Spertsyan on the Brink of History: Could Become the First Russian Champion from the Armenian National Team

May 24 could become a historic day for Armenian football. Krasnodar is one step away from winning the Russian championship for the first time in its history. If the team defeats Dynamo in the final round of the Russian Premier League, the club captain and leader of the Armenian national team, Eduard Spertsyan, will write his name into the history books. He would become the first active Armenian national team player to win the Russian championship.

So far, only one person has achieved something similar — Arshak Koryan. In the 2017/18 season, he played three matches for Lokomotiv Moscow, which, under the guidance of Yuri Semin, won the Russian Premier League. However, at that time, Koryan had not yet debuted for the Armenian national team — his debut came two years later, in 2020. Thus, technically, he remains the only footballer associated with the Armenian national team to have won the Russian championship — but not as a member of the team at the time.

Throughout RPL history, many Armenian footballers have played for top clubs: Nair Tiknizyan, Yura Movsisyan, Aras Ozbilis, Roman Berezovsky, Sargis Hovsepyan, Khoren Bayramyan, Andrey Movsisyan, and Sargis Oganesyan — but none managed to win the national title. Many of them played for Spartak, Zenit, CSKA, Rubin, and Lokomotiv — teams that regularly compete for gold.

Today, Eduard Spertsyan has the chance to end this long wait. Krasnodar leads the league by one point over Zenit and sits at the top of the table. In the final round, the “Bulls” face Dynamo at home — a tough opponent, but symbolically significant: it is Dynamo who could not only deprive Krasnodar of the title but also hand it to Zenit.

If Spertsyan and his team withstand the pressure and become champions, he will become the first player to win the Russian Premier League title as an active member of the Armenian national team. And Arshak Koryan will have to relinquish his exclusive status as the only RPL gold medalist among Armenian national team representatives.