Jafar Irismetov

Jafar Tursumbaevich Irismetov was born on 23 August 1976 and plays as a striker. He began in 1993 at Dustlik Tashkent, scoring 81 goals in 125 games until 1997, and was the Uzbek league's top scorer in 1996, 1997 and 2000. In 2000 he won the league and cup with Dustlik, scoring 45 league goals in a season — a record — and was named Uzbekistan Footballer of the Year (second in 1997).

In 1998 he had spells at Panathinaikos and Chernomorets Novorossiysk, and in 1999 he played for the Samarkand club. At Spartak Moscow in 2001 he won the Russian Premier League and the CIS Cup (sharing the top scorer award). He then played for Slavia Mozyr, Anzhi (2002–2003) and Kryvbas (2003, on loan), and returned to Pakhtakor on loan in 2003, winning the Uzbek league.

In 2004–2005 he played for Kairat Almaty and in 2006–2008 for Alma-Ata: he won the Kazakhstan Premier League with Kairat (2004) and the Kazakhstan Cup with Alma-Ata (2006), and was the league's top scorer in 2006 and 2007. He then played for Aktobe, Andijan, Liaoning in China (2009; China League One winners), Dinamo Samarkand (2010), Shurtan Guzar, Qizilqum and Navbahor (2012). IFFHS ranked him among the world's most successful active goalscorers.

He scored 15 goals in 36 games for Uzbekistan in 1997–2007 and also played for the national beach soccer team (a hat-trick against the UAE at the 2015 AFC Beach Soccer Championship). As a coach he led NBU Osiyo in 2014 and has been on the staff of Oqtepa since 2016.