Three Former Belarusian Championship Players Go to the FIFA World Cup
It has long been known that Manchester City defender, Uzbek Abdulkadir Khusanov, once played for Minsk "Energetik-BGU". But who else, writes "Tribuna".
This is Uzbekistan national team midfielder Sherzod Esanov, who arrived in Belarus from Russia, where he played for "Akron", in September 2025.
He started playing for Brest "Dynamo". But he only played nine games for the club, in which Esanov provided two assists. In January 2026, he returned to Uzbekistan and plays for "Bukhara". In this year's championship, Esanov is very productive: in 10 matches, he scored 5 goals, and the team shares 3rd-4th positions with "Navbahor". The midfielder scored 4 goals in the last four rounds.
Esanov has been playing in the Uzbekistan national team system since 2022. His second match for the U-19 team was against Belarusians — the midfielder scored a brace in a friendly match, and his team won 4:3 in Minsk.
He just debuted for the national team on June 2 in a match against the Canadian national team (0:2). The head coach of the Uzbeks, Fabio Cannavaro, brought him on for five minutes at the end. This was enough to make it into the roster for the senior World Cup.
Uzbekistan will play in the World Cup in a group with Portugal, Colombia, and DR Congo.
Prince Kwabena Adu from Ghana, who moved to "Isloch" in February 2023, is also going to the World Cup. In 14 matches of the first round, he scored six goals and provided three assists before moving to Ukraine.
Adu debuted for the Ghana national team on November 14, 2025, in a friendly match against the Japanese (0:2). Since then, he has missed only one national team fixture. Portuguese coach Carlos Queiroz seems to be counting on the former "Isloch" player as a key performer.
Ghana is in a group with England, Croatia, and Panama.
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