Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 18 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
6 goals in one match, Amir Jahanbakhsh on the scoresheet, and a scoreline that will look like a misprint. Neutrals could not have asked more of Rah Ahan and Malavan.
9.44. 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.
Squad28 Dec 2026
Words at Rah Ahan training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Masoud Ebrahimi 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.
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Kaveh Cheshmi on a 4‑2 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Sardar Hosseini is on it.
In brief
The dugoutSomebody else is better right now than Hasan Jafari
A brace, and Majid Torabi takes the afternoon — 7.91
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Majid Torabi provided it, and the 7.91 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
At 21 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.
Sardar Hosseini 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.
6 goals in one match, Majid Torabi on the scoresheet, and a scoreline that will look like a misprint. Neutrals could not have asked more of Rah Ahan and Sepahan.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Majid Torabi. 4‑2 against Sepahan, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Masoud Ebrahimi was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
He won it back and then made something of it, which is two jobs and the reason the scoreline looks the way it does. 13 combined actions and a mark of 7.07, and not one of them will make a highlights package.
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.
Sardar Hosseini 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.
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Milad Cheshmi is on it.
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.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Rah Ahan know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Ali Sheikhan’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Rah Ahan needing him to play as if none of it matters.
Esteghlal go through and Rah Ahan go home, 2‑3 the scoreline that did it. The dressing room will call the league the priority now, because that is what dressing rooms say.
“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.
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.
The words a physio says slowly. 16 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Two goals and a mark of 8.85 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Arturo Martinelli is 18, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
8 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.
There is a particular helplessness in conceding 2 times before the twentieth minute. Siah Jamegan tried to reorganise, Rah Ahan did not allow it, and the result was written long before it was confirmed.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 12 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
23 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Rah Ahan lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Sardar Hosseini 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.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Kaveh Cheshmi after 0‑2, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
Nobody at Rah Ahan is suggesting he is out of form. The manager simply wanted somebody with a different set of qualities for ninety specific minutes, and there is nothing a player can train to fix that.
The words a physio says slowly. 30 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Sardar Hosseini 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Masoud Ebrahimi was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The fixture the rest of the division is looking forward to more than either of the sides in it. Both know a win changes the season and a defeat does not end it, which is what makes it hard to play.
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Abolfazl Zoleykhaei is on it.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Rah Ahan know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Alireza Homaeifard’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Rah Ahan needing him to play as if none of it matters.
“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.
The words a physio says slowly. 38 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
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.
Hard to beat is not the same as winning, but 6 matches without defeat is a foundation Rah Ahan did not have in the autumn.
Squad9 Nov 2026
Words at Rah Ahan training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Masoud Ebrahimi 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.
46 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Rah Ahan lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Ashkan Ghoddos. 2‑0 against Esteghlal Ahvaz, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Two sides from the top of the table, one afternoon, and a month of talk decided in ninety minutes. Rah Ahan will not use the word title this week and will not stop thinking it.
The board have answered with money instead of encouragement, which is the only answer a manager ever wants. Spending it well is now entirely his problem.
The manager has re-ordered his thinking and Hasan Jafari has come out of it lower. He will be told it is temporary, and the players who have heard that before will avoid his eye.
6 new signings in one window. Every one may be an upgrade and the side can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild the verdicts never mention.
53 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Rah Ahan lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Sardar Hosseini 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.
Squad26 Oct 2026
Words at Rah Ahan training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Masoud Ebrahimi 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.
Successful dribbles: 17. 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.
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Sardar Hosseini is on it.
A 1‑1 draw with Tractor leaves the dressing room somewhere between relief and regret.
The dugout26 Oct 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.” Kaveh Cheshmi chose the glass-half-full version of 1‑1; the supporters left with the other one.
The words a physio says slowly. 61 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
3 wins in a row changes how opponents warm up: quieter, more glances across. Runs end, everybody knows that — but nobody in this dressing room is planning for it.
At 20 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.
Sardar Hosseini 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.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Words at Rah Ahan training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Masoud Ebrahimi 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.
