Tigran Barseghyan named best player of the season in Slovakia - outstanding year for Armenian forward

31-year-old midfielder of the Armenian national team and Slovak club Slovan Bratislava, Tigran Barseghyan, has been named the best player of the 2024/2025 season in the Slovak top division — the Niké Liga. The announcement was made on Sunday evening during the league’s annual end-of-season awards ceremony.

Barseghyan was the undisputed leader of the vote and was also included in the league’s Team of the Season. He continued the tradition started by his teammates — in the previous two seasons, the title was won by Vladimír Weiss Jr. and Juraj Kucka.

Championship, Top Scorer Title, Champions League Debut, and First UCL Goal

The 2024/2025 season was the most productive of Barseghyan’s career. He scored 20 goals in the league, sharing the top scorer title with David Strelec. In total, the Armenian international scored 24 goals and provided 9 assists across all competitions.

Fun fact: his previous best was in the 2023/2024 season, when he scored 13 goals and was also the league’s top scorer.

Before that, he had only surpassed the 10-goal mark once — in 2019, when he scored 12 goals for the Kazakh club Kaisar.

Historic Champions League Qualification and First Goal

This season was historic for both Slovan and Barseghyan in European competitions. The Slovak club qualified for the UEFA Champions League group stage for the first time in its history. It was Barseghyan who scored the decisive goal in the playoff match against Denmark’s Midtjylland, securing the team’s spot in the main stage.

Though Slovan didn’t register any wins in the group stage, they put in respectable performances. One of the most memorable matches was against AC Milan: despite a 2–3 defeat, Barseghyan scored his debut goal in the Champions League and assisted another.

Who knows how many more goals he could have scored if not for the injury at the end of 2024. Though he missed only a few games — thanks to the timing during the winter break — it took him a while to regain full form.

In addition, Barseghyan won the Goal of the Month award three times during the season in the Slovak league.

In autumn 2024, the Armenian player extended his contract with Slovan until the summer of 2027.