From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad12 Oct 2026
A knee injury of the worst kind for Younes Akbarpour
86 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.
Squad12 Oct 2026
A fracture rules Ghaem Eslamikhah out for 62 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Malavan will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Squad12 Oct 2026
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Farzad Rahimi is 20, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Squad12 Oct 2026
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.
Player ratings12 Oct 2026
Mehdi Abdi leaves them behind him
Shots: 8. Goals: none. The chances were there and they were good ones, and they went into the stand, the goalkeeper's arms and the side netting in roughly that order.
Player ratings12 Oct 2026
Successful dribbles: 14. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
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
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
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
“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
“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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad28 Sep 2026
A knee injury of the worst kind for Younes Akbarpour
100 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.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 77 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Squad28 Sep 2026
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.
Squad28 Sep 2026
The manager makes an example of Mehdi Abdi
“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.
Player ratings28 Sep 2026
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.15, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Match26 Sep 2026
A 1‑1 draw with Sepahan leaves the dressing room somewhere between relief and regret.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad21 Sep 2026
A knee injury of the worst kind for Younes Akbarpour
107 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.
Squad21 Sep 2026
A fracture rules Ghaem Eslamikhah out for 85 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Malavan will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Squad21 Sep 2026
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.
Match19 Sep 2026
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.
Squad21 Sep 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Mohammad Alinejad, and the manager let it.
Player ratings21 Sep 2026
Marked 7.93. Ask anyone leaving the ground what settled it and you will get one name, which is the only award that has ever really counted.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad14 Sep 2026
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 93 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Words at Malavan training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Abouazar Safarzadeh 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 Sep 2026
Francisco Ayala 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.
Match12 Sep 2026
It finished 1‑0, and it was Mehdi Abdi’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Malavan.
Squad14 Sep 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Sajjad Ashouri, and the manager let it.
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
Marked 7.96. Ask anyone leaving the ground what settled it and you will get one name, which is the only award that has ever really counted.
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
Defensive actions: 14, and a clean sheet at the end of it. A centre-half's best afternoons look like nothing happening, which is precisely the point.
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
12 defensive actions and a clean sheet at the end of them. A defender's afternoon can only be told by what did not happen, which is why nobody makes a highlights package out of one and every manager in the division would take it.
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
A mark of 5.78 tells the story without any need for embellishment. He will want the tape of this one quietly lost.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad7 Sep 2026
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 100 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Match2 Sep 2026
Cup progress for Malavan
A 3‑2 win over Foolad, a place in the next round, and the quiet arithmetic every supporter does on the walk home: how many more until a final?
Match2 Sep 2026
Some goals win a match and some take one off somebody else. Lautaro Agüero scored in the 86th minute, Foolad had already begun thinking about the journey home, and Malavan took the lot.
Player ratings7 Sep 2026
Age has not caught Lautaro Agüero yet — 8.03
At 33 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.03 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Abouazar Safarzadeh 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.
Squad7 Sep 2026
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.
The terraces7 Sep 2026
The crowd has taken to Iliya Imani
At 22 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.
Squad7 Sep 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Issa Alekasir, and the manager let it.
Match5 Sep 2026
Siah Jamegan left with the points after a 0‑1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad31 Aug 2026
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 107 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Squad31 Aug 2026
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.
Match29 Aug 2026
Persepolis left with the points after a 0‑1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Squad31 Aug 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Behnam Barzay, and the manager let it.
Squad31 Aug 2026
There is no complaint available here and everybody involved knows it, which does not make the walk to the bench any shorter. Form is the only currency in football that cannot be borrowed against.
Market31 Aug 2026
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Malavan has been clear about where Mohammad Reza Khosravi stands, which is more than many ever get.
Player ratings31 Aug 2026
Mehdi Abdi could have had three
5 attempts, none of them in. He got into the right places all afternoon, which is the hard part, and did the easy part badly — and that is the version of a bad day a manager can live with.
Market31 Aug 2026
Malavan have let the market know Behnam Barzay can be had. No price in the advert, but everyone in the trade knows roughly what it says.
Player ratings31 Aug 2026
Shots: 4. Goals: none. The chances were there and they were good ones, and they went into the stand, the goalkeeper's arms and the side netting in roughly that order.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad24 Aug 2026
A fracture rules Ghaem Eslamikhah out for 115 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Malavan will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Market24 Aug 2026
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Malavan can pretend not to have heard.
Squad24 Aug 2026
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.
Squad24 Aug 2026
“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 ratings24 Aug 2026
Mehdi Abdi was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.07. 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.
Squad24 Aug 2026
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.
Match22 Aug 2026
It needed Mahan Sadeghi to find the net to bring anything home at all: 2‑2 against Rah Ahan, and half the dressing room will call it a point won.
Market24 Aug 2026
“They were honest with me, and I would rather know.” Farhan Jafari has been informed he is not in the manager's thinking at Malavan.
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
4 attempts, none of them in. He got into the right places all afternoon, which is the hard part, and did the easy part badly — and that is the version of a bad day a manager can live with.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad17 Aug 2026
A fracture rules Ghaem Eslamikhah out for 122 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Malavan will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Squad17 Aug 2026
There were 8 saves in it, and at least three that had no business being saves at all. The ten outfield players owe him a drink and they know it.
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
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.
Market17 Aug 2026
Zob Ahan 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.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Farzad Rahimi gets the move he always wanted
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Farzad Rahimi has just signed for Malavan, and for once the answer mattered.
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
23 defensive actions and a clean sheet at the end of them. A defender's afternoon can only be told by what did not happen, which is why nobody makes a highlights package out of one and every manager in the division would take it.
Squad17 Aug 2026
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.
The terraces17 Aug 2026
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.
Match15 Aug 2026
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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
The terraces10 Aug 2026
The ground has had enough
“We travel everywhere and we get this.” 8 of the 29 senior players heard it walking off, and the ones who did not hear it were not playing.
Squad10 Aug 2026
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.
Match8 Aug 2026
Tractor left with the points after a 1‑3 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
The terraces10 Aug 2026
Malavan supporters have found a favourite in Danial Eiri
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 22-year-old it feels ownership of. Danial Eiri 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.
Market10 Aug 2026
The name of Alireza Ramezani has come up in conversations Malavan were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Squad10 Aug 2026
The manager makes an example of Mehdi Abdi
“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.
Player ratings10 Aug 2026
Marked 8.24 — 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.
Player ratings10 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 17. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Market10 Aug 2026
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Malavan, another week without a signature from Issa Alekasir.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad3 Aug 2026
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Issa Alekasir commits to Malavan for another 2 years.
Squad3 Aug 2026
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.
Boardroom3 Aug 2026
4 academy players handed senior numbers at Malavan
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.
Match1 Aug 2026
Beaten 1‑2, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Market3 Aug 2026
The name of Parham Movaghari has come up in conversations Malavan were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Player ratings3 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 19. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad3 Aug 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Ghaem Eslamikhah, and the manager let it.
Market3 Aug 2026
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Alireza Hajsafi is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Market3 Aug 2026
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Omid Gholizadeh 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.