The defender of the Armenian national team Varazdat Haroyan, who started the 2021 season in the capital “Astana”, has a good foothold in the Spanish La Liga after the summer transfer to “Cadiz”. The correspondent of bbabo.net tells in more detail about the successes and failures of the ex-player of "Astana" in one of the strongest European championships.
On July 1, it was officially announced the transfer of the defender, who has experience of playing in Armenia, Iran and Russia, from "Astana" to the Spanish "Cadiz". For six months in the capital of Kazakhstan, Varazdat played 15 official matches in all tournaments, scoring one goal and one assist each.
Haroyan made his debut with the club, which finished 12th last season in La Liga, playing 81 minutes in the first round against Levante (1: 1). Almost immediately, Varazdat managed to earn the trust of the head coach of the Yellow Submarine, Alvaro Cervera, who played for Valencia as a winger and even had four meetings for the Spanish national team.
It was only in the fourth round of the Spanish Championship that Haroyan remained in the reserve for the first time, without ever entering the field. It happened in a home match with Real Sociedad (0: 2). In the seventh round, “Cadiz” on the road lost to the capital “Rayo Vallecano” with a score of 1: 3. The only goal for the losers was scored by Haroyan, it was his debut goal in Spain.
For almost the entire first half of the season, Haroyan was a solid starting player. He missed only the mentioned match of the fourth round, as well as the game of the 12th round against “Mallorca” (1: 1) due to the bust of yellow cards. But in the last two matches of the championship, Varazdat remained on the bench, not even leaving as a substitute. This happened at home against Granada (1-1) and away against Real Madrid (0: 0). In these games, Server brought in a pair of central defenders Fali and Juan Kalu. And if Fali played almost the entire season at the start with Aroyan, then Kala was basically a rotation player. But unexpectedly, at the end of the year, he began to be quoted above Warazdat, and these were far from the most passable matches, given the departure against the leaders of La Liga.
On December 16, Haroyan helped the team to reach the third round of the Spanish Cup - Cadiz minimally beat Albacete (1: 0). The Armenian defender played the entire match on the field with 21-year-old defender Viktor Chust. And in the games with Granada and Real Madrid, Marcos Mauro came out as a substitute - center-back with the smallest amount of playing time in the season, while Varazdat remained on the bench. It turns out that for Server, the ex-player of "Astana" abruptly became a footballer on the bench.
But not to say that it happened for no reason. For the entire season, “Cadiz” only lost twice devastatingly, and these games fell on the end of November. First, the club lost crushingly to Getafe, then in last place - 0: 4. Another ex-player of “Astana” Nemanja Maksimovich is playing for this club from the suburbs of Madrid.
This was followed by a defeat from Atlético - 1: 4, and in the next game the team lost to Elche - 1: 3. In these three matches, Haroyan played 90 minutes each, but was marked with only two yellow cards. It is possible that the coaching staff spotted Varazdat's personal mistakes in these humiliating defeats, and for this reason the ex-Astana resident sat down on the bench.
In the match against Getafe, almost all Cadiz players made mistakes both in defense and in attack. The most serious puncture from Haroyan came with the last fourth goal, when he did not even try to cover the blow of striker Jaime Mata.
In the match against Atlético, at least one productive mistake was made by Varazdat when he missed Antoine Griezmann in one of the attacks. And in the game with “Elche” Haroyan brought a penalty from which the rivals opened the score. Now the 29-year-old defender needs to once again prove his worth to the head coach, and at the same time rehabilitate himself with the following opportunities. Since leaving "Astana", the market value of Varazdat has grown from 900 thousand to 1.2 million euros. But according to this indicator, the defender of the Armenian national team is still a middle peasant in “Cadiz”.
In any case, playing 14 out of 18 La Liga matches in the first half of the season is a great achievement for a player who joined Astana's squad in search of a new team just a year ago. The footballer, who has played 63 matches for the national squad, will still have a chance to regain his place in the start. The team will play their next game on the night of January 3–4 at home against Sevilla, which is in second place in the table.
After 18 rounds, “Cadiz” was in the penultimate 19th place, gaining only 14 points. The team is six points ahead of Levante and one point behind Alaves, Elche and Getafe. The main star of the current Yellow Submarine roster is striker Alvaro Negredo, 36, with 21 appearances and ten goals in a Spain jersey.
Earlier, another Armenian footballer of "Astana" appealed to the fans of "blue-yellow" after the announced transfer to the European team.
Photo: FC Cadiz
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