Henrikh Mkhitaryan

Early life

Mkhitaryan was born on 21 January 1989 in the Soviet Armenian capital city of Yerevan to Marina Taschyan and Hamlet Mkhitaryan. His father was a prominent striker for FC Ararat Yerevan during the 1980s, who died of a brain tumor at age 33 when Henrikh was seven years old. His mother was half Armenian and half Russian from Moscow.

The death of his father impacted Mkhitaryan significantly. He feels that if his father was still alive that "everything would be different." He gave him useful advice from a professional point of view. People who have watched Mkhitaryan and his father, say that their styles resemble each other very much. He has said, "I believe he sees me and is proud of me..." His mother is the head of the national teams department in the Armenian Football Federation and his elder sister, Monika, works at UEFA's headquarters.

At the beginning of the 1990s, the Mkhitaryan family moved to France, where Hamlet Mkhitaryan played for the now defunct ASOA Valence and helped them to be promoted to the second division. Mkhitaryan spent his early childhood in Valence. He always wanted to become a football player and began to follow in his father's footsteps. As a child, he would watch his father play and always wanted to follow him to training. The Mkhitaryans returned to Yerevan in 1995. In the same year, Mkhitaryan joined the youth system of FC Pyunik. He graduated from the Institute of Physical Culture in Armenia. He studied economics at the Yerevan branch of the St. Petersburg Institute. Upon graduation, he planned to study there as a lawyer. In 2003, at the age of 14, Mkhitaryan had trials with São Paulo in Brazil where he played alongside the likes of Hernanes and Oscar. He returned to Pyunik in 2004, then manager Mihai Stoichiță insisted on his return to Armenia. Growing up, Mkhitaryan considered Zinedine Zidane his football idol.