Stepan Atayan (; born 13 July 1966) is a retired Uzbek international

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...

player who played as a

midfielder In the sport of association football, a midfielder takes an Glossary of association football terms#O, outfield position primarily in the middle of the pitch. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in t ...

and was awarded in 1993 as one of the three Best Footballers of the Year. He is currently the assistant manager at

Proodeftiki Proodeftiki Football Club, also known as Proodeftiki Piraeus, simply as Proodeftiki, or with its full name as A.O. Proodeftiki Neolea (, transliterated "Athlitikós Όmilos Proodeftiki Neolea", ''Athletic Club Progressive Youth''), is a Greek fo ...

in Greece.

Club career

Atayan began playing football in the

Soviet Second League The Soviet Second League (, Soviet football championship (Second League)) was the third highest division of Soviet Union, Soviet football (soccer), football, below the Soviet First League. The league was formed in 1971 in place of the Class A Se ...

with Neftchi Baku PFK and

Köpetdag Aşgabat The Köpet Dag, Kopet Dagh, or Koppeh Dagh (; ), also known as the Turkmen-Khorasan Mountain Range, is a mountain range on the border between Turkmenistan and Iran that extends about along the border southeast of the Caspian Sea, stretching nort ...

. He joined

Uzbek League Uzbekistan Super League (; ), known as Artel Uzbekistan Super League due to sponsorship reasons (; ), is the top division of professional football in Uzbekistan. It is operated under the auspices of the Uzbekistan Professional Football League a ...

side

Neftchi Farg'ona F.C. Neftchi Fergana (, Uzbek Cyrillic: Нефтчи Фарғона футбол клуби) is an Uzbek professional football club based in Fergana. They play in the top division in Uzbekistani football and are multiple champions of Uzbekista ...

in 1991. Atayan left Uzbekistan and moved to Greece in 1995. He continued his career with

, playing 4 seasons in the

Greek Super League The Super League Greece 1 (), or Stoiximan Super League for sponsorship reasons, is a professional association football league in Greece and the highest level of the Greek football league system. The league was formed on 16 July 2006 and repla ...

for the club. He joined Chalkidona F.C. in 1999, where he won 2 cups. He finished his football career in

Atromitos F.C. Atromitos Football Club (, ''PAE APS Atromitos Athinon''), also simply known as Atromitos ), is a Greek professional football club based in Peristeri, a suburban city in the Athens agglomeration, that competes in the Super League. Founded in ...

in 2001.

International

He was on the Uzbekistani squad at the

1994 Asian Games The 1994 Asian Games (), also known as the XII Asiad and the 12th Asian Games () or simply Hiroshima 1994 (), were held from October 2 to 16, 1994, in Hiroshima, Japan. It was the first Asian Games in history to be hosted in a non-capital city. Th ...

and made his full debut for Uzbekistan on 18 July 1995 at

Merdeka Cup Merdeka Tournament () is an international friendly Soccer, football tournament held in Malaysia to commemorate the Independence Day (Malaysia), Independence Day. It is mainly played at Stadium Merdeka, Independence Stadium, in Kuala Lumpur. "Me ...

against

Hungary Hungary is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Spanning much of the Pannonian Basin, Carpathian Basin, it is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine to the northeast, Romania to the east and southeast, Serbia to the south, Croatia and ...

won 3:2 by Hungary. Atayan made 9 appearances for the

Uzbekistan national football team The Uzbekistan national football team ( / ) represents Uzbekistan in men's international Association football, football and is controlled by the Uzbekistan Football Association, the governing body for football in Uzbekistan. Uzbekistan holds t ...

, including three appearances at the

1996 AFC Asian Cup The 1996 AFC Asian Cup was the 11th edition of the men's AFC Asian Cup, a quadrennial international football tournament organised by the Asian Football Confederation (AFC). The finals were held in the United Arab Emirates between 4 and 21 Decembe ...

finals in the

United Arab Emirates The United Arab Emirates (UAE), or simply the Emirates, is a country in West Asia, in the Middle East, at the eastern end of the Arabian Peninsula. It is a Federal monarchy, federal elective monarchy made up of Emirates of the United Arab E ...

Coaching career

After finishing his football career, Atayan continued with a coaching career. He possesses both the ''AFC coaching diploma'' and the ''UEFA category B coaching license'' diploma in Greece. He began coaching professionally youth football academy U13, U15, U17, U19. Afterwards, he coached in various football teams including ''Copa Renti SC'' owned by Nikos Karoulias in 2001–2004,

Fostiras F.C. Fostiras Football Club () is a Greek football club based in Tavros, a suburb of Athens, Greece. They played Alpha Ethniki between 1960 and 1963 and again between 1970 and 1974. History First years In 1926, a football club was established in the ...

in 2004–2005, Kallithea F.C. B League in 2011–2012,

in 2012–2013.

Personal life

He got married in 1988, had a daughter (Diana) in 1990 and a son (Arsen) in 1994.

Honours

Club

Neftchi Farg'ona *

(3): 1992, 1993, 1994 *

Uzbek Cup The O‘zbekiston Kubogi ( or ), known simply as Uzbek Cup, is the top knockout tournament in Uzbek football (soccer) Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 Football pl ...

(2): 1994, 1996

Individual

* Uzbekistan Footballer of the Year 3rd: 1993

References

External links

*
Official Facebook Profile
1966 births Living people Footballers from Baku Soviet Armenians Men's association football midfielders Soviet men's footballers Uzbekistani men's footballers Uzbekistani expatriate men's footballers Uzbekistan men's international footballers 1996 AFC Asian Cup players FK Köpetdag Aşgabat players FC Neftchi Fergana players FC Sogdiana players FC Kokand 1912 players Proodeftiki F.C. players Atromitos F.C. players Uzbekistan Super League players Super League Greece players Expatriate men's footballers in Greece Uzbekistani expatriate sportspeople in Greece Footballers at the 1994 Asian Games Asian Games gold medalists for Uzbekistan Asian Games footballers for Uzbekistan Medalists at the 1994 Asian Games Ethnic Armenian sportspeople Uzbekistani people of Armenian descent Uzbekistani football managers Proodeftiki F.C. managers Asian Games gold medalists in football {{Uzbekistan-footy-bio-stub