Mohammad Alinejad

Attacking Midfielder (R) - Malavan
3 Oct 2026
Saturday
Process

Marked for Mohammad Alinejad

8 Edition

The Malavan Courier

21 Sep 2026
From our football correspondent Upbeat

Squad

A knee injury of the worst kind for Vahid Ebrahimi

25 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.

Player ratings

Both of them Mojtaba Fakhrian's — 8.85

2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 8.85, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.

Squad

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.

Match

Malavan find a way past Foolad

Foolad made Malavan work for it, but the scoreboard read 2‑1 at the end and the table does not ask how.

The terraces

The crowd has taken to Farhan Jafari

At 20 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.

Market

No place for Mohammad Alinejad in the plan

“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Mohammad Alinejad has his answer from Malavan; what he does with it is the next window’s story.

Squad

Too much change too quickly at Malavan

9 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 dugout

A satisfied Masoud Beiranvand

“The players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 2‑1, Masoud Beiranvand could afford to be generous.

Squad

Pouya Reshadi Mohammadi 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.

In brief

Back issues
7 Edition

The Malavan Courier

14 Sep 2026
From our football correspondent Upbeat

Squad

A knee injury of the worst kind for Vahid Ebrahimi

33 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.

Player ratings

Mojtaba Fakhrian scores twice — 8.69

Two goals and a mark of 8.69 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.

The dugout

Mohammad Alinejad keeps the receipts

“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Malavan may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.

Market

Foolad come back empty-handed

The bid was some way short and Malavan did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.

Squad

Zafarbek Rahimjonov gets the move he always wanted

Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Zafarbek Rahimjonov has just signed for Malavan, and for once the answer mattered.

Squad

Tempers go at Malavan

Hossein Sadeghi 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.

The terraces

One of their own: Mojtaba Fakhrian

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.

Match

Mojtaba Fakhrian the difference as Malavan beat Gostaresh Foulad

Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Mojtaba Fakhrian. 2‑0 against Gostaresh Foulad, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.

Market

Malavan promote Hossein Karimi from within

The academy exists for exactly this morning. Hossein Karimi 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.

In brief

3 Edition

The Malavan Courier

17 Aug 2026
From our football correspondent Upbeat

Match

No mercy from Malavan

Esteghlal Ahvaz will want this one forgotten quickly: 3‑0, every duel lost, and a long ride home. Malavan were ruthless in the way good sides are ruthless.

Player ratings

Jafar Salmani was unplayable

Successful dribbles: 24. 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.

Transfer targets

Kaveh Shojaei is a medical away from Malavan

The deal with Rah 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.

Squad

Tempers go at Malavan

Ghaem Eslamikhah 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 targets

Malavan rebuffed over Hossein Kazeminia

Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Foolad have kept their man, and Malavan go back to a list with one name crossed off it.

Player ratings

Mojtaba Fakhrian was on a different afternoon to everybody else

8.95. 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 terraces

The crowd has taken to Mojtaba Fakhrian

At 23 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.

Market

Foolad watching Hamid Reza Shamsipour

The interest is real enough to have reached print. Malavan have said nothing, which in a transfer window is its own kind of answer.

Player ratings

One of those days for Mehdi Abdi

There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.64, and no argument anywhere in the ground.

In brief