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Preparations for the launch of Benfica Academy Armenia have advanced with a visit to Lisbon by the project’s founder, Alfred Sadoyan, and director, Artur Azaryan, who traveled to Portugal to learn more about the renowned club’s youth development methodology.
The academy, a joint project of Sport Lisboa e Benfica and Football Investment Group, is scheduled to open in the summer of 2027.
Sadoyan and Azaryan traveled to the Portuguese capital to take part in a work program focused on technical training and integration into Benfica’s culture.
Over several days, they met with representatives of various club departments during sessions held at Benfica’s home stadium, Estádio da Luz, and the Adidas Benfica Campus. The meetings aimed to provide a deeper understanding of the working methods, organizational principles and values underpinning Benfica’s youth development model.
The Benfica academy in Armenia will feature a stadium, six football pitches and other state-of-the-art facilities, with capacity for more than 1,000 footballers aged 4 to 17.
The training program will cover different levels of play, from recreational football to competitive teams and elite divisions, offering athletes development opportunities tailored to their age, abilities and individual ambitions. At the local level, this structure will follow the logic of Benfica’s development pyramid, which brings together a network of football schools, training and development centers, and the Adidas Benfica Campus. The goal is to create a coherent training pathway in which the club’s methodology is applied at different stages of young footballers’ development.
“Today, everyone recognizes that Benfica’s youth academy, along with its educational and coaching methods, is among the best in the world, thanks to its approach to developing talent and creativity. We are confident that the same principles will guide our work in Armenia,” Sadoyan said.
In July 2026, the Football Federation of Armenia (FFA) and Football Investment Group announced the launch of the Benfica Academy Armenia project. Under the initiative, the official academy of the renowned Portuguese club Sport Lisboa e Benfica will begin operating in Yerevan in the 2027–2028 season.
The project will be implemented on the grounds of the FFA’s Technical Center-Academy. The federation has granted a section of the facility to Football Investment Group LLC for long-term, gratuitous use to implement the Benfica Academy Armenia project.
The decision reflects the exceptional scale of the initiative and its strategic importance for the development of Armenian football, as well as the fact that SL Benfica’s academy is one of the leading football academies in the world.