Civil memorial service for football legend Nikita Simonyan held in Moscow

A civil memorial service for legendary Spartak football player and Ararat Yerevan coach Nikita Simonyan is being held today at the Lukoil Arena stadium, home of Moscow’s Spartak.

Nikita Simonyan passed away on November 23 at the age of 99.

Together with Spartak, he became the champion of the USSR four times as a player and twice as the team’s head coach. In addition, Simonyan was a gold medalist at the 1956 Summer Olympic Games as part of the USSR national team. To this day, he remains Spartak’s all-time leading scorer, with 160 goals for the Moscow club.