Announcement

Collapse
No announcement yet.

Soccer: Armenia'S Most Prolific Midfielder

Collapse
X
 
  • Filter
  • Time
  • Show
Clear All
new posts

  • Soccer: Armenia'S Most Prolific Midfielder

    ARMENIA'S MOST PROLIFIC MIDFIELDER

    Bundesliga - official website
    July 10 2013

    Munich - Borussia Dortmund wanted as similar a replacement as possible
    for Bavaria-bound Mario Gotze, and in Henrikh Mkhitaryan, they appear
    to have got it.

    Armenia has rarely been known as a hotbed of footballing talent,
    but Dortmund's new signing Mkhitaryan stands head and shoulders above
    the rest of his compatriots.

    Admirable strike rate

    Voted Armenia's footballer of the year in 2009, 2011 and 2012, the
    2013 gong also looks like it will be a foregone conclusion for a man
    who netted 12 goals in the first nine games of the last Ukrainian
    season as Shakhtar Donetsk emulated Bayern Munich by knocking down
    numerous records on their way to the title.

    Such a goalscoring ratio would be admirable for any striker, only
    Mkhitaryan is a midfielder by trade. He nevertheless set a new
    Ukrainian league record, scoring 25 goals last term from a similar
    position to Gotze, attracting the interest of many top clubs throughout
    Europe.

    Football in the blood

    Dortmund had already seen his talents first hand when they eliminated
    Mkhitaryan's Donetsk from the UEFA Champions League in the first
    knockout stage, bringing an end to his ever-present stint in Europe
    in 2012/13.

    More European football will come, though, for a player who was
    predestined for a career as a professional footballer. His father
    Hamlet shone at FC Ararat Yerevan in the 1980s before uprooting his
    family to join French club Valence. He died tragically of a brain
    tumour at the age of 33, when Henrikh was just seven, and the family
    returned to Armenia, where Henrikh joined Pyunik Yerevan.

    No language barrier

    >From there, he moved to Metalurg Donetsk before earning a move across
    the city after just one season, in which he scored 12 goals. A move
    to Germany's top-flight, not only represents a new step in his career,
    but also a fifth new language having already mastered French, Russian,
    English and Portuguese alongside his mothertongue Armenian.

    Football and linguistics are common demoninators in his family
    too with his mother head of the national teams' department of the
    Armenian Football Federation and his sister, Monica, working for UEFA,
    interpreting for president Michel Platini ahead of EURO 2012.

    However, Mkhitaryan's competitive debut is not eagerly-awaited due to
    his lingusitic abilites, but the style and ease with which he plays
    his football. Perfectly suited to play a leading role in Dortmund's
    youthful frontline under Jurgen Klopp, the only way is up for Armenia's
    most prominent professional.

    http://www.bundesliga.com/en/liga/news/2012/0000260085.php


    From: Baghdasarian
Working...
X