The head coach of the Armenian futsal national team, Ruben Nazaretyan, shared his impressions after the team's historic qualification for the 2026 European Championship and spoke about future plans.
It should be noted that Armenia secured a direct ticket to EURO 2026 by finishing first in Group 6. In the final qualification match, the Armenian team defeated Kazakhstan 4-2 and finished the group stage with 16 points.
A historic breakthrough without naturalized players
Armenia played all six qualification matches without its Brazilian legionnaires, who were banned from representing the national team due to new naturalization rules. Now, any foreign player must compete in the country's league for at least five years before becoming eligible for the national team. As a result, the team was without longtime goalkeeper Luan Müller, who was named the world’s best goalkeeper in 2024, as well as several other naturalized Brazilians.
Nevertheless, the Armenian team achieved an outstanding result, securing its first-ever participation in a major international tournament.
Head coach Ruben Nazaretyan’s words
"We are ready for any scenario, whether we play with the Brazilians or without them. Over the last six years, we have done enormous work to ensure that such issues do not hinder us. In any case, all the Brazilian players who have played for Armenia have become part of our family. Without them, we probably wouldn't have achieved such success. Our players trained with them, played alongside them, and learned a lot from them. We are grateful to the Brazilians, but today I am especially proud of those who played in the last matches. They believed in us, in our project, and went all the way with us to achieve this success.
Additionally, I want to thank the president of the Armenian Football Federation, Armen Melikbekyan. He believed in my futsal development project and helped bring it to life. Six years ago, our futsal was merely surviving. But I saw the support from the leadership, and we made it happen.
We are not going to EURO 2026 just for the sake of participation. We are not going there to be easy prey for other teams. Today, we defeated the second-best team in Europe—that says a lot. We are ready for more, and we will prove it at the European Championship!"
The UEFA Futsal EURO 2026 will be held in two cities—Riga and Kaunas—from January 16 to February 8, 2026. A total of 16 teams will participate in the tournament. So far, five teams have secured their places: Lithuania, Latvia, Portugal, Czechia, and Armenia.