Uzbekistan U20

In the Central Asian age-group circuit, the sharpest edges for Uzbekistan's under-20 side come against Tajikistan and Turkmenistan, both met year after year at the CAFA U-20 Championship.

The team, nicknamed the White Wolves after the white home shirts, took its biggest step in 2023, winning the AFC U-20 Asian Cup on home soil. Abbosbek Fayzullaev was named the tournament's best player and has since moved through Pakhtakor and CSKA Moscow; Otabek Boymurodov, the competition's top goalkeeper, still plays domestically for Surkhon Termiz. That Asian Cup title followed a runners-up finish in 2008, when the team lost the final 1–2 to the United Arab Emirates, and a third-place run in 2012.

The same generation carried the momentum to the FIFA U-20 World Cup, reaching the round of 16 in 2023 before losing to Israel, with Mahmud Makhamadjonov scoring against Argentina along the way before his move to Dinamo Makhachkala. Earlier squads had already gone one round further, twice reaching the quarter-finals, in 2013 against France and in 2015 against Senegal. Uzbekistan have since secured a place at the 2027 World Cup as co-hosts alongside Azerbaijan.

Abdukodir Khusanov, part of the 2023 Asian Cup-winning squad, went on to join Manchester City in 2025 in a transfer worth roughly €40 million.