Istiqlol

The team took over a training base that already had a history: the gorge at Almasi, in the Hisor district, was where Pamir used to prepare. That inheritance came with a purpose — Istiqlol was built in November 2007 to be it.

The domestic answer came quickly. A first Tajikistan Cup arrived in 2009, the first league title in 2010, and from 2014 the championship simply stopped changing hands: fourteen titles by 2025.

The continental record is what the club was made for. Istiqlol won the AFC President's Cup in 2012, and then moved up: finalists in the AFC Cup in 2015 and again in 2017, beaten both times at the last step. In 2020 the club reached the AFC Champions League group stage, where Alisher Jalilov scored its first goal in the competition.

Among the players who carried that period, Alisher Tuychiev stands out for consistency rather than headlines — the goalkeeper was named Tajikistan's best three years running, in 2012, 2013 and 2014. Manuchehr Jalilov, who scored 20 times for the national side, retired in 2025.

Home matches are played at the Central Republican Stadium in Dushanbe, a ground of roughly 24,000.

In 2025 Istiqlol opened an academy in Khujand for children and youth players. Eighteen years after taking over another club's training base, it began building one of its own.