| Personal information | ||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Date of birth | (1955-01-10)10 January 1955 (age 70) | |||||||||||||
| Place of birth | Yerevan,Armenian SSR,Soviet Union | |||||||||||||
| Height | 1.71 m (5 ft 7 in) | |||||||||||||
| Position | Midfielder | |||||||||||||
| Senior career* | ||||||||||||||
| Years | Team | Apps | (Gls) | |||||||||||
| 1974–1985 | Ararat Yerevan | 295 | (93) | |||||||||||
| 1986–1988 | Arabkir Yerevan | 13 | (4) | |||||||||||
| 1989–1991 | Pakhtakor Tashkent | 46 | (9) | |||||||||||
| 1992–1993 | Kilikia Yerevan | 33 | (22) | |||||||||||
| 1995–1996 | Pyunik Yerevan | 4 | (0) | |||||||||||
| Total | 391 | (128) | ||||||||||||
| International career | ||||||||||||||
| 1979–1984 | Soviet Union | 34 | (6) | |||||||||||
| Managerial career | ||||||||||||||
| 1991 | Tavriya Simferopol | |||||||||||||
| 1992–1993 | Homenetmen | |||||||||||||
| 1993–1995 | Homenetmen Beirut | |||||||||||||
| 1995–1998 | Kilikia Yerevan | |||||||||||||
| 1996–1997 | Armenia national team | |||||||||||||
| 2000–2006 | Pyunik Yerevan(president) | |||||||||||||
| 2012–2012 | Lokomotiv Tashkent | |||||||||||||
Medal record
| ||||||||||||||
| * Club domestic league appearances and goals | ||||||||||||||
Khoren Oganesian (Armenian:Խորեն Հովհաննիսյան; born 10 January 1955), also known asKhoren Hovhannisyan, is an Armenian formerfootball player and manager. He was awarded theMaster of Sport of the USSR, International Class title in 1976.
Amidfielder, Oganesian was a member of theSoviet Union national team and mostly played at club level forSoviet Top League andArmenian Premier League clubArarat Yerevan. He is widely considered a legend of Ararat and Armenian football in general. In official games of the USSR championships, Oganesian had 295 matches and scored 93 goals for Ararat. His number of scored goals is a record of the USSR in Armenian football. In November 2003, to celebrateUEFA's Jubilee, he was selected as theGolden Player of Armenia by theFootball Federation of Armenia as the nation's most outstanding player of the past 50 years.[1]
In a survey taken in 2005 by theFootball Federation of Armenia, Oganesian was chosen as the best player of Armenia in the 20th century. On 28 May 2010, on the occasion of the ArmenianRepublic Day, a number of prominent figures of different areas were honored. For his contribution to the Fatherland Order of the President of ArmeniaSerzh Sargsyan, the law on State Awards, the highest award of the country, were given to Oganesian, who was awarded theKhorenatsi medal.[2]
Khoren Oganesian was born in anArmenian family on 10 January 1955 inYerevan,Armenian SSR in a family of sportsmen. His father was a weightlifter, and later an honored coach of the Armenian SSR. His mother specialized in gymnastics. Khoren's older brother played football and his younger brother became a weightlifter and later received theMaster of Sport of the USSR title.
Oganesian grew up playing football in a nearby yard with his older brother. In 1969, he joined the team of Ani Yerevan and won the All-Union neighborhood teams tournament Leather Ball and scored one of the goals in the final meeting. Oganesian later engaged in a sports school, after which he entered theArmenian State University of Economics, specializing instate planning. At that time, he was invited to try out for the youth football teams in Armenia, where he was noticed by the head coach of theSoviet Union national under-21 football team,Yevgeny Lyadin. Lyadin wrote a letter of recommendation to the leadership of the local clubArarat Yerevan, where Oganesian was taken into in 1973. He played as a second for two years.[3]
His debut match in Ararat took place on 19 March 1975 in the quarterfinals of the1974–75 European Cup againstBayern Munich. The match ended in a 1–0 victory for Ararat Yerevan. He debuted in theSoviet Top League national championship a month later on 16 April inYerevan. In a match of Ararat Yerevan vs.Dnipro Dnipropetrovsk, Oganesian came in at the 75th minute of the match, replacingSergei Bondarenko. The match ended in 3–0 victory.[3]
Oganesian was scoring a lot from the first matches of the Top League. He had the ability to hit accurately with his left leg, was a skilled organizer, and had precise percussive attacks. Ararat Yerevan won theSoviet Cup in 1975. In the following year, the club made it to the finals of the1976 Soviet Top League in the spring, where Ararat Yerevan lost toDynamo Moscow. At the end of 1975, Oganesian was in the national list of award winners as the best newcomer of the Top League season, chosen and awarded by the All-Union Soviet sport magazineSmena.[3]
In February 1984, Oganesian scored his one hundredth goal, which made him a member of theGrigory Fedotov club. He scored with his heel in a match againstCSKA Moscow in 1983 in Moscow and scored, the ball flying through the goal net, in a match againstNeftchi in 1981, in Yerevan.
Oganesian became the captain of Ararat Yerevan in the early 1980s.
In 1985, due to disagreements with the management of Ararat, he left the club. Oganesian almost didn't play for almost two years because he was unofficially disqualified for alleged match-fixing, though that was never proven.[4]
In 1987, he agreed to play for the factory teamArabkir Yerevan, which became a champion of the republic. In 1988, it appeared already in theSoviet First League.[3]
He took part in the farewell match ofOleg Blokhin, the all-time Soviet top goalscorer, in 1989.
