The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Persepolis people have started saying his name in the past tense.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.15 at 33, and nobody on the pitch was better.
3 wins on the spin now, and the question has changed from whether the run ends to who ends it. Confidence like this cannot be bought; it has to be earned exactly this way.
The name of Mehdi Zare has come up in conversations Persepolis were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Persepolis have lost him in all but the paperwork.
The board had gone up, the arguing had started, and then the ball was in the net in the 90th minute. Naft Tehran will replay every second of the added time for a week.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Persepolis can pretend not to have heard.
Hossein Kanaani 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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Igor Sergeev. 4‑2 against Naft Tehran, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
“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 The request is on a desk at Persepolis, and it is not being withdrawn.
At 33 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 9.98 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
The name of Hossein Kanaani has come up in conversations Persepolis were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
1 for Mohammad Khodabandelou, marked 7.94, and a centre-half's name in the part of the report he normally only reaches by mistake. He will not be allowed to forget it in the dressing room for a month.
He will play here until the summer and then walk out of the door for free, having already signed elsewhere. Supporters will manage the first part of that sentence; it is the second they will struggle with.
“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 Persepolis, and it is not being withdrawn.
The offer from Zob Ahan for Oston O'runov 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.
Persepolis 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Persepolis this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Mohammad Khodabandelou has his answer from Persepolis; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
Add another name to the list: Zob Ahan have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Amir Reza Rafiei. The answer from Persepolis has not changed — yet.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Persepolis have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 7.84 at 34, and nobody on the pitch was better.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Persepolis this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Payam Niazmand, and the manager let it.
The dugout28 Dec 2026
The view from the dugout
“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 1‑2 defeat, delivered by Masoud Khodadad to a room that had heard them before.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Persepolis told Danial Eiri something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
Squad28 Dec 2026
Words at Persepolis training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Amir Reza Rafiei 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.
5‑0, and Igor Sergeev took the headlines on an afternoon when everything Persepolis tried came off. Days like this are retold all winter.
Player ratings21 Dec 2026
A brace, and Igor Sergeev takes the afternoon — 9.55
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Igor Sergeev provided it, and the 9.55 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.00 at 34, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Amir Reza Rafiei 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 dugout21 Dec 2026
The view from the dugout
“We controlled it. There were spells I did not like and we will look at them, but the group showed me something.” Masoud Khodadad, on a 5‑0 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
In brief
Player ratingsA defender's afternoon for Danial Eiri
At 34 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.54 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
12 without defeat on their own grass. The pitch has not changed; the crowd has — louder earlier, and quicker to sense when the opposition would rather be somewhere else.
He is 20 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Persepolis this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
It needed Mohammad Mehdi Mohebi to find the net to bring anything home at all: 2‑2 against Foolad, and half the dressing room will call it a point won.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Persepolis told Hossein Abarghouei something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
Squad30 Nov 2026
Words at Persepolis training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Amir Reza Rafiei 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 dugout30 Nov 2026
The view from the dugout
“We did not lose. Some weeks that is all you get, and I would rather have the point than not.” Masoud Khodadad chose the glass-half-full version of 2‑2; the supporters left with the other one.
The first defeat in 15 matches. The manager will say it had to come; the dressing room will say it did not have to come against Esteghlal; the supporters will say both, in that order, all week.
Marked 8.01 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
Position 2, 34 points, and every result so far reduced to one line. The second half of the season starts with the same squad and a different set of expectations.
The dugout9 Nov 2026
Igor Sergeev is still being punished for one mistake
Nobody will confirm it and the team sheets confirm it every week. One error has bought him a spell as second choice that is already longer than the error deserved.
The dugout9 Nov 2026
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 1‑2 Masoud Khodadad left the room before anybody could ask which.
Two goals and a mark of 9.30 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
34 points, and the rest of the division looking up. Every side that finishes first spends the season pretending it is not thinking about it, and this one has started pretending.
The hardest thing about being 21 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Mohammad Reza Mirshafieian did not need any: 7.96, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
9 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
At 21 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.
Successful dribbles: 33. 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.
A mark of 7.82 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.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Persepolis have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Match24 Oct 2026
Another one collected away from home
6 on the bounce on the road for Persepolis. The coaches leave early, arrive at unlovely grounds in the dark, and keep coming home with three points.
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.
A 2‑0 win over Esteghlal Ahvaz, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Naft Tehran will want this one forgotten quickly: 5‑1, every duel lost, and a long ride home. Persepolis were ruthless in the way good sides are ruthless.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 10.00 at 33, and nobody on the pitch was better.
24 points, and the rest of the division looking up. Every side that finishes first spends the season pretending it is not thinking about it, and this one has started pretending.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Persepolis have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Persepolis this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 6 goals between Persepolis and Naft Tehran, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.
Esteghlal Khuzestan will want this one forgotten quickly: 4‑1, every duel lost, and a long ride home. Persepolis were ruthless in the way good sides are ruthless.
Player ratings28 Sep 2026
A brace, and Igor Sergeev takes the afternoon — 9.62
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Igor Sergeev provided it, and the 9.62 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Hossein Kanaani 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.
4 straight away victories. Sides that win away are usually sides that can defend and can counter, and the table has begun to reflect what those journeys have earned.
Player ratings28 Sep 2026
Ali Alipour was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.41. 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.
At 33 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.16 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Hossein Kanaani 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.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 22-year-old it feels ownership of. Mohammad Hossein Sadeghi has it now, and everything he does for the rest of his time here will be measured against the goodwill he was handed for free.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Igor Sergeev. 2‑0 against Padideh, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Marked 8.12 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Persepolis has been clear about where Marko Bakić stands, which is more than many ever get.
The dugout21 Sep 2026
The view from the dugout
“We controlled it. There were spells I did not like and we will look at them, but the group showed me something.” Masoud Khodadad, on a 2‑0 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
Persepolis and Esteghlal have settled on $1.2M. The rest belongs to the player and his agent, and a supporter who has watched one of these before knows not to buy the shirt yet.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.17 at 33, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Persepolis offered $1.9M; Malavan said it was not close. The manager will be told the money is still there for the right player, which is what managers are told.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Padideh have kept their man, and Persepolis go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Hossein Kanaani 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.
At 33 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.22 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Persepolis this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Boardroom3 Aug 2026
5 academy players handed senior numbers at Persepolis
The morning the pathway stops being a brochure and becomes a team sheet. Most of them will not be here in three years; all of them have already done the hard part, which was getting to today.
Marked 6.82 on 13 actions at both ends of the pitch. Midfielders like this get described as unspectacular by people who have never tried to play against one.
The phone has started ringing about Soheil Sahraei again, and this time the name on the line is Al Shaab. Persepolis are listening politely and promising nothing.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Reza Shojaei 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.