Noah: the strongest team last season, and favourites for this one
The 2026/27 Armenian Premier League season starts on July 31. In this series, we are going club by club: last season's numbers, playing style, likely core, summer transfers, title outlook, and Fantasy value.
Ararat-Armenia won the title. Noah enter the new season as our favourites.
The strongest numbers in the league
Noah finished second, four points behind Ararat-Armenia, but led the league in almost every basic team metric: 61 goals scored, only 19 conceded, and a +42 goal difference.
They scored 11 more than the champions and conceded six fewer. Nine wins came by at least three goals. In the final three rounds alone, Noah beat Ararat-Armenia 4:0, Ararat 8:3, and Urartu 5:0.
So why did the strongest statistical team not win the league?
Europe split the season in two
Noah reached the Conference League league phase for a second consecutive year and then went one step further, beating AZ Alkmaar 1:0 in the first leg of the knockout play-off before losing the return.
That run also divided their domestic season almost perfectly.
The second version of Noah went unbeaten: ten wins, two draws, 36 goals scored, five conceded. Over a full 27-match season, that pace is 72 points. Nobody in Armenia was close to it.
The problem was the first half of the campaign. During a run of Thursday-Sunday football, Noah drew six of their first 15 league matches and lost twice. Ararat-Armenia built a ten-point advantage over those rounds. Noah recovered eight of them, but ran out of matches.
There was another split. Against the bottom five, Noah took 40 points from 15 matches, the best rate in the league. Against the other top-five clubs, they took only 16 from 12. Ararat-Armenia took 21 in those same big fixtures. That five-point difference decided a four-point title race.
Nobody keeps their place
Perković picked 27 different teams in 27 league matches. Not once, all season, did he name the same eleven twice.
Some of that was Europe. Thursday-Sunday football forces a coach's hand, and Noah played sixteen European matches on top of the league. But it went well beyond managing tired legs. Even the four defenders who played the most only lined up together seven times all season. Hovhannes Hambardzumyan, who is 35, still started ten league games at right-back. The goalkeeper's jersey changed hands three times.
In Armenia he mostly set up in a 4-2-3-1. In Europe the shape changed from tie to tie, depending on who was in front of him.
The names below are the players who started most often. It is worth saying, though, that this particular eleven never actually took the field together.
One name there deserves more attention than it has had. Gor Manvelyan started 16 league games in the creative role behind the striker, as many as Takuto Oshima, and finished with four goals and four assists. He is 24, he is Armenian, and he was doing that in the best attack in the country. He was rotated like everybody else — 16 starts means he watched eleven games begin from the bench — but nobody else at the club held that position for as long.
The rest of the team churned in the same way. Nathanaël Saintini started 19 times and Erik Boakye 17, yet Nermin Zolotić still got 12 before he left for Farense. In goal, Arthur Coneglian started 12, Ognjen Cancarević 8 and Timothy Fayulu 4.
Even the wings, the closest thing Noah had to settled positions, were not really settled. Hélder Ferreira and Marin Jakoliš started 21 and 20 games between them out of 27, which still leaves a dozen starts that went to someone else. Valentin Costache came in during the winter window and hit the ground running — a goal and three assists in 351 minutes, a better rate than anyone else who stayed — and then got injured.
Which is the problem with Noah, and it is worth saying before we go any further. This is the deepest squad in Armenia and the hardest one to pick a Fantasy team from.
A deep attack, but three important exits
Noah did not depend on one scorer. Nardin Mulahusejnović, Matheus Aiás, and Hélder Ferreira all scored ten league goals — three players tied on the same total, in a league where Urartu's top scorer took 40% of his club's goals on his own. Marin Jakoliš supplied eight assists from the left, Gustavo Sangaré added nine goal contributions from deep, and 17 different Noah players scored at least once.
The three confirmed attacking departures in this table scored 23 league goals, 38% of Noah's total. Mulahusejnović has joined Vojvodina for a reported €700,000. Matheus Aiás left after an extraordinary ten goals in 804 league minutes. Oulad Omar's departure removes their most productive attacker per 90 among the players used primarily behind the striker.
That is a real loss. It is also why Noah have rebuilt the forward line rather than simply kept last season's depth.
Perković finally gets a preseason
Last summer was unusually compressed. Rui Mota left on June 14 after a league-and-cup double, and Sandro Perković was appointed the same day. His first interview as Noah coach came on June 25. Champions League qualifying began two weeks later.
