Eduard Spertsyan, the Armenian phenomenon who crushes everything in Russia!
Armenia has never participated in a World Cup or a Euro since the fall of the USSR but it remains a fertile ground for the development of talented footballers. Henrikh Mkhitaryan is its main representative. The 33-year-old Inter Milan attacking midfielder has won at almost all of his clubs, including Shakhtar Donetsk, Borussia Dortmund, Manchester United and AS Roma. For more than ten years, he has asserted himself as a notable player in Europe. Aged 22, Eduard Spertsyan intends to follow in his footsteps and stand up as his noble successor. The least we can say is that this season, the attacking midfielder from Krasnodar is achieving great things and giving an appointment with the future.
A rapid explosion
He is already doing better than in the whole of last season and is asserting himself as a player ready to titillate the five biggest European championships. Revealed during the last exercise at FK Krasnodar where he scored 8 goals and delivered 4 offerings in 25 games, this pure product of the Bykis training quickly demonstrated great dribbling skills, a certain efficiency and even great qualities on the blows of stopped feet. His former coach Viktor Goncharenko has also compared him to a player known to Ligue 1 followers: Aleksandr Golovin. Another talent he had under orders at CSKA Moscow.
1-2-3-4-пас-гол! Атака от Эдика и Реми @RemyCabella 🔥#АхматКраснодар pic.twitter.com/qUWPYp3mfC
— FCKrasnodar (@FCKrasnodar) September 18, 2021
“Ed can do absolutely anything, he has an excellent combination of physical qualities: both strong and fast. At the same time, he is technical, knows how to work the ball well between the lines, turn around, make clean passes and finish. He even has the right body structure for football. For me, he is the perfect player. I saw Golovin in him, who was at CSKA five years ago. Golovin is better in some respects, Spertsyan is better in some respects”, noted the Belarusian technician. While Aleksandr Golovin has become a key player for Monaco in recent seasons, Eduard Spertsyan intends to experience at least a similar trajectory. His start to the 2022/2023 season suggests great things.
A new status
If the comparison with Aleksandr Golovin can be understood on certain points, Eduard Spertsyan still has a profile a bit more offensive than the Russian. Placed as the high point of a 4-3-3 or as a playmaker of a 4-2-3-1, the one who was born in Stavropol in Russia likes to have the game in front of him to swallow spaces and hurt to the opponent with his dribbling. And he does it quite well. It’s simple, in 13 league days, he was decisive in nine games and has already scored 9 goals and 4 offerings with Krasnodar. Located two lengths behind top scorer Quincy Promes, the young Armenian who wears the number 10 on his back is the key player in his training, especially since it has lost its stars (Krychowiak, Botheim, Vilhena, Alonso, Cabella , Claesson and Wanderson) following the war between Russia and Ukraine. A new status that he endorses with excellence, as he explained to RB Sports : “Of course I feel pressure, but I try to fight it. I’m working to make sure it doesn’t affect my game. The most important thing is that the team wins. »
🇦🇲 Eduard Spertsyan. 🤯🤯🤯
No stopping that one 🚀#NationsLeague | @OfficialArmFF pic.twitter.com/MlpucgWgWC
— UEFA EURO 2024 (@EURO2024) June 8, 2022
Having become a reference player in the Russian championship, Eduard Spertsyan is asserting himself as one of the main prospects for the RPL as highlighted by Dmitry Zimin journalist for Championship : “Spertsyan was already very good before the foreign players left. Since the start of the 2021/22 season, he has been evolving in the team. He quickly moved from youth football to adult football. I know that Farke (former Krasnodar coach editor’s note) spoke very well of him. He believed in his potential. Right now, Spertsyan is the best young player in the RPL. It has incredible stability and great stats. Unfortunately, Zakharyan (Arsen, Dynamo Moscow midfielder, editor’s note) started to play less well, but he is more talented. There is also Lokomotiv goalkeeper Khudyakov, but he has also started playing a bit. I think the progression of the player is done step by step. It gets better every month. Now he has no obvious weaknesses, at least physically to play the duels with the defenders more calmly.
And now aim higher?
Also gifted with a free kick since he has scored two goals this season in this register, the Armenian international (13 caps, 3 goals) believes that he can still do better in terms of efficiency: “You can say that (that he is in the best period of his career editor’s note). But most of my goals this summer have come from set pieces. And it was only in the match against Torpedo (August 28, matchday 7) that the first goal in the game arrived. I really wanted to do it. And finally, we succeeded. But there is still a lot of work to do in terms of the game. We have to correct a lot of mistakes both in attack and in defense. A talent that could still be improved, he caught the eye of certain European teams. The Russian press evokes an interest from Nice last summer but also offers from Bruges and Dinamo Zagreb. Followed in France and Germany according to the local press, the player who is under contract until June 2026 will not see Krasnodar close the doors to him from a departure for Western Europe.
Some clubs sent requests to Krasnodar this summer. In Italy and Spain, they discovered the possibility of a transfer. However, club owner Sergei Galitsky is very fond of the player. And he will only sell it to a top club and for a lot of money, Dmitry Zimin told us, by the way. Asked by Metaratingshis first coach Mkhitar Davidyan sees him quickly leaving the RPL if he maintains this pace: “most likely, Eduard received offers from Europe this year. But you don’t have to go anywhere, you need to gain stability. Then you can already look at which championship, which club, choose where to play. Young players have good periods, then a decline. I think that if Spertsyan plays one more season at the same level as last year, that will be enough and he can try his hand at the European championships. »
The departure towards a big European championship, the next step which seems obvious for Eduard Spertsyan whose comparisons with the Armenian legend Henrikh Mkhitaryan are numerous. For Dmitry Zimin, following in the footsteps of the Inter Milan player is not something crazy as the potential of the Krasnodar player is great: “the player has the capacity to be better. But I don’t know how quickly it will be possible to leave for the European leagues. I think the choice of the first club in Europe is very important as well as the confidence of a future coach. I hope Spertsyan will join a European club next summer. » In the meantime and to the delight of the Bykis, the native of Stavropol continues to delight in the Russian Premier League where he will continue to refine his palette before potentially trying to prove on the upper floor. For Armenia, whose best player of recent years Henrikh Mkhitaryan has retired from international duty, the gradual advent of Eduard Spertsyan is a blessing and comes at the best of times.
