Luzhny's tackle led to my Achilles tear: The top Armenian footballer of the 20th century reflects on his stunning playing career and his coaching debut in Ukraine.
– Mr. Khore, you truly had the opportunity to end your career in Greece, but was the match against Kyiv's Dynamo the barrier to that transition?
– Yes, in 1991 I played for Tashkent's Pakhtakor. Thanks to Vasilis Hadzipanagis, I was invited to Iraklis, where Vasya spent his entire career.
But it didn’t work out. A couple of weeks before my departure, I ruptured my Achilles tendon in a match against Kyiv's Dynamo. We played in Tashkent on May 13, 1991, and were leading 2:0. A few minutes before the end of the match, Luzhny made a tackle from behind and injured me. I emphasize, it wasn’t intentional – it was a game moment.
At that time, I was already 36 years old, and Iraklis did not wait for my recovery. I had the operation done in Greece. Oleg Blokhin was already coaching Olympiacos then. He met me at the Athens airport and took me to the clinic. He helped me a lot.
– But you still spent a few years in Greece. From 2006 to 2008, you worked as a scout for Olympiacos. Who did you support in the confrontation between Olympiacos and Dynamo in the Europa League a few years ago?
– Of course, I supported Dynamo. I always root for Ukrainian teams in European cups. I was friends with Andriy Balan, had a good relationship with Blokhin, Buryak, and Bessonov. Taking this opportunity, I send greetings to all the guys from Dynamo against whom I played and with whom I was friends! More than 30 years have passed, but I remember the personal invitation from Blokhin to his farewell match at what was then the Republican Stadium on June 28, 1989.
At that time, I had not played high-level football for four years and had gained weight. And then I received an invitation to a match where the USSR national team would play against a team of stars. I couldn’t refuse Oleg. I started preparing, and in the end, I came on as a substitute and didn’t spoil the game.
4From Ukraine to Lebanon
– After finishing your playing career, you unexpectedly started your coaching career in Ukraine. Who invited you to Simferopol's Tavriya?
– Zayev. I remember my debut coaching stage with pleasure. We worked well together. In the first Soviet league, we finished sixth. We accumulated the same number of points as Bukovyna, which became fifth based on additional criteria. The following year, Tavriya won the inaugural Ukrainian championship.
– But you weren't working there anymore...
– My birthday is on January 10. At the beginning of 1992, I took a couple of days off to celebrate it in Yerevan. Then Tavriya was supposed to fly for training camp. But I decided to stay home. We created a team from scratch, the WZSS (Armenian General Sports Union). They persuaded me to work with them. We became the first champions of Armenia in 1992, and the following season we repeated that achievement.
– Then in your coaching career, you worked at the Lebanese Omenetmen. How did you end up in the Middle East?
– The owner of the Lebanese club was Armenian. The team was struggling in the Lebanese championship, and the president of Omenetmen was not satisfied. I brought three Armenian players to Lebanon. In the first season, we made an impressive jump, rising from the very bottom to fifth place. In the second, we won bronze medals. I could have continued working in Lebanon, but I was drawn back home. Upon returning to Yerevan, I took charge of Pyunik, and then the Armenian national team.
– It was during your time that players with Armenian roots from Western Europe began to be invited to the national team?
– Yes, we invited ethnic Armenians – the forward from French Guingamp, Erik Asadourian, and the defender from Montpellier, Michel Ter-Zakaryan, and quickly arranged Armenian citizenship for them. Erik and Michel played for the national team not for money (what could we offer them back then?), but for the call of blood.
The highest-paid footballer in the USSR
– You once admitted that in the 80s you earned 10,000 rubles a month at Ararat. So, were you the highest-paid footballer in the USSR?
– Perhaps. However, I don’t know how much Oleg Blokhin earned at Kyiv's Dynamo, for instance. I was not mistreated in Yerevan. Payments were made in cash, as there were never such official salaries in the USSR.
– So that's why you turned down numerous offers from Moscow and Kyiv.
– That wasn’t the issue. Ararat was always my home team, and I never wanted to leave. That’s the main reason. There were also less significant reasons. For example, I wasn’t very attracted to the heavy workload under Lobanovsky.
Byeskov called me to Spartak every season
– In 1985, I was accused of match-fixing against Baku's Neftchi. There could be no greater disgrace for an Ararat player. I was dismissed from the team. I finally decided to move to Moscow. But at that time, such transfers were decided at a federation meeting. The day before the meeting, they dealt with me in a typical Soviet party style – an article appeared in the newspaper Trud: they mentioned the Mercedes I bought and made up a bunch of other stuff. In the end, they didn’t let me go to Spartak.
– And when did you buy the famous blue Mercedes?
– In 1983 in Moscow, from a Soviet diplomat. He worked at the USSR embassy in Belgium, and he drove the car over from there. I paid 40,000 rubles for the Mercedes. But at that time, a Volga on the black market cost 30,000. We, footballers, were sold Volgas out of turn at state prices – half the price.
– At the World Cup in Spain, the USSR team was coached by a triumvirate of coaches consisting of Ukrainian Valery Lobanovsky, Georgian Nodar Akhalakatsi, and Russian Konstantin Byeskov. How did the players perceive this?
– I don’t remember anyone being ironic about it. All three coaches wanted the team to win. In other words, everyone aimed for one goal. But they had slightly different understandings of how to achieve it. Each one said something different; the instructions from the coaches didn't coincide. We couldn’t achieve a positive result in Spain.
– Why didn’t Ararat achieve a positive result in the USSR championships during your time? In 1973, the team won gold medals, but it turned out to be impossible to repeat that achievement even with Oganesyan.
– First of all, what was the level of the USSR championship back then?! But still, in 1975, under Maslov, we won the USSR Cup. A year later, we won silver medals. We had a good start