one who is working here. It took most of a season, and at Padideh the difference is visible from the back of the stand.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad6 Sep 2027
145 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Zob Ahan lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Market6 Sep 2027
The fee was agreed and the flight was looked at — and then the phone stopped ringing. Esteghlal moved on, Mohammad Javad Mohammadi reports back to Zob Ahan, and everybody pretends Monday is just Monday.
Market6 Sep 2027
Zob Ahan say no — this time
The offer from Esteghlal for Hasan Shoushtari was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
Boardroom6 Sep 2027
Deadline passes with 16 signed and 15 gone
That is the business done at Zob Ahan until the window opens again. Whether it was enough will be answered on Saturdays rather than in a column, and the first Saturday is close.
Squad6 Sep 2027
Ehsan Pahlevan 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.
Squad6 Sep 2027
Leandro Lucero 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.
Loan watch6 Sep 2027
“I watch every Zob Ahan game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Padideh runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
Market6 Sep 2027
The interest is real enough to have reached print. Zob Ahan have said nothing, which in a transfer window is its own kind of answer.
The dugout6 Sep 2027
“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
Squad30 Aug 2027
36 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Padideh lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Match28 Aug 2027
Some goals win a match and some take one off somebody else. Amir Gholizadeh scored in the 85th minute, Saipa had already begun thinking about the journey home, and Padideh took the lot.
Squad30 Aug 2027
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 35 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
The dugout30 Aug 2027
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Padideh may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Market30 Aug 2027
The name of Saeid Rezaeian has come up in conversations Padideh were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Squad30 Aug 2027
Erfan Bahri is a better footballer than he was
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 23 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
Squad30 Aug 2027
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Saeid Rezaeian commits to Padideh for another 5 years.
Match28 Aug 2027
Saipa made Padideh work for it, but the scoreboard read 2‑1 at the end and the table does not ask how.
The terraces30 Aug 2027
He is 23 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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market28 Jun 2027
$2.8M. No player has ever cost Padideh more, and expectation arrives with him.
Squad28 Jun 2027
Giulio breaks a bone — 49 days out
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 49 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Market28 Jun 2027
Sepahan come back empty-handed
The bid was some way short and Padideh did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Market28 Jun 2027
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Gostaresh Foulad waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Padideh is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Transfer targets28 Jun 2027
The deal with Zob Ahan is done in every sense but the one that puts him on the pitch. Nothing goes wrong at this stage, except on the occasions when it does.
Squad28 Jun 2027
The step up is real for Suood Ali
At 22 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.
The terraces28 Jun 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: Saeid Cheshmi from Rah Ahan for $2.8M, and a ticket office having a very good morning.
Squad28 Jun 2027
Reza 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.
Squad28 Jun 2027
Words exchanged at Padideh
Ashkan Cheshmi and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market28 Jun 2027
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Padideh waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Zob Ahan is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Market28 Jun 2027
“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 Zob Ahan, and it is not being withdrawn.
Transfer targets28 Jun 2027
Zob Ahan asked and Persepolis said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Squad28 Jun 2027
Words exchanged at Zob Ahan
Amir Hossein Hosseinzadeh and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Squad28 Jun 2027
At 23 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.
Squad28 Jun 2027
A row about effort at Zob Ahan
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Leandro Lucero was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad28 Jun 2027
Too much change too quickly at Zob Ahan
7 signings in three months. Every one of them may be an upgrade and the team can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild that never appears in the transfer-window verdicts.
The dugout28 Jun 2027
Rahman Jafari 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 Zob Ahan, and both men came out saying it was fine.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market7 Jun 2027
“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 Zob Ahan, and it is not being withdrawn.
Transfer targets7 Jun 2027
$610.0K on the table at Tractor. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
Boardroom7 Jun 2027
The number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $105.7K — a club that wants Vahid Ghoddos enough to be asked twice.
Transfer targets7 Jun 2027
Everything agreed with Standard Liege, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
Market7 Jun 2027
Only the photograph left for Kaveh Taremi
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Kaveh Taremi will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Zob Ahan the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad7 Jun 2027
Amir Hossein Hosseinzadeh 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.
Transfer targets7 Jun 2027
Zob Ahan have gone to Gostaresh Foulad with a bid, and the supporters have gone to the internet with an opinion about it. Whether either changes anything is up to the selling club.
Transfer targets7 Jun 2027
Zob Ahan asked and Tractor said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Market7 Jun 2027
The name of Hadi Baghban has come up in conversations Zob Ahan were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market10 May 2027
Only the photograph left for Kaveh Taremi
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Kaveh Taremi will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Zob Ahan the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad10 May 2027
Amir Hossein Hosseinzadeh 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.
Squad10 May 2027
Words at Zob Ahan training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Shayan Mosleh 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.
The dugout10 May 2027
The manager makes an example of Omid Latifi
“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.
Loan watch10 May 2027
27 appearances at Padideh and the goals have stopped going in. Zob Ahan lent out a goalkeeper and are watching somebody else’s season get better every week.
Market10 May 2027
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Zob Ahan know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.