Background and career
Nikita Pavlovich Simonyan (Russian: Никита Павлович Симонян, Armenian: Նիկիտա Պողոսի Սիմոնյան; 12 October 1926 – 23 November 2025) was a Soviet and Russian football striker and coach of Armenian descent. He spent most of his career at Spartak Moscow, where he was top scorer of all time with 160 goals. He played for the Soviet Union national team, winning the gold medal at the 1956 Olympics and reaching the quarter-finals of the 1958 FIFA World Cup. As a manager, he won the Soviet Top League with Ararat Yerevan in 1973.
Simonyan was the Russian football functionary First Vice-president of the Russian Football Union. He was awarded the Honoured Master of Sports of the USSR title in 1954, the Honored Coach of RSFSR title in 1968, the Merited Coach of the USSR title in 1970 and the Order "For Merit to the Fatherland" in 2011.
