Mehdi Karimi 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.
Squad12 Oct 2026
Words at Rah Ahan training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jordan Barrera 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 hardest thing about being 20 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Pejman Dejagah did not need any: 8.73, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Pejman Dejagah 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.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 20-year-old it feels ownership of. Pejman Dejagah 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.
Shots: 8, enough of them from close enough that a striker in form scores two. He is not a striker in form.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Words at Rah Ahan training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Alireza Cheshmi 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 87th minute, half the ground already edging towards the exits, and Mehdi Karimi decided nobody was going anywhere. Naft Tehran had no time left to answer.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Rah Ahan this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Words at Rah Ahan training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jordan Barrera 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Rah Ahan this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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.
A 2‑0 win over Esteghlal Khuzestan, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
The one version of being left out a player cannot argue with, and the one he takes worst. Somebody else has been better and the team sheet says so, in public, every week until it changes.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Reza Hajsafi trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Rah Ahan this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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.
“I respect the manager and I am not going to sit here and pretend I am happy.” It is the most common sentence in football and it has never once been the end of a story.
Marked 5.52. Nothing he attempted worked and by the hour mark he had stopped attempting much, which is the part a manager notices rather than the mistakes.
Cup ties wait for somebody to seize them, and Parham Movaghari obliged against Zob Ahan. 2‑1 on the night, and the name in the next round’s hat is Rah Ahan.
There is no crueller way to lose a football match. Rah Ahan scored in the 117th minute, the restart barely happened, and the away end was still standing when the whistle went.
Player ratings7 Sep 2026
Jordan Barrera, 20, plays like he has been here for years — 7.95
A mark of 7.95 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 20-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Rah Ahan can pretend not to have heard.
Pejman Dejagah 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 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.
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.
In brief
Player ratingsNinety minutes of Parham Movaghari at his very best
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Rah Ahan can pretend not to have heard.
Involvement in 2 goals, from a player who spent the ninety minutes doing the thing a manager actually wants: being where the ball was going to end up. 7.66 beside his name.
Mehdi Karimi 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 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.
It is a specific kind of quiet, a ground watching a winning position dissolve. Malavan kept coming because nothing stopped them, and Rah Ahan will be asked about the last half hour all week.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 7 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Pejman Dejagah 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.
Add another name to the list: Esteghlal Ahvaz have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Mohammad Moharrami. The answer from Rah Ahan has not changed — yet.
“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.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Karim Ghoddos 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.
The 2-goal deficit was real and so was the recovery. Vahid Vafaei was at the centre of it, Sepahan were at the end of it, and everybody who left early will hear about this one for years.
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
A brace, and Vahid Vafaei takes the afternoon — 8.86
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Vahid Vafaei provided it, and the 8.86 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Rah Ahan this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“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.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Words at Rah Ahan training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Karim Ghoddos 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.
Nobody will confirm this and nothing else explains the last month of selections. A costly error buys a player a period of being second choice that is always longer than the error was.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 8 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Mehdi Karimi 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 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.
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Rah Ahan has been clear about where Majid Mohammadi stands, which is more than many ever get.
“We pay for this every fortnight. The least we want is somebody who looks like he cares.” 10 of the 29 senior players walked off into it; the rest were not playing.
The bid was some way short and Rah Ahan did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Player ratings3 Aug 2026
A first appearance Saman Azmoun will want to forget — 5.70
Everybody's debut is one of two stories and this was the other one. 5.70, and the only consolation available is that nobody's career has ever been decided by ninety minutes in a shirt he had just been given.
Pejman Dejagah 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.
3 boys move up, and somewhere in the building the people who coached them at twelve are quietly having the best morning of their working year. Nothing about this shows up in a result and it is why the academy exists.
Add another name to the list: Naft Tehran have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Reza Hajsafi. The answer from Rah Ahan has not changed — yet.
1‑3 to Gostaresh Foulad, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Words at Rah Ahan training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Amir Torabi 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.