Sargis Adamyan – Hoffenheim’s Armenian Nugget Scouted | OneFootball

Manuel Veth –

Sargis Adamyan is an Armenian national team player even though he has never played in the country of his birth. In fact, the Armenian national team striker, who was signed by Hoffenheim this summer spend his entire football career in Germany.

This summer Hoffenheim took the sbobet88 gamble and signed the relative unknown forward from Jahn Regensburg for just  €1.5 million. “Sargis got our attention in Bundesliga 2 thanks to his speed and his ability to put the ball in the net,” Hoffenheim’s sporting director Alexander Rosen said after the deal was made official.

The 26-year-old Armenian striker is indeed a fascinating transfer, who had a windy career path to the Bundesliga. Born in Armenia’s capital Yerevan Adamyan’s family emigrated to Germany in 1998.

Adamyan’s father, Vatchagan ran a shoe factory in Yerevan. But with the company in trouble following the post-Soviet collapse the family moved to Germany’s Northeast Mecklenburg-Vorpommern region. In Ueckermünde not far from the Polish border Adamyan’s father became a truck driver and his mother Anahit worked in a bakery.

In 2004 the family moved on to Neubrandenburg. It was here that Sargis Adamyan started to play organised football. The 12-year-old joined 1.FC Neubrandenburg 04 in 2005.

Not that the then 12-year-old has not played football previously. Sargis Adamyan, in fact, is a rare specimen in German football, a street footballer and, as a result, was relatively raw when he joined Hansa Rostock’s academy in 2009.

Coached by Toni Kroos’ father Roland Adamyan, however, was a star in Rostock’s junior program—he scored 11 goals in 25 U19 Bundesliga games. Enough to convince Armenia to call him up to the national team and in November 2013 he would already collect his first senior cap for the country of his parents in Armenia’s 1-0 defeat to Denmark. But despite the national team experience Sargis Adamyan struggled once brought up to the senior side and failed to break into the first team and left the club in the winter of 2014 for Regionalliga Nordost side TSG Neustrelitz.

Two years later the Armenian moved south to join TSV Steinbach in the Regionalliga Südwest. It was here that the now 23-year-old’s talents would finally be recognised.

Making his debut in November 2017, Sargis Adamyan managed five goals and four assists in 33 Bundesliga 2 games throughout the 2017/18 season. Then last season the Armenian would burst on the scene and under head coach Achim Beierlorzer managed to score 15 goals and 11 assists in 33 Bundesliga 2 games.

“Sargis is a fascinating player, who is supposed to challenge for the starting eleven and I think he can be a real surprise in the upcoming season,” Rose said. “I want to make it in the Bundesliga, and I see Hoffenheim as the ideal place to make the next step,” Sargis Adamyan said.

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Without a doubt, Hoffenheim have signed one of the most exciting Bundesliga 2 players from last season. Kicker ranked the striker as the fifth best player in the league last season. Furthermore, with 26 scorer points in 33 games, the Armenian managed to catapult his transfer value from €150,000 to €3 million.

The Armenian national team player was fourth in assists in Bundesliga 2 last season. Furthermore, he was first with 161 touches in the box and ranked third with 96 shots and 211 one-v-one dribbles among all Bundesliga 2 players last season.

It will be fascinating to see how those numbers will translate in the Bundesliga. But for Sargis Adamyan, it becomes the end of a windy road that begun in Armenia’s capital in 1998 and now ends with his big shot at Bundesliga football this summer.

Manuel Veth is the owner and Editor in Chief of the Futbolgrad Network. He also works as a freelance journalist and among others contributes to Forbes.com and Pro Soccer USA. He holds a Doctorate of Philosophy in History from King’s College London, and his thesis is titled: “Selling the People’s Game: Football’s transition from Communism to Capitalism in the Soviet Union and its Successor States,” which is available HERE. Originally from Munich, Manuel has lived in Amsterdam, Kyiv, Moscow, Tbilisi, London, and currently is located in Victoria BC, Canada.  Follow Manuel on Twitter @ManuelVeth.