Lokomotiv Moscow footballer Nair Tiknizyan, who holds Armenian citizenship, will be able to participate in the 2024 European Championship qualifying match with Turkey. In early March, the 23-year-old defender was called up to the Armenian national team’s training camp. The opening Euro qualifier against Turkey is scheduled for March 25 in Yerevan. According to Sport Express, the Armenian national team press service confirmed that Tiknizyan indeed obtained an Armenian passport.
Tiknizyan joined Lokomotiv from CSKA, a club where he developed before leaving in the summer of 2021. He has represented the Russian youth national teams and took part in the 2020 European Championship. This season, he has appeared in 28 matches for Lokomotiv across all competitions, contributing one goal and five assists.
In a separate development, Jesús Medina, a former CSKA player from Paraguay, criticized the national team coach Valery Karpin for not inviting Fedor Chalov to the national team. The Russian national team assembled in Novogorsk on March 19 for training, with plans to play matches against Iraq and Iran during this camp.