Yura Movsisyan
Wednesday, October 11, 2023Yura Movsisyan (born 2 August 1987) is an Armenian former professional footballer who played as a forward. Most notably, Movsisyan played for Spartak Moscow in the Russian Premier League. He played for the Armenia national football team, ending his career with 14 goals in 38 international games.
Yura Movsisyan was born 2 August 1987 in Gyumri, Armenia SSR, to an Armenian family of parents Sergey Movsisyan and Aida Sahakyan and brothers Movses and Hovhannes. His family left for the United States between late 1991 and early 1992 due to the Pogrom of Armenians in Baku, settling in the Los Angeles area, where there is a large Armenian community. Movsisyan attended Pasadena High School, and played a year of college soccer at Pasadena City College before being discovered by MLS scouts prior to the 2006 MLS SuperDraft. He stated that his football idol was Thierry Henry.
Movsisyan originally stated that his goal was to gain American citizenship and join the United States national team. However, on 9 August 2010, he joined the Armenia national team and made his debut in a friendly against Iran on 11 August 2010. He was one of the most prolific strikers in the UEFA Euro 2012 qualifying campaign, netting four goals and assisting on five others. As of March 2016, Movsisyan had been indefinitely ruled out from representing Armenia by the head of Armenia's Football Federation (FFA), Ruben Hayrapetyan, as a result of his lack of commitment to national team play, following allegation of match fixing during the EURO 2016 qualifying campaign. As he participated in official FIFA competitions via European Qualification matches with Armenia, he is not eligible to represent the United States. He had returned to the Armenian side by November 2018 and scored four goals against Gibraltar.
Movsisyan is married to Marianna and they have three children, daughters, Aida (b. 2012) Rita (b. 2016), and a son, Arman (b. 2010).