Tweet
LIVERPOOL TARGET HENRIKH MKHITARYAN OWES MUCH TO HERITAGE AND HARD WORK
Shakhtar's rising star comes from strong Armenian stock but had to
graft to become one of eastern Europe's most exciting players
Jonathan Wilson
Wednesday 19 June 2013 11.38 BST
guardian.co.uk
http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/blog/2013/jun/19/henrikh-mkhitaryan-shakhtar-donetsk-jonathan-wilson
Henrikh Mkhitaryan has caught the attention of Europe's top clubs
after shining for Shakhtar Donetsk. Photograph: Valerio
Pennicino/Getty Images
When Jadson returned to Brazil to join São Paulo last season, the
expectation was that Shakhtar Donetsk would buy another of his
compatriots: how else could they replicate his creativity and goals
from midfield? Mircea Lucescu, though, simply advanced one of his
deeper lying midfielders, breaking the habit of the previous few
seasons by playing an eastern European towards the front of his team.
Henrikh Mkhitaryan had, in fairness, only been playing so deep because
of Fernandinho's broken leg but still, nobody quite expected the
explosion when he resumed his former role. His first 14 league games
of last season brought 16 goals and he went on to amass 25 for the
season. He is not, though, he insists, a forward: rather, he is a
midfielder who can operate either as a deep-lying distributor or
behind a striker. In Shakhtar's fluent 4-2-3-1 system, he was pivotal,
a hub whose movement helped shape the whole. In that regard, it's easy
to see why Brendan Rodgers is so keen to bring him to Liverpool:
Mkhitaryan has the ability to find and generate space that is vital to
possession-based teams - and he also has a ruthlessness in front of
goal that Liverpool have lacked over the past couple of seasons.
For Mkhitaryan the move feels logical. Liverpool aspire to a style of
football relatively similar to Shakhtar's. At 24, now is probably the
time to make the step up to the consistent competition of the Premier
League, particularly as the Shakhtar team is dismantled, with Willian,
Fernandinho and Razvan Rat already departed (it's not Liverpool's
fault, but there is something sad about seeing another bright young
team - like Athletic Bilbao and Porto before them - broken down and
sold off after one season of flickering achievement; one of the curses
of the economic disparities of the modern game).
Whether Mkhitaryan would adapt is impossible to say but the signs are
good. Mkhitaryan has a gift for languages - it's a family trait: his
sister Monica works as a translator for Uefa - and has a
down-to-earthness that suggests he is smart and pragmatic enough to
adjust. Just as importantly, he gives a sense of understanding his own
game: he is not a savant to whom excellence just happened; he has
worked methodically to develop his talent, something in which he was
helped by his close relationship with Lucescu.
"It wasn't easy for him from the start," said the Romanian, "but his
integration was speeded up by his high level of football intelligence.
His game awareness is perhaps his most valuable quality - that and the
speed and power and technique Henrikh was gifted by nature and that
he's developed. Because of those virtues, he's one of the players who
most consistently fulfils the tasks set by the coaching staff. Working
with him is fun."
Mkhitaryan's father, Hamlet, was a well-respected centre-forward for
Ararat Yerevan, Armenia's most successful club in Soviet times, in the
late 80s. He had a brief stint at Kotayk Abovyan, and then, in 1989, a
few months after Henrikh's birth, he was transferred to the French
club ASOA Valence, where he spent five years before a move to Issy,
picking up two caps for the newly independent Armenia. Even then,
Henrikh's love for football was clear. "When I was a child, I used to
watch my father playing football, and I always wanted to follow him to
training," he said. "When he didn't take me with him I stayed next to
the door, crying. I always wanted to become a football player, and I
thank my parents, as they helped me so much to realise this dream.
They always supported me on my path."
The Mkhitaryans returned to Yerevan in 1995 and, just a year later,
when Henrikh was seven, his father died from a brain tumour. Football,
though, remained a major part of the family's life, with his mother
now heading the national team department at the Armenian football
federation.
In the pantheon of Armenian footballers, Mkhitaryan stands at the very
top, alongside Nikita Simonyan, Eduard Markarov and Khoren
Hovhannisyan. As the greatest Armenian player since fragmentation, he
probably carries a greater responsibility than any of them, a role of
which he is well aware. "Not so many Armenian players are given the
chance to play in the Champions League, and this is really important
for me, because I want to do everything to impress the children who
are watching me playing," he said last season.
"For those children, I want their goal to be to play in the Champions
League, and for the most important European teams. They don't have to
stop in the Armenian league, thinking that they're not able to achieve
anything more. Every person has to keep in mind that they can grow up
and reach the top, no matter where they are born, whether it's in
Russia, in Ukraine, in Europe; they've still got the opportunity to
show their talent and the culture of their people."