In December 1989, he received an offer from the head coach ofPakhtakor Tashkent,Fyodor Novikov. He helped the Uzbek football club get to the big leagues. In 1991, in a match againstDynamo Kyiv, Oganesian tore hisAchilles tendon and was out for the season. He left Pakhtakor that year and began to take up managing. He did not retire as a player, however.[3]
The following year, Oganesian returned to his homeland and joined Armenian clubKilikia Yerevan. While he played for Kilikia, the club won the first everArmenian Premier League in1992. Oganesian transferred toPyunik Yerevan in 1995. While he played for the club, Pyunik won the Armenian Premier League in1995–96 and won theArmenian Cup in 1996. Oganesian retired as a player after the 1996 season.[3]
At the end of his club career, Oganesian had played a total of 391 matches and scored a total of 122 goals. He played 305 matches and scored 93 goals in the Soviet Top League seasons. He was listed on the 33 best players of the season five times, thrice as the best. Oganesian won 38 international caps for the USSR.[3]
Football Federation of Armenia PresidentRuben Hayrapetyan said of Oganesian, "There has been a lot of talent in our football, but I saw Oganesian on the pitch and this led to me becoming a football fan. His contribution to the past, present and future of Armenian football could not be overstated."[3]
In 1975, Oganesian joined theSoviet Union under-21 national team, coached byValentin Nikolayev. He was a part of the Soviet youth team when it won the UEFA Euro 1976 U-21.[3]
Oganesian's skill were noticed by the coaches of theSoviet Union national team, which he started playing for in 1979, when the team was managed byKonstantin Beskov. The following year, as part of theSoviet Union Olympic football team, the USSR squad won bronze at the1980 Summer Olympics in Moscow. Oganesian scored twice at the Olympics. His first goal was in a dominant 4–0 victory overVenezuela in the group stage. The Soviet team advanced to the semifinals, where they were defeated 1–0 byEast Germany. Oganesian did not play because of a concussion received in the quarterfinals. In the following bronze medal match againstYugoslavia, Oganesian came off the bench and scored his second goal and the winning goal at the 67th minute.Sergey Andreyev also scored a goal, leaving the final score 2–0 for the Soviet Union.[3]
The Soviet national team participated in the1982 FIFA World Cup. Oganesian became the first Armenian player to take part in the World Cup.[citation needed] Oganesian scored one goal in the second group stage againstBelgium. The goal proved to be decisive, as the final score was 1–0. Though the USSR tied withPoland 0–0, the Polish team advanced to the knockout stage instead due to total goal difference. Oganesian concluded playing for the national team of the country in 1984. In his five years on the team, he played 34 matches and scored 6 goals,[5] most of which proved decisive.[3]
While still a player, in 1991 Oganesian managed to get a coach position onTavriya Simferopol. The head coach at the time wasAnatoliy Zayaev, but the whole training process was taken care of by Oganesian.[3][6]
Since thecollapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, Oganesian moved back to Armenia. Here, along with some of his friends who also participated in football, he decided to found a club. This club was named ADCC, meaning (literal English translation) Armenian General Athletic Union. In Armenian, the club name was abbreviated HMNM, orHomenetmen. Oganesian, already a veteran of football, continued his playing career. In the newly formed club's first season, it became the1992 Armenian Premier League champion, which was the first everArmenian Premier League, and the finalist of the 1992Armenian Cup, also the first of its kind.[6]
Later he moved to Lebanon, where he coached the capital Armenian-Lebanese clubHomenetmen Beirut. In his first year with the team, they took 5th place in theLebanese Second Division. In the second year, they took third.[3][6]
After a short absence, he returned to Armenia, where he led the home team of his birthplace. During a time Oganesian briefly left to coach theArmenia national football team, the club had at that time changed its name fromKilikia Yerevan toPyunik Yerevan. The following season, Oganesian returned to the Yerevan club. Oganesian, at this time, was a player-coach for the club. With the second return of Hovhannisyan also came some important highlights in the history of the club. During his first season, there had been issued due to an injury of his. In the second season, the team won the1996–97 Armenian Premier League. The club won the 1996Armenian Cup that same season for the first time. Oganesian also led the squad to victory in theArmenian Supercup in 1996 and 1998. In August 1998, Oganesian left the club and was replaced by David Ghazaryan.[3][6]
In mid-December 2011, Oganesian started coachingLokomotiv Tashkent, which played in the last season in theUzbek League.[3][6][7]
Oganesian is married to his wife Julietta.[8] Khoren has a daughter Edita Oganesian and a son,Zhora Hovhannisyan, who is also a football player. Zhora played forPyunik Yerevan andPakhtakor Tashkent, both of which his father also played for. Khoren was managing the clubs Pyunik Yerevan andLokomotiv Tashkent while Zhora was playing for them.[9]
| # | Date | Venue | Opponent | Score | Result | Competition |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | 15 October 1980 | USSR |  Iceland | 5–0 | Win | 1982 WC Qual. |
| 2. | ||||||
| 3. | 4 December 1980 | Argentina |  Argentina | 1–1 | Draw | Friendly |
| 4. | 14 April 1982 | Argentina | Argentina | 1–1 | Draw | Friendly |
| 5. | 1 July 1982 | Spain |  Belgium | 1–0 | Win | 1982 World Cup |
| 6. | 26 July 1983 | East Germany |  East Germany | 3–1 | Win | Friendly |
Ararat Yerevan
Homenetmen Yerevan
Soviet Union U21
Soviet Union
Individual
Homenetmen Yerevan
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