Sargis Hovsepyan

Sargis Hovsepyan played his first match at the professional level when he was seventeen. It was in the Soviet Top League with second league club Malatia Yerevan. The following year, the Soviet Union collapsed. Sargis had then started competing in the Armenian Premier League of his now independent homeland. Hovsepyan first joined Lori Vanadzor in 1991 and was transferred to Pyunik Yerevan the following year. He immediately became the first star of the country. In 1992, he became the first player to be named Armenian Footballer of the Year. In the same year he made his debut for the national team. Hovsepyan was named Armenian Footballer of the Year again for 1995, becoming the first player to receive the award twice. Hovsepyan was switched clubs in 1997 to 1998 and spent the next part of his club career in Russia. Anatoliy Byshovets had acquired Hovsepyan and took him into Zenit St. Petersburg. Zenit coach Anatoli Davydov later believed Hovsepyan to be suited for right-back. In this position, Sargis was so good that by the end of the season in 1999, the leaders of the club called him the best player on the team. The first season Hovsepyan joined them, Zenit won the 1998–99 Russian Cup, the Russian Cup in history. The categorically refused to sell any kind. Hovsepyan began to receive the interest of CSKA Moscow and Lokomotiv Moscow. However, Yury Morozov, the next coach of St. Petersburg, had decided not to use Hovsepyan for any useful positions. And thus he unwittingly…

The first match for Hovsepyan and the Armenia national team was held on 14 October 1992 in a home game qualifier against Moldova, which ended 0–0. In December, the UEFA Executive Committee, while in Prague, took a decision that players who have played a part of their national team for 100 matches will receive their awards from UEFA. These awards will also be awarded retroactively. Thus Hovsepyan, who played more than 100 matches in the national team of Armenia, in absentia, won this award. Playing for the Armenian team from 1992 to 2012, Hovsepyan had 131 matches and scored 2 goals and became the champion on to play a match for the national team. In the near forty years of his life, he spent twenty playing for the national team.

Hovsepyan played his final game on 14 November 2012 in a friendly match against Lithuania, which Armenia won 4–2, and then retired from association football afterward. That same night, Hovsepyan received a standing ovation from the Yerevan Republican Stadium audience. Hovsepyan was awarded a gold Medal of City Hall by Yerevan Mayor Taron Margaryan and awarded a car by Armenian Football Federation head Ruben Hayrapetyan for his contributions to Armenian football. He was the last member of the original Armenia national team to retire.

A couple months after retiring as a football player, Hovsepyan joined the coaching staff of FC Pyunik and became the assistant coach to the club's head coach and national team manager Vardan Minasyan.

Hovsepyan has a son, who is training with Pyunik and plays for their junior club. It is Hovsepyan's dream for his son to play on the same football field as him.