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.
68 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Rah Ahan lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Morteza Dejagah is 21, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
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.
It happens to all of them and it is still the hardest paragraph a local paper has to write. 36 years old, 4 points down on where he was, and a body that has started charging interest on a career.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Shahin Shojaei’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Rah Ahan needing him to play as if none of it matters.
The words a physio says slowly. 76 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Masoud Ebrahimi was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Kaveh Cheshmi on a 1‑0 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Milad Cheshmi is on it.
83 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Rah Ahan lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Sardar Hosseini 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.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Arturo Martinelli is 18, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Masoud Ebrahimi was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
A performance of 8.27 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
The dugout28 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.” Kaveh Cheshmi, on a 2‑0 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
In brief
The dugoutAhmad Vafaei has become a man the manager trusts
90 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Rah Ahan lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
0‑3 to Padideh, and it was every bit as bad as the number suggests. There are defeats you argue about and defeats you apologise for; this was the second kind.
Sardar Hosseini 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 supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 0‑3, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Sardar Hosseini is on it.
97 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Rah Ahan lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
“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 Rah Ahan, and it is not being withdrawn.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Ali Sheikhan is living that version at Rah Ahan, and it tends to show in the first month.
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.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Morteza Dejagah is 21, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
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.
106 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Rah Ahan lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
“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.
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 8 arrived, 2 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Foolad have kept their man, and Rah Ahan go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Words at Rah Ahan training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Masoud Ebrahimi 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 manager has re-ordered his thinking and Saman Rezaeian has come out of it lower. He will be told it is temporary, and the players who have heard that before will avoid his eye.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Sardar Hosseini signs something — a contract at Rah Ahan or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
In brief
MarketThe window shut and Majid Ebrahimi is still in the building
114 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Rah Ahan lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
“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.
The offer from Hajduk Split for Majid Ebrahimi 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.
Sardar Hosseini 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.
Boards get told what they have done wrong for years and hear nothing on the days they get it right. This is one of those days: Abolfazl Zoleykhaei from Esteghlal for $800.0K, and a ticket office having a very good morning.
121 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Rah Ahan lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
“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 Rah Ahan, and it is not being withdrawn.
The name of Majid Ebrahimi has come up in conversations Rah Ahan were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Sardar Hosseini 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.
Alireza Homaeifard was the name on every phone-in, and the club has gone and signed him for $300.0K. For one week the board can do no wrong, which is a week most boards never get.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Words at Rah Ahan training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Masoud Ebrahimi 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.
Rah Ahan asked and Esteghlal Khuzestan said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Alireza Homaeifard is 20, and Rah Ahan have signed him for the player he will be rather than the one he is. The first team can wait; the point of a deal like this is the years it buys.
The words a physio says slowly. 128 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Two goals and a mark of 8.86 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
The clubs have shaken hands with Persepolis; the player has not yet. Personal terms are next, and personal terms are where more deals die than anybody prints.
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Masoud Ebrahimi was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
He is 22 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.
The offer from Gostaresh Foulad for Masoud Yazdani 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.
The number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $368.0K — a club that wants Hamid Reza Shamsipour enough to be asked twice.
The offer went to Malavan this week and it is theirs to answer. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loud the door closes.
Rah Ahan asked and Padideh said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Sardar Hosseini 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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Majid Ebrahimi trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
The offer from Esteghlal Ahvaz for Morteza Khodadad 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.
“I have ambitions, and I would like the club to share them.” Nobody has asked to leave and nobody has been shown the door — but a player chooses that sentence carefully, and a boardroom hears it exactly as it was meant.
Sardar Hosseini and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Boardroom3 Aug 2026
5 academy players handed senior numbers at Rah Ahan
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.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Words at Rah Ahan training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Masoud Ebrahimi 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.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Ramin Shojaei is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Ashkan 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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Sardar Hosseini trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager’s verdict
BoardroomRah Ahan say no to the training-ground money
The dugoutThe plan did not have a place for Majid Ebrahimi