The first Kazakhstan football teams appeared in Semipalatinsk.

They were SSK, Olimp, Lastochka, Orlyata and Yarysh. According to some sources, merchants that had visited England before, “brought” football to Semipalatinsk. In that period this city was one of the largest trade centers of Middle Asia and Siberia. FC “Yarysh” at that time featured Mukhtar Auezov (1897-1961), who later became known in many countries as a literature worker, ethnographer and poet, author of the epic novel “Abai’s path” about life and work of the well-known Kazakh enlightener Abai Kunanbayev. The novel had been translated into forty eight languages of the world and published in 2 million copies. It covered the fundamental layer of development and formation of the Kazakh culture. Along with Mukhtar Auezov “Yarysh” included other pioneers of our football, such as Akhmetsalim Karimov (captain), Kasymkhan Mukhammedov, Salakh Khismatullin, Ziyatdin Ryspayev, Mukhammed Saidashev, Yunus Nigmatullin, Amirzhan Syzdykov, Gabdulkhan Gabbasov.Mukhamedulla Kurmanov, Gussman Yambushev, Sabyrzhan Akhmedshin. Together with other enthusiasts they had given rise to Kazakhstan football.

According to some sources found by the oldest Semipalatinsk football historian Yevgeniy Yudin, FC “Yarysh” had become the first Kazakhstani team to have taken part in an international match. This concerned several matches played by “Yarysh” against footballers from the prisoners of the World War I kept in Semipalatinsk. Those matches were of specific interest as the team of prisoners that had been playing against “Yarysh”, several times included two participants of 1912 Olympic Games, according to Yudin’s materials. The first Kazakhstani football players had been holding their games on the square, where before the revolution the famous Semipalatinsk Fair had taken place.