Sports Digest: Europe's attention and FIFA rankings

As expected, in today’s digest, we will talk about the only Uzbek player playing in England, the Uzbek prodigy in Russia who is being targeted by top European clubs, and the national team leader playing in Iran who has filled his garage with a “Gelik”.

How did Khusanov’s game at City go after returning to Manchester from Tashkent?

On March 30, Manchester City played Bournemouth in the quarter-finals of the FA Cup. As part of the 2026 World Cup qualifiers, Khusanov, who participated in difficult matches for the Uzbekistan national team, especially the match against Kyrgyzstan in Tashkent on March 20, and was the center of discussion after the match, made many appearances on social media, and returning to England on the Tehran–Vienna–Manchester route after the match with Iran, had a good game against Bournemouth for the "City".

Husanov and his teammates were not lucky in the first half of the match. Erling Haaland failed to convert a penalty awarded to Bournemouth in the 14th minute, and the hosts, encouraged by this, scored in the 21st minute through Ederson.

In the 37th minute, the referee found that Abdukodir Husanov had committed a foul and warned him with a yellow card. Husanov was substituted at the start of the second half due to the yellow card, and 20-year-old Nico O'Reilly, who came on to replace him, turned the game around in the visitors’ favor. It was thanks to O'Reilly's two passes that City forwards Erling Haaland and Omar Marmush scored for the visitors. In the end, City won by one goal and advanced to the semi-finals of the competition.

As usual, after the match, the popular portal “SofaScore” published the points awarded to the players based on their actions in the match and the related episodes.

It is noteworthy that Husanov, who played one half in the match and was cautioned with a yellow card, became the defender with the lowest score in the City team in the match. The game of the 21-year-old Husanov was considered worthy of 6.5 points.

The highest score in this match was given to Nico O'Reilly, who came on in the second half to replace Abdukodir Khusanov and assisted two goals. He was awarded the best player of the match with 7.9 points. The lowest score in the match was given to Bournemouth winger Semenyo, who was awarded 5.2 points.

Former Arsenal and England player Ian Wright said that Manchester City defender and Uzbek player Abdukodir Khusanov is a promising player for the "City". He spoke about this in a studio session organized before the match between Bournemouth and Manchester City.

“Abdukodir Khusanov is a very promising player for Manchester City,” says Wright.

For your information, the 21-year-old Uzbek player played in 9 matches for the "City" team and managed to score 1 goal.

The match between Manchester City and Leicester, which took place in the 30th round of the English Championship, did not include the name of Uzbek defender Abdukodir Khusanov.

It turned out that Khusanov was not injured, and the coach of the “City,” Pep Guardiola, simply decided to rest the 21-year-old Uzbek player and save him for the match with Manchester United in the next round.

The match Manchester United–Manchester City will be held on April 6. This derby is part of the 31st round of the English Championship, and the legendary stadium “Old Trafford” will host the match. The match will start at 20:30 Tashkent time.

Fayzullaev in the sights of the grandees

The winger of the Moscow club CSKA and the Uzbekistan national team, Abbosbek Fayzullaev, has caught the attention of teams from the top 5 leagues.

Several clubs in Europe are interested in the 21-year-old player. However, the names of these teams have not been disclosed yet. Earlier, there were rumors that Fayzullaev would move to the German club Bayern.

It is known that one of the famous clubs in Turkey, Galatasaray, is also not indifferent to Fayzullayev’s services.

A Portuguese club has shown interest in Abbosbek Fayzullaev. According to well-known football agent German Tkachenko, Fayzullayev’s side has even managed to negotiate with the Lisbon club Benfica.

“The football player’s side was negotiating with Benfica. However, the Lisbon team rejected this transfer for political reasons. They think that it is better not to do business with Russia. We discussed Fayzullayev’s transfer to Benfica. But in the first stage, the club refused to cooperate with the Russians. The thesis ‘We do not do business with Russia’ appeared,” says Tkachenko.

