Renowned Soviet footballer Nikita Simonyan passes away at 99

Nikita Simonyan, a 1956 Olympic champion with the USSR national team and a four-time USSR champion with Spartak Moscow, died on November 23 at the age of 99. This was reported by BelTA, citing TASS.

According to Alexander Mirzoyan, Chairman of the Football Veterans Committee of the Russian Football Union, Simonyan felt ill on Thursday and was hospitalized, where he died.

Nikita Simonyan was born in 1926 in Armavir. The family later moved to Sukhumi, where Simonyan joined the football academy of the local Dynamo team. The striker began his football career with Dynamo Sukhumi, then played for Krylia Sovetov Moscow, and his main club was Spartak Moscow, where he played over 200 matches, scoring 133 goals. With Spartak, Simonyan became a four-time Soviet Union champion. In 1956, he and his USSR teammates became Olympic champions in Melbourne.