55 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Tractor lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 29 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Tractor have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
“I watch every Tractor game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Esteghlal Ahvaz runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
62 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Tractor lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Tractor will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
There were 88 minutes on the clock and Gostaresh Foulad had all but banked the point. Football rarely reads the room, and Tractor did not stop to explain themselves.
At 33 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.17 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Amir Hossein Hosseinzadeh 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 without a win is the sort of run that changes how a town talks about its club, and Gostaresh Foulad were the afternoon it stopped. Nothing is fixed by one result and everything feels different by one.
Squad15 Feb 2027
Getting past Alireza Beiranvand has become the hardest job in the division
14 clean sheets and counting. Forwards used to back themselves here; now they shoot early, shoot wide, and look for somebody to blame.
The words a physio says slowly. 69 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.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 44 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
6 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
Amir Hossein Hosseinzadeh 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Esteghlal Khuzestan have kept their man, and Tractor go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Marked 8.15. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Tractor.
The dugout8 Feb 2027
The manager has not finished forgetting Tibor Halilović's mistake
Publicly it is behind everybody. It is not behind the man who picks the team, and the only place that shows is a team sheet. He will get another chance; he will get it in a match that matters less.
The words a physio says slowly. 78 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.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 52 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Successful dribbles: 25. 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.
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 1 arrived, 3 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
The chances are being made and something is happening between the making and the finishing. 5 matches now, and the anxiety in the ground arrives a little earlier every week.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Tractor this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Al Wasl have kept their man, and Tractor go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
85 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Tractor lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 59 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Padideh is saying, and nobody at Tractor is enjoying the guessing.
The chances are being made and something is happening between the making and the finishing. 4 matches now, and the anxiety in the ground arrives a little earlier every week.
Alireza Ghoddos 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.
94 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Tractor lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 68 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
The offer from Padideh for Saeid Karimazar 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.
Amir Hossein Hosseinzadeh 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 chances are being made and something is happening between the making and the finishing. 3 matches now, and the anxiety in the ground arrives a little earlier every week.
Tractor asked and Al-Ittihad said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
The words a physio says slowly. 103 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.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 75 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 6 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Tractor can pretend not to have heard.
The phone has started ringing about Mehdi Hashemnejad again, and this time the name on the line is Sepahan. Tractor are listening politely and promising nothing.
Amir Hossein Hosseinzadeh 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Persepolis have kept their man, and Tractor go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
The words a physio says slowly. 112 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.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 82 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
“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 Tractor, and it is not being withdrawn.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Tractor this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. CSKA Moscow have kept their man, and Tractor go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Alireza Ghoddos was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Warm-up bib, ninety minutes of watching, and a handshake at the end that fooled nobody. Big matches tell you who a manager trusts; this one told Danial Esmaeilifar.
The words a physio says slowly. 121 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.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Tractor will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Amir Hossein Hosseinzadeh. 2‑0 against Naft Tehran, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Marked 8.29 — 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.
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.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Tractor will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Amir Hossein Hosseinzadeh 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.
Squad21 Dec 2026
Words at Tractor training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Alireza 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.
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.
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Saeid Rezaeian after the 0‑0 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
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.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Tractor will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Amir Hossein Hosseinzadeh 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 no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Amir Hosseini has been at this club since he was a boy and is now, formally, one of the first-team squad — which for a local readership beats any signing of any size.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Pejman 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.
Padideh left with the points after a 0‑1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
The dugout14 Dec 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 0‑1 Saeid Rezaeian left the room before anybody could ask which.
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 Alireza Beiranvand is on it.
The team sheet says it in public every week until it changes. The only version of being dropped a footballer cannot argue with, and the one he takes hardest.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 114 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Alireza Ghoddos provided it, and the 8.51 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Tibor Halilović scored, was marked 7.93, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Tractor this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 123 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Successful dribbles: 29. 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.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Alireza Ghoddos 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.
Marked 8.18. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Tractor.
Squad30 Nov 2026
Words at Tractor training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Alireza 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.
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.
Amir Hossein Hosseinzadeh 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.
“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.
The dugout23 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 0‑2 Saeid Rezaeian left the room before anybody could ask which.
1 error, one goal, and a night in front of the same three seconds. He will see it tonight, tomorrow and probably in February, and everybody who has played knows exactly which frame he keeps stopping on.
The dugout23 Nov 2026
The manager has not finished forgetting Milad Zakipour's mistake
Publicly it is behind everybody. It is not behind the man who picks the team, and the only place that shows is a team sheet. He will get another chance; he will get it in a match that matters less.
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.
8 without a win is the sort of run that changes how a town talks about its club, and Sepahan were the afternoon it stopped. Nothing is fixed by one result and everything feels different by one.
Amir Hossein Hosseinzadeh 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 call-ups is a compliment to the squad and a headache for the man running it. He will get them back in a fortnight, tired, in various states of repair.
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Saeid Rezaeian on a 1‑0 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
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.
Malavan next, and one man in the Tractor dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Tractor this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Milad Karimi 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. Omid Jahanbakhsh 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.
