Ara Bedrossian (born 2 June 1967) is a Cypriot former professional

footballer A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugby le ...

who played as a

midfielder A midfielder is an outfield position in association football. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in that case known as defensive midfielders. As central midfielders often go across boundarie ...

Early and personal life

He is of Armenian descent. His father was a Cypriot tennis champion. He moved to England in 1974 following the

Turkish invasion of Cyprus The Turkish invasion of Cyprus began on 20 July 1974 and progressed in two phases over the following month. Taking place upon a background of Cypriot intercommunal violence, intercommunal violence between Greek Cypriots, Greek and Turkish ...

Career

Early career

In England, Bedrossian played youth football with AYA before playing semi-professionally with

Kingstonian Kingstonian Football Club is an English semi-professional football club based in the Royal Borough of Kingston upon Thames, southwest London which currently plays in the Isthmian League Premier Division. The club was founded in 1885 by YMC ...

. He spent his early career in Cyprus with

APOEL APOEL FC ( el, ΑΠΟΕΛ; short for Αθλητικός Ποδοσφαιρικός Όμιλος Ελλήνων Λευκωσίας, ''Athletikos Podosferikos Omilos Ellinon Lefkosias'', literally "Athletic Football Club of Greeks of Nicosia") ...

, playing for them for 8 years.

Playing in England

He moved from Queens Park Rangers to

Fulham Fulham () is an area of the London Borough of Hammersmith & Fulham in West London, England, southwest of Charing Cross. It lies on the north bank of the River Thames, bordering Hammersmith, Kensington and Chelsea. The area faces Wandsworth ...

at the end of the 1992–93 season. While playing with Fulham he has trials at

Birmingham City Birmingham City Football Club is a professional football club based in Birmingham, England. Formed in 1875 as Small Heath Alliance, it was renamed Small Heath in 1888, Birmingham in 1905, and Birmingham City in 1943. Since 2011, the first te ...

and

Middlesbrough Middlesbrough ( ) is a town on the southern bank of the River Tees in North Yorkshire, England. It is near the North York Moors national park. It is the namesake and main town of its local borough council area. Until the early 1800s, the a ...

. Bedrossian made a total of 42

league League or The League may refer to: Arts and entertainment * ''Leagues'' (band), an American rock band * ''The League'', an American sitcom broadcast on FX and FXX about fantasy football Sports * Sports league * Rugby league, full contact footba ...

appearances for Fulham, scoring 1 goal. He also played for Stevenage Borough.

Later career

Bedrossian later played in Sweden before returning to Cyprus, playing for APOEL and

Olympiakos Nicosia Olympiakos Nicosia ( el, Ολυμπιακός Λευκωσίας, ''Olympiakos Lefkosias'') is a football club based in Nicosia, Cyprus and competes in the Cypriot First Division. The club was founded in 1931, and is a founding member of the Cy ...

, where he retired from playing at the age of 35. He later ran the Arsenal Soccer School in Cyprus as well as being

Arsenal An arsenal is a place where arms and ammunition are made, maintained and repaired, stored, or issued, in any combination, whether privately or publicly owned. Arsenal and armoury (British English) or armory (American English) are mostly ...

's scout for Eastern Europe. He also managed AGBU Ararat, a futsal team.

References

1967 births Living people Cypriot people of Armenian descent Cypriot men's footballers Kingstonian F.C. players APOEL FC players Queens Park Rangers F.C. players Fulham F.C. players Stevenage F.C. players Olympiakos Nicosia players English Football League players Men's association football midfielders Cypriot expatriate men's footballers Cypriot expatriate sportspeople in England Expatriate men's footballers in England Cypriot expatriate sportspeople in Sweden Expatriate men's footballers in Sweden {{Cyprus-footy-bio-stub