Aras Özbiliz

Aras Özbiliz — Biography

Aras Özbiliz was born on 9 March 1990 in the Bakırköy district of Istanbul to an Armenian family; he was named after the Aras river. His family settled in the Netherlands in the early 1990s, where he took up football, joining Ajax's youth academy at the age of eight and signing a professional contract with the club in 2008 after recovering from two serious injuries. He broke into Ajax's first team as a winger, drawing attention for his performances against Manchester United in the 2011-12 Europa League. In 2012 he moved to Russian side Kuban Krasnodar, and a year later to Spartak Moscow for a substantial fee, where he later recovered from a cruciate ligament injury. He joined Beşiktaş in January 2016 but was immediately loaned to Rayo Vallecano in Spain; back at Beşiktaş he won the Turkish league title, and later had a loan spell at Sheriff Tiraspol in Moldova. Having chosen to represent Armenia over the Netherlands in 2011, he scored on his international debut. He moved to Pyunik in 2019 and to Urartu in 2023, retiring from playing that November at the age of 33 to begin a coaching career. Alongside his Turkish nationality, he held Dutch citizenship for years before losing it in 2021.