On June 17, Uzbekistan will become the first ever Central Asian nation to compete in the FIFA World Cup after multiple previous attempts to reach the coveted football contest.
An Uzbekistan soccer fan sounds a traditional trumpet during a World Cup qualifying match in Tashkent in June 2025.Uzbekistan fans will descend on Mexico City Stadium on June 17 to watch their team become the first Central Asian country to play at the FIFA World Cup. The team's opening match against Colombia marks the pinnacle, thus far, of Uzbekistan’s century-long love affair with football.
A lineup of “veterans of Uzbek soccer” photographed in the 1940s.Organized football first emerged in Uzbekistan’s Ferghana region at the beginning of the 20th century, reportedly after locals watched Russian soldiers playing a casual version of the sport.
A Ukrainian striker (right) in action against Uzbekistan during the 1979 Summer Spartakiad in the Ukrainian Socialist Soviet Republic.Soviet Uzbekistan's national football team was created in 1928 and later earned the nickname, the White Wolves, in part for their white uniforms.
Locals in Khalkabad in front of a banner promoting a match between their town’s football team and Moscow’s CSKA in 1981.Football was easy to pick up for many young Uzbeks already familiar with the centuries-old Uzbek game called Qarabtep, in which a weighted clump of animal hide is kept in the air with kicks.
