ARMENIAN CONNECTION HELPING TIMISOARA FLOURISH
Khachik Chakhoyan

uefa.com
April 27 2009

Romanian club FC Timisoara are flying high in Liga I and, according
to coach Gavril Balint, a lot of their success can be attributed to
Armenian twin brothers Arman and Artavazd Karamyan, whom he calls
"leaders who you can always rely upon".

‘Hard times’ The Karamyans first caught the eye at perennial
titleholders FC Pyunik in their native Armenia, and made their
international debuts in 2000. Having both had unsuccessful spells
in Greece and Ukraine, they then moved to Romania with FC Rapid
BucureÅ~_ti. "Everyone has hard times," Artavazd recalled. "My brother
and I faced it abroad. I was luckier than Arman, but we got through
his low periods together."

Title aspirations Left midfielder Artavazd quickly became an integral
member of the Rapid squad, helping the capital club to the Romanian
Cup in 2005. Although Arman did not bed in as well and soon left,
the twins were reunited at TimiÅ~_oara in 2007 and now, sitting
three points off FC Dinamo 1948 BucureÅ~_ti in third, they are
eyeing a national title. "We’ve got very strong opponents," said
Arman. "Dinamo will no doubt try and stay top, but Unirea and CFR
also cannot be written off. The same goes for Universitatea Craiova,
Steaua and Rapid. It’s very tight in the upper part of the table and
each team is capable of profiting from an opponents’ mistake. We just
need to maintain our standard and drop as few points as possible."

Professional approach This season, Artavazd has scored three goals in
25 matches and while the majority of forward Arman’s 18 appearances
have come from the bench, he has struck five times in his last five
league games and forced his way into the starting XI. "Our coach has
faith in each of the 18 first-team players," Artavazd added. "Of course
there is a lot more responsibility on the guys who start games and
I don’t want to single us out from the others. Each player can play
a crucial part at any time – it’s important to keep a professional
approach. The coach trusts us, we realise that and try to repay him
with decent performances."

European goal With TimiÅ~_oara going so well, the prospect of
qualifying for a debut campaign in the UEFA Champions League is a
tantalising incentive. "This year, Romania was represented in the
UEFA Champions League by Cluj," Arman said. "They are a very solid
and stable club. Their success emphasised that football can bring
happiness to people’s homes. We personally have both already played
in the competition with Pyunik but this would be another level of
football, another step up mentally."

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress