Introducing the Dias Omarov Award!

Dias Omarov was a Soviet and Kazakh footballer, sports journalist, and commentator.

Dias Iliyasuly fell in love with football from childhood and trained under the well-known coach Georgy Kozelko. In 1959, he joined FC Kairat. During the club’s first four seasons in the top division, Dias Omarov consistently became the top scorer of the reserve team. For the main squad, he played 23 matches over six seasons in the USSR Championship and scored three goals.

After finishing his playing career, he became a sports journalist. It all began with writing for the team’s wall newspaper. Later, he was asked to write a match report for Sovetsky Sport about another USSR Championship game — and that’s how Dias Iliyasuly connected his life with journalism. For many years, he worked as a sports commentator and analyst for Kazakh Radio and Television.