Samvel Babayan and his difficult coaching path

Famous in the world of football personality - the current head coach of Uzbekistan Samvel Babayan. His biography is distinguished by a unique feature - the minimum length of a footballer's career. He confidently leads the national team for the qualifying round of the 2018 World Cup. By the results of half of the selection, Uzbekistan is the third, having high chances even to win in the Asian group.

Coming into football

Samvel Babayan was born on May 19, 1971 in Tashkent. In school years, the young guy started playing football, where he was distinguished for his ability to see, read and revitalize the game with non-standard actions. In the course of his training, Babayan played for youth teams, including in the championship of the Ukrainian SSR, but not finishing before the age of 22, completed his career without noticing any special achievements both at the club level and personally.

Beginning of coaching activities

Despite the completion of the footballer's career, Samvel Babayan did not part with the most popular game in the world. In 1993, he settled himself as an administrator at the club Politicalotdel, after working there a year. In the early 2000s he became the manager of the Uzbekistan national team, and in 2002 he was in place of the vice-president of the legendary Pakhtakor, where he was actively engaged in the development of the club for 12 years.

In 2014, Samvel Babayan first tried himself in the coaching field, heading the Tashkent club. Despite the minimal experience as a football player in major tournaments, as well as a mentor of a large team, being in the title of head coach for only a year, the Uzbek specialist led the team to the championship, for which he was recognized as the coach of the year in Uzbekistan. On a successful wave, Babayan continued his work in Pakhtakor, but left the club in the summer.

Team of Uzbekistan

The reason for this was the announcement of the Football Federation of Uzbekistan on June 23, 2015, that Samvel Babayan will take the post of head coach of the national team. The photo of the specialist appeared on the site with a lot of positive feedback from the fans who hoped for the experience of their compatriot. And the national team coach did not fail them - in 2015 Uzbekistan won in all 5 matches under the guidance of the new coach.

In parallel, the specialist was engaged in coaching activities as part of Uzbek Olympians. Under his leadership, the youth team performed at the Asian Championships, but finished ahead of schedule on the tournament, failing to win tickets to the Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro, and Babayan himself was dismissed for not achieving good results.

Focusing on the main team, the coach began building a powerful and united team. As a result, the next season, marked by the start of the qualifying tournament for the World Cup in Russia, also started for the Uzbek mentor successfully. Babayan's team finished the second round of selection for the Asian Cup in the first place in their group, and in the qualification for the championship it won three important victories, losing only the main competitors with a minimum score: Iran 0: 1 and South Korea 2: 1. Nevertheless, having 5 more games left in the lead, as well as just a two-point gap between the Iranians, Uzbekistan retains very high chances to complete the qualifying round in the first place.