When the Asian Champions League began back in March, few outside of Uzbekistan had heard of Kuruvchi. Now, with the club preparing for Wednesday's Asian Champions League quarterfinals after an extraordinary summer, the world is certainly paying attention.
The Tashkent side, formed in 2005, went into the ACL facing an uphill struggle to escape a group containing regional heavyweights Al Ittihad and Sepahan. Kuruvchi shocked its Saudi and Iranian rivals to finish top of the group, but that was just the start of the club's amazing rise to fame.
The first bombshell dropped in July, when Kuruvchi announced it had reached a deal to sign Cameroon striker Samuel Eto'o — one of the best players in the world — from Barcelona.