Football
Armenia used to play as part of the USSR national football team at the international level. Their most successful team was Yerevan's FC Ararat, which had claimed most of the Soviet championships in the 1970s, and had also gone to post victories against professional clubs like FC Bayern Munich in the Euro Cup. Armenia played as part of the USSR until 1992, when the Armenian national football team played their first official match, representing solely Armenia, against Moldova. The national team is controlled by the Football Federation of Armenia. The Armenian Premier League is the top football competition in Armenia. The league currently consists of eight teams, and relegates to the Armenian First League. Over the years, the league has evolved from a small competition, consisting of only eight teams to two separate divisions. Armenia also has many football venues, such as the Hrazdan Stadium and Hanrapetakan Stadium.
Nikita Simonyan was a member of the Olympic gold medal winning Soviet Union national football team at the 1956 Summer Olympics and a four-time Soviet Top League and two-time Soviet Cup winner playing for FC Spartak Moscow. Simonyan also became the Soviet Top League top goalscorer three times. He also holds the record for most league goals scored for Spartak Moscow at 133. After retiring from football, he became the head coach of Spartak and later became the manager of both Spartak and FC Ararat Yerevan. Both teams won the Soviet Top League under Simonyan's management.
Henrikh Mkhitaryan is the current Vice-Captain of the Armenian national football team and the team's star player. Mkhitaryan has won the Armenian Premier League four times and the Armenian Supercup twice as a player for FC Pyunik. He has also been given the Armenian Footballer of the Year award twice. As of 14 November 2012, Mkhitaryan is the second top goalscorer of all time for the Armenian national team with 10 goals.
Armenia has produced many other world class players, notably Andranik Eskandarian, Andranik Teymourian, Edgar Manucharyan, Yura Movsisyan, Hamlet Mkhitaryan, Arthur Petrosyan, Sargis Hovsepyan, Roman Berezovsky among others.
Youri Djorkaeff and Alain Boghossian were both part of the 1998 FIFA World Cup winning team.
Read more about this topic: Sport In Armenia
Famous quotes containing the word football:
“In this dream that dogs me I am part
Of a silent crowd walking under a wall,
Leaving a football match, perhaps, or a pit,
All moving the same way.”
—Philip Larkin (1922–1986)
“... in the minds of search committees there is the lingering question: Can she manage the football coach?”
—Donna E. Shalala (b. 1941)
“...I’m not money hungry.... People who are rich want to be richer, but what’s the difference? You can’t take it with you. The toys get different, that’s all. The rich guys buy a football team, the poor guys buy a football. It’s all relative.”
—Martina Navratilova (b. 1956)