The Malavan Courier
Squad5 Oct 2026
A knee injury of the worst kind for Younes Akbarpour
93 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Malavan lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Ghaem Eslamikhah breaks a bone — 70 days out
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 70 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Ghaem Eslamikhah 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 Malavan this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Boardroom5 Oct 2026
151% of the income goes out in wages at Malavan
Every club in football pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time somebody has tried it.
Squad5 Oct 2026
The manager makes an example of Abouazar Safarzadeh
“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.
Market5 Oct 2026
Malavan and Mohammad Alinejad are talking past each other
“There is a gap, and pretending there is not helps nobody.” Neither side has moved, and the calendar is working for exactly one of them.
In brief
- The terraces Everybody has an opinion about Mehdi Abdi
- Match Malavan draw a blank against Esteghlal
- Player ratings Farhan Jafari runs at them all day