The Persepolis Courier
Player ratings5 Oct 2026
A brace, and Igor Sergeev takes the afternoon — 8.56
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Igor Sergeev provided it, and the 8.56 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Dániel Gera keeps the receipts
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Persepolis may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Tempers go at Persepolis
Igor Sergeev 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.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Emil Krafth 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.
Match3 Oct 2026
Persepolis see off Naft Tehran
Three points for Persepolis, 3‑1 the final word against Naft Tehran in a contest settled by the finer margins.
Squad5 Oct 2026
No hiding place for Emil Krafth
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Emil Krafth, and the manager let it.
Player ratings5 Oct 2026
Ninety minutes of Hossein Kanaani at his very best
Marked 8.91. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Persepolis.
Boardroom5 Oct 2026
Wages eat 116% of everything Persepolis earn
There is a figure at which a wage bill stops being ambitious and becomes the reason nothing else is possible, and this club has reached it. Nothing is left over for a transfer, a stand or a rainy afternoon.
Player ratings5 Oct 2026
Reza Shekari runs at them all day
Successful dribbles: 9. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
In brief
- The terraces The press have found their man in Hossein Kanaani
- Loan watch Mohammad Hossein Sadeghi has made Najran’s shirt his own
- The terraces The stand has a song for Hossein Kanaani