Salom do’stlarim! Forgive me, I have not posted for aeons but something’s been irking me and I need to get it off my chest. We’ve already had posts from Rashid and Libertad on FC Bunyodkor, the new powerhouse of Uzbek football/soccer.

Former World Footballer of the Year Rivaldo (scorer of many amazing goals for Deportivo La Coruna, Barcelona and Brazil, but also a dreadful play actor and scoundrel) scored on his debut for Bunyodkor, having joined them from Greek side AEK Athens.

Yet who is this club that is attracting Brazilian stars and currently sits atop the Uzbek league? Firstly, FC Bunyodkor (lit. ‘Creator’) was originally known as FC Kuruvchi (lit. ‘Builder’) when it was founded as recently as 2005. The name-change occurred earlier this year.

FC Bunyodkor has apparently emerged from nowhere to become national champions within three years. Fairly impressive. (It took the Tampa Bay Devil Rays 10 years to win the World Series.) As ever, things are more complex. It seem quite clear, as evinced from the sponsors logos on the club’s homepage, that Bunyodkor enjoys a great deal of official patronage. Moreover, it seems (mish-mish) that Gulnora Karimova is Bunyodkor Superfan No. 1. UzNews notes:

‘According to some sources, the main moneybag of the club is the Zeromax company which is believed to be linked to the president’s daughter Gulnara Karimova. This explains many questions arising around the club.’

As any fule know, what GooGoosha wants, GooGoosha generally gets.

Another new recruit has been Luizao, part of that great diaspora of Brazilian footballers to the emergent moneybags clubs of the Post-Soviet space. (More background on Luizao here.) There were plenty of rumors (more mish-mish) earlier in the summer that Barcelona’s discontented Cameroon striker Samuel Eto’o was all set to join Bunyodkor for some astronomic sum of money. However, in the current parlance, it didn’t past the smell test

But perhaps Bunyodkor’s strongest statement of intent was the recruitment of Zico as coach. It is simply enough to remark that Zico is often referred to as ‘the white Pelé’. The guy was a freakin phenom as a player, as these Youtube clips attest:

Admittedly, a great player does not always a great manager make, but his coaching record is perfectly acceptable, having done good work with a poor Japan side and won some baubles and trinkets with Turkish heavyweights Fenerbahce. He is an astute observer, and correctly notes that in order for Uzbek football to progress, the better players will have to seek entry to the tope (i.e. European) leagues.