It is worth noting that before Fayzullayev, another Uzbek player, Husayn Norchayev, was also interesting to one of the famous Portuguese clubs, Braga, but the transfer did not take place due to visa problems.

CSKA Moscow midfielder and former Barcelona player Miralem Pjanic answered the question of how the Uzbek midfielder of the “army” Abbosbek Fayzullaev could fulfill his dream of becoming a Barcelona player.

“Abbas has amazing football qualities. If he wants to go to Barcelona, he must always believe in his dream and strive for it. This path is very difficult and long, but in any case, one should not slow down on the path to his dream. He must work hard every day, train, play with all his might, and strive to be better in every way. There is no other recipe for moving to Barcelona,” says the Bosnian player.

This season, Fayzullaev has played in 28 matches for CSKA in the Russian Premier League and Cup, scoring 3 goals and providing 7 assists. The Transfermarkt portal estimates the value of the Uzbek player at 8 million euros.

Masharipov, who is always in trend

In the past week, news has spread on the Internet that the head coach of the Uzbek national team, Temur Kapadze, has decided to expel national team member Jaloliddin Masharipov from the national team for his comments that led to his red card in the match with Kyrgyzstan.

QALAMPIR.UZ contacted the head coach of the Uzbek national team, Temur Kapadze, to clarify the situation, and the coach confirmed that such news was completely untrue.

“They are probably joking on the Internet, maybe organizing an April Fool’s joke. Such news is completely false. We have a very good relationship with Masharipov,” says Kapadze.

In turn, QALAMPIR.UZ also asks its followers not to believe unverified messages from unofficial pages.

It is worth noting that Masharipov said in an interview after the match with Kyrgyzstan that he did not notice during the match that the opponent’s player had received a red card and that he only learned that the opponent’s team was one man short when he was substituted.

Let’s not get carried away with the topic of Masharipov. In the past week, Jaloliddin Masharipov bought a Mercedes-Benz G-Class, aka “Gelik”.

Masharipov posted a photo of his white “Gelik” on his Instagram page. According to the information, the price of this vehicle is about 350 thousand dollars.

The topic of “Gelik” is not alien to Uzbek football. Earlier, another member of the Uzbek national team, Abdukodir Khusanov, was presented with this expensive car by football functionary Ulugbek Asanboyev, who is originally from Kazakhstan.

Uzbekistan rises in FIFA ranking

The national team of Uzbekistan rose to 57th place in the FIFA ranking at the end of March.

The national team of Uzbekistan has risen one place compared to the February ranking, taking 57th place with 1437.02 points.

Argentina is leading the FIFA ranking with 1867.16 points. Spain, which took 3rd place in February, took 2nd place this time with 1854.64 points. France, on the other hand, dropped one place to 3rd place. England is in fourth place, and Brazil is in fifth place.

Among Asian teams, the highest result belongs to Japan. According to the March ranking, the Japanese took 15th place. Iran is ranked 18th, South Korea 23rd, Australia 26th, and Qatar 55th.

The Uzbekistan national team defeated Kyrgyzstan in March and drew with Iran in the 3rd round of the 2026 World Cup Asian qualifiers.

Uzbek youth players are fighting for a World Cup spot

Uzbekistan defeated Thailand 4-1 in the first round of Group A of the U-17 Asian Cup, which started in Saudi Arabia on April 3.

Sadriddin Hasanov opened the scoring in the 2nd minute, while Nurbek Sarsenbayev doubled the lead in the 12th minute. At the end of the half, in the 40th minute, Thai player Sylvia Mexes reduced the score. In the 80th minute, Asilbek Aliyev scored Uzbekistan’s 3rd goal. In the 85th minute, Abubakir Shukurullayev put the final point, 4:1.

Thus, the Uzbekistan U-17 national team, led by Islam Ismailov started the first round with a victory.

The Uzbekistan U-17 national team will play the next round on April 6 against China. This match will start at 20:00 Tashkent time. It is worth noting that the victory over China will provide the Uzbek youth team with a ticket to the World Cup in Qatar this year.