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Tonight, Uzbekistan will take to the pitch in the World Cup - the first ever appearance for any Central Asian nation in the tournament. And as NPR's Charles Maynes recently found out, success on the field may signal bigger changes.
CHARLES MAYNES, BYLINE: In the heart of Central Asia, soccer starts here.
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #1: (Non-English language spoken).
MAYNES: Kids in a patch of grass with dreams of a larger stage that no longer seems so out of reach.
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #2: Uzbekistan is champion. We're going to win.
(CHEERING)
MAYNES: For Uzbekistan's team, the White Wolves, the World Cup debut has been 36 years in the making. Star forward Abbosbek Fayzullaev says it's a dream come true.
ABBOSBEK FAYZULLAEV: For the first time to represent our country on a big stage, it will be in huge honor.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
PRESIDENT SHAVKAT MIRZIYOYEV: (Non-English language spoken).
MAYNES: The country's president, Shavkat Mirziyoyev, has gone further, touting the team as a symbol of the new Uzbekistan - part of a so-called golden generation of Uzbek youth now making their mark in sports, culture and science, even chess.
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #3: (Non-English language spoken).
(SOUNDBITE OF CLAPPING)
MAYNES: That success has been a long time coming for a nation that, like much of Central Asia, struggled to emerge from the chaos of the collapse of the Soviet Union.
RAVSHAN IRMATOV: It's really a land of talents.
MAYNES: Ravshan Irmatov is vice president of Uzbekistan's Football Association. He says years of government investments and youth development programs have finally paid off.
IRMATOV: Today's result is not coming by chance. Uzbekistan doing investing a lot for future.
MAYNES: Several young Uzbek players on the national team have established themselves as stars in Europe and elsewhere. None brighter than one name you'll hear, and hear mangled, often.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #4: Abdulkaday Kosanov (ph).
MAYNES: It's actually Khusanov. Abdukodir Khusanov. The 22-year-old Uzbek defender has quickly become a mainstay at Manchester City in the British Premier League (ph) in a pinch-me moment for fans back home.
DONIYOR UMARKHUJAEV: It felt like it was unbelievable.
MAYNES: Doniyor Umarkhujaev runs the popular Uzbek football blog Taktika.
UMARKHUJAEV: I am feeling the goose bumps being somebody who just runs a blog on football, but I can imagine what kind of boost of confidence that gives to younger kids who want to be footballers.
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #5: (Non-English language spoken).
MAYNES: That includes girls and women. Last year, Uzbekistan's team qualified for the Women's Asian Cup for the first time in over two decades. Mokhina Akbarova, a forward on the national under-17 squad, says even with that progress, her generation wants more.
MOKHINA AKBAROVA: We want to see, like, another level. So I am going to play abroad. I want to. I dream.
MAYNES: That would have been unlikely just a few years ago when laws in this Muslim-majority nation forbade women freedom of travel without permission from husbands or fathers.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
MIRZIYOYEV: (Non-English language spoken).
MAYNES: Uzbekistan's recent football success has coincided with President Mirziyoyev implementing reforms, opening the country up to travel and investment, following years of isolation and dictatorship under former President Islam Karimov.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: Well, thank you very much. It's a great honor to be with the president of Uzbekistan.
MAYNES: Mirziyoyev met with President Trump last year at the United Nations, part of a wider geopolitical repositioning as the new Uzbekistan and its Central Asian neighbors forge ties beyond Russia to pursue closer relations and trade with China and the U.S., including the Trump administration with its interest in critical minerals. But some argue amid all that deal-making, prodemocratic reforms haven't kept pace.
DIYORA RAFIEVA: Objectively, we do have a lot of major changes.
MAYNES: That's Diyora Rafieva, a lawyer and occasional government critic. Rafieva acknowledges there are more freedoms in Uzbekistan now, but says too often they exist more on paper than in reality. And she says, with all the government's promotion of sporting accomplishments, there's some rebranding going on here.
RAFIEVA: I think the success in sports, this is kind of image washing. They would say, oh, new Uzbekistan. Maybe they do live in a new Uzbekistan.
MAYNES: In other words, not everyone does. And there are just naysayers out there.
DELSHOD KHUSANOV: (Non-English language spoken).
MAYNES: Tashkent local Delshod Khusanov (ph) tells me he doesn't drink, but watching White Wolves football sure makes him want to.
KHUSANOV: (Non-English language spoken).
MAYNES: "I want to hit someone or break my television," he says, adding that government resources spent on football should go elsewhere. The irony? His ability to criticize the authorities is a small sign of how far Uzbekistan has come in recent years...
(SOUNDBITE OF STADIUM CROWD)
MAYNES: ...And just maybe how his nation's soccer team can do nothing but pleasantly surprise at this World Cup when, at long last, its players take the field. Charles Maynes, NPR News, Tashkent, Uzbekistan. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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