Eduard Spertsyan

Eduard Mkrtychevich Spertsyan (Էդուարդ Մկրտիչի Սպերցյան; Эдуард Мкртычевич Сперцян; born 7 June 2000) is a professional footballer who plays as an attacking midfielder for Russian Premier League club Krasnodar. Born in Russia, he plays for the Armenia national team.

Club career
Spertsyan made his debut in the Russian Professional Football League for FC Krasnodar-2 on 17 March 2018 in a game against FC Biolog-Novokubansk. He made his Russian Football National League debut for Krasnodar-2 on 1 October 2018 in a game against FC Khimki.

After scoring seven goals in the first nine games of the FNL season for FC Krasnodar-2, he made his Russian Premier League debut for FC Krasnodar on 18 September 2020 in a game against FC Khimki. On 28 October 2020, he made his European debut as a late substitute in the Champions League 4–0 home loss to Chelsea, making him the youngest ever Armenia national team player to ever play UEFA Champions League group stages, surpassing Henrikh Mkhitaryan for over a year and one month. He was top assister at the 2022–23 Russian Premier League with 11 assists, two more than the runners-up, adding to his 10 goals on that same season - making him the only player in the league to reach double digit goals+assists and also earning him a spot in the Team Of The Season as well as the Best Midfielder of the Season award for 2022-23 - amid rumors linking him to teams like AFC Ajax, AC Milan and Olympique de Marseille. He also captained his team to the 2022–23 Russian Cup final, where they'd lose after going to penalty kick shootout.

International career
On 17 February 2021, the Football Federation of Armenia confirmed that Spertsyan would join the Armenia national team in March to prepare for the World Cup qualifiers. Spertsyan made his debut for the national team on 31 March 2021 against Romania. He came on as a substitute at half-time, scoring in the 56th minute at the Republican Stadium. He scored in two Nations League matches against Ireland. He scored the only goal in a match in Yerevan for Armenia to get the win, as well as at the away game in Dublin as Ireland would go on to win 3–2 at the Aviva Stadium. On 17 October 2023 he scored the only goal for Armenia in a friendly game vs North Macedonia from a freekick.

International

 * Scores and results list Armenia's goal tally first, score column indicates score after each Spertsyan goal.

Honours
FC Krasnodar
 * Russian Cup runner-up: 2022–23

Individual
 * Armenian Footballer of the Year: 2022
 * Russian Premier League Midfielder of the Season: 2022–23, 2023–24.
 * Russian Premier League Team of the Season: 2022–23
 * Russian Premier League Player of the Month: October 2023.
 * Russian Premier League Goal of the Month: April 2024 (on 24 April against Baltika Kaliningrad).