Perković still took Noah through a long European campaign and produced the league's best goal difference, but he had almost no normal preparation period.
This summer is different. Noah trained in Slovenia from June 17 to July 8 and played four friendlies.
Results in friendlies are secondary. The useful part is the month of work, the stronger opponents, and the chance to integrate signings before competitive football. Hovhannes Hambardzumyan scoring twice is also worth noting for Fantasy: he remains a defender in the game.
Transfers: a new spine and a registration puzzle
Noah have changed all three lines.
Gil Vicente · projected No. 1
Burgos · 5 goals in 2025/26
Aberdeen · 4 goals in Scotland in 25/26
Ararat · 10 league goals
new left-sided defender
Grenoble · left-footed centre-back
Ararat · three seasons in Armenia
BKMA · 1,678 league minutes
Vojvodina · 10G 2A
left · 10G 1A in 804 minutes
left · 3G 4A in 581 minutes
to Farense · 9 clean sheets in 14 apps
to Pyunik · direct rival
goalkeeper and defensive depth turnover
For the transfers of Doumbia and Dombila, their age and the timeline play a crucial role. The timing matters because of the Armenia-trained rule. A Premier League club may name up to 23 players for a match, but at least nine of them must be trained in Armenia, and at least three must be on the pitch at all times. Noah's 2025/26 squad carried 19 foreign players. No club in the league had less room to manoeuvre.
The definition is where it gets interesting. A player counts as trained in Armenia if he was registered with an Armenian club for at least three seasons between the seasons in which he turned 15 and 21.
Kalifala Doumbia was born in September 2004 and signed for Ararat in August 2023, at 18. Clinton Dombila was born in February 2005 and joined that same month, also at 18. Both have spent three seasons registered in Armenia, all of them inside that window. Both are Armenia-trained.
That makes these two signings more than football decisions. Noah have not only bought a striker who scored ten league goals and a 21-year-old right-back. They have bought two players who fill an Armenia-trained place. It is not a loophole; it is the homegrown pathway working the way it was written to work.
Mambo changes the defensive calculation again. The 27-year-old is a left-footed centre-back who can also cover defensive midfield and left-back, arrives with Ligue 2 experience, and carries a €500,000 Transfermarkt value. At 5.5m in Fantasy, his pedigree is clear but his minutes are not: Noah now have Saintini, Muradyan, Boakye, Mambo, Pavlović, Sualehe, and Dombila competing across the back line.
Oulad Omar's sudden exit, only a year after extending through 2027, also makes more sense in that context. We cannot confirm the Armenia-trained requirement caused the move, but a squad carrying 19 foreigners, which has to find nine Armenia-trained players for every matchday list and keep three of them on the pitch, is under obvious pressure to thin out.
The arrival of Lazetić
Noah have officially signed Aberdeen forward Marko Lazetić.
Lazetić is 22, moved from Red Star to Milan for a reported fee close to €5 million, and produced four goals and one assist in 1,057 Scottish Premiership minutes last season. The name is bigger than the recent output, but his age and physical profile make the upside obvious in Armenia. For Fantasy, he will be priced at 10.5m.
Europe: experience helps, but the route is long
Noah begin their Conference League campaign away to Zimbru Chișinău on July 23, with the return in Abovyan on July 30. They are favourites in that tie.
Getting back to the league phase is much harder than winning one round. Noah entered in the second qualifying round and must survive three two-legged ties. The third-round draw has not yet been made, so any exact route beyond Zimbru is speculation.
What has changed is the baseline. This group and coach already know how to manage European travel, postponed league matches, and two games per week. Last season's 24 points in the first 15 rounds show that experience does not remove the cost, but the club should be better prepared for it.
Prediction: 1st place
Our call: Noah will win the league, and the margin can be comfortable.
The case is straightforward. They already had the best attack, the best defence, and a +42 goal difference. Their final 12 matches produced 32 points and a 36:5 goal record. The defensive core is largely intact, the coach now has a full preseason, and the new forward options address the biggest exits.
There are two risks. The attack has lost 23 confirmed league goals, and another European autumn would again stretch the squad. But Noah have more high-level depth than any domestic rival and have already shown they can play on both fronts.
Ararat-Armenia were the more consistent team last season. Noah were the more powerful one. We expect that power to become a title this time.