If he joins Liverpool, he will of course have to forego Champions
League football but it may be that he can help bring the competition
back to Anfield.
Shakhtar's rising star comes from strong Armenian stock but had to
graft to become one of eastern Europe's most exciting players
Jonathan Wilson
Wednesday 19 June 2013 11.38 BST
guardian.co.uk
http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/blog/2013/jun/19/henrikh-mkhitaryan-shakhtar-donetsk-jonathan-wilson
Henrikh Mkhitaryan has caught the attention of Europe's top clubs
after shining for Shakhtar Donetsk. Photograph: Valerio
Pennicino/Getty Images
When Jadson returned to Brazil to join São Paulo last season, the
expectation was that Shakhtar Donetsk would buy another of his
compatriots: how else could they replicate his creativity and goals
from midfield? Mircea Lucescu, though, simply advanced one of his
deeper lying midfielders, breaking the habit of the previous few
seasons by playing an eastern European towards the front of his team.
Henrikh Mkhitaryan had, in fairness, only been playing so deep because
of Fernandinho's broken leg but still, nobody quite expected the
explosion when he resumed his former role. His first 14 league games
of last season brought 16 goals and he went on to amass 25 for the
season. He is not, though, he insists, a forward: rather, he is a
midfielder who can operate either as a deep-lying distributor or
behind a striker. In Shakhtar's fluent 4-2-3-1 system, he was pivotal,
a hub whose movement helped shape the whole. In that regard, it's easy
to see why Brendan Rodgers is so keen to bring him to Liverpool:
Mkhitaryan has the ability to find and generate space that is vital to
possession-based teams - and he also has a ruthlessness in front of
goal that Liverpool have lacked over the past couple of seasons.
For Mkhitaryan the move feels logical. Liverpool aspire to a style of
football relatively similar to Shakhtar's. At 24, now is probably the
time to make the step up to the consistent competition of the Premier
League, particularly as the Shakhtar team is dismantled, with Willian,
Fernandinho and Razvan Rat already departed (it's not Liverpool's
fault, but there is something sad about seeing another bright young
team - like Athletic Bilbao and Porto before them - broken down and
sold off after one season of flickering achievement; one of the curses
of the economic disparities of the modern game).
Whether Mkhitaryan would adapt is impossible to say but the signs are
good. Mkhitaryan has a gift for languages - it's a family trait: his
sister Monica works as a translator for Uefa - and has a
down-to-earthness that suggests he is smart and pragmatic enough to
adjust. Just as importantly, he gives a sense of understanding his own
game: he is not a savant to whom excellence just happened; he has
worked methodically to develop his talent, something in which he was
helped by his close relationship with Lucescu.
"It wasn't easy for him from the start," said the Romanian, "but his
integration was speeded up by his high level of football intelligence.
His game awareness is perhaps his most valuable quality - that and the
speed and power and technique Henrikh was gifted by nature and that
he's developed. Because of those virtues, he's one of the players who
most consistently fulfils the tasks set by the coaching staff. Working
with him is fun."
Mkhitaryan's father, Hamlet, was a well-respected centre-forward for
Ararat Yerevan, Armenia's most successful club in Soviet times, in the
late 80s. He had a brief stint at Kotayk Abovyan, and then, in 1989, a
few months after Henrikh's birth, he was transferred to the French
club ASOA Valence, where he spent five years before a move to Issy,
picking up two caps for the newly independent Armenia. Even then,
Henrikh's love for football was clear. "When I was a child, I used to
watch my father playing football, and I always wanted to follow him to
training," he said. "When he didn't take me with him I stayed next to
the door, crying. I always wanted to become a football player, and I
thank my parents, as they helped me so much to realise this dream.
They always supported me on my path."
The Mkhitaryans returned to Yerevan in 1995 and, just a year later,
when Henrikh was seven, his father died from a brain tumour. Football,
though, remained a major part of the family's life, with his mother
now heading the national team department at the Armenian football
federation.
In the pantheon of Armenian footballers, Mkhitaryan stands at the very
top, alongside Nikita Simonyan, Eduard Markarov and Khoren
Hovhannisyan. As the greatest Armenian player since fragmentation, he
probably carries a greater responsibility than any of them, a role of
which he is well aware. "Not so many Armenian players are given the
chance to play in the Champions League, and this is really important
for me, because I want to do everything to impress the children who
are watching me playing," he said last season.
"For those children, I want their goal to be to play in the Champions
League, and for the most important European teams. They don't have to
stop in the Armenian league, thinking that they're not able to achieve
anything more. Every person has to keep in mind that they can grow up
and reach the top, no matter where they are born, whether it's in
Russia, in Ukraine, in Europe; they've still got the opportunity to
show their talent and the culture of their people."
If he joins Liverpool, he will of course have to forego Champions
League football but it may be that he can help bring the competition
back to Anfield.