Sporting heroes for Armenian children have been dominated by the large Armenian diaspora around the world. Andre Agassi, the only person in modern times to achieve a Career Super Slam, is the son of an Iranian boxer with Armenian descent. Youri Djorkaeff, a member of France’s 1998 World Cup winning team, has links through his maternal side to Armenia. These sportsmen, however, were flying the flag for the USA and France respectively, and Armenia hasn’t had any sporting success to celebrate on its own. That might change, however, with the national team causing a stir in international football especially with a team mainly composed of players in their early 20’s.
Armenian football when it was just a republic in the Soviet Union was pretty bleak. The only team to play in the Soviet Top League was Ararat Yerevan and the only player to make much of an impact on the Soviet football team was Nikita Simonyan, a successful forward for both the Soviet Union and Spartak Moscow during the ‘50s. Despite the fact that only one team represented Armenia in the Soviet Top league, Ararat did pretty well. They played for thirty-three seasons in the Top League and finishing ninth overall in the all-time table. The biggest achievement for Ararat is without question the league and cup double they secured in the 1973 season. They finished three points clear of Dinamo Kiev in the league, and to compound the misery on their Ukrainian rivals, they beat them 2-1 in the cup final. This was an amazing triumph for the Armenian side, especially as they beat the dominant Dinamo Kiev side of that time. As a result of this failure, the Dinamo hierarchy appointed one of their former players to manage the club, Valeriy Lobanovskyi. The club then went on to win eight Soviet titles in the next seventeen years, making them the most successful team in the Soviet Union.
Since that title win and the dissolution of the USSR, Armenian focus has been set firmly on the ongoing Nagorno-Karabakh crisis. The war ended in 1994, but many Armenian refugees from Nagorno-Karabakh and Azerbaijan have fled to Armenia, putting a strain on resources. As a result, interest in football hasn’t been high. The first Armenian Premier League was established in 1992 and bizarrely had two winners. Both Shirak and Homenetmen finished level on points at the top of the table and the title was won by both of them. Shirak went on to win their only other league title in 1994, while the ‘biggest’ club in Armenia, Ararat, only ever won once in the Armenian Premier League, in 1993. After that, however, the Armenian league was dominated by one club and one club only: Pyunik Yerevan.
In 1992, after independence from the Soviet Union, a new football club was set up in the capital, Yerevan. It was called Homenetmen and was later renamed Pyunik (Armenian for’phoenix’) in the 1995/96 season. As with many clubs set up in post-Communist countries, the lack of Capitalist investment meant the club disbanded in 1999. However, a saviour came to the club in 2001, in the form of business man Ruben Hayrapetyan. The club merged with FC Armenikum and gained their place in the Armenian Premier League. With serious money to spend, the club brought the best players from other Armenia clubs, such as the twins Artavazd Karamyan and Arman Karamyan, the latter having scored 57 goals in 41 games for the club in one spell. Pyunik started to dominate the league and won the 2001 season. And the 2002 season. And the 2003 season. In fact, Pyunik have won every Armenia league title since 2001; that’s nine in a row. They are currently on course to win their tenth league, with them being one point clear at the top of the table with one game to go, against Kilikia, who are seventh out of eight in the league. The way the club has achieved this is through expensive transfers from other Armenian clubs and investing in its own youth academy, and it is its youth academy which is what is building Armenia into becoming a better footballing nation.
On the 8th October 2010, Armenia defeated World Cup finals participants Slovakia, 3-1. For a country to have never qualified for a major competition before, that was an amazing feat. It was all the more amazing as the squad for that match feature eleven players that were 23 or younger. Pyunik itself supplied seven of those eleven, with the young players that are taking the Armenian Premier League by storm getting a chance in the national team. These players then join another big team from the former Soviet Union and get to play in some of the fastest improving leagues. A great example of a player succeeding abroad is Henrikh Mkhitaryan. The tricky 21 year old left Pyunik Yerevan a year ago, having been brought up in their successful youth system, for Metalurh Donetsk. He did so well at Donetsk that he was appointed captain less than a year into his career in Metalurh, becoming the youngest player to captain the club. Last summer, Shakhtar Donetsk raided their much smaller city rivals to sign the talented midfielder for $7.5 million. Despite being in a team which has many quality midfielders, such as Jadson, Willian, Douglas Costa and Alex Teixeira, he has impressed while playing for the Miners. That said, not everyone makes the grade coming from Armenia to the big European leagues. Edgar Manucharyan left Pyunik as an eighteen year old, having scored 40 goals in 53 games for them, starring in the national team and being named the player of the year in Armenia for 2004. He joined Dutch superstars Ajax in 2005, but only played nine games for the club in the next five years. Manucharyan failed to acclimatise to the Dutch lifestyle, and wasn’t helped by the persistent injuries he received during his time there. This year he returned to Pyunik, and has already scored five goals in eight games. Hopefully players such as Mkhitaryan will learn from Manucharyan and not make the massive jump from the Armenian league straight to the top European leagues.
Elsewhere around the Europe:
- Despite dominating the French Classique, Marseille lost 2-1 to Paris St-Germain thanks to goals from Erdinç and Hoarau to propel the Parisians above their rivals to third place
- Cacau scored a brace as Stuttgart thrashed Weder Bremen 6-0. The Northern side controlled 60% of the possession, but Stuttgart showed that it is what you do with the ball which counts.
- Despite beating Palermo last week to stay top of Serie A, Lazio lost 2-0 to Roma in the Derby della Capitale with Mirko Vučinić scoring on his return from injury. The Biancocelesti still hold on to top spot
- Sunday was a great day for ADO den Haag supporters, as their team beat rivals Ajax
- The flamboyant Villarreal side defeated Athletic Club after going behind to a Fernando Llorente strike, which will probably lead to more rumours about whether he will leave the club to either Real Madrid or Barcelona. Villarreal won 4-1
- In a shock result, Obolon Kiev won away to big city rivals Dinamo Kiev
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