Avazbek Ulmasaliev #25

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A solid, no-nonsense centre-back, Ulmasaliev has spent his whole club career so far in Uzbekistan, moving to AGMK in 2024. He is one of several surprise picks for the final World Cup squad – his international experience has so far been largely limited to Under-23 level, and he didn’t feature during qualifying. But he did impress during Fabio Cannavaro’s experimental training camp in January when the head coach called in fringe players for assessment. Ulmasaliev said after the camp: “Everyone wanted to show what they were capable of. The friendly games were good and I was able to score my first goal. The training sessions under Cannavaro were very high quality, and the team atmosphere was excellent. A call-up to the national team is every footballer's dream. This training camp showed that everyone has a chance to get noticed.”

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