Mes Kerman

Mehdi Rahmati spent part of his career between the posts at Shahid Raisi Stadium, and it was there, in the 2007–08 season, that he was named the league's Goalkeeper of the Year — a rare individual honour for a side that has spent more of its history climbing than staying put. Sanat Mes Kerman grew out of the copper trade: the National Iranian Copper Industries Company set the club up on 2 March 1998, and the name Mes, Persian for copper, has stuck ever since, worn on orange shirts that gave the team its nickname, the Orange-clad.

The early years moved fast. Mes Kerman won the third tier in 1999–2000 and reached the top flight within a handful of seasons, then took the Azadegan League title in 2005–06. Four years later they went far enough in the AFC Champions League to reach the round of 16, and in 2013–14 they came within one match of the Hazfi Cup, losing the final to Tractor Sazi.

Kerman itself gives the club its edge: matches against Gol Gohar of Sirjan and against Mes Rafsanjan are billed locally as the Kerman Derby, and the rivalry with Rafsanjan in particular carries the weight of two clubs digging into the same copper-mining ground for identity as much as points. Coaches have rarely stayed long — Luka Bonacic took charge in 2010, Miroslav Blažević a year later — and the turnover has left little room for a settled style to take hold.

More recently the club's name was pulled into a bribery scandal during the 2021–22 season, with former officials facing legal proceedings over payments to referees. Since that Azadegan League title in 2006, a first championship at the top level has not followed.