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HENRIKH MKHYTARIAN IS FOLLOWING IN THE FAMILY FOOTSTEPS
The National, UAE
Sept 20 2013
Jonathan Wilson
Sooner or later, Borussia Dortmund's bubble will burst. No side
can keep on slugging it out with a team whose wage bill is double
their own.
But, for now, that bubble remains intact. Dortmund lost Mario Gotze
to Bayern Munich, their biggest domestic rivals, in the summer, and
they have been without Lukasz Piszczek and Ilkay Gundogan through
injury, and yet they look stronger than ever, sitting proudly atop
the Bundesliga with five wins out of five before today's clash with
struggling Nuremberg.
Wednesday's Champions League loss to Napoli was a setback, but that
campaign will be back on track if they can beat Marseille at home on
October 1. No club has such a fine recent record of transfer activity
as Dortmund and this summer, once again, they made the right deals
for the right players at the right time.
Pierre-Emerich Aubemayang joined for £11.4 million (Dh67.2m) and has
already scored five goals in five Bundesliga games, while Henrikh
Mkhytarian, probably already the finest footballer from Armenia,
was signed for £24.2m from Shakhtar Donetsk. Both are 24, just coming
into the peak of their careers.
The greater pressure was on Mkhitaryan, partly because of the size
of his fee, and partly because he is the more direct replacement for
Gotze, who was sold to Bayern for £32.5m. He has taken to his new team,
though, with his familiar enthusiasm, his passion stoked, perhaps,
by being made to room with Kevin Grosskreutz, the season-ticket-holder
who became a first-teamer and taught Mkhitaryan 20 Dortmund chants.
His coach at Shakhtar, Mircea Lucescu, has spoken glowingly about his
intelligence on the pitch and his devotion to self-improvement off it.
Mkhitaryan is one of those rarest of footballers: a hugely gifted
player who genuinely loves the game.
Mkhitaryan was born into football. His father, Hamlet, was a respected
centre-forward for Ararat Yerevan, Armenia's most successful
club in Soviet times, in the late 1980s. He had a brief stint at
Kotayk Abovian, and in 1989, a few months after Henrik'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, the younger Mkhitaryan'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."
Much of that support has had to come from his mother. The Mkhitaryans
returned to Yerevan in 1995, and 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. Henrikh's mother works for the
Armenian Football Federation, while his sister, Monica, is employed
at Uefa headquarters in Switzerland.
With no Armenian enjoying a higher profile than Mkhitaryan, he is aware
that he has greater responsibility than most players, acting almost
as an icebreaker for the whole of the nation's football, cutting a
path for others to follow. "I want Armenian children to realise they
don't have to stop in the Armenian league, thinking that they're not
able to achieve anything more," he said. "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."
Dortmund, with their progressive, attacking approach, are probably
the perfect showcase for Mkhitaryan. He said in the summer that he
wanted to join because he loved the way they play, which is about
the strongest endorsement possible from a player of his fitness
level. The loss of Gotze, which seemed so crippling at the time,
may actually have made them stronger.
http://www.thenational.ae/sport/football/henrikh-mkhytarian-is-following-in-the-family-footsteps
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress
The National, UAE
Sept 20 2013
Jonathan Wilson
Sooner or later, Borussia Dortmund's bubble will burst. No side
can keep on slugging it out with a team whose wage bill is double
their own.
But, for now, that bubble remains intact. Dortmund lost Mario Gotze
to Bayern Munich, their biggest domestic rivals, in the summer, and
they have been without Lukasz Piszczek and Ilkay Gundogan through
injury, and yet they look stronger than ever, sitting proudly atop
the Bundesliga with five wins out of five before today's clash with
struggling Nuremberg.
Wednesday's Champions League loss to Napoli was a setback, but that
campaign will be back on track if they can beat Marseille at home on
October 1. No club has such a fine recent record of transfer activity
as Dortmund and this summer, once again, they made the right deals
for the right players at the right time.
Pierre-Emerich Aubemayang joined for £11.4 million (Dh67.2m) and has
already scored five goals in five Bundesliga games, while Henrikh
Mkhytarian, probably already the finest footballer from Armenia,
was signed for £24.2m from Shakhtar Donetsk. Both are 24, just coming
into the peak of their careers.
The greater pressure was on Mkhitaryan, partly because of the size
of his fee, and partly because he is the more direct replacement for
Gotze, who was sold to Bayern for £32.5m. He has taken to his new team,
though, with his familiar enthusiasm, his passion stoked, perhaps,
by being made to room with Kevin Grosskreutz, the season-ticket-holder
who became a first-teamer and taught Mkhitaryan 20 Dortmund chants.
His coach at Shakhtar, Mircea Lucescu, has spoken glowingly about his
intelligence on the pitch and his devotion to self-improvement off it.
Mkhitaryan is one of those rarest of footballers: a hugely gifted
player who genuinely loves the game.
Mkhitaryan was born into football. His father, Hamlet, was a respected
centre-forward for Ararat Yerevan, Armenia's most successful
club in Soviet times, in the late 1980s. He had a brief stint at
Kotayk Abovian, and in 1989, a few months after Henrik'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, the younger Mkhitaryan'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."
Much of that support has had to come from his mother. The Mkhitaryans
returned to Yerevan in 1995, and 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. Henrikh's mother works for the
Armenian Football Federation, while his sister, Monica, is employed
at Uefa headquarters in Switzerland.
With no Armenian enjoying a higher profile than Mkhitaryan, he is aware
that he has greater responsibility than most players, acting almost
as an icebreaker for the whole of the nation's football, cutting a
path for others to follow. "I want Armenian children to realise they
don't have to stop in the Armenian league, thinking that they're not
able to achieve anything more," he said. "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."
Dortmund, with their progressive, attacking approach, are probably
the perfect showcase for Mkhitaryan. He said in the summer that he
wanted to join because he loved the way they play, which is about
the strongest endorsement possible from a player of his fitness
level. The loss of Gotze, which seemed so crippling at the time,
may actually have made them stronger.
http://www.thenational.ae/sport/football/henrikh-mkhytarian-is-following-in-the-family-footsteps
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress