The Qizilqum Chronicle
Squad26 Oct 2026
Ilhomjon Vahobov damages knee ligaments — 50 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 50 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Squad26 Oct 2026
Words at Qizilqum training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Nikola Kumburović is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Squad26 Oct 2026
8 new faces, and Qizilqum are still learning each other
A squad rebuilt inside one window pays for it in a currency nobody budgets for. The football is not worse than the sum of the players; it is worse than the sum of the players who have played together before.
The dugout26 Oct 2026
The manager makes an example of Shahzod Turopov
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
The dugout26 Oct 2026
Fayzullobek Jumanqo'ziyev has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Qizilqum will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
Market26 Oct 2026
No place for Sulton Rahmatov in the plan
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Sulton Rahmatov has his answer from Qizilqum; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
In brief
- Squad “I want to play”: Shahzod Turopov speaks
- Market Luka Ratković linked with a move away
- The dugout Sulton Rahmatov knocks on the manager’s door