Stepan Atayan (russian: Степан Атаян; born 13 July 1966) is a retired Uzbek international football player 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 ...

and was awarded in 1993 as one of the three Best Footballers of the Year. He is currently a veteran at Proodeftiki in Greece.

Club career

Atayan began playing football in the

Soviet Second League The Soviet Second League (russian: Чемпионат СССР по футболу (вторая лига), Soviet football championship (Second League)) was the third highest division of Soviet football, below the Soviet First League. The le ...

with Neftchi Baku PFK and Köpetdag Aşgabat. He joined

Uzbek League Uzbekistan Super League ( uz, O'zbekiston Superligasi), also called Coca-Cola Uzbekistan Super League due to sponsorship reasons ( uz, Coca-Cola O'zbekiston Superligasi / Coca-Cola Ўзбекистон Суперлигаси), is the top division ...

side

Neftchi Farg'ona FC Neftchi Fergana ( uz, Neftchi Fargʻona futbol klubi, Uzbek Cyrillic: Нефтчи Фарғона футбол клуби) is an Uzbek football club based in Fergana. They play in the top division in Uzbekistani football and are multiple ch ...

in 1991. Atayan left Uzbekistan and moved to Greece in 1995. He continued his career with Proodeftiki, playing 4 seasons in the

Greek Super League The Super League Greece 1 ( el, Ελληνική Σούπερ Λιγκ 1), or Super League 1, is the highest professional association football league in Greece. The league was formed on 16 July 2006 and replaced ''Alpha Ethniki'' at the top of ...

for the club. He joined Chalkidona F.C. in 1999, where he won 2 cups. He finished his football career in Atromitos F.C. in 2001.

International

He was on the Uzbekistani squad at the

1994 Asian Games The 1994 Asian Games ( ja, 1994年アジア競技大会, ''Senkyūhyakukyūjūyon-nen Ajia kyōgi taikai''), also known as the XII Asiad and the 12th Asian Games ( ja, 第12回アジア競技大会, Daijūni-kai Ajia kyōgi taikai), were held from ...

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

Hungary Hungary ( hu, Magyarország ) is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Spanning of the Carpathian Basin, it is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine to the northeast, Romania to the east and southeast, Serbia to the south, Croa ...

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

Uzbekistan national football team The Uzbekistan national football team ( uz, Ozbekiston milliy futbol terma jamoasi, italic=yes / ) represents Uzbekistan in international football and is controlled by the Uzbekistan Football Association, the governing body for football in U ...

, 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 Decemb ...

finals in the

United Arab Emirates The United Arab Emirates (UAE; ar, اَلْإِمَارَات الْعَرَبِيَة الْمُتَحِدَة ), or simply the Emirates ( ar, الِْإمَارَات ), is a country in Western Asia ( The Middle East). It is located at ...

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. in 2004–2005, Kallithea F.C. B League in 2011–2012, Proodeftiki 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 ( uz, O‘zbekiston Kubogi, script=Latn or ) Uzbek Cup is the top knockout tournament in Uzbek football (soccer). Previous champions All champions as Uzbek SSR in Soviet times: *1939: Dinamo Tashkent *1940: Dinamo T ...

(2): 1994, 1996

Individual

Uzbekistan Footballer of the Year The Uzbekistan Footballer of the Year ( uz, Yilning eng yaxshi futbolchisi or Йилнинг энг яхши футболчиси) is a yearly football award presented by the Uzbekistan Football Association to the most outstanding Uzbekistan footbal ...

3rd: 1993

References

External links

*
Official Facebook Profile
1966 births Living people Footballers from Baku Soviet Armenians 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 FK Neftchi Farg'ona players Proodeftiki F.C. players atromitos F.C. players Men's association football midfielders 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 medalists in football Medalists at the 1994 Asian Games Ethnic Armenian sportspeople Uzbekistani people of Armenian descent {{Uzbekistan-footy-bio-stub