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15 facts about Roman Berezovsky that you should know

Here are 15 most interesting facts about Pyunik’s head coach Roman Berezovsky.

Roman Berezovsky (on the upper row in the middle) in youth club managed by Sergey Kayfajyan

1. Roman Berezovsky was born in Yerevan on August 5, 1974. In the early 1970s his perents moved to Armenia to take part in the construction of Arpa-Sevan hydro technical complex after which they received an apartment and decided to settle in Armenia.

Roman Berezovsky is on the bottom row, 4th from right

2. Berezovsky started his first steps in football at the age of 7. It’s noteworthy that Roman’s elder brother, Aleksandr Berezovsky, who is 14 years older than him has provided a very important contribution to Roman’s career as a footballer. First time he took Roman to his classmate Sergey Kayfajyan for engaging in football who after graduating from the institute began working as a coach at the current Pyunik Sports School which was then called Children and Youth Sports School of Olympic Reserve and after was renamed Yerevan Football School (YFS). And so Sergey Kayfajyan became Roman Berezovsky’s first coach.

Youth goalkeeper Roman Berezovsky

3. Probably not everyone knows that at first Berezovsky was a front-line player and not a goalkeeper at all. Moreover, he even succeeded in that position and he became a goalkeeper accidently. During one of the matches the team’s goalkeeper performed very badly and when he conceded one more goal it finally made the team’s coach angry and he offered Roman to keep the goal and try him as a goalkeeper. That’s how Roman Berezovsky started his goalkeeper career.

Syunik Kapan (1992)

4. When he was 16 Berezovsky began performing in the 1991 Soviet Second League B playing for Yerevan’s Koshkagorts. The first part of the next, 1992 season he played in the first Armenian Premier League for the same team conceding 12 goals in 9 matches and in the second round of the championship he moved to Kapan’s Syunik where conceded 30 goals in 13 matches.

5. After the 1992 season Roman Berezovsky left for Saint Petersburg first playing for a local, amateur team, Zvezda, and then playing for Kosmos-Kirovets (1993), Zenit Saint Petersburg (1994-2000), Smena-Saturn (1995), Torpedo Moscow (2001), Dynamo (2002-2005) and Khimki (2006-2011). In February 2012 Roman Berezovsky returned to Dynamo Moscow and spending 3 years there ended his football career in July 2015.

6. In 2000 Zenit Saint Petersburg got an offer for Berezovsky from French Saint-Etienne after which Roman traveled to France, passed medical examination and signed a 4-year preliminary contract.  The transfer would cost $ 1,8m. In June of the same year it was planned to organize a farewell event for Berezovsky during which he had to run a victory lap at the stadium and greet the fans. But at the last moment the deal was canceled and not only because Berezovsky wasn’t satisfied with the personal contract but also he was concerned with the fact that he would have to perform with a fake Greek passport in the French team. It was done because there was a restriction on legionaries in France and the footballer with a European passport wouldn’t be considered a legionary.

7. In 1997 Roman Berezovsky was named the best goalkeeper of the Russian championship by Sport Express (average rating 6.26) and was included in top 10 players of the championship. In the same season he was also named the best player of Zenit.

By the results of the 1999 season Berezovsky entered the annual list of top 33 players compiled by the Russian Football Union (RFU) being included among 3 best goalkeepers. In 2007 he was recognized the best player of Moscow Region Khimki.

And in 2015 on the occasion of Zenit’s 90th anniversary was ranked among the top 5 goalkeepers in the history of the club by Zenit-history.ru.

Roman Berezovsky's all 14 saved penalties in Russian Premier League

8. Roman Berezovsky is a record holder by the number of caught penalty kicks in the Soviet Top League and Russian Premier League (14).

In his debut match in the Russian Premier League against Kamaz in 1996, Berezovsky, replacing Zenit’s goalkeeper Aleksandr Prikhodko in the second half, managed to guess the direction of Robert Yevdokimov’s penalty kick only in 12 minutes pushing away his first penalty kick in the Russian Premier League.

Last time Berezovsky has caught a penalty kick in the Russian Premier League in 2009 playing for Khimki when he managed to overcome Saprtak Nalchik forward Shamil Asildarov.

9. Berezovsky is also a member of Lev Yashin Club where he was included for spending 100 and more official scoreless matches during his career in Russia. He has spent 107 scoreless matches (103 in the Russian Premier League, 3 in the Russian Cup and 1 in the Eurocups).

Zenit Saint Petersburg - winner of 1999 Russian cup

10. Despite his long career Roman Berezovsky has got only one valuable title winning the Russian Cup with Zentit in 1999. Also Berezovsky became a winner of the Russian First Division (at present Russian National League) in Khimki in 2006.

11. During his years in Zenit Roman was invited to the Armenia national youth team where he played the first match against the Belgium national youth team in September 1994. Then Berezovsky performed in the team’s starting lineup but in the 26th minute Roman Berezovsky was sent off the pitch due to the fall of the last hope, and then our youth team conceded 7 unanswered goals.

Roman Berezovsky before his debut match on Armenian national team against Portugal, in 1996

12. Roman Berezovsky made his debut in the Armenia national team on 31 August, 1996 in the match of the 1998 FIFA World Cup qualifying round against the Portugal national team where Berezovsky could keep the goal inaccessible and helped our team to play an honorable draw. It’s noteworthy that the matches against the Portugal national team were always symbolic for Roman: on November 7, 2007 he played his 50th jubilee match for the Armenia national team against the same team and on June 13, 2015 Berezovsky played his last official match again against the Portugal national team in Yerevan.

Overall, Roman Berezovsky has played 94 matches for the Armenia national team.

13. Berezovsky holds the record for the number of minutes during which the goal post of the Armenia national team was kept inaccessible (300 minutes).

The series of invulnerability began on June 7, 2013 when after conceding Michael Mifsud’s goal in the 8th minute of the match against the Malta national team Berezovsky kept the goal unapproachable till the 61th minute of the match against the Bulgaria national team on 11 October of the same year when Ivelin Popov managed to score a goal.

14. Berezovsky has appeared on the pitch wearing a captain’s armband of the Armenia national team for 21 times.

First time he assuemed the duties of the national team captain on 26 March, 2006 in the match of the 2006 FIFA World Cup qualifying round against the Andorra national team in Yerevan and the last time he entered the pitch with a captain’s armband during his farewell match against the Belarus national team on 26 March, 2016.

15. Although Roman Berezovsky’s career is not rich in prizes but he has been bestowed high state awards for his great contribution to Armenian football. In 1999 by the decree of the President of RA Berezovsky was awarded Movses Khorenatsi Medal becoming the first footballer in Armenia to deserve such a high government award. In November 2011 he was awarded the Second-Class Medal of Services to the Motherland by the decree of the President of RA. And in 2016 he was awarded a gold medal by the mayor of Yerevan during his farewell match.

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