Half the programme played, position 8, 21 on the board. Doubling it is the sum every supporter has done and the only one nobody at the club will do out loud.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Alireza Ghoddos was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
7 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
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.
Something was said to Odiljon Hamrobekov and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
“I watch every Tractor game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Esteghlal Ahvaz runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
“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.
The dugout2 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.” Saeid Rezaeian chose the glass-half-full version of 0‑0; the supporters left with the other one.
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.
6 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
Amir Hossein Hosseinzadeh 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.
“It is not the end of the world and it is not good enough. Both of those are true.” The manager, after a 0‑0 draw, said the honest thing and then went to say it again inside.
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 manager wanted a different profile for this opponent, which is a real football reason and no consolation. He did nothing wrong and he did not play.
Ninety minutes, no goals, and the argument started before the car park emptied: a point gained, or two thrown away against Siah Jamegan? Both sides of it will still be going on Thursday.
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.
Amir Hossein Hosseinzadeh 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.
Successful dribbles: 17. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Words at Tractor training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Alireza 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.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Tractor told Domagoj Drožđek something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
Siah Jamegan next, and one man in the Tractor dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Tractor have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
7.68, 1 on the scoresheet, and the specific comedy of a back-four player celebrating like somebody who does this every week. He does not, and that is exactly why the ground reacted the way it did.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Tractor this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Saeid Noorafkan is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 1‑3, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
“I watch every Tractor game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Esteghlal Ahvaz runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
200 games in the shirt. Nobody sets out to build a record like that; it happens to a certain kind of player at a certain kind of club, and this town knows what it has.
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.
Four or five weekends of consistency, judged against everybody in the division doing his job. Tomislav Štrkalj has come out of that comparison in the side, and Tractor have had the benefit of every one of those afternoons.
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.
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Igor Postonjski scored, was marked 7.67, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
Successful dribbles: 25. 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.
The first defeat in 9 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.
Amir Hossein Hosseinzadeh 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 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 supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 1‑2, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
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.
Successful dribbles: 23. 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.
Amir Hossein Hosseinzadeh 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 Alireza Ghoddos was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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.
The dugout21 Sep 2026
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Saeid Rezaeian was not hiding it after 0‑0, and nobody in the Tractor dressing room was either.
The team at the top of the table next, and the honest measure of where this side actually is. Anybody can beat the club below them; the question is what happens against Esteghlal.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Tractor this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
3 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.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Ramin Hajsafi is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Marked 8.46 — 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.
Marked 8.21 — 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.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Domagoj Drožđek provided it, and the 9.10 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Two goals and a mark of 8.41 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 17 arrived, 3 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. Gostaresh Foulad have kept their man, and Tractor go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Tractor can pretend not to have heard.
Amir Hossein Hosseinzadeh 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Al-Ittihad have kept their man, and Tractor go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Successful dribbles: 19. 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.
The offer from Saipa for Sadegh Moharrami 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 last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Tractor have lost him in all but the paperwork.
“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 Tractor, and it is not being withdrawn.
Tractor have gone to Sepahan with a bid, and the supporters have gone to the internet with an opinion about it. Whether either changes anything is up to the selling club.
Amir Hossein Hosseinzadeh 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.
Tractor asked and Al-Ahli said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
The chase for Alireza Ghoddos ended with $3.3M changing hands and Siah Jamegan out of reasons to say no. The supporters will judge the fee the only way that matters: on Saturdays.
Successful dribbles: 25. 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.
Tractor 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.
The offer from Zob Ahan for Milad Kor 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Tractor this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Mahyar Zahmatkesh has, at Tractor, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
The terraces17 Aug 2026
Tractor spend $3.3M on the signing the town wanted
It is the rarest sequence in football: supporters ask for something, and the club goes and does it. $3.3M for Alireza Ghoddos, and for one week nobody is complaining about anything.
Successful dribbles: 32. 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.
The clubs have shaken hands with Siah Jamegan; the player has not yet. Personal terms are next, and personal terms are where more deals die than anybody prints.
The offer from Esteghlal for Amir Hossein Hosseinzadeh 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 know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” Esteghlal Ahvaz had the fee agreed and the shirt ready; they did not have the player, and now they will not.
Tractor had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Al-Hilal, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Amir Hossein Hosseinzadeh and Tractor agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Amir Hossein Hosseinzadeh 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 phone has started ringing about Milad Kor again, and this time the name on the line is Zob Ahan. Tractor are listening politely and promising nothing.
There is no crueller way to lose a football match. Tractor scored in the 90th minute, the restart barely happened, and the away end was still standing when the whistle went.
4 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.
Tractor asked and Al-Ittihad said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Ashkan Hajsafi 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.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Karim Torabi has been at this club since he was a boy and is now, formally, one of the first-team squad — which for a local readership beats any signing of any size.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Masoud Pouraliganji has been at this club since he was a boy and is now, formally, one of the first-team squad — which for a local readership beats any signing of any size.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Omid Nekounam 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.