Fantasy: which three should you take?
Noah are the hardest club in the game because the three-player limit forces choices across the best projected defence and deepest attack.
Price list (not final; prices can change before launch)
Figueira5.5mConeglian5.0mDavtyan4.5mAvetisov4.0mBoakye6.5mSaintini6.5mSualehe6.5mS. Muradyan6.5mMambo5.5mPavlović5.5mHambardzumyan5.5mM. Avetisyan4.5mDombila4.5mA. Movsesyan4.0mHélder12.0mJakoliš11.0mCostache9.0mManvelyan9.0mSangaré8.5mOshima6.5mKhamoyan6.0mEteki5.5minjuredA. Avanesyan5.5mFofana5.0minjuredKhudaverdyan5.0mBua Mbilia4.5mLazetić10.5mK. Doumbia8.5mM. González8.0mAsiryan4.5mGareginyan4.5mThe defence is the cheap way in
Noah kept 16 clean sheets in 27 league matches, six more than the champions. On paper that is the best defensive projection in the game, and it is cheap. Erik Boakye and David Sualehe were on the pitch from the start for 12 of those clean sheets, Nathanaël Saintini 11, Sergey Muradyan 10. None of them costs more than 6.5m.
Now read that back alongside the rotation. Those four started together seven times. Zolotić has gone to Farense, but Mambo, Pavlović and Dombila have all arrived to fight for the same shirts. Whoever you buy, you are buying a share of a defence, not a guaranteed starter.
Dombila at 4.5m is the one we would keep an eye on rather than rush into. He is 21, he is Armenia-trained, and he is the cheapest defender at the club everyone expects to win the league. He also has to get into the team first.
Hélder is the one player you can build around
Hélder scored ten league goals, joint-most at the club, and started 21 of 27 — more than anyone else. He counts as a midfielder in Fantasy, so each of those goals is worth five points. At 12.0m he is the most expensive player in the squad and the easiest one to justify.
Jakoliš at 11.0m is the other route: five goals and eight assists, a per-90 return almost identical to Hélder's.
Valentin Costache is cheaper than both at 9.0m and is the hardest player in the squad to call. Nobody at Noah produced at his rate last season — a goal and three assists in 351 minutes — but nobody played less, either, and he finished the campaign injured. He is a bet on the player rather than the minutes.
And then there is Manvelyan
Gor Manvelyan costs 9.0m, a full 2.0m less than Jakoliš, and he started only four fewer league games. Four goals and four assists from the number ten role.
His minutes are not safe. Nobody's are at this club, and Khamoyan and the other Armenians want the same shirt. But he was playing more often than not in the most creative position in the best attack in Armenia, and he is priced below two team-mates doing a similar job.
If you want two Noah midfielders instead of one, Hélder and Manvelyan cost 21.0m together. Hélder and Jakoliš cost 23.0m.
The striker slot can wait
At 10.5m, Lazetić arrives as a marquee signing and looks like the presumptive starter on paper. However, his competitors present a real challenge.
Doumbia scored ten times for an Ararat team that finished second to last and scored only 21 goals — almost half of them. That is an exceptional share of a weak attack, and the joint-fourth highest total in the league. At Noah he will get far better service, and far more competition.
He is also Armenia-trained, which means he can lead the line without using one of Noah's foreign places. That is a real argument for him starting, and it is priced at 8.5m.
Mario González (8.0m) has the stronger senior résumé, yet his 2025/26 return was five goals in 28 matches for Burgos. Noah have three credible centre-forwards before they even consider the wide players who can move inside.
The sensible thing early on is patience. Take the players who were already playing, and let the first few team sheets settle the striker question for you.
Our current three
Ask us again in three weeks and the third name may well have changed. Jakoliš at 11.0m has a team-high eight assists and a real claim to the slot; if Doumbia starts the first two league games, he becomes hard to ignore. That is Noah in a sentence: everyone has a case, nobody has a guarantee.
Bottom line
Noah were four points short of the title and 17 goals better than the champions on goal difference. Their 32-point finish to the season is the strongest evidence in this preview.
The squad has changed, especially at centre-forward. Perković has had a proper preseason, and Noah have recruited for quality and for eligibility at the same time.
They are our title favourites. For Fantasy, remember the number that matters most in this whole preview: 27 different teams in 27 matches. Buy the players who were on the pitch, not the ones with the best names.