Francisco Conceição of Portugal competes for the ball with Khoziakbar Alizonov of Uzbekistan during the group stage match of the World Cup between Portugal and Uzbekistan on June 23 in Houston.
Tashkent, Uzbekistan –
Uzbekistan’s White Wolves men’s soccer team entered this World Cup as underdogs. By all appearances, as Dalits, they will go away.
On Tuesday, Uzbekistan was hammered 5-0 by Portugal, significantly diminishing the country’s chances of qualifying for the next round at this World Cup, a first for a Central Asian nation.
Yet for many Uzbeks, the White Wolves’ appearance at the tournament was always a dream come true – and, win or lose, it reflected the country’s wider ambitions.
Uzbek fans have enjoyed the opportunity to showcase their country and culture after a long time behind bars, especially after the match is over. They want to be photographed as steppe warriors, to show off the country’s ubiquitous embroidery, and to dance with joy to the drum.
For the entire country, representing your country on the big stage is a huge honour. This is it.” [a] A giant honor,” explains White Wolves star forward Abbosbek Fayzulev, who scored Uzbekistan’s first (and, so far, only) World Cup goal in a 3-1 loss to Colombia on June 17.
Uzbekistan’s Abbosbek Faizullaev celebrates after scoring the first goal for his team during the World Cup group soccer match between Uzbekistan and Colombia in Mexico City on June 17.
Long before the start of the tournament, the country’s President Shavkat Mirziyoyev introduced and promoted the team as a symbol of “New Uzbekistan” – part of what Mirziyoyev says is a “golden generation” of Uzbek youth who are “destined” to leave their mark in sports, culture and science. Even chess.
This success was a long time coming for a nation struggling to emerge from the chaos of the collapse of the USSR – football has played a role in creating a sense of national identity.
Azamat Abduraimov, a regular member of the Uzbek football teams of the 1990s, remembers the thrill of watching fellow Uzbeks earn a rare spot on Team USSR after Uzbekistan became an independent nation in 1991 and the thrill of suddenly fielding their national team.
“When we started playing for independent Uzbekistan, it was important for us because we realised that we could compete on the international stage – that is, as Uzbek football players,” Abduraimov says.
England’s Paul Osborne and Uzbekistan’s Abduraimov Azamat battle for the ball during the World 5 Futsal Championship between England and Uzbekistan in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, in 2003.
He noted that the Uzbekistan men’s national team, of which he was a part, won the gold medal at the Asian Games in 1994. “It’s still the only championship for the former Soviet republic,” he says.
“This is really a land of talent in every direction,” says Ravshan Ermatov, vice president of the Uzbekistan Football Association, in an interview with NPR in Tashkent, the capital of Uzbekistan.
He says Uzbekistan’s World Cup debut – 34 years in the making – is the result of years of government investment in comprehensive youth programmes.
“Today’s result is not coming by chance,” says Ermatov. “It’s not just luck, you know? Uzbekistan is doing well and investing much for the future.”
For example, several young Uzbek players have emerged as breakout stars in leagues in Europe and the Middle East.
No one is more talented than Abdukodir Khusanov. The 22-year-old Uzbek defender has quickly become a mainstay at Manchester City in the British Premier League, delivering a “pinch-me” moment for fans back home.
Portugal’s Cristiano Ronaldo (7) challenges the ball with Uzbekistan’s Abdukodir Khusanov (2) during the World Cup group soccer match between Portugal and Uzbekistan in Houston on June 23.
“To imagine that someone from Uzbekistan would play in the main team of that team… was unbelievable,”
explains Doniyor Umarkhodzev. Taktika is one of a new generation of Uzbek football bloggers covering the White Wolves’ World Cup.
Even now, Umarksodjaev says he gets goosebumps thinking about Khusanov’s rise.
He added, “But I can imagine what kind of confidence it gives to young kids who want to be footballers.”
These also include girls and women.
Last year, Uzbekistan’s women’s national football team qualified for the Women’s Asian Cup for the first time in two decades. Uzbekistan will also host the event in 2029.
The Uzbekistan women’s national football team is struggling in Tashkent. Women’s football has also progressed recently amid sweeping government reforms addressing gender inequality.
National under-17 team forward Mokhina Akbarova also says of that progress, “His generation wants more.”
“We want to see another level,” says Akbarova, adding that her dream is to take her football skills to an international level.
Such progress would not have been possible just a few years ago – when laws in this Muslim-majority country restricted women’s freedom to travel without permission from their husbands or fathers.
Yet Uzbekistan’s football rise has coincided with President Mirziyoyev’s reforms, which have opened the country to travel and investment after years of isolation and dictatorship under former President Islam Karimov.
Fans of the Uzbekistan men’s national soccer team, the White Wolves, gather for a farewell ceremony at Milli Stadium in Tashkent ahead of the country’s first World Cup appearance in May.
Those changes were anticipated as a broad geopolitical realignment, with Mirziyoyev’s ‘new Uzbekistan’ and its Central Asian neighbours forging ties beyond the region’s traditional ally, Russia, and pursuing closer ties and trade with China, Europe, and the US.
Earlier this year, President Trump hosted leaders of all five Central Asian countries – Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Kyrgyzstan – and announced a series of agreements to expand trade, particularly in critical minerals.
Amid all this bargaining, some argue that pro-democracy reforms have not gained traction.
Uzbekistan’s liberalisation often exists more on paper than in reality, says Diora Rafieva, a Samarkand-based lawyer and occasional government critic. He argues that the government has eagerly promoted Uzbekistan’s sporting success while ignoring the problems of corruption, the judicial system and preserving the country’s heritage from over-eager developers.
“This success in sports is a kind of image washing,” Rafieva explains. “They’ll say, ‘Oh, new Uzbekistan.’ Maybe they live in the new Uzbekistan…”
His point? Not everyone does this. Or wants.
Yet there is no doubt that the country is freer today than it was 10 years ago. And young Uzbeks in particular say that the country is going in the right direction, led by the White Wolves.
“So I think Uzbekistan will change more in the next 10 or 20 years,” says Farangiz Azamatova, a university student in Tashkent and supporter of the team.
“World Cup qualification itself has made us – the younger generation – very confident,” says Siroziddin Toxirov, 21, who is studying to become an English language translator.
He plans to study and perhaps work abroad when he graduates, knowing his Uzbek passport will no longer stop him.
“I can feel the change,” says Toksirov.
