FC Uralan played for five seasons in the Russian championship: 1998 - 2000 and 2002 - 2003. Its highest achievement was the seventh place in the championship and the semi-finals of the Russian Cup-2000. The main hero of Uralan has always been President Kirsan Ilyumzhinov. In parallel with his activities at the club, he was the head of Kalmykia, and he had grandiose plans for Uralan. After the championship of Uralan in the first league in 1997, he arranged a holiday at the city square, handed over the keys to brand new cars to all the footballers. And after "Uralan" beat "Spartak" (1:0) on its own stadium in 1998, it gained two players - midfielder Alexander Ignatiev and goalkeeper Andrey Samorukov.
Ilyumzhinov actively sponsored the club, he could be compared with the owner of FC Krasnodar Sergey Galitsky in terms of his influence on football in his region. In 1996, he wanted to bring Diego Maradona to Kalmykia to become a playing coach. This project failed only due to of the Argentinean's using drugs, as Ilyumzhinov